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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Petition from Henry McCulloh concerning land grants in North Carolina
McCulloh, Henry, ca. 1700-1779
January 31, 1754
Volume 05, Pages 79-81

[B. P. R. O. North Carolina. B. T. Vol. 12. C. 29.]

The Humble Memorial of Henry McCulloh [to the Board of Trade] Sheweth,

That as your Memorialist humbly apprehends, your Lordships intend to take the state of the Grants he is concerned in in North Carolina into consideration, he therefore humbly prays leave to lay before your Lordships a brief state of his particular case, and to point out the difficulties he is under with respect to the said Grants, more especially as it relates to such as are included within the right honble Earl Granvilles Lines, whereupon as humbly conceived it may be proper to observe,

That his Majesty by his Instructions dated the 15th September 1742, ordered the Commrs appointed for making the said Division, to transmit a plan containing a full and exact description of the lands allotted to Lord Carteret together with the respective boundaries thereof, in order to His Majesties signifying his royal pleasure for conveying the same.

And His Majesty by His Instructions dated 25th April 1743, renews the aforesaid Instructions to the said Commrs and commands them to be extremely careful to transmit a full and exact plan of the said Lands, in order thereby to avoid all disputes which might hereafter arise thereupon.

And it is also very observable that it was represented to the right honble the Lords of the Committee of Council as may more fully appear by their Lordships' report to His Majesty dated the 9th May 1744, that the return and Plan transmitted by the said Commissioners were one and the same & that the said plan contained a full and exact description of the ⅛ part of the said Provinces or Territories, so set out and allotted to

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the said Lord Carteret, and for the greater certainty a Copy of the said Plan was inserted on the fifth skin of the Conveyance, made to the said Lord Carteret.

That when the Copy of the return made by said Commrs, was wrote out in order to be laid before the Attorney and Solicitor General, & as a Guide or direction to them in preparing the Deed of Conveyance to be made to Lord Carteret, the following words were inserted in said Copy, viz:

And the said Commrs did pursuant to the said Order in Council, transmit to His Majesty a Plan containing a full & exact description of the said ⅛ part of the said Provinces or Territories, so set out and allotted to the said John Lord Carteret annexed to their said report, all which are marked out & ascertained by the said Plan, a true and exact Copy whereof was ordered to be stamped on the fifth skin of the Conveyance made to the said Lord Carteret, as may more fully and at large appear by the Copy of said return entered in the Secretary of State & Attorney General's Office.

That in pursuance of the above Order of Council and of the Copy of the return said to be made by the aforesaid Commrs His Majestie's Attorney & Sollicitor General prepared the Instrument or Deed of Conveyance to His Lordship, who (as most humbly conceived) cannot be entitled to more Lands than what are within the Description of said Plan. Yet altho' the intention of the Crown seems to be as clear & evident as the sun at noon day, his Lordships Agents upwards of eighteen months after the date of his Grant, and also upwards of two years after the Commission for running the said Boundary had expired, prevailed on the late Governor Johnston to appoint Commissioners in behalf of the Crown, and his Lordships Agents also appointed Commrs in his behalf to extend the said Lines, and accordingly the said Lines were extended above one hundred & sixty miles and have been since further extended so as to include upwards of twelve millions of acres of Land, which are not within the description of the said Plan transmitted to His Majesty by the aforesaid Commrs as may fully appear by looking into the said Plan.

That a great part of the Land belonging to your Memorialist is included within the said Lines as since extended, which hath put it in the power of his Lordships Agents to intimidate the Settlers so as to make many of them attorn to his Lordship for the payment of their quit rents, and others have deserted their Plantations.

And as to such part of your Memorialist's Lands as are not included within said Lines, the most valuable part of them were by the late Governor Johnston and by the Presidents of the Council since his decease

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granted to other persons, so as to deprive your Memorialist of the benefit of his Grants from the Crown.

That your Memorialist hath not only greatly suffered in those respects, but is also much injured by the delay given in the payment of the arrears of Salary due to him for which he received a Warrant payable in South Carolina for six thousand two hundred pounds sterling, of which sum the receiver was said to be in Cash upwards of three thousand four hundred pounds sterling, but when the Warrant was sent to South Carolina he absolutely denied having any money in his hands to discharge any part of said Warrant, & now in the course of almost two years since the date of said Warrant, he hath not as your Memorialist is informed paid more than seven hundred & sixty pounds sterling.

That your Memorialist hath been kept twelve years from the payment of his salary, & thereby suffered many difficulties & hardships, which would be shocking even to mention.

Therefore your Memorialist most humbly prays your Lordships to take his unhappy case into consideration, & that your Lordships will be pleased to grant him relief therein,—And also that in consideration of the Obstructions he hath met with in the settlement of his Lands, & the great loss he hath sustained in not being paid his salary, your Lordships will be pleased to recommend it to His Majesty, to grant him some equivalent or Allowance in the payment of his quit rents.

And your Memorialist as in duty bound shall ever pray

HENRY McCULLOH.

Recd January 31st 1754.