Five hundred marched for one man

What happened

Gabriel Johnston, royal governor of North Carolina, wanted the quitrents paid in sterling or in paper money valued by his Council, and he wanted the arrears as well. Rothbard says that set every landowner against him. The settlers of Bertie and Edgecombe protested that their poor estates had been honestly bought and settled with hardship, and that if the rents rose they would leave for a place where they owned the fruits of their labor. Then, in 1737, a man was jailed at Edenton during the general court. As Johnston reported to London on 6 October, the people of Bertie and Edgecombe, believing the man was called to account for his quitrents, rose in arms to the number of five hundred and came within five miles of the town to rescue him by violence, cursing the king. The man paid his fine and begged the court's pardon before they arrived, and no blood was shed, but the crowd threatened cruel treatment for any man who came to demand quitrents of them. The Assembly then tried to arrest Johnston's officials for seizing land and goods over quitrents, and he dissolved it. In 1741 the Crown decided largely for the landowners and upheld payment in depreciated commodities (CiL, pp. 592-593). Johnston's salary ran eight years behind by 1746.