100 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

less triumph. It had been a time of intense excitement. It had
been no easy task to hold more than a thousand hot and zealous
patriots well in hand, and to accomplish their purposes without
bloodshed. Wisdom and courage by the directors, and prudence,
foresight, and sagacity on the part of the military officers were
alike essential to the consummation of their design. They now
returned in triumph, their purposes accomplished. The odious
law was annulled in North Carolina. After that, merchant ves-

sels passed freely in and out of port, without interference. The
stamps remained boxed on shipboard, and no further effort was
made to enforce a law which the people had rejected.

Two months after these events on the Cape Fear, Parliament
repealed the law, and the news was hurried across the Atlantic
in the fleetest vessels. The victory of the people was complete.
They had annulled an act of Parliament, crushed their enemies,
and preserved their liberties. Thus once more were the cour-
ageous leaders of the Cape Fear, in their measures of opposition
to encroachments on the rights of the people, sustained by the
result. On former occasions they had triumphed over their
governors: now, in codperation with other provinces, they had

triumphed over the British Ministry and the Parliament of
Great Britain.

While in every other province the people resolutely opposed
the Stamp Act, nowhere else in America was there a proceeding
similar to that which was taken at Wilmington. Nowhere else
was the standard of Liberty committed to the care of a govern-
ing board, even though its creation was for a temporary pur-
pose; nowhere else was there an army organized, under officers
appointed, and led to a field where a battle might have ensued.
Had not His Majesty’s forces yielded to the will of the insur-

gents, the American Revolution would probably have begun
then—and here—on the soil of Old Brunswick.

WILLIAM HOUSTON, THE STAMP AGENT—
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT.

(Extracts from an address delivered by Mr. J. O. Carr before the North Carolina
Society of Colonial Dames of America, at Old Brunswick, May 5, 1915.)

One hundred and fifty years have elapsed since the Houston
episode, and it is not too early to begin to do justice to the vic-
tim ; nor will it detract from the heroism of the patriots of 17 65,
who were inspired by a righteous indignation against every
form of oppression.

Resistance Before the Revolution 101

_ By a careful, discriminating reading of all the subject-matter
at our command, it will be easily seen that the indignation of
the people of 1765 was not directed against Houston, nor
against any conduct of his, but against the principle of the
British stamp tax.

In order to get a comprehensive view of Houston as a man it
is necessary to consider him before 1765 and after 1765.

Houston Brrorre 1765.

William Houston did not live in Wilmington nor in Bruns-
wick, but resided in Duplin County on the Northeast River,
about sixty miles north of Wilmington, in a direct line. He
was an associate of Henry McCulloch in his attempt to colonize
North Carolina, and was one of the original settlers who came
to this community some time between 1737 and 1748. This

locality was then a part of the county of New Hanover.
Houston was a man of unusual ability and was known as an

“honorable gentleman.” By profession he was a surgeon and
apothecary. A tradition, too well founded in the community
in which he lived to be seriously disputed, at least forms the
basis for a well-established belief that royal blood flowed in his
veins. The General Assembly of 1749 and 1750 established
the county of Duplin and St. Gabriel’s parish, and William
Houston was named as a member of the vestry of that parish.
From 1751 to 1761, inclusive, he was a member of the General
Assembly from Duplin County, and following that date was a

_ justice of the peace, along with other leading citizens of his

county; and in those days the office of justice of the peace was
a position of considerable importance.

When he was appointed stamp agent for the port of Bruns-
wick, he was residing on his farm in Duplin County, on a high
elevation on the Northeast River, at a place known as “So-
racte’—so called, no doubt, from the mountain by that name in
Italy on which was built the ancient Temple of Apollo.

On the 19th of October, 1765, after he had been appointed
stamp agent and notice of such appointment had reached Bruns-
wick direct from England, Houston was hanged in effigy in the
town of Wilmington, the only reason given for such action be-
ing that the several hundred citizens who participated were “in-
formed of his having several times expressed himself much in
favor of the stamp duty”—and it is possible that he honestly