Y^e Countie of Albemarle in Carolina

FOREWORD

The twenty-eight seventeenth century documents published here were a gift to the State Department of Archives and History in 1956 from the late Thurmond Chatham. In 1919, as a young sailor visiting London, he stopped in Maggs Bros. book shop seeking manuscripts or other material relating to North Carolina. At that time nothing was available, but he left his name and asked to be notified if anything of interest turned up.

It was not until 1933 that his inquiry bore fruit. A Maggs Bros. catalogue of that year, issued in a limited edition of fifty copies, offered these documents for sale. They were, the catalogue recorded, “newly discovered (formerly in the possession of a descendant of Governor Carteret).” Mr. Chatham purchased the entire collection, and they remained in his personal library for twenty-three years.

He had three handsome red buckram cases made to contain the documents and to protect the portions of seals which remain attached to several of them. They are now among the North Carolina State Archives housed in Raleigh. North Carolinians are indebted to Mr. Chatham for his generosity in making these extremely interesting records available to them. They cover a period of our history about which comparatively little is known.

Many of my friends have assisted me in preparing these documents for publication: Mrs. Julia C. Meconnahey did the initial copying; D. L. Corbitt made helpful suggestions throughout and saw the manuscript through the press; H. G. Jones answered numerous inquiries and made material conveniently available to me from the State Archives; and several members of the University of North Carolina Library staff helped in ways too varied to record. Finally, my wife joined wholeheartedly in the project with more enthusiasm than either friendship or Prayer Book vows dictated.

Chapel Hill
June 16, 1958

William S. Powell