Volume 2 of the Colonial Records of North Carolina is an overview of North Carolina history, spanning from 1713 to 1729, which examines the challenges and defining characteristics of the colony under Proprietary rule. It highlights the ambiguous transition from Proprietary to Royal government, noting that while 1729 is often cited, the practical shift effectively occurred in 1728 with the Crown’s agreement to surrender the charters. The text emphasizes several factors that stunted the colony’s growth, including neglect from the Lords Proprietors, a severe lack of adequate ports and mills, and persistent hostility from the British Crown and its agents who sought to exert control and leverage colonial resources. Despite these hardships, and a history of the populace frequently resisting and even deposing their governors, the colony began to experience a period of significant population growth and development towards the end of this era.
Colonial Records of North Carolina, Volume 2
The Colonial Records of North Carolina is a series that presents the official documentary history of North Carolina from its earliest days of settlement through the close of the colonial era in 1776. Compiled under the direction of historian William L. Saunders and published between 1886 and 1890, these ten volumes contain transcriptions of letters, proclamations, legislative proceedings, council minutes, correspondence with the Crown, and other government records drawn from British and American repositories.
For genealogists, the Colonial Records of North Carolina is an important resource as it contains some of the earliest documentary evidence of individuals and families living in the colony from the late 1600s to the Revolutionary era. While it is not a collection of compiled genealogies or vital records in the modern sense, it includes numerous references to people in official, legal, and civic contexts—often the only existing records of early North Carolinians.