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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Minutes of the North Carolina Council of State
North Carolina. Council of State
December 01, 1778
Volume 22, Pages 939-944


State of North Carolina.
At a Council held at Kinston, 1st December, 1778.

Present—The Honorables Joseph Leech, Robert Bignall, John Simpson and William Bryan, Esquires, members.

General Skinner having informed the Board that Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Pugh, of the Bertie militia, has resigned his commission,

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be advised to appoint John Pugh Williams, Esq., Lieutenant-Colonel of said county in his stead.

His Excellency the Governor laid before the Board the petition of Samuel Midgitt, Caleb Brickhouse, Enoch Daniel and others, inhabitants of Roanoke Island, North and Hatteras Banks, in Currituck county, praying to be exempt from serving on the expedition to South Carolina and Georgia, on account of their distressed situation in being exposed to the daily ravages of the enemy in plundering said island and banks.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant the request of the said petitioners.

The Board, taking into consideration the great scarcity of provisions in this State, especially Indian corn, and the demand for the same for the use of the present army now going to the Southern

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States, and apprehensive that there is now several vessels in different ports in this State intending to carry out provisions; therefore,

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to issue a proclamation prohibiting the exportation of all grain, etc., agreeable to the last proclamation, and also that he be advised to direct the Captain of the ship Caswell to search all outward-bound vessels, to prevent their carrying out the same, agreeable to the said proclamation, and if any such should be found on board any vessel or vessels contrary to such embargo, to seize and send the said vessel or vessels with their cargo or cargoes to the Court of Admirality.

1. Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Messrs. Allen & Cannon for the sum of £1,061.14.4, being for their expenses and horse hire going as an escort to the paymaster with money to General Rutherford’s camp to pay the troops in that quarter.

2. Resolved, That the Governor be advised to order all the powder now in the town of New Bern belonging to the public to be immediately removed to the magazine at Kinston.

3. Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of John Council Bryan, Commissary of Continental troops, at New Bern, for the sum of one thousand pounds, and that he account with the General Assembly for the same.

The Governor laid before the Board a letter from the Justices of New Hanover county, informing that Mr. Cavey had arrived in Cape Fear river in the sloop George, as a flag of truce from New York with a packet addressed to the Governor of this State for the time being, with sundry other packets, in each of which were inclosed copies of the manifesto and proclamation issued by the British Commissioners at New York, which packets the Governor also laid before the Council. The Board having entered on the consideration of the premises, find that the Justices aforesaid had, in pursuance of a resolution of Congress of the 16th day of October last, ordered the said Mr. Cavey and the people belonging to the said sloop into close custody, and the sloop to be detained.

Resolved, That it be recommended to the Governor to order the said Mr. Cavey, with the crew belonging to the said sloop George, to be sent immediately under a guard of the New Hanover militia from Wilmington to Halifax, there to be kept in close confinement in the public jail of the District of Halifax until further order thereon

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shall be taken by the legislative or executive powers of the State; and that the Justices of New Hanover be directed to cause the said sloop to be stripped and an inventory of her tackle, apparel and stores to be taken and the sloop laid up until further order from the executive powers of the State.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Colonel Ward, of New Hanover county, for the sum of two hundred pounds, to defray the expense of the guard with Mr. Cavey and the crew belonging to the sloop George to Halifax jail, and that he account with the General Assembly for the same.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Mr. Peter Mallett for ten thousand pounds to enable him to purchase provisions for the use of the army, and that he account with the General Assembly for the same.

Colonel Henry Rhodes having informed the Board that his son, Woodhouse Rhodes, is a draft from the militia of Onslow county to go on the expedition to South Carolina and Georgia; that he is himself employed in the public service as a superintendent of the press in printing money, and his said son, in his absence, has the care and management of his domestic affairs; that if he is ordered to march he, Colonel Rhodes, will be under the disagreeable necessity of resigning his appointment as a superintendent of the press. The Board taking the same into consideration, is of opinion it will tend most to the public benefit that Colonel Rhodes continue to discharge the duties of his said appointment, and, therefore,

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to discharge Woodhouse Rhodes from the service aforesaid.

The Board taking into consideration the immediate demand for pork for the army, and being apprehensive that unless his Excellency should direct the persons appointed for that purpose to give more than eight pounds, the price heretofore limited, the purchasers from Virginia now giving £10, V. currency, for any quantity delivered in the town of Suffolk and other places; therefore,

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to direct the several persons whom he has appointed to purchase provisions for the use of the army to give as far as ten pounds for the best of hogs, if they should find it can’t be had for less, and that he grant warrants on the Treasury for such sums of money as may be necessary to enable them to carry on the business of purchasing provisions.

The Governor informed the Board that heretofore a considerable

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number of soldiers who were sent from this State to the aid of South Carolina against the common enemy had been by the Continental officers suffered to leave their respective regiments and enlist in the States of South Carolina and Georgia, whereby this State has been much injured, not only in the bounty advanced to such soldiers, but also in making up her quota of men in the continental service. The Board taking the same into consideration,

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to direct the commanding officer of the troops now marching from this State to the aid of South Carolina and Georgia not to suffer any soldier under his command to enlist while on the present expedition in any Continental battalion not raised in this State, nor in such as were raised here so as to leave the militia service until the present expedition is over, without the express leave of the legislative or executive powers of this State.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to direct the commanding officer of the militia now going to the aid of South Carolina and Georgia to continue his militia in the service of the said States, agreeable to a resolution of Congress, for five months from the 10th day of November last, the time they were directed to assemble, unless they shall be sooner discharged by the officer commanding in the Southern Department; and that it be understood the said militia shall be continued in actual service (unless discharged as aforesaid) until the 10th day of April next, when they shall be allowed to return and obtain pay for a reasonable time to enable them to march to their respective homes.

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be advised to direct the militia quartermaster to General Bryan’s Brigade to purchase such horses as may be necessary for the troops now marching to the aid of South Carolina and Georgia, and that he grant a warrant or warrants on the Treasury for such sum or sums of money he may find necessary for that purpose.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Mr. William Amis, Commissary to the Continental and militia troops for the sum of six thousand pounds, and that he account with the General Assembly for the same.

Colonel Jonas Johnston laid before the Board an account of sundries he frunished the militia marching from Edgecombe county; therefore,

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be advised to grant

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a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Colonel Jonas Johnston for the sum of four hundred pounds, and that he account with the General Assembly for the same.

The Governor laid before the Board a letter from the Governor of Virginia to him, informing that Congress have desired that State to furnish galleys to attack East Florida without loss of time, and requesting that the Caswell galley, stationed at Ocracoke may be sent with such galleys as are fit for that service from said State of Virginia on their sending a galley from thence to her station at Ocracoke.

Resolved, That this Board, ever desirous of this State’s rendering the United States all the service in her power, do advise the Governor to order the Caswell galley to be paid off and fitted in the best manner to go on the said service to Florida, and that on the State of Virginia, sending a galley to the Caswell station, she be ordered to join the galleys from Virginia and proceed to Florida accordingly.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant in favor of John Easton, Paymaster to the Caswell galley, for thirty-three thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars, which, with the three thousand pounds heretofore granted him by the Governor’s warrant, will, agreeable to the said Paymaster’s estimate, enable him to pay up the arrears due to the said galley.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Colonel William Thomson for eleven hundred and twenty-five pounds to enable him to pay up the arrears due to the garrison at Fort Hancock.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of the Commissioners at Fort Hancock for five thousand pounds, to be applied towards completing the said fort, and that he account with the General Assembly for the same.

JOSEPH LEECH, President,
R. BIGNALL,
JOHN SIMPSON,
WILLIAM BRYAN.

The Governor laid before the Board the petition of John Harper, which was recommended by a number of respectable gentlemen, inhabitants of Bladen, New Hanover and Brunswick counties, praying a reprieve or respite of the said Harper’s execution, who was condemned at the last Superior Court of Law for the District of

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Wilmington of murder, to be executed on Friday, the 11th of this instant. The Board taking the said petition into consideration, do advise his Excellency to grant a reprieve for the said Harper till Wednesday, the 20th January next.