John Archdale

Background

John Archdale was born on May 5, 1642 in England. He was the son of Thomas and Mary (Nevill) Archdale and grandson of Richard Archdale, who in 1604 and 1628 acquired the manors of Loakes and Temple Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.

Education

Sons of the Archdale family were regularly educated at Wadham College, Oxford, but John was an exception and received no college training.

Career

His first connection with America came through the marriage of his eldest sister to Ferdinando Gorges, who disputed with Massachusetts Bay Colony the ownership of Maine. In the autumn of 1664 Archdale was sent to New England to make good the Gorges claim. He landed at Piscataqua and carried a letter from Charles II, requiring the Bay Colony to cede the Maine government or to show reason to the contrary. Massachusetts answered that Maine was a part of its grant and that its claims would not be given up except by consent of the General Court.

This unfavorable reply did not deter Archdale, who, assiduous in the proprietor's interest and zealous in the pursuance of his duties, visited every town in Maine and granted commissions to individuals who ruled independently of Massachusetts. The contest continued until the arrival of the King's agents in 1665 and the suspension of the authority of Massachusetts. But this defeat was not a triumph for Archdale, for he was ignored, and his authority set aside, so that shortly afterward he left the province.

With the withdrawal of the King's commissioners Massachusetts quietly resumed its authority in 1668, and the Gorges claim was settled by purchase in 1678.

He became identified with the Society of Friends, and it was perhaps influenced by his beliefs that he accepted a commission in 1682 from the Carolina proprietors to collect their rents in North Carolina where numbers of Quakers had settled. In this occupation he continued through 1683.

His next connection with the American colonies occurred in 1694. Due to trouble in Carolina the resident governor had appealed to the proprietors to send out one of their number as governor. Archdale was appointed to this office, as he had supposedly bought the Carolina claim of the widow of Sir William Berkeley, but the title was clouded, hence his status was defined as "being in the nature of a proprietor. "

He went to Carolina by way of Virginia and was nearly a year in reaching his destination. He reported that on his arrival all was in confusion, with every faction appealing to him for relief and that "I appeased them with kind and gentle Words and so soon as possible call'd an Assembly. "

His first assembly was soon dissolved because of a dispute over land questions. During the next assembly a temporary solution was secured by passing an act regulating prices, rents, and the conveyance of land. His administration was notable for the passage of the colony's first recorded liquor law, which forbade the sale of liquors under the quantity of one gallon except by license of the governor and put into effect the English law governing abuses and disorders of taverns. His Quaker principles were revealed in the law which he secured from his assembly exempting Quakers from serving in the militia and in his policy of friendship toward the Indians.

In 1698 he was elected member of Parliament for Chipping Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Again he showed himself a man of strong religious principles in declining as a Quaker to take the oath, and the House refused to seat him. After this he retired from public life.

In 1707 he published A New Description of the Fertile and Pleasant Province of Carolina with a Brief Account of Its Discovery and Settling and the Government thereof to the Time, with Several Remarkable Passages of Divine Providence during my Time.

Achievements

• Archdale played a significan role while being in America. He introduced rice culture into Carolina by distributing among some friends a bag of seed rice brought by the captain of a vessel from Madagascar. He was also a prominent political figure.

Religion

He became identified with the Society of Friends, and it was perhaps influenced by his beliefs that he accepted a commission in 1682 from the Carolina proprietors to collect their rents in North Carolina where numbers of Quakers had settled.

Personality

Archdale was sagacious, prudent, and moderate, and under his administration the province made great progress in internal improvements.

Connections

After the return of Archdale to England, he married Ann (Dobson) Cary, a widow, in December 1673, by whom he had four children.

Father:

Thomas Archdale

Mother:

Mary (Nevill) Archdale

Spouse:

Ann (Dobson) Archdale