Dobbs County, NC - Arthur Dobbs Collection ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Arthur Dobbs (2 April 1689 -- 28 March 1765) Papers Title: Arthur Dobbs (2 April 1689 -- 28 March 1765) Papers Provenance: Class: State Records [Collection] Group: Colonial Governors' Papers Record Group Years: 1754-1764, n.d. Creator: Governor, Office of the Call Number: CGP 5--CGP 5.1 Location: 3A.473 MARS Id: 308.7 (Series) Genres / Forms: Correspondence, Petitions, Recommendations, Appointments, Reports, Muster rolls, Commissions, Declarations, Bonds (legal records), Certificates, Depositions, Writs, Summonses, Injunction, Resolutions, Minutes, Instructions, Lists, Warrants, Orders Quantity: 124 Folder(s) Arrangement: Chronological. Scope / Contents: (partial) Military reports (1754), equipment requests, muster rolls, lists of field officers relating to the governorship of Arthur Dobbs and his prosecution of the French and Indian War. Other items include lists of taxables, warrants, appointments, commissions, certificates of nomination, recommendations, resolutions, petitions, writs, officials' bonds, depositions, injunctions, instructions to the governor, and summonses. Also includes copies of minutes of a meeting of governors from North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (1757); orders of a meeting of the Board of Trade (1762); orders of the king announcing a new surveyor and auditor general of revenue and another relating to trade and navigation (1761); a petition from New Hanover County for sufficient roads ... View Full Scope / Contents Index Terms: Geographic Names: New Hanover Subjects: French and Indian War, 1755-1763 Privateering Governors Boundaries Treaties Tanneries Militia Bounties Navigation Roads Ferries Patents Officers Trade Corporate Names: Governor, Office of the French Indians Personal Names: Dobbs, Arthur Other Copies: S.51.1566 (1754-1764) (MFR) Note: FINDING AIDS: A calendar of the Colonial Governors' Papers is available in the repository and on microfilm (S.51.70) Arthur Dobbs (2 April 1689 -- 28 March 1765) Papers Military reports (1754), equipment requests, muster rolls, lists of field officers relating to the governorship of Arthur Dobbs and his prosecution of the French and Indian War. Other items include lists of taxables, warrants, appointments, commissions, certificates of nomination, recommendations, resolutions, petitions, writs, officials' bonds, depositions, injunctions, instructions to the governor, and summonses. Also includes copies of minutes of a meeting of governors from North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (1757); orders of a meeting of the Board of Trade (1762); orders of the king announcing a new surveyor and auditor general of revenue and another relating to trade and navigation (1761); a petition from New Hanover County for sufficient roads to the ferries (1754); instructions for privateers (ca. 1756); and a list of 109 patents, including names of owners, dates, number of acres and locations (1758). Correspondence includes such topics as the militia law, discipline of regiments, unavailability of clothing, tanneries, horse stealing, abuses by Indians, recruitment bounties (1761), boundary disputes with South Carolina, and the use of Indian warriors against the French (1763). Also includes a copy of the declaration and ratification of the peace treaty between Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal (1763). Dobbs served as governor from 1754 to 1765. Arthur Dobbs (2 April 1689-28 March 1765) was a Northern Irishman from a politically and socially prominent family seated at Castle Dobbs, County Antrim. After brief service in the military he became high sheriff of County Antrim, mayor of Carrickfergus, surveyor-general of Ireland, and a member of the Irish House of Commons. He was also an amateur scientist of note, publishing papers on an eclipse of the moon and other topics, and writing the first known account of the Venus flytrap after he came to North Carolina. His wide-ranging curiosity extended to matters such as coinage, imperial trade, military strategy, and the search for a northwest passage. In the mid-1740s Dobbs and an associate purchased 400,000 acres in western North Carolina (the present counties of Mecklenburg and Cabarrus), and the future governor induced numbers of Scotch-Irish to settle in North Carolina. He also became one of the shareholders in the Ohio Company of Virginia. Dobbs secured the appointment as governor of North Carolina after the death of Gabriel Johnston in 1752. When Dobbs arrived in the colony in 1754 the French and Indian War was just getting underway. He exerted himself to the utmost to ensure that the assembly would provide the necessary funds for North Carolina to play a significant role in the Great War for Empire, an endeavor that met with only partial success. He did, however, build a number of forts along the coast and in the hinterland. The long-standing boundary dispute with South Carolina was addressed by him and the governor of South Carolina, but without resolution. He also, as a zealous churchman, attempted to improve the position of the Anglican establishment in the colony, with indifferent results. He repeatedly urged the assembly to provide schools for the colony's youth, again without notable success. As a representative of royal prerogative at a time when the mood of independence was increasing, Dobbs on numerous occasions came into conflict with the assembly. In addition, his personal relations with several important officials in the province grew steadily worse, further diminishing his chances of accomplishing his goals. He died at Russelborough, his home near Brunswick, in March 1765. REFERENCE: Powell, William S., ed. DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY. Vol. 2. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986. ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by North Carolina Archives and History ___________________________________________________________________