Clarendon County, North Carolina
From ENC Phillips Group Wiki
Clarendon County was one of three counties authorized by the Lords Proprietors of Carolina to be set up in 1664. The Concessions and Agreement of 1665 directed that this county be confined to "one side of the main river near Cape Faire, on which some of the adventurers are already settled, or Intend to settle, and the Islands in or near the said River next the side they settle on, Unless they have already settled, or Intend to settle, and the Islands in or near the said River next the side they settle on, Unless they have already settled some Island thereon."
It was named for Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, one of the Lords Proprietors. By July 1663 and perhaps as early as November 1663, or even earlier, a colony from Charleston, Massachusetts, was established here under the leadership of William Hilton. The site was abandoned by 1664 when a colony from Barbados under Sir John Yeamans arrived. The colony occupied 'Charles Town" which the New Englanders had left. Yeamans was commissioned governor of Clarendon County in January 1665, and the population reached an estimated eight hundred before the county was abandoned in 1667. The site of this settlement was later in New Hanover (and now in Brunswick) County.[1]
Sources
- ↑ Written by William S. Powell'" p. xxiv in Corbitt's "Formation of The North Carolina Counties."