but it is doubtful if any book excepting the State laws was ever
published there. A public school was incorporated the same year, and
Newbern became the principal seat of education and social intelligence
in the province. As the seat of government and the residence of the
royal Governors, it attracted much wealth, and developed a degree of
culture which it has retained to a later day.

Arthur Dobbs, for a long period the Colonial Governor, was at this time
closely identified with the history of Newbern. He was 'by birth an
Irishman, and by nature an aristocrat.' He died at an advanced age in
1764.

In 1765, William Tryon succeeded Dobbs as Governor of North-Carolina. He
first resided at Brunswick, on the Cape Fear River, then a town of note,
but now a complete ruin, and where among its remains are still seen the
massive walls of St. Philip's Church, built by his request, at the
expense of the British government.

As Newbern was a more central position, and possessed more social
advantages, Tryon took up his abode there, not, however, till he had
made himself odious by irritating the people of the western part of the
province into a rebellion, and had butchered many who were contending
only for justice and their rights.

Tryon was aristocratic, tyrannical, and vindictive. To gratify his pride
he conceived the idea of erecting a magnificent palace, and to obtain an
appropriation from the Provincial Assembly he exhausted all his promises
and intrigues. In this effort on the legislators he was aided by the
blandishments of his lady and her sister, Miss Wake, relatives of Lord
Hillborough, and he was finally successful. The result was, that he
erected in Newbern, in 1770, the most elegant and expensive building on
the continent, the cost of which was far beyond the resources of the
province. The plans of it, which are still preserved, show that the old
descriptions of its splendor are not overwrought. Its foundations can
still be traced, and a part of one of the wings, though in a dilapidated
state, is yet in existence.

A Provincial Congress was held at Newbern, in August, 1774, of which
John Harvey was President. In April, 1779, they elected delegates to the
famous Continental Congress which met at Philadelphia, and Newbern was
for some time the most important place in the province.

During the Revolution, the State was twice invaded by the British, and
many towns suffered severely, but Newbern being remote from the