102 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

favored such a tax, but there is no evidence that he favored it
without the people’s consent.

Again, on the 31st of October, 1765, a large number of people
met in Wilmington and placed an effigy in a coffin and moved
under the beat of drums to the churchyard—no doubt St.
James’s Church—where the interment was to take place; but
after feeling its pulse, decided that Liberty still survived, and

no burial took place. Also, Dr. Houston was hanged in effigy
at New Bern and at Fayetteville about the same time. ze

During all of these exhibitions of patriotism, Dr. Houston
was pursuing his duties as surgeon and apothecary at “Soracte,”
now known as “Sarecta,” and he afterwards protested that .
had not solicited and did not even know of his appointment as
stamp agent at the time of such demonstrations. It was not
until Saturday, the 16th day of November, nearly a month after
his first hanging and demise, that Dr. Houston came to town
where three hundred people, with drums beating and flags fly-
ing, proceeded to his lodging-place and inquired whether he in-
tended to execute the office of stamp agent. Without hesitation
he informed them that he “should be sorry to execute any office
disagreeable to the people of the province” ; and as an exhibition

of good faith voluntarily signed the famous promise, which was
done of his own free will and accord ; and he was not even re-

quired to take an oath, as has been generally believed. If this
promise had been signed under force or duress, he would hardly
have been given an ovation; but after he had indicated his senti-
ments on this matter there was a love feast and he was put in
an armchair and carried around the courthouse and around one
of the chief squares of the city of Wilmington and finally put
down at his lodging-place.

A careful and discriminating reading of the entire story must
convince the thinking man that instead of a riot and a lynching
in the city when Dr. Houston came to town, there was soniathing
in the nature of a banquet in his honor, on the discovery by the
people that the sentiments of the man selected by the Crown to
sell stamps were in harmony with theirs; and no doubt Dr.
Houston enjoyed the eats and drinks as much as any one, though

the drought in those days around “Soracte” was doubtless not as
marked as it is today.

Resistance Before the Revolution

Houston Arrer 1765.

The episode in Wilmington did not in any way affect the
standing of Dr. Houston in his own county, where he was
highly honored and respected by his fellow-citizens. In 1768
he was appointed a justice of the peace in Duplin County, and
likewise again in 1771. In 1777 he was chairman of the “Court
Martial” in Duplin County, whose duties were to hunt down
Tories and deserters and to bring to justice Americans who were
not faithful to our cause; and together with James Kenan and
Joseph Dickson, whose names were synonymous with patriotism
in that community, he acted in this capacity, and as chairman
of the commission. He continued to serve his county in public
positions, and as late as 1784 was appointed a justice of the

peace by Alexander Martin, in which capacity he served for
some time thereafter. The time of his death or the place of his
burial can not be stated with certainty, but it is thought that he
was buried in the community in which he lived.t His descend-

ants to this day have exhibited the same elements of brilliancy
and patriotism seen in Dr. Houston.

RUSSELLBOROUGH—SCENE OF FIRST ARMED
RESISTANCE.

About half a mile to the south of Orton House, and within
the boundary of the plantation, are the ruins of Governor Try-
on’s residence, memorable in the history of the United States as
the spot upon which the first overt act of violence occurred in
the War of American Independence, nearly eight years before
the Boston Tea Party, of which so much has been made in
Northern history, while this colonial ruin, the veritable cradle
of American liberty, is probably unknown to nine-tenths of the

people of the Cape Fear at the present day.

This place, which has been eloquently referred to by two of
the most distinguished sons of the Cape Fear, both direct de-

1Since the preparation of the above paper, I have found the following
memorandum among my historical data: ‘William Houston in after
life moved from Duplin County to Tennessee and then, it is said, to
Texas. He had a number of sons, the youngest of whom was Samuel
Houston, who spent his life in Duplin County and was the father of
the late Capt. William J. Houston, Mrs. George W. Carroll, Mrs. J. N.
Stallings, and Mrs. Oates.” This information was furnished me by the

family of Mrs. George W. Carroll. J. O. CARR.

 

PO oa ie I al ah aceite. 2 Mt