The Carolinas - The Carolinas

The Carolinas

Sir Robert Heath (1575–1649) was an English judge and politician that was also a member of the English House of Commons from 1621 to 1625. Sir Robert Heath was granted charter over the lands 36 degrees north, to 31 degrees north from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Heath's patent required he plant a colony that was never fully realized.

The 1663 charter granted the Lords Proprietor title to all of the land from the southern border of the Colony of Virginia at 36 degrees north to 31 degrees north (along the coast of present-day Georgia). In 1665, the charter was revised slightly, with the northerly boundary extended to 36 degrees 30 minutes north to include the lands of the Albemarle Settlements along the Albemarle Sound who had left the Colony of Virginia. Likewise, the southern boundary was moved south to 29 degrees north, just south of present-day Daytona Beach, Florida, which had the effect of including the existing Spanish settlement at St. Augustine. The charter also granted all the land, between these northerly and southerly bounds, from the Atlantic Ocean, westward to the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

The Charter of 1663 chartered the territory as an English Proprietary colony assigning rights to eight English Noblemen. These noblemen are known as the Lords Proprietors of Carolina forming the Province of Carolina.

• George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–1670)
• Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674)
• John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton (1607–1678)
• William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1608–1697)
• Sir George Carteret (c.1610–1680)
• Sir William Berkeley (1606–1677)
• Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet (1608–1666)
• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–1683).

Between 1663 and 1729 there were many disagreements relating to defense, governance and the difference between the two differing agrarian styles employed by the inhabitants of the Colony of Virginia and that practiced by the planters arriving to Charles Town from the West Indies and Barbados.

In 1729 the Province of Carolina was divided when seven of the eight Lords Proprietor's descendants re-vested their shares in the Crown for compensation. Only the heirs of Sir George Carteret retained their original rights to what would become the Granville District. Both the Province of North Carolina and the Province of South Carolina became English Crown Colonies in 1729.

It is therefore correct to:

1. Use the term "The Carolinas" as a geographic area.
2. Use the term "The Carolinas" to mean South Carolina, or North Carolina, or both.
3. Use the term "The Carolinas" to describe a culture.