The hoarder who helmed our state

It was 250 years ago this week that delegates from 35 North Carolina counties and nine towns convened in Hillsborough for the Third Provincial Congress. Their task was urgent: to set up a new government for a province in rebellion. Fortunately, they had a talented leader in Samuel Johnston, a Scottish immigrant and lawyer living in Chowan County.

In April 1775 — just days before the Revolutionary War broke out at Lexington and Concord — North Carolina’s royal governor, Josiah Martin, disbanded the colonial legislature, of which Johnston was a member. A month later, Martin fled the provincial capital of New Bern for the safety of a British warship. Over the course of the summer, communities across North Carolina formed committees of safety, issued angry condemnations of British tyranny, and elected delegates to a new congress.

Upon convening in Hillsborough on Aug. 20, 1775, the delegates immediately selected Samuel Johnston as president. Over the next three weeks, he skillfully guided their deliberations. They divided North Carolina into six military districts, selected militia officers, and authorized two regiments of regular soldiers. They also formed a Provincial Council to govern North Carolina during the crisis. Johnston was one of its 13 members.

Keep in mind that these events were unfolding in the summer of 1775. No one knew what would happen next. Neither the Continental Congress in Philadelphia nor the Provincial Congress in Hillsborough had yet broken fully with Great Britain. Many Americans hoped to persuade King George III to intervene in their favor, overturning the illegal actions of Parliament and restoring self-government to the colonies.

It was not to be.

Even as North Carolina delegates were meeting in Hillsborough, King George issued a “Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition” on Aug. 23, 1775. It commanded British forces and American loyalists to “use their utmost endeavours to withstand and suppress such rebellion.”

After concluding their work in Hillsborough, Samuel Johnston and the other delegates returned home to win the now-official war. Johnston did not take up arms himself. He focused on helping North Carolina’s fledgling government take flight.

On April 4, 1776, Johnston called another Provincial Congress, this time in Halifax. It was the body that issued the famous “Halifax Resolves” instructing North Carolina’s representatives in Philadelphia to support independence. Later, Johnston represented his state in the Continental Congress and was elected governor of North Carolina in 1787.

The following year, Gov. Johnston called a convention in Hillsborough to ratify the new United States Constitution. To his surprise and dismay, the delegates declined to do so. That’s why North Carolina didn’t participate in the fall election that made George Washington the first president of our constitutional republic. Johnston tried again in 1789 with a convention in Fayetteville. Assured a Bill of Rights would soon be attached to the Constitution, delegates made North Carolina the 12th state to join the union.

Johnston promptly resigned as governor and secured election by the legislature as one of North Carolina’s first US senators. His final public office was Superior Court judge.

It was not, however, Samuel Johnston’s final public service. It turns out that he was a bit of a hoarder. In 1983, the owner of Johnston’s former home, Hayes Plantation, discovered an original copy of the Declaration of Independence on the property. It was sold to benefactors of Williams College, a liberal arts institution in Massachusetts, for the 2025 equivalent of $1.3 million.

Incredibly, that wasn’t the most valuable find. In 2022, as the owners were preparing the property to be conveyed to the state for a historic site, they opened an old filing cabinet and discovered one of the original copies of the US Constitution. It later sold for $9 million.

Want to learn more about the Third Provincial Congress? You’re in luck. There will be a reenactment of this pivotal event on Sept. 6, 2025, at the Historic Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough. Perhaps you’ll find a copy of Magna Carta under the floorboards!

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy and American history.

“The hoarder who helmed our state” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.