The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-07-25

DAYS when the ownership of the people
went with the ownership of the soil. He
gathered to himself a brave array of gal
liant soldiers, good knights. needy adven-
turers, and every one who was willing
to fight for love of leader, love of adven-
ture, or love of plumber. To him, among
others came the owner OF the village OF
Carteret, with his retainers, whom he
probably made a captain and the lord or
Granville who was doubtless a Colonel
or General. At Hastings, William con-
quered and the English land was parcell-
ed out to his adherents. Carteret and
Granville Jared we'll in England During
the succeeding centuries their names fig-
ured we'll in English. Reginald de Car
teret and his seven sons were all made
knights in one day by Edward III for
having held possession OF the island or
Jersey against Bertrand de Guesclin and
the French. When England became
Republic under Cromwell, Sir George Car
teret went into exile with Charles the
IT, On the restoration of that monarch.
he rewarded this devotion by giving to
Carteret and seven others the broad do
main reaching from the Virginia line
down TO Florida and from the Atlantic
clear across to the Pacific under the
style of Lords proprletors. The colonists
dutifully named one of their precincts
Carteret. Sir George Carteret's grand
son (whom Col. Wheeler in his history
has COMPOUNDED with his grandfather)
was created first Baron Carteret and
married the heiress of the Granyilles. He
died very young and his son John, Baron
Carteret and Earl Granville. was not
only Lord Proprietor, but member OF
the British Cabinet and Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland. Walpole says he was one OF
the five greatest men he had ever known.
When the other Lords Proprietors sold
out, he retained his one-eighth ownership
and had it laid off next to the Virginia
line which was his northern boundary.
Portions of his Southern border you can
see to this day in the long straight line
in the middle of your State which marks
on the map the Southern boundary OF
Chatham. Randolph. Davidson, Rowan,
and Iredell. All between that straight
line extended east to the Atlantic and
West to the Pacific up to the Virginia
line (extended in like manner to both
oceans) tract nearly 20 miles broad and
extending from ocean to ocean-he re-
tanned in fee simple. No wonder when
counties were first created in this Prov
ince in 1929 one of them was styled Car
teret. and that little later in 1746 when
another great county was created it was
called Granville. 1t was his own land,
part of his farm. When the American
Revolution ended in our independence he
claimed that under the terms of the
treaty Of peace his right to the ownership
of bat ct Tor Urac cd nd
lie had good show Of right, as the treaty
is worded He begun suit in the United
States Court. How and why it failed is
another story.
But how about Beaufort? Well the Eng
lish kings, descendants of William. re-
turned the Norman invasion by them
selves becoming conquerers of the great
er part of France. One of the sons of
Edward III. John of Gaunt time honor
ed Lancaster acquired among other
scraps of property IN the conquered coun-
try this town of Beaufort. which he gave
to some of his illegitimate children. one
of whom was the great Cardinal Beau
fort, who conducted the English King
Henry VI to be crowned at Paris as King
of France and who presided at the trial
ard conviction or Joan of Are
fort was descended the Duke of Beaufort
who was one of the eight Lords Proprie-
tors the name of whose duchy was be-
slowed upon your city, and from him also
is descended the present duke who sits as
a hereditary senator in the British Par
lament and through the female line lie
also numbers among his descendants the
present King of England
Ia.
France terminate here for this Province
was originally named Carolina in honor
of Charles the TX OF France, who is
damned to all time and eternity as the
author OF the Massacre of st. Bartholo-
NEW and it was rechrstened Carolina
when granted to the Lords Proprietors by
Charles the Second of England, himself of
very Indifferent fame.
For this depression, showing to some
extent how history is interviewer in the
very warp and wool of the names of your
county and city, | trust that in an adj
dress upon an historic subject may be
pardoned, both by those who remember
these facts and by those who may have
perchance forgotten them.
Now to this historic scene came OF
way Burns, to add by his deeds to the
interest which shall always linger around
the historic names of Beaufort and Car
teret
"Otway Burns was born in the county Of
Onslow, named in honor of the famous
Speaker Onslow, afterwards Lord Onslow
He was born on Queens creek two miles
from Swannsboro in the year 1775. His
father was named Francis Burns and was
born at the same place The father of
the latter, Francis Burns, ST., settled in
North Carolina in 1884, coming from Glas-
gov, Scotland. AS Glasgow is not far
from Ayrshire he may well have been of
the same family as the great poet who
has made the name of Burns q house
hold word wherever the English tongue is
spoken or wherever the accents of free
dom can move the hearts Of mon.
Francis Burns lived to a good old age.
His will probated in 1892 nearly sixty
years after his arrival in this country. is
still to be found ON the records in Ons-
lew county. 1t shows that he was a man
of considerable wealth for these days. He
names as his legatees his grandsons,
Otway Burns and Francis his brother and
also other grandchildren through his
daughters who had married into the
Spooner, Smith and Davis families. 1t is
thus probable that the relatives of Capt.