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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Petition from Henry McCulloh concerning his land grants in North Carolina and his salary as Commissioner of the Quit Rents for North Carolina
McCulloh, Henry, ca. 1700-1779
1756
Volume 05, Pages 630-633

To his most excellent Majesty in CouncilThe humble Petition of Henry McCulloh Sheweth

That on the 16th May 1739 your Majesty was graciously pleased to order an Inquiry to be made into the Records and also into the Grants and Revenues of the Crown in the Province of So and No Carolina and to that end appointed your Petitioner Commissioner for supervising

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inspecting and controlling your Majesty's Revenues and Grants of Lands with a Salary of £800 per ann and payable from the Quit Rents in said Provinces but your Majesty's Petitioner met with great opposition in the Execution of his Office which essentially hurt him and defeated the Intention of the said Inquiry.

That on your Petitioners return to England in 1748 the Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury were pleased to refer his Case to the late Sir Dudley Ryder who by his Report dated 28th Octr 1749 gave it as his Opinion to their Lordships—

“That as Mr. McCulloh appeared by the Papers transmitted to him to have entered upon his Office on the foundation of the Grant and Salary annexed to it and to have executed it as far as the circumstances of the case and the difficulties and Obstructions he had met with would permit and this at a very great Expence of Time Labour and Money he humbly apprehended that the Arrears of his Salary and the growing payments thereon so long as he continued in his Office should be paid out of the arrears and growing payments of the Quit Rents of South Carolina out of the payment thereat of such Salaries as had been established upon the same Quit Rents before the time of his Grant wch was the 16th May 1739.”

By the above Report the Arrears of Salary due to your Majesty's Petitioner the 24th of March 1752 amounted to £9284 Sterling and yet althō there was so great an arrear due to him and that the Quit Rents if fairly accounted for would have answered the payment thereof he could not receive any part of said sum unless the Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury had thought fit to remove the Stoppage which had been given to the payment of his Salary but as their Lordships were silent on that Head your Majesty's Petitioner was reduced to the sad alternative of either surrendering his Commission and receiving only part of the arrears of Salary due to him or as he was unable to pay the debts he had contracted in the execution of his Office to surrender himself to his creditors and spend the remainder of his unhappy life in a Goal.

Therefore your Majesty's Petitioner submitted himself to the Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury on that head and prayed their Lordships to determine his Case as they thought fit.

Whereupon their Lordships were pleased to grant him a Warrant dated 24th March 1752 for the payment of £6200 Sterling next and immediately after the Officers that were upon the Establishment in South Carolina the 16th May 1739 in condition that he surrendered his Commission and received the said Sum of £6200 in full of all demands being an abatement of £3084 on the arrears of Salary then actually due to your

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Petitioner over and above which the uncertainty of the said Warrant and the delays it was liable to lowered it so much in point of value that it could not be discounted for more than £3000.

In consequence thereof your Petitioner did obtain some ease from his Creditors and some relief from his distresses yet the Receiver General protesting his Bills under pretence that he had not Money enough in his hands to answer them your Petitioner became liable to a reexchange of 15 per cent and 8 per cent Intr so that upon the whole your Petitioner has not only been deprived of his Salary for 8 years he continued in your Majesty's service in America but also for other 8 years since his return to England.

Your Majesty's Petitioner therefore humbly represented the hardships of this his case to the Rt Honble the Lords of the Treasury and humbly prayed their Lordships that as his sufferings and distresses arose from causes of a very unusual and extraordinary Nature and also that he was in danger of being sued for the Reexchange of Bills drawn on said Receiver they would be pleased to grant him £500 Sterl: out of the 4½ pr ct Duty or out of any other fund their Lordships should think fit to direct and as their Memorialists Salary was payable out of the Quit Rents of South and North Carolina or either of them and as in less than a year their Memorialists and his associates in several Grants of Lands he is concerned in in North Carolina would be indebted to the Crown upwards of £300 Sterling pr ann. he further prayed their Lordships would be pleased to grant him an Exemption of Quit Rents equal to the sum of £2584 sterl: which with the £500 prayed for out of the 4½ per: cent Duty would amount to no more than the sum formerly deducted from the arrears of Salary due to him and as the Quit Rents are not duly accounted for the Revenues of the Crown would not be lessened thereby.

The Right Honourable the Lords of the Treasury were pleased by their order dated 17th June 1755 to refer the above Memorialist to his Majesty's attorney General who reported to their Lordships.

That althō their Memorialist had not any legal remedy except the Warrant mentioned in his Memorial yet upon principles of Equity he thought it no bar to their Memts applying to his Majesty's generosity and Justice for further relief because without any cause of his he has been disappointed of the benefit which was intended by and expected from the said Warrant.

The Right Honble the Lords of the Treasury took the above report into Consideration and agreed to the first part of the prayer of the said Memo vizt To allow your Petr a Warrant for £500 payable from the 4½ per ct Duty but with respect to the exemption of Quit Rents as that

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matter had been originally under the consideration of the Right Honble the Lords of the Committee of Council and the Rt Honble the Lords Commissioners for trade and Plantation their Lordships did not think fit to determine any thing thereon.

Your Petitioner therefore most humbly prays your Majesty will be graciously pleased to take this his unhappy case into consideration and that from your Royal Bounty and Goodness you will grant him relief by ordering the sum which was formerly deducted from the arrears of Salary due to him to be now set off against the Quit Rents of such Lands as your Petr and his associates are intituled to in the Province of North Carolina and also that in consideration of his great sufferings and the Obstructions which have been given him by the War in America that he may be at Liberty to carry on the Settlement of the said Lands until the 25th of March 1760 at which time your Petr will surrender to your Majesty all the Lands which have been granted to him or his associates within your Majesty's Division in the Province of North Carolina that are not then settled in the Proportion of one White person for every 200 acres of [land] contained in the said Grants.

And your Petr as in Duty bound shall ever Pray &c:
HENRY McCULLOH.


Additional Notes for Electronic Version: This petition was enclosed with an order in council - See Related Documents.