Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

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Proprietary Colony 1663-1729

1670 - Inland Explorations

English explorer James Lederer encounters the Catawba Indian tribe in Mecklenburg County.

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1706 - First North Carolina Town

Bath becomes the first incorporated town in North Carolina.

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1712 - Carolina Divides

May 9, 1712 - The center of government is in Charleston, inaccessible to people in the colony's northern and western parts. In addition, legislation designed to recognize the Church of England as the established church creates a division between the Anglicans on one side and on the other the Presbyterians and the Quakers thus increasing political tensions in the state. To solve these problems, the Lords Proprietors divide the colony in two: North and South Carolina. Edward Hyde (1667-1712) becomes the first governor of the newly formed colony of North Carolina.

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1715 - Economic Beginnings

Trading becomes more important as natives and settlers learn to live together. Indians are expert hunters, and offer animal furs or skins, along with the pottery they make. Settlers bring metal tools and fine cloth to trade. But fighting breaks out when some Catawba and Yamassee Indians think they are treated unfairly by the settlers.

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1729 - Royal Colony

The Proprietors (with the exception of the Earl of Granville) sell their shares to the Crown, and North Carolina becomes a royal colony. The governor is now appointed directly by the King.

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1711 - Lawson's Violent End

September 16, 1711 - There are bitter arguments between the Indians and white settlers over hunting and trading practices. Englishman John Lawson, who surveyed and wrote about North Carolina a decade previously, is killed in the eastern part of the state by a tribe of Indians called the Tuscaroras.

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1700 - The Lawson Expedition

English surveyor John Lawson travels north and west from coastal Charleston, South Carolina, by way of the Santee, Wateree and Catawba rivers. Roads are still 50 years away. His voyage takes him 1,000 miles as he maps the rough terrain. Soon, English rulers will decide where they want colonists to settle.

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1663 - Lords Proprietors

King Charles II of England creates the Carolina colony on March 24. He grants the land that will become North and South Carolina to eight loyal followers who are known as the Lords Proprietors.

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