at day until 1717, we find many instances of these public
gatherings at Captain Hecklefield's home. The most prominent men in the
Albemarle Colony were often there assembled. To the sessions of the
General Court came Edward Moseley, the Justice of the Court, leader of
the Cary faction in the Glover-Cary disturbance of 1708, Chief
Commissioner for North Carolina when the boundary line between Virginia
and Carolina was established, Speaker of the Assembly for four years,
master of plantations and many slaves, and withal a very courteous
gentleman and learned scholar. Christopher Gale, first judicial officer
in Carolina to receive the commission as Chief Justice, in wig and
silken gown, upheld the majesty of the law at the sessions of the
General Court, assisted by his confreres, John Porter, Thomas Symonds,
and John Blount.

At the first Council held at Captain Hecklefield's, July 4, 1712, we
find among the dignitaries assembled on that occasion, Edward Hyde,
first Governor of North Carolina, as separate and distinct from South
Carolina, and first cousin of Queen Anne. This lordly gentleman
commanded "most awful respect," and doubtless received it from planter
and farmer. With him came Thomas Pollock, leader of the Glover faction,
owner of 55,000 acres of land, numerous flocks of sheep and herds of
cattle and of many vessels trading with the New England and West Indian
ports, a merchant prince of colonial days, and destined to become twice
acting Governor of North Carolina.

Some years later, at a meeting of the Council in April, 1714, Charles
Eden, lately appointed by the Proprietors to succeed Hyde, who had died
of yellow fever during the trouble with the Tuscaroras, took the oath of
office at Captain Hecklefield's home, and became Governor of North
Carolina. Among the members of the Council present on this occasion were
Colonel Thomas Byrd, Nathan Chevin, and William Reed, all prominent men
in Pasquotank, and the two former, leading churchmen of that county, and
active members of the vestry of St. John's Parish. Tobias Knight was
also there, a wealthy resident of Bath then, though he too had formerly
lived in Pasquotank. Knight was later to win notoriety as a friend and
colleague of Teach, the pirate. And Governor Eden himself was later
accused of collusion with Blackbeard, though no sufficient proof could
be found to bring him to trial.

By what means of locomotion these high dignitaries of the colony found
their w