The Bulletin
A PUBLICATlON OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY or THE LOWER CAPE FEAR
Volume LX
N9
-
An
May 2016
Wilmington, North Carolina
1
Inquiry
into the Prominence of Tea in
Colonial New Hanover County
By Alan
D. Watson
exquisite potable that constituted the nonalcoholic beverage of choice of eighteenth century
English colonials in America, tea informed social lives,
served as a medicinal, and became a catalyst for
For many, tea
the decision for independence.
Tea
evokes thoughts of the Boston
Party and the
a
American Revolution. Indeed,
Parliamentary—imposed tax in 1767 on the colonial importation of tea
and the subsequent Tea Act of T773, which retained
the tax and conferred a monopoly on the sale of tea
in America to the British East India Company, precipitated a train of events that led to the separation of
the colonies from their mother country. Residents of
New Hanover County and the Lower Cape Fear reacted vigorously to punitive British policies, eventually
spearheading the revolutionary movement in North
Carolina. The socio—poiitical importance of tea thus
raises the question of the prominence of the tea»
drinking culture in New Hanover County.
While English colonial Americans consumed
prodigious quantities of alcoholic drinks, led by beer,
wine, rum, punch and toddy, but including many oth»
An
advent of the American Revolution tea
represented the preferred nonalcoholic drink in the
ers, of the
provinces Long known in the Orient before being
introduced into Europe in the early seventeenth century, tea was accompanied by two other non-alcoholic beverages
chocolate from the Americas and
coffee from Africa and the Near East. The three evi—
—
exploration and trade undertaken by
English and other Europeans in the course of the
denced the
the
Commercial Revolution and the establishment of
global commerce in the early modern era.
a
and
—
morphed into a fashionable drink, a status symbol,
taking its place in European, then American, house—
holds with other exotic reminders Of the Orient such
porcelains, silks and painted wallpaper. Yet, “More
as
than any other item, tea become the signature of a
new polite society" in the colonies, according to historian
H. Breen.
Timothy
I
The initial scarcity of
tea, its high price, and
the cost of the equip-
required for a
welledppointed tea to—
ment
ble at first restricted the
drink to members Of the
upper class who had
the wealth and time to
afford the luxury. However, the practice, if
"English
Family of Tea,"
Joseph Van Aken, l725
not the habit, of drink-
ing tea apparently
spread more generally
through all social strata of the colonial populace in
the course of the eighteenth century, and permeated the interior or backcountry as Americans emulated the English in what proved to be a an ongoing
trend toward the Anglicanization of colonial life dure
ing the decades before the Revolution. Travelers noted a passion for the drink in the morning, afternoon
and evening. The Parliamentary imposition and con—
South Carolinian to
too well know the Effect of
tinuation of the tea tax led
claim in i774, “The
a
Ministry
It is Tea that has kept all America tremlong Habit.
bling for Years. It is Tea that has brought Vengeance
continuously, prized for its pre—
to Boston.
surmounted challenges to
its popularity posed by chocolate and coffee.
Though initially,
—
soon
By the late seventeenth century tea reached
America. The brew
sumed therapeutic powers
“good for colds, drop—
sies and scurvies" as well as for "agues, surteits and
and appreciated as a mild stimulant, tea
fevers"
.
,
.
.
.2
.
2
Bulletin
—
At
thatjuncture, sipping tea had long been a so—
only required appropriate manners
and appurtenances but brought women and men together in circumstances in which the former were expected to preside over the ceremony in an otherwise
male—dominated society. 3 The tea arrived in America
in wooden chests. For retail, it was packed in canisters.
cial ritual that not
In the home
a
canister
or
the loose tea rested in
a
tea
er,
wife of Thomas who lived in England at the time:
Jean Blair, widow of
merchant: and
Jones, the latter
and
a
an
endorser of lredell‘s law license
significant contributor to the composition of
North Carolina's state constitution of 1776. On
casion lredell
Edenton.
caddy. Tea equipage included tables,
popular being circular mahogany or walnut
tea
tripods,
trays or tea boards of various sizes and
tea
kettles and tea sets comprising a pot, conshapes,
tainers for sugar and cream or milk, slop bowl and
cups and saucers, Teaspoons, boats or trays in which
to put the spoons, tongs for placing lumps of sugar in
the teacup and skimmers or strainers (sometimes
punch strainers) to catch the leaves or residue completed the apparatus. A
The popularity of tea proves difficult to assess in colonial New Hanover County and, indeed, North Carolina in general. Visitors to the province, at least those
who left descriptions of social customs, were few, as
opposed to the more numerous observers of lifestyles
found
in the middle and northern colonies, and Carolinians
Hanover
chest, box,
George, formerly a prominent
lawyers Jasper Charlton and Thomas
perforce had tea alone
in his
one oc-
lodgings
in
7
or
the most
left little information about their
cords of the Moravians
or
dietary habits. The
Unitas Fratrum
are
re-
wonder-
fully explicit for many aspects of everyday living in the
backcountry of North Carolina but contain minimal
references to tea, including that offered on one occasion to a county sheriff and a justice of the peace, local dignitaries who visited the town of Bethabara in
1756. Clearly tea was available but used sparingly by
the Moravions, perhaps mainly for ceremonial occasions.
5
Throughout the colony, taverns, often termed ordi—
naries, sometimes offered tea in conjunction with
breakfast and supper. Among the most ubiquitous
and best regulated businesses in early America, the
ordinaries offered rest and refreshment for the traveler
opportunity for socializing, transacting busi—
picking up the mail and talking politics for those
living in its vicinity. Alcoholic drinks were the order of
the day, the prices of which were determined by the
appropriate county court. However, tea also do
peared among the rated potables in Bertie County
(1761), Bute (now Warren and Franklin, 1770, 1771,
1772), Carteret (1741, 1747, 1755), Chowan (1765).
Mecklenburg (1775), Rowan (177i) and Wake (1771),
evidence of the popularity of the drink throughout the
province. 6
Perhaps the best indication of the enjoyment of tea
derives from the diary kept by young James lredell,
future lawyer, revolutionary and member of the United
States Supreme Court, who lived and worked in Edenand
an
ness,
ton in the
early 17705
as a
British customs official. His
private account, dated 1770 and 1772-1773, reveals
an active social set in one of North Carolina's oldest
towns. lredell
periodically
took tea with Penelope Bark-
James lredell, 5r.
(October 5,
1799)
was a successful lawyer,
political essayist. leader in
the struggle for American
independence, and meme
1751
—
October 20,
ber of the first United States
Supreme Court.
However, it is doubtful that lredell would have
comparable hospitality in Wilmington in New
County, for Edenton had been long settled
and once was the informal capital of the colony. The
concentration of wealth in the form of landed estates
slaveholdings in the Lower Cape Fear might lead
expectation of a leisured, cultured elite in the
region. Yet, as noted by historian Bradford J. Wood,
the area was a “remote part of the world“ before the
American Revolution, having only been settled for two
generations before independence by men burdened
with carving a living from an often inhospitable wilder»
ness. Moreover, the populace was continuously augmented by newcomers seeking to improve their
circumstances. No long established elite as found in
Virginia or even in Edenton in the Albemarle graced
the social landscape of the Lower Cape Fear. Remarked Peter DuBois, a visitor to Wilmington in 1757, "I
8
Live Very much Retired for want of a Social Set.
In an effort to determine the poputarity of tea in
and
to the
.
.
New Hanover County, established in 1729, this essay
a sampling of 59 inventories of estates through
utilizes
and considers those that contained three
1775,
9
more
of the
following
utensils
or
or
articles of furniture
as
to have contained tea
representing households likely
drinkers: tea kettle, teapot, teacups and saucers, tea»
spoons, tongs, strainers, canisters, tea chests, tea
boards and tea tables Given that benchmark, 33 of
or 56 percent, may have taken tea
Most, however, possessed minimal equipment for drinking tea. Only fourteen households re—
the 59 families,
regularly.
corded
to
tongs; five,
strainers
(five owned both): only
twelve households contained canisters; seven, tea
(three owned both). And furniture for a more
presentation also appeared limited. Of the four
families that possessed tea boards and the twelve that
claimed tea tables, only two owned both.
chests
formal
Volume LX, No. l
sample of decedents in New Hanover
limited
as it is, suggests that the enjoyment of
County,
Thus this
tea
was
restricted and
even more so
for formal social
possessed the necessary
gatherings.
and
to
furniture
stage a full display of the
equipment
ritual tea service. Exceptions may have included John
Few families
and Mary Porter who must have entertained
often in order to justify their two tea boxes, seven tea»
H745)
,
pots, several china cups and saucers, thirteen silver
teaspoons, two silver strainers, tongs and two tea
boards. William Faris (T757) and Thomas Grange (i774)
boasted tea chests, tea boards and tea tables. Faris
also owned silver tea spoons and tongs: Grange.
—
3
rick), a teapot and “Articles belonging to it“ (Adam
Rogers) and a kettle, cups and saucers and "some
other Necessaries for Drinking Tea” (Solomon DeBow).
Significantly, eleven of the twenty»six references appear at the end of the colonial era, between l77l
and l775, an indication perhaps of increasing prosperity and integration into Atlantic society. Yet, none of
Orange County contained tea
chests, boards,
tables, whereby presumably formal
the
tea
service
rituals of
might have been observed. )3
Whether along the coast or, to a lesser extent, in
the backcountry, colonials continued to import tea,
despite the tax that had been laid on the item by the
the households in
or
succession of events
(probably pewter) spoons, tongs and shovel
(for sugar).
Not surprisingly, Porter and Faris represented the
upper strata in Cape Fear society. Porter, owner of a
plantation at Rocky Point, was one of the wealthiest
men in the region. Paris, a merchant, served as a ves»
tryman in St. James Anglican Church, a commissioner
for the town of Wilmington and legislator. Though little
is known about Grange, who apparently arrived in
Wilmington just before his death in 1774, other dece—
Townshend Act in 1767. Then
dents who claimed several items of tea
not suffer East lndia Tea to be used in Our Families” af-
“metal"
ware were
that
a
in 1773 with the Tea Act, the Boston Tea
began
Party [and many other similar demonstrations along
the coast), and vindictive Parliamentary legislation,
led to the meeting of the First Continental Congress in
September 1774 to consider retaliatory measures
against Great Britain. Prior to the convening of the
Continental Congress, a North Carolina provincial
congress in August 1774, a meeting in New Bern initiated by efforts of Wilmingtonians, declared that “we will
county, including Ben- ter September to, “and that we will consider all per—
sons in the province not complying with the resolve to
Eustace
Dr.
John
Morrison
(1769) and
jamin
(1760),
be enemies of their Country.“ M
owned
four
Heron
The
last
plantaBenjamin
(l 770).
served
on
the
numerous
offices,
tions, occupied
public
III.
royal council and constructed the first known drawH
bridge in the American colonies.
Wealth, in fact, often portended a propensity to
enjoy tea, given the expense of the appropriate ac—
XLI’V.
C A P.
coutrements needed for the occasion. Royal governor
anbnck at" the Duties
An A8 to allow
Arthur Dobbs, who resided in New Hanover (then
among the
more
affluent in the
Rogis.
Georgii
a
Brunswick after its creation from New Hanover and
Bladen in l764) County, must have savored his tea
and certainly with his young. fifteenryear old wife Justina Davis after their marriage in the early l7éos. His two
tea kettles
(one
small and
one
large),
five
teapots
(one silver chased, two copper plated and two chi—
na), four tea boards (one large and three small), one
scalloped mahogany tea table, three tea chests (one
shagreen with two silver canisters and two mahoga—
ny), two dozen china cups and saucers, one dozen
silver tea spoons, one pair of silver tea tongs and two
silver tea strainers offered the opportunity to impress
visitors royally or to sip a cup in genteel privacy at Rus—
sellborough, his fine home located just north of Brunswick Town.
'2
By comparison, the more recently settled backcountry, composed mainly of small farmers. featured
fewer wealthy, leisured families who had the means,
time, or cultural background to enjoy tea. In Orange
County, whose seat was Hillsborough, a series of l27
inventories of estates produced twenty—six households,
or twenty percent of the total, in which tea was probably consumed. Telltale references beyond the usual
tea ware include ”some tea dishes” (Joseph Kilpat-
of Outlaws
any of "is
in
America;
Ta
:0
and
to
on
the
Majcfiy's
to
be fold
Expnnation
Colonics
haunt} 1h:
a:
[he [n.lxl:
or
of Tc:
(0
Plantations
Dcpofit on
C'Mfmiy's
Bohca
ales
;
Empower the Cummiffiuncrs of the
Trail"? to grant Licerucs no (he Ea]?
lndia Comp“; m :xpnrr Tm
Durysfrzc.
mmpmved by
the British Parliament
on
May )0, 1773
For its part the Continental Congress adopted
a
non—importation, non—exportation, non—consumption
agreement by which the colonials agreed to cease
trading with Great Britain, including the importation of
East India Company tea, and to forgo the use of that
tea among other articles in order to secure the repeal
of objectionable Parliamentary legislation, and to ob»
tain recognition of colonial rights. The congress autho—
rized the creation of committees of safety in towns
and counties to enforce its dictates and publicize vio—
lations. Upon the organization of the Wilmington (later
Wilmington»New Hanover) Committee of Safety on
November 23, 1774, its first action was to inquire about
the recent arrival in the Cape Fear of the brig Sally
whose cargo included tea.
)5
4
Bulletin
—
Admittedly,
the committee of
resistance, but, in
safety
encountered
and elsewhere, ostra—
Wilmington
appeal to patriotism began to
desired effect. According to a corre»
cism, intimidation and
achieve their
spondent to the South-Carolina Gazette in early 1775,
0 Wilmington merchant had thrown half of a chest of
fed into the Cape Fear River rather than keep in his
store “an article that has occasioned such mischief to
the Colonies,” and
unload from
a
merchant in Brunswick refused to
the
tea that had
ship, perhaps
Sally,
consigned to him. For good measure, tea in the
stores of Wilmington and Brunswick Town was “locked
up,” never to be offered "for sale [until] American
measures [were] changed” by Parliament.)6
As observed by historian Timothy H. Breen, the importation of tea and ever greater quantities of other
British goods reflected a consumer revolution that occurred throughout the colonies in the course of the
eighteenth century and encompassed backcountry
as well as coastal residents. Ironically, that demand for
foreign articles of trade helped to fuel the spirit of a
political revolution against Great Britain. According to
Breen, the colonials' common experience as consum—
ers from New England to the South allowed them to
unite by way of boycotts or non-importation agree—
ments to protest British policies. In effect, "Commercial
rituals of shared sacrifice provided a means to educate and energize a dispersed populace."t7
The abjuration of tea not only offers support for
a
been
Breen's thesis, but afforded
women
with
a means
to
demonstrate their patriotism, given, it seems, their pre»
dilection for the drink and their control of the domestic
proceedings in colonial households. Referring to
tea, a writer in South Carolina would not believe that
tea
the ladies
try,
the
“so divested of all Love to your Coun-
to be
.
Children."
fifty
were
willing to partake of any trivial Pleasure at
of your Husbands and
Expence of the Liberties
as
18
women
.
.
That sentiment was not lost upon some
in Edenton, North Carolina, in October
1774, in an event known as the
Edenton Tea Party. Led by Pe—
nelope Barker, with whom
women
of the town “have burnt their
solemn
procession," She added, however, reflecting her disparagement of the American cause.
they waited “till the sacrifice was not very consider—
able, as I do not think anyone offered above a quarter of a pound." Although the exact date of the
Wilmington affair is indeterminate, in correspondence
to the South-Carolina Gazette, dated March 22, a
Wilmingtonian wrote that the women of the town had
“entirely declined the use of Tea," and he claimed
that “Such a sacrifice by the fair Sex, should inspire
ours with that firmness and public virtue, so necessary
to preserve those privileges, [injdispulably our rights, as
20
British subjects.
Opposition to tea may
"t
.
.
veua~ooo~toe§¢mA¢Mflg
j
o L' R N A L
o
a.wunod
r
LADY OF
ax
Bu'ng
\
QL‘ALITV;
354497.:an
1mm
of:
r-m
“sun.
.
:
.
9
x" Hms- Yak l'mrehrr Pm mu
1.... up, w-uutmumym
A:
Was—"Muuumu
Burnal
.nou .
manuw.»
!i
to
-
fiyuo vn
Janetgchawi
of
have characterized the
ban areas ot
Later in 1775, at her
Wilmington,
loyalist like her
Wilmington
and
Brunswick Town, but the brew
remained available in the
private settings of rural
After sojourning for a
more
areas.
month in Brunswick Town,
Schaw visited Joseph Eagles‘
plantation, “The Forks“ in
Brunswick County, where she
found "the Tea-table set
forth, and for the first time
since
had
very
of
ur—
our
a
arrival in America
dish of Tea.” She add—
ed, ”we passed the evening
{17317 7801)
agreeably.
.
.
plantation, Chinese Temple, north
(Bridgen) DeRosset,
Elizabeth Catherine
husband Dr. Armand John DeRosset,
resorted to tea after she became ill, thinking that it
She did,
help her to ”recover much sooner.
however, obtain the consent of the Wilmington—New
would
.
Hanover
.
Safety Committee, which approved in
con»
sideration of her "age and infirmities.“ 21
Thus tea proved a desideratum, if not a necessity,
for colonials in New Hanover County. More than half
the families in the
county may have partaken of the
indication of the breadth of its appeal. But
James lredell had earlier
sipping
a
means
of
an
dish of tea may have been beyond the
substantial number of the people, belying
the assertion of Breen that tea became the linchpin of
a
first
“the normal fabric of social relations" in colonial Amer»
was
Moreover, if, as it appears, many lacked ready
to the beverage in New Hanover County,
which featured an increasingly wealthy populace and
their
ble to
“duty" to do all possi—
support the "publick
79
good.”
Although the Edenton women failed to mention
tea specifically, giving rise to the misnomer of the oc~
casion, Wilmington ladies, in fact, fully embraced the
term by holding their own "tea party" the next year.
a
that the
a
shared tea, they declared their
"sincere adherence” to the
provincial congress, which
had renounced East India
Company tea and claimed it
Janet Schaw,
tea in
drink,
resolutions of North Carolina's
Penelope Barker, leader of
the Edenton Tea Party
journal
Scotswoman who visited the Lower
Cape Fear and Wilmington in 1775, recorded
in her
fed.
22
access
port of Wilmington through which tea might be
imported, residents living in the interior of the colony
may not have found tea a necessity, much less a luxu—
ry, as indicated by the Orange County records. Yet,
the drink undeniably possessed enormous symbolic
appeal as suggested by tea parties from Boston to the
Wilmington affair and its social as well as political importance remains undeniable.
the
Volume LX, No. l
—
5
Sources
1. Rodris Roth, “TeaADrinking in EighteentheCentury America: Its Etiquette and Equipage," Material Life in America. 1600-1860. ed.
by Robert Blair St. George (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), 440 (first and second quotations): Timothy H. Breen, The
Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 171
(third quotation).
2. Roth, “TeaeDrinking in EighteenthCentury America," 440-442, 447; Carole Shammas, "The Domestic Environment in Early Modern England and America," Journal otSocial History, 14 (198071981): 14: Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, 177. 304: South-Carolina Gazette; And Country Journal (Charles Town, S. C.), August 2, 1774 (quotation).
3. For the association of the ritual serving of tea (and coffee), mainly directed by women, and the rising sense of domesticity in
the eighteenth century see Shammas, "The Domestic Environment in Early Modern England and America,” 3—24: Gloria L. Main
and Jackson T. Main, “Economic Growth and the Standard in Southern New England, 16401774,” Journal ofEconomic Histonl, 48
(1988): 27-46.
4. Breen, Marketplace ofRevolution, 177: Roth, "Tea‘Drinking in Eighteenth-Century America,” 4477457.
5. Adelaide L. Fries et 01., Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, 13 vols. to date (Raleigh: State Department of Archives and
History, 1922 J, I: 166. 168.
6. Minutes of the County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Bertie County, October 1761; Bute County, May 1770, May 1771.
May 1772: Carteret County, June 1741; September 1747; December 1755: October 1761: Chowan County, January 1765: Meck»
Ienburg County, April 1775; Rowan County, August 1771: Wake County, June 1771, microfilm, North Carolina Office of Archives
and History, Raleigh, N, C.
7, Don Higginbotham, ed., The Papers ofJames Iredell, 2 vols. (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural
Resources, 1976), 1: 173, 184, 187, 189,191, 192, 193, 195, 199,208, 214.
8. Bradford J. Wood, This Remote Part of the World: Regional Formation in Lower Cape Fear. North Carolina, 1725-1775 (Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 2004), passim: Peter DuBois to Samuel Johnston, Jr.. March 5, 1757, Hayes Papers, Southern His»
torical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.
9. New Hanover County, Estate Records. 1741-1939, microfilm, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, unpaginated and
referenced by year, to which was added the inventory of Cornelius Harnett [I]. Inventory, Cornelius Harnett, May 20, 1746. type,
script, Cornelius Harnett Papers, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Excluded from the study were probate records that
were incomplete, contained vague as opposed to specific references to household goods, and represented nonehouseholders
such as Captain James McDonough (1760), a seafaring man who died while sojourning in the port of Wilmington.
10. Exceptions included Samuel Poitevant (1742), John Watson (1773-1774) and John Herring (1774), who owned teapots, cups
and saucers and who surely could have obtained hot water from a source other than a tea kettle. By way of contrast, seventeen
decedents owned coffee pots, eleven owned coffee mills and seven owned both. Chocolate appeared sparingly.
11. Wood, This Remote Part of the World, 70—71 (Porter), 2047207 (Heron): Donald R. Lennon and Ida B. Kellam, eds., The Wilmington Town Book, 1743-1778 (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 1973), 3 n. 6
(Paris); 80 n. 88 (Heron). In addition to his tea apparatus Porter owned two coffee pots, two coffee mills, two copper chocolate
pots and one chocolate grater.
12. J. Bn/an Grimes, comp., North Carolina Wills and Inventories Copied from the Original and Recorded Wills and Inventories in
the Office of the Secretary ofstate (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, 1912), 484486: Dictionary of North Carolina
Biography, 5. v. “Davis, Justina": Stanley A. South. “'Russellborough': Two Royal Governors“ Mansion at Brunswick Town," North Car—
olina Historical Review, 44 (Autumn 1967): 360—372.
13. Orange County Inventories, Sales and Accounts of Estates, 1758-1785, 22, 24 (Kilpatrick, 1759); 195 (Rogers, 1767): 213 (DeBow,
1768), microfilm, North Carolina Office of Archives and History. Robert Burton (1775) left a chest but one that contained flatware,
actually a half dozen silver spoons, rather than tea. Ibid., 308.
14. Benjamin Woods Labaree, The Boston Tea Party (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1964), 331; Leora H. McEachern and Isa—
bel M. Williams, eds, Wilmington—New Hanover Safety Committee Minutes, 1774—1776 (Wilmington: Wilmington-New Hanover
County American Revolution Bi-centennial Association, 1974), 42, 44, 48; William L. Saunders, ed., The Colonial Records of North
Carolina, 10 vols. (Raleigh13fate of North Carolina, 1886-1890), 9: 104571046 (quotation).
15. McEachern and Williams, Wilmington-New Hanover Safety Committee Minutes. 1-2, 110.
16. South-Carolina Gazette (Charles Town), April 3, 1775. A half chest of tea approximated 180 pounds. Labaree, Boston Tea Party, 8.
17. Breen, Marketplace of Revolution, xvi (quotation). Tea in turn sustained a market for related items such as pots. china cups
-
and
saucers
and furniture.
(quotation). As noted by David w. Conroy, tea was a relatively
etiquette, and rituals were associated mainly with women. Dae
Authority in Colonial Massachusetts (Chapel Hill and London: Universi»
18. South—Carolina Gazette; And Country Journal, August 2, 1774
safe article to boycott because it was a luxury whose equipage,
vid w.
ty
Conroy,
In Public Houses: Drink & the
of North Carolina Press,
Revolutionan/ of
262.
1995),
Mary Beth Norton, Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 (Boston, Toronto: Little.
Brown and Company, 1980), 161 (quotations); Shammas, “The Domestic Environment in Early Modern England and America,” 1516: Higginbotham, Papers of James Iredell, 1: 285-286 n.; “Edenton Tea Party,” in William S. Powell, ed, Encyclopedia ofNorth Car~
olina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 372: Vernon O. Stumpf, “The Radical Ladies of Wilmington and Their Tea
Party," Lower Cape Fear Historical Society Bulletin, 16 (February 1973).
20. Janet Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Quality.
1774—1776, ed. by Evangeline Walker Andrews and Charles McLean Andrews
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921), 155 (first quotation): South-Carolina Gazette, April 3, 1775 (second quotation). Stumpf
places the date of the Wilmington event between March 23 and April 5, 1775. Stumpt, “Radical Ladies of Wilmington and Their
Tea Party."
21. Schaw, Journal of a Lady of Quality, 147 (first quotation): “Letters and Documents Relating to the Early History of the Lower
Cape Fear,” James SpruntHistoricalMonograph, No. 4 (Chapel Hill: Published by the University, 1903), 24, 28 (second and third
quotation): Lennon and Kellam, Wilmington Town Book, 273 n. 5, 121 n. 119.
19.
.
,
,
in I956 as a nonThe Lower Cape Fear Historical Society was founded
and presewe repoiitical, non-profit SOT (c) (3) corporation to collect
information
and
disseminate
Knowledge
cords and materials and
pertaining
to the
history of the
Lower
Cape
Fear.
PRESIDENT Tom Crittenden
VICE PRESIDENT
Marjorie Way
SECRETARY Gloria Degnan
TREASURER Joe Whitted
PAST PRESIDENT John Golden
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY Suzanne Burns-Smith
DIRECTORS
John Debnam, Kemilie S Moore, Gerald Parnell,
Marti Rice, Diane Thomas
STAFF
Carol Bragale, Lindy Cummings
manuscripts for reviews Articles should contain researched primary source material of Lower Cape Fear inter—
which
est. Our thanks to all who read and critiqued this piece
aided in the production of this Bulletins
The Bulletin welcomes
"A Society of Patriotic Laoies at Edenton in Nonhi
Carolina", satirizes the Edenton Tea Party, a group
a boycott of English tea.
women who
organized
of
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