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Great Events in North Carolina History.

THE BOOKLET will be issued quarterly by the North Carolina Society Daughters of the Revolution, beginning July, 1908. Each BOOKLET will contain three articles and will be published in July, October, January, and April. Price, $1.00 per year, 35 cents for single copy.

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4. North Carolina Women of the Revolution.....Dr. Richard Dillard.

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8. Schools and Education in Colonial Times, Dr. Charles Lee Smith.

9. Reprint of Reverend George Micklejohn's Sermon before Tryon's

Army-May, 1771.

10. General Jethro Sumner...

.Dr. Kemp P. Battle.
.Mr. F. M. Harper.

11. Historic Duels of North Carolina.. 12. Our Colonial Historians: Hakluyt, Lawson, Brickle, Williamson Rt. Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire, D.D.

THE BOOKLET will contain short biographical sketches of the writers who have contributed to this publication, by Mrs. E. E. Moffitt.

THE BOOKLET will print abstracts of wills prior to 1760, as sources of biography, history and genealogy, by Mrs. Helen DeB. Wills.

Parties who wish to renew their subscriptions to THE BOOKLET for Vol. VIII, are requested to give notice at once.

Address

MISS MARY HILLIARD HINTON,

"MIDWAY PLANTATION,”

Raleigh, N. C.

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JOHN HARVEY.'

BY R. D. W. CONNOR,

Secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission.

Of all the men who inaugurated the Revolution in North Carolina, John Harvey, perhaps, is least known. But little has been written of his services to his country, and the student of his career will search in vain outside of the bald official records for more than a mere mention of the official positions which he held. These records, however, reveal a career that would do honor to any of his great contemporaries.

The origin of the Harvey family in North Carolina has been the subject of much speculation and has been accounted for in various ways. The traditional accounts credit Virginia with furnishing this family to North Carolina, but whatever may be true of the other branches, this is not true of the branch from which John Harvey sprung. During the middle of the seventeenth century the first John Harvey of whom we have any record, and his wife Mary, lived "at ye Heath in Shetterfield Parish in Warwick Sheare in Ould Ingland." One of their sons, Thomas Harvey, came to North Carolina some time about 1680 as private secretary to Governor John Jenkins. He himself afterwards served as deputy governor during the absence of Governor Archdale. Upon his arrival there he found others of his name who were

Reprinted, with additional matter, from the "Biographical History of North Carolina," Volume IV, by permission of Charles L. Van Noppen, Publisher.

already prominent in the official life of the province. They had settled in Perquimans County on Albemarle Sound, occupying a strip of land between the Yeopim and Perquinans rivers, known to this day as Harvey's Neck. Governor Jenkins died December 17, 1681. Within less than four months Thomas Harvey showed his devotion to the memory of his patron by marrying the bereaved widow, Johannah. In those early days in North Carolina, when the number of men in the province greatly exceeded the number of women, it was probably regarded as contrary to public policy for a sprightly woman to hide her charms behind a widow's veil. Six years after her second marriage Johannah Harvey died. Thomas Harvey bore his loss with becoming fortitude and within less than six months resigned his sorrows into the keeping of Sarah Laker, the daughter of a prominent colonial official, Benjamin Laker, and his wife Jane Dey. By her Thomas Harvey had three children. The second son, a Thomas also, married Elizabeth Cole, daughter of Colonel James Cole, of Nansemond County, Virginia. This union continued only a few years, Thomas Harvey dying during the winter of 1729. He left four sons, Thomas, John, Benjamin, and Miles. In his will he made provisions and left directions for the education of these boys; one legacy in this will was a hundred pounds proclamation money for the poor of Perquimans County.

The second of these boys was destined to become the most illustrious of the Harveys. He was born some time about the year 1725. According to the provisions of his father's. will he received a good education, probably under a private tutor, or, as was not unusual then, in England. We may suppose that, like other boys similarly situated, he gave due

Hathaway: North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 3, No. 3, 476–480.

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attention to the sports common in frontier settlementsriding, hunting, fishing, swimming, rowing, and other outdoor amusements. Early in life he was married to Mary Bonner, daughter of Thomas and Abigail Bonner, of Beaufort County. They had ten children. It is not unworthy of remark that the Harveys were a prolific family. John Harvey's eldest son, Thomas, had eight children; his second son, John, had three; Miles, his fifth son, had four; while Joseph, the seventh son, had fourteen. John Harvey's grandchildren also proved themselves in this respect not unworthy of their origin.3

As soon

We know nothing about John Harvey's early life. as he was old enough to understand such things he manifested a lively interest in provincial politics; the traditions of his family, no less than his own inclinations, would lead him to do so. A promising young man, supported by family influence, wealth, and education, he could not fail to attract the attention of the local politicians of the popular party. He had scarcely laid aside his childish things before they brought him forward as a candidate for a seat in the General Assembly, and elected him a member of the session held at New Bern in June of 1746. He arrived one day too late to take part in the organization of the House, which was effected by the election of Samuel Swann speaker. The journal quaintly states that, June 12, "Mr. John Starkey moved that as Mr. Samuel Swann had been speaker heretofore and no objection lay against his behaviour in that station he may be chosen speaker." To this proposition there was no dissent. John Harvey's first session was a short one, lasting only sixteen days.

Harvey had entered the Assembly, however, just in time to become involved in one of the bitterest contests connected with 'Ibid. Colonial Records of North Carolina, IV, 818.

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