“Mothers" – This picture is incredibly rare as the only photo that contains my mother (in purple), both of my grandmothers, and two of my great grandmothers, presumably taken at my mother’s bridal shower sometime in 1974 in Atlanta. I do not know who the other guests in the photo are. Pictured: Debbie Houston, Laura Lett, Mary Waddell, Mildred Taylor, and Willie Mae Widner.

The Presidents Timeline

Stories of Family History

Dr. William Houston, Sr.

November, 1965: The Stamp Act Crisis in North Carolina

Stamp Master’s Hand Forced, 1765

Overlooked Wilmington (Journal of the American Revolution)

Resources:
The Stamp Act Crisis in North Carolina
Stamp Masters in the Deep South
Stamp Master’s Hand Force, 1765
Commemorative Marker
The Descendants of Dr. William Houston

Houston Family Tree
William Houston, Sr.
Re-enactment of Resignation on 250 anniversary

History of Miller County, GA – Colquitt

Some moments, however, count a lot more than others. Let’s consider some of the moments that changed Wilmington forever in its 275-year history.

Feb. 20, 1766: The Stamp Act crisis reaches its climax.

In a way, it was the first drum roll of the American Revolution. On March 22, 1765, seeking to pay debts from the French and Indian wars, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, placing stiff taxes on newspapers, pamphlets, playing cards, dice, land grants and various legal papers. (The papers were supposed to carry a tax stamp indicating payment, hence the name.)

Such taxes had long existed in England but were new in the American colonies. Colonists soon saw these as an effort by England to gain more control over their courts and colonial assemblies. Many began to talk about “taxation without representation," and the fact they had no real vote in Parliament.

On Nov. 16, 1765, a mob of 300 to 500 people surrounded the New Hanover County courthouse and forced the colony’s stamp-tax collector, William Houston, to resign. (After he did, the mob paraded him around town in an armchair.) When the British warship HMS Diligence arrived carrying the stamps for North Carolina, colonists would not let them be brought ashore.

In January, the Diligence seized two merchant ships for not carrying stamps. Another mob, including many Wilmingtonians, responded by virtually laying seige to Russellborough, Gov. William Tryon’s mansion in Brunswick County.

On Feb. 20, the crisis broke, and the British Empire blinked. Capt. Jacob Lobb, aboard the Diligence, met with colonist leaders and agreed to release the seized vessels. Other Crown officials swore oaths not to enforce the Stamp Act. Pressured, the Parliament in London voted on March 16, 1766, to repeal the hated act – but reserved the right to tax the colonies. This issue would be argued on another day.

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The Stamp Act on Cape Fear

Resistance Before the Revolution 


THE STAMP ACT ON THE CAPE FEAR. 

(Extracts from an address delivered by Capt. S. A. Ashe before the North Carolina 
Society of Colonial Dames at Old Brunswick, N. C.) 

When the next year [1765] a bill was introduced to carry the 
resolution into effect, it met with considerable opposition in the 
House of Commons, for the protests of the colonists were not 
unheeded. Still, the ministry, under Lord Bute, persisted, and 
the measure was carried. All America was at once stirred. 
Bold and courageous action was taken in every colony, but in 
none was a more resolute spirit manifested than here upon the 
Cape Bear. The governor was Try on, who had but lately suc- 
ceeded to that office. He was an officer of the army, a gentle- 
man by birth and education, a man calculated by his accom- 
plishments and social qualities to shine in any community. He 
sought the speaker of the House, and asked him what would he 
the action of the people. Resistance to the death,” was the 
prompt reply. That was a warning that was full of meaning. 
It pledged the speaker to revolution and war in defense of the 
people’s rights. 

The Assembly was to meet in May, 17 65. But Tryon astutely 
postponed the meeting until November, and then dissolved the 
Assembly. He did not wish the members to meet, confer, con- 
sult, and arrange a plan of opposition. He hoped by dealing 
with gentlemen, not in an official capacity, to disarm their an- 
tagonism and persuade them to a milder course. Vain delu- 
sion ! The people had been too long trained to rely with confi- 
dence on their leaders to abandon them now, even though Par- 
liament demanded their obedience. 

The first movement was not long delayed. Within two 
months after the news had come that the odious act had been 
passed, the people of North Carolina discarded from their use 
all clothes of British manufacture and set up looms for weav- 
ing their own clothes. Since Great Britain was to oppress 
them, they would give the world an assurance of the spirit of 
independence that would sustain them in the struggle. In 
October information was received that I)r. Houston, of Duplin 
County, had been selected in England as stamp master. At 

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Chronicles of the Cape Fear River 


once proceedings were taken to nullify the appointment. At 
that time Wilmington had less than 500 white inhabitants, hut 
her citizens were very patriotic and very resolute. 

Rocky Point, fifteen miles to the northward, had been the 
residence of Maurice Moore, Speaker Moseley, Speaker Swann, 
Speaker Ashe, Alexander Lillington, John Swann, George 
Moore, John Porter, Colonel Jones, Colonel Merrick, and other 
gentlemen of influence. It was the center from which had 
radiated the influences that directed popular movements. 
Rearer to Onslow, Duplin, and Bladen than Wilmington was, 
and the residence of the speaker and other active leaders, it was 
doubtless there that plans were considered, and proceedings 
agreed upon that involved the united action of all the neighbor- 
ing counties. At Wilmington and in its vicinity were Harnett, 
DeRosset, Toomer, Walker, Clayton, Gregg, Purviance, Eus- 
tace, Maclaine, and DuBois, while near by were Howe, Smith, 
Davis, Grange, Ancrum, and a score of others of the loftiest 
patriotism. All were in full accord with the speaker of the 
Assembly; all were nerved by the same spirit; all resolved to 
carry resistance, if need be, to the point of blood and death. 

We fortunately have a contemporaneous record of some of 
their proceedings. The North Carolina Gazette , published at 
Wilmington, in its issue of November 20, 1765, says: 

On Saturday, the 19th of last month, about 7 o’clock in the evening, 
near five hundred people assembled together in this town and exhibited 
the effigy of a certain honorable gentleman; and after letting it hang by 
the neck for some time, near the courthouse they made a large bonfire 
with a number of tar barrels, etc., and committed it to the flames. The 
reason assigned for the people’s dislike to that gentleman was from 
being informed of his having several times expressed himself much in 
favor of the stamp duty. After the effigy was consumed, they went to 
every house in town and brought all the gentlemen to the bonfire, and 
insisted on their drinking “Liberty, Property, and No Stamp Duty,” and 
“Confusion to Lord Bute and All His Adherents,” giving three huzzahs 
at the conclusion of each toast. They continued together until 12 of 
the clock, and then dispersed without doing any mischief. 

Doubtless it was a very orderly crowd, since the editor says 
so. A very orderly, harmless, inoffensive gathering; patriotic, 
and given to hurrahing ; but we are assured that they dispersed 
without any mischief. 

And continues the same paper: 

On Thursday, the 31st of the same month, in the evening, a great 
number of people assembled again, and produced an effigy of Liberty, 


Resistance Before the Revolution 


93 


which they put in a coffin and marched in solemn procession with it to 
the churchyard, a drum in mourning beating before them, and the town 
bell, muffled, ringing a doleful knell at the same time; but before they 
committed the body to the ground, they thought it advisable to feel its 
pulse, and, finding some remains of life, they returned back to a bon- 
fire ready prepared, placed the effigy before it in a large two-armed 
chair, and concluded the evening with great rejoicings on finding that 
Liberty had still an existence in the colonies. 

Not the least injury was offered to any person. 

The editor of that paper, Mr. Stewart, was apparently anx- 
ious to let his readers know that the people engaged in these pro- 
ceedings were the very soul of order and the essence of modera- 
tion. So far they had done no mischief and offered no injury 
to any one. But still they had teeth, and they could show them. 
The next item reads: 

Saturday, the 16th of this instant, that is November: William Hous- 
ton, Esq., distributor of stamps for this province, came to this town; 
upon which three or four hundred people immediately gathered to- 
gether, with drums beating and colors flying, and repaired to the house 
the said stamp master put up at, and insisted upon knowing “Whether 
he intended to execute his said office or not.” He told them, “He should 
be very sorry to execute any office disagreeable to the people of this 
province.” *But they, not content with such declaration, carried him 
into the courthouse, where he signed a resignation satisfactory to the 
whole. They then placed the stamp master in an armchair, carried him 
around the courthouse, giving at every corner three loud huzzahs, and 
finally set him down at the door of his lodging, formed a circle around 
him, and gave three cheers. They then escorted him into the house, 
where were prepared the best liquors, and treated him very genteelly. 
In the evening a large bonfire was made and no person appeared on the 
streets without having “Liberty” in large letters on his hat. They had 
a table near the bonfire well furnished with several sorts of liquors, 
where they drank, in great form, all the favorite American toasts, giv- 
ing three cheers at the conclusion of each. 

“The whole was conducted,” says the editor, “with great 
decorum, and not the least insult offered to any person.’ 7 
This enforced resignation of the stamp master was done under 

x It is not to be inferred from Dr. Houston’s action in this matter, in 
1765, that he was in favor of taxation of the colonies by Great Britain. 
Benjamin Franklin, then the agent of several of the colonies in Lon- 
don, assumed, as a matter of course, that the Stamp Act would be oper- 
ative, and he recommended some of his friends to accept the office of 
stamp master. Dr. Houston did not apply for the appointment, and 
when the people arrayed themselves against it, he did not oppose them. 
Also, when, ten years later, the Revolution began, he was in full sym- 
pathy with other patriots in North Carolina and was a friend of inde- 
pendence and separation. 


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Chronicles of the Cape Fear River 


the direction of Alderman DeRosset, who received from Hous- 
ton his commission and other papers, and necessarily it was a 
very orderly performance. The ringing huzzas, the patriotic 
toasts, the loud acclaim, echoing from the courthouse square, 
reverberated through the streets of the town, but Mr. Stewart 
is quite sure that no mischief was done, and not the least insult 
was offered to any person. These and other similar proceedings 
led the Governor to send out a circular letter to the principal in- 
habitants of the Cape Fear region, requesting their presence at 
a dinner at his residence at Brunswick on Tuesday, the 19th of 
November, three days after Dr. Houston resigned ; and after the 
dinner, he conferred with these gentlemen about the Stamp Act. 
He found them fully determined to annul the act and prevent 
its going into effect. He sought to persuade them, and begged 
them to let it be observed at least in part. He pleaded that if 
they would let the act go into partial operation in the respects he 
mentioned, he himself would pay for all the stamps necessary. 
It seems that he liked the people, and they liked and admired 
him, and difficult indeed was his position. He was charged with 
the execution of a law which he knew could not be executed, for 
there was not enough specie in the province to buy the necessary 
stamps, even if the law could be enforced ; but, then, the people 
were resolved against recognizing it in any degree. The au- 
thority of the King and of the Parliament was defied, and he, 
the representative of the British Government, was powerless in 
the face of this resolute defiance. While still maintaining dig- 
nity in his intercourse with the people, the Governor wrote to his 
superiors in London strongly urging the repeal of the law. A 
week later the stamps arrived in the sloop of war Diligence. 
They remained on the sloop and were not landed at that time. 

Now was there a lull ; but the quietude was not to remain 
unbroken. In January two merchant vessels arrived in the 
harbor, the Patience and the Dobbs. Their clearance papers 
were not stamped as the act required. The vessels were seized 
and detained while the lawfulness of their detention was re- 
ferred to Attorney General Robert Jones, then absent at his 
home on the Roanoke. But the leaders of the people were de- 
termined not to submit to an adverse decision. They held 
meetings and agreed on a plan of action.