This huge territory became, like Maryland, a province or palatinate. In
Maryland was one Proprietary; in Carolina there were eight, though for
distinction the senior of the eight was called the Palatine. As in Maryland,
the Proprietaries had princely rights. They owed allegiance to England, and a
small quit-rent went to the King. They were supposed to govern, in the main,
by English law and to uphold the religion of England. They were to make laws
at their discretion, with "the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen,
or of their deputies, who were to be assembled from time to time as seemed
best."
John Locke, who wrote the "Essay Concerning Human Understanding", wrote
also, with Ashley at his side, "The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina,
in number a Hundred and Twenty, agreed upon by the Palatine and Lords
Proprietors, to remain the sacred and unalterable form and Rule of
government of Carolina forever."
"Forever" is a long word with ofttimes a short history. The Lords
Proprietors have left their names upon the maps of North and South
Carolina. There are Albemarle Sound and the Ashley and Cooper rivers,
Clarendon, Hyde, Carteret, Craven, and Colleton Counties. But their
Fundamental Constitutions, "in number a hundred and twenty," written by
Locke in 1669, are almost all as dead as the leaves of the Carolina forest
falling in the autumn of that year.
The grant included that territory settled by Roger Green and his men. Among
the Proprietors sat Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, the only
lord of Carolina actually upon American ground.
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