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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Richard Everard to Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle
Everard, Richard, Sir, 1683-1733
June 18, 1729
Volume 03, Pages 18-20

[B. P. R. O. Proprieties. B. T. Vol. 12. R. 104.]

To the most Noble Thomas Duke of Newcastle Secry of State &c.

May it please your Grace

As I thought my Self bound in Duty to acquaint your Grace of any Matter wch might seen prejudicial to his Majty's Interests in this Country, was the motive that inducd me to trouble your Grace with an Account thereof, in a Letter or Memorial of the 7th of April last past, in wch was inclosed the Copy of my Charge to my Council on a Chancery Day, together with an Order to Mr John Lovick the present Secretary, that he should permit no more Warrants or Patents for Lands to pass out of his Office till His Majesty's Royal Pleasure were therein known; But if Mr Lovick being thirsty after an unreasonable Gain, & to make the most of his Office before the King's Authority took Place, has had no regard to such my Orders & Directions, & my Council not taking proper Methods in Concurrence with me as desir'd to suppress him, & there being no further Expedient left in me to prevent so unjust a Practice, as is daily carrying on by this Lovick, & Mr Edwd Mosely the Surveyor General of Lands I conceived it necessary once more to apprize your Grace with

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it. Lovick continues hourly to fill up & give out Warrants & Patents for large Baronies of Lands, & this Moseley I am credibly informed (who is very Artful & a great Confederate of Lovick's where a Profit is in View) has lately surveyed for himself twenty thousand Acres lying contiguous on the head of a River called Trent in this Province, & has likewise surveyed twenty thousand Acres for a Gentleman in Virginia, in one body of Land on the Northern Parts of this Government for which Warrants were procured by the help of ready Cash out of the Secretary's Office I assure Yr Grace such Proceedings has been, & will be very distructive to the settlement of this Place, & the means to prevent many hundred poor People taking up small tracts of Land at a reasonable price that now will be obliged to purchase the same at second hand & at a dear Rate, for that is the view in taking up such unreasonable Bodies of Land in this Country, wch in respect of its Situation to the French and Spaniards on the Messicippy & the numerous savages living near us may prove very fatal in the End.

I am lately informed notwithstanding the great exactness I have used on all Occasions since my having the Administration of this Government, to demonstrate my Affection, Duty & Loyalty to his late as well as present Majty yet it seems this Lovick, Gale Chief Justice, & one Wm̄ Little his Son in Law, agreable to their wonted Practice, have either sworn or suborn'd others to swear a Matter or Charge against me, as thō, I were disaffected to our ever happy & blessed Establishment in the most Illustrious House of Hanover; But what the particulars of the Accusations really is, or what is made Oath to by those three perfidious Men I am at a loss to Judge, having in Writing demanded a Copy thereof, as Yr Grace will perceive by the inclossed Speech to my Council, but to this Day I cannot obtain any.

This Sort of Treatment my Predecessor Mr Geo: Burrington received till by the help of a few ex parte Depositions, & by dint of swearing & forswearing they prevailed with the Lords Proprirs to remove him & soon after it was my hard Fate to succeed in his Station, thō had their Lordps then known as I believe they do since, what little Veracity ought to be put on what those Persons swore, much less on what they said, Mr Burrington had not fallen under their Lordp's Displeasure. To conclude I hope your Grace will excuse this tedious Representation, & believe me when I assure you three more flagrant Villains never came out of the Condemn'd Hole in New Gate for Execution at Tyburn; therefore agreable to the Prayer of the People from all Quarters of this Country in whose Name & in my own, I humbly desire & hope your Grace will be instrumental

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in preventing their holding any Post or Office of Profit or Trust, when we arrive to the Happiness of living under His Majesty's Auspicious Governmt wch kind Service will perpetuate Yr Grace's Memory amongst us to future Ages, & will be an obligation of the greatest Consequence to all the Inhabitants here & in particular to

My Lord Yr Grace's most Dutiful & Obliged Servant
RICHd EVERARD.

North Carolina

June 18th 1729.