Albemarle Settlements

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ALBEMARLE SETTLEMENTS

ALBEMARLE SETTLEMENTS. North Carolina's first permanent settlers, Virginians seeking good lands and Indian trade, arrived in the Albemarle Sound region in the middle of the seventeenth century. Led by Nathaniel Batts in 1655, settlement proceeded at such a rate that soon a new charter was granted to include the settlements in the Carolina proprietary grant, from which they were originally excluded. In 1664 a government was instituted with the appointment of William Drummond as governor of the county of Albemarle. Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, issued land grants, attracting settlers to the region in large numbers. Quaker missionaries immigrated, and their converts soon prevailed in many areas. By 1689 the settled portion of Carolina had expanded beyond the original Albemarle section, and the county of Albemarle was abolished as a unit of government.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Powell, William S., ed. Ye Countie of Albemarle in Carolina. Raleigh, N.C.: State Department of Archives and History, 1958.

William S.Powell/a. r.

See alsoLand Grants ; North Carolina ; Quakers .

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