Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

SOCIAL CONDITIONS.

In McRee’s valuable Life and Correspondence of James Ire-
dell, that gifted Wilmingtonian says:

‘Mr. Hooper was nine year Mr. Iredell’s senior, and already
a man of mark at the bar and in the Assembly. To estimate at
its full value his deference to Iredell, these facts must be borne
in mind. Mr. Hooper was a native of Boston, and a graduate
of Cambridge, Mass. After studying law with James Otis, he
removed to North Carolina, in 1764. He became a citizen of
Wilmington. That town and its vicinity was noted for its un-
bounded hospitality and the elegance of its society. Men of
rare talents, fortune, and attainment, united to render it the
home of politeness, and ease, and enjoyment. Though the foot-
print of the Indian had, as yet, scarcely been effaced, the higher
civilization of the Old World had been transplanted there, and
had taken vigorous root. There were Col. John Ashe (subse-
quently General Ashe), the great popular leader, whose address
was consummate, and whose quickness of apprehension seemed
intuition, the very Rupert of debate; Samuel Ashe, of stalwart
frame, endowed with practical good sense, a profound knowl-
edge of human nature, and an energy that eventually raised him
to the bench and the post of governor; Harnett, afterwards
president of the Provincial Council, ‘who could boast a genius
for music and a taste for letters,’ the representative man of the
Cape Fear; Dr. John Eustace, the correspondent of Sterne, ‘who
united wit, and genius, and learning, and science’; Col. Thomas
Boyd ‘gifted with talents, and adorned with classical literature’ ;
Howe (afterwards General Howe), ‘whose imagination fasci-
nated, whose repartee overpowered, and whose conversation was
enlivened by strains of exquisite raillery’; Dr. John Fergus, of
stately presence, with velvet coat, cocked hat, and gold-headed
cane, a graduate of Edinburgh, and an excellent Latin and
Greek scholar; William Pennington, comptroller of the customs
and afterwards master of the ceremonies at Bath, ‘an elegant
writer, admired for his wit, and his highly polished urbanity’ ;
Judge Maurice Moore, of ‘versatile talents, and possessed of

extensive information, as a wit, always prompt in reply; as an

orator, always daring the mercy of chance’; Maclaine, irascible,
but intellectual, who trod the path of honor early pari passu
with Iredell, Hooper, and Johnston, and ‘whose criticisms on

Permanent Settlement 77

Shakespeare would, if they were published, give him fame and
rank in the republic of letters’; William Hill, ‘a most sensible,
polite gentleman, and though a Crown officer, replete with senti-
ments of general liberty, and warmly attached to the cause of
American freedom’; Lillington, destined soon at Moore’s Creek
to render his name historic; James Moore, subsequently ap-
pointed a brigadier general, whose promises of a_ brilliant
career were soon to be terminated by a premature death; Lewis
Henry DeRosset, member of the Council, a cultivated and ele-
gant gentleman; Adam Boyd, editor of the Cape Fear Mercury
(subsequently chaplain to the Continental Line), ‘who, without
pretensions to wit or humor, possessed the rare art of telling a
story with spirit and grace, and whose elegiac numbers afforded
a striking contrast to the vivid brilliancy of the scenes in which

he figured’; Alfred Moore, subsequently an associate justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States; Timothy Bloodworth,

stigmatized by his enemies as an impracticable radical, ‘every-
thing by turns,’ but withal a true exponent of the instincts and
prejudices, the finest feelings and the noblest impulses of the
masses. These were no ordinary men. They were of the remark-
able class that seem ever to be the product of crises in human
affairs. Though inferior to many of them in the influence that
attends years, opulence, and extensive connections, yet in schol-
arship and genius, Mr. Hooper was preéminent. I use the word
genius in contradistinction to talent. He had much nervous irri-
tability, was imaginative and susceptible. With a well-disci-
plined mind, and of studious habits, he shone with lustre when-
ever he pleased to exert himself.”

To the above we add the name of Lieut. Thomas Godfrey,
who, having served in the war against the French at the North
in the Pennsylvania forces, moved from Philadelphia and
settled in Wilmington. He possessed the creative faculty in an
eminent degree and many of his poems have remarkable beauty.
The writer has been fortunate enough to secure a copy of his
poetical works, prefaced by some account of the author and his
writings. This volume was published in Philadelphia in 1765
and contains about two hundred and fifty pages. Its publica-
tion could only be made by subscription, and of the two hun-
dred and sixty subscribers it is gratifying to observe that
twenty-four were North Carolinians. Their names are given
as follows: William Bartram, jr., James Bailey, William
Campbell, Alexander Chapman, Robert Cochran, William