NCBERTIE-L Archives

From: Crilley <>
Subject: [NCBERTIE] Edward Hyde
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 20:24:17 -0500

Thanks to Alec, we have the manuscript written by John E. Tyler "Bertie
County's Colonial and State Governors of North Carolina. Mr. Tyler is a
wonderful historian and we're so pleased to be able to use this work
on-line with the permission of the Tyler family.

Marilyn has been so kind to help with the retyping since the original work
didn't scan well. Hope you enjoy learning about these people who are so
famous in early Bertie County history.

EDWARD HYDE
GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA

Though the territory between the Virginia border and the Cape Fear
River was officially recognized as "North Carolina" as early as 1689,
still, in
1710, with South Carolina, it comprised what was known as the "Province of
Carolina". The governor of the province, most of the time, maintained his
residence at Charles Town, while a deputy governor was appointed for the
Northern part of the province. In the absence of a deputy governor, the
President of the North Carolina council became acting governor. For twenty
years after 1689, more than a dozen men came into authority as provincial
governor, or as deputy or acting governor of North Carolina. Naturally the
executive branch of the government was weakened, while the legislative
branch assumed more power. At this time there was also a growing friction
between the Quakers in the colony and those whole who would have the Church
of England established by law. It was in this turbulent condition that
Edward Hyde found North Carolina when he arrived in August, 1710 as deputy
governor. To add to the confusion was the questionable position of Hyde,
himself. He had been appointed by the Lord Preprietors in England as a
deputy governor, and as such, his commission was to have been signed by the
governor of the province, who was residing at Charles Town. The official
signature was never obtained, because the provincial governor of Carolina,
who at the time was Edward Tynte, a near relative of Hydes, died shortly
before Hyde arrived.

Edward Hyde was probably a memeber of the family of Hydes of
Castle Hyde in Cork. He was a kinsman and namesake of the first Earl of
Clarendon, who was the grandfather of Her Majesty Queen Anne. It was
probably to repair his fortunes, broken by the contest between William III
and James II, that Hyde came to North Carolina, while his cousin, Queen
Anne, sat on the English throne.

When he arrived in the Colony, there was then, no governors
mansion erected. It was therefore, here, in our present County of Bertie,
that Hyde first came to accept the hospitality of Col. Thomas Pollock of
Bal-Gra on Salmon Creek. Following the new governor into Albermarle County
came Madam Catherine Hyde, his wife, William Clayton, Mrs. Penelope Hyde,
John Lovick, the Governors Secretary, Mary Tudo, James Gregory and Andrew
Stephenson.

Though lacking his official commission, Hyde by his prestige,
assumed leadership of the government. The government, at the time, had
been divided into factions, one which had supported William Glover as
acting governor and who recently outsted Glover, chasing him into Virginia,
while he and his supporters again dominated the Assembly. Gov. Hydes
immediate problem was to soothe these two opposing factions. The first
Assembly called by Hyde met at Col. Pollocks home. Some of the bitterest
opponents of the Cary party enrolled themselves on the side of the new
governor. Into this camp, also, came the Church of England party.
Naturally, the Quakers, lined up with Col. Cary. Hyde did not handle the
situation with much tact. His followers continued to demand of Cary an
accounting of his usurption, involving Gov. Glover. The breech between
Hyde and Cary widened until open hostility existed, Cary retiring to his
headquarters on the Pamilco.

After beating off one attack, Cary, assuming that he was really
strong in the support of his numerous adherents, took the offensive. He
had at first merely fortified his house, entrenched it and raised a
battery, on which he planted some cannot. Now, having been furnished a
brigatine, supposedly by a "leading Quaker", he armed her with six guns and
fitted out beside a bara longa, he filled her with fusileers. Thus with
his naval force he sailed into Albermarle Sound and to the mouth of the
Chowan River. Carys intention was to capture Gov. Hyde. Anchoring
opposite the house where Hyde and his Council were convened, Cary
insinuated that "Mr. Hyde might expect the same fate Colonel Park had in
Antigua". Carys attack and attempt to land and seize Hyde was repulsed.
He then withdrew again to his headquarters on the Pamlico.

Realizing that their support was inadequate to resist another very
forceable attack, Hyde and his Council dispatched a messenger to Governor
Spottswood of Virginia for help. The Virginia Governor responded with a
force of Marines from his guard-ships and after several weeks of attack and
counter attack, Carys forces were dispersed in July, 1711. Cary, himself,
was later captured and sent to England, but was never brought to trial.

The years of internal strife and friction, which had resulted in
Carys Rebellion, however, brought about an important political change.
The Lord Proprietors in 1710 hoping to obliterate the confusion of the
status of North Carolina Governors took steps to set up North Carolina as a
separate government. Since this action had to be approved by the Crown it
was not until January 24, 1712, that the first Commission was issued for a
Governor of North Carolina to be responsible directly to the Proprietors
and to be independent of the Governor of South Carolina. Edward Hyde,
dwelling for the most time here on the shore of our present Bertie County,
since his arrival in the Colony, received this commission and qualified on
May 9, 1712, as the first Governor of North Carolina as a separate
administrative unit.

In the midst of squelching Cary and his followers, a more ominous
cloud was forming which was to threaten the very existence of the North
Carolina Colony. This was the Tuscarora War, which was to last for several
years. The Albermarle section of the Colony, however, suffered less than
the settlements along the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers, due to the neutrality
of the Indian Chief, Tom Blount and his band along the Roanoke.

With Indian War cries piercing the forest, still another terror
came creeping among the troubled inhabitants of the colony. This was an
epidemic of yellow fever, which took as many victims as did the savage
Indians. This deadly disease claimed, with countless others, the newly
commissioned Governor Hyde. An account of his death is given in a letter,
written by Col. Pollock to the Lord Proprietors, dated September 9, 1712.
In this Pollock states "we had the great misfortune to lose our governor,
who deceased yesterday about twelve of the clock of a violent fever, which
had held him for seven days, and hath left us in a most deplorable
condition."

With her husbands death, Madam Hyde prepared for her voyage back
to England. On leaving the colony, she rested a few days at John Cottens
on the Blackwater in Virginia, before continuing on her journey. At the
time of her departure, with the Indians at war, North Carolina was in as
troubled condition as Governor Hyde had found it two years before. Though
out of the turmoil of rebellions and wars, Hydes short administration did
lift North Carolina from its ambiguous position to a definite place as a
separate and distinct colony.


Virginia

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