The Albemarle chapter was chartered in October 2007, and we are actively seeking qualified new members. We meet on the third Thursday of the months of September thru November and January thru June at the 252 Grill, 100 Berry St, Hertford, NC 27944 with meetings beginning at 6:30 pm. Interested people are cordially invited to attend (an RSVP is requested). If you would like to join the Albemarle chapter, please contact our chapter president, Chris Grimes, at . Feel free to contact any of the officers listed on our “Officers” section if you have any questions or would like more information. Download Our Chapter Bylaws
John Harvey of Perquimans County
John Harvey, a resident of Perquimans County served as Speaker of the Province of North Carolina House of Burgesses from 1766 through 1769 and from 1773 through 1775.
While still serving as Speaker, Harvey served as moderator, or president, of the first and second North Carolina Provincial Congresses (1774 and 1775). The first congress, for which Harvey had distributed handbills urging people to elect delegates, was supposedly “the first popular assembly anywhere in America, called by the people and held in the presence of the king’s officers, in direct disobedience to British authority.” At the first congress, he represented Onslow County, while at the second, he was a delegate from Perquimans County, where he actually lived. He died sometime between May 3, 1775.
Harvey first adopted the cause of resistance to the tyrannies of the British Crown after the the British government imposed new taxes on the American colonies under the Townshend Acts. Historian R. D. W. Connor called Harvey the Father of the American Revolution in North Carolina
Samuel Johnston of Edenton, NC
Samuel Johnston was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1733 and settled in NC in 1736. In 1754 he moved to Chowan Co. and established his home, Hayes Plantation, there. An early supporter of independence, he served on the Colonial Assembly’s Committee of Correspondence beginning in 1773 and was elected to the first four Provincial Congresses, presiding over the third in 1775 (Hillsborough) and the fourth in 1776 (Halifax),
the latter of which produced the Halifax Resolves, the first official call for independence from any of the thirteen colonies.
He also served as the Colonial Treasurer, District Paymaster of Troops (1775), State Senator (1779, 1783 & 1784) and a Delegate from NC to the Continental Congresses of 1780 and 1781. He was elected the first “President of the United States in Congress Assembled” on July 10, 1781, under the Articles of Confederation, but declined the office due to health and financial reasons. After the Revolution, he served as Governor of NC from 1787-1789 and presided over the 1788 and 1789 State Constitutional Conventions. He was an active and respected Freemason, as well, serving as Grand Master of Masons in North Carolina (the first) 1787-1788 and 1789-1792. He died on August 17, 1816 and was buried at his home, Hayes Plantation.
The Albemarle Chapter sponsored a commemoration of the life and accomplishments of Samuel Johnston at his gravesite on Sat., December 13, 2008.