Court

In studying the development of a people nothing is more helpful than a correct understanding of their system of judicature, for here we not only learn their methods of administering justice, but, at the same time, we get an insight into their conception of justice itself. There is no question of government more vital to the individual than the mode in which the authority of that government is to be administered. There is hardly another function of government that touches the citizen at a point quite so delicate as the institution, which passes judgment upon his deeds and intentions. Hence … Read more

Such in general were the courts in North Carolina at the end of the proprietary government, and such they continued for several years thereafter. The change of the Colonial government from proprietary to royal had very little effect upon the courts. Only such changes were made from time to time as circumstances demanded. It now remains for us to note a few of the more important of these changes that were made prior to the beginning of the Revolution. The first one of importance occurred in 1738. An act was passed “by his Excellency Gabriel Johnston, Esq., Governor, by and … Read more

The three courts above mentioned constituted the chief agencies for the administration of justice, but there were three other courts of secondary importance. These courts, it would seem, were instituted not so much because of any actual need of them, as because similar courts existed in the mother country, but because of the additional fact that they furnished more offices to be filled by the friends and kinsfolk of the Lords Proprietors. The first of these to be mentioned is the Court of Chancery. This was, as in England, a Court of equity. Its duties do not seem to be … Read more