The

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, state government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

of October 1784 met in

New Bern New Bern, formerly Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. It had a population of 31,291 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is located at the confluence of the Neuse River, Neuse a ...

from October 25, 1784 to November 26, 1784. The assembly consisted of the 116 members of the

North Carolina House of Commons The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, Speaker of the House, who holds powers si ...

and 55 senators of

North Carolina Senate The North Carolina Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the North Carolina General Assembly, which along with the North Carolina House of Representatives—the lower chamber—comprises the state legislature of North Carolina. The Senate ...

elected by the voters on August 20, 1784. As prescribed by the 1776

Constitution of North Carolina The Constitution of the State of North Carolina governs the structure and function of the state government of North Carolina, one of the U.S. states; it is the highest legal document for the state and subjugates North Carolina law. (Like all U. ...

the General Assembly elected

Richard Caswell Richard Caswell (August 3, 1729November 10, 1789) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first and fifth governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780 and from 1785 to 1787. He also served as a senior officer ...

Governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Seventy-five people have held the office since the first state governor, Richard Caswell, took office in 1777. The governor serves a ...

and members of the Council of State.

Councilors of State

As prescribed by the 1776

, the General Assembly elected the governor and the following members of the

North Carolina Council of State The North Carolina Council of State is the collective body of ten elective executive offices in the government of North Carolina, state government of North Carolina, all of which are established by the Constitution of North Carolina, state co ...

: * Joseph Leech, Craven County (President) * James Kenan, Duplin County (President pro tempore) * Winston Caswell, Dobbs County (Clerk) * James Armstrong, Pitt County * John Hawks, Craven County *

Robert Burton Robert Burton (8 February 1577 – 25 January 1640) was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, known for his encyclopedic ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''. Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Burton a ...

, Granville County * Thomas Eaton, Warren County *

Abraham Sheppard Abraham Sheppard was a merchant-planter, sheriff, legislator, and officer during the American Revolutionary War from North Carolina. He lived in Dobbs County, North Carolina on a plantation called Contentnea. Civilian career Abraham's ancestor ...

, Dobbs County James Glasgow continued as

North Carolina Secretary of State The North Carolina Secretary of State is an elected state constitutional officer, constitutional officer in the executive branch of the government of North Carolina, government of the U.S. state of North Carolina, and is fourth in the Gubernator ...

(served 17771798). The assembly elected Memucan Hunt (served 17841787) as first statewide

North Carolina State Treasurer The North Carolina State Treasurer is a statewide elected office in the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina responsible for overseeing the financial operations of state government. The current state treasurer is Brad Briner. The office o ...

Alfred Moore Alfred Moore (May 21, 1755 – October 15, 1810) was an American judge, lawyer, planter and military officer who became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Moore Square, a park located in the Moore Square Histo ...

continued (served 17821791) as

North Carolina Attorney General The attorney general of North Carolina is a statewide elected office in the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. The attorney general is a state constitutional officer, constitutional officer responsible for representing state agencies i ...

Assembly membership

There were 55 counties in North Carolina in 1784. Each county was authorized to elect two representatives to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

and one delegate to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. In addition, the six districts were authorized one delegate each. (Sullivan, Washington, Davidson, and Green counties would later become part of Tennessee in 1796.) Richard Caswell was elected Governor of North Carolina by this General Assembly but did not take the governor's office until 1785. According to a book by the Secretary of State edited by Cheney and published in 1974, this assembly had a second session that concluded in June 1784.

House of Commons members

The House of Commons delegates elected a Speaker (William Blount), Clerk (John Hunt), Assistant Clerk (John Haywood), Doorkeeper, and Assistant Doorkeeper. The following delegates to the House of Commons were elected by the voters of North Carolina to represent each county and district:

Senate members

The Senators elected a President/Speaker (Richard Caswell, Sr.), Clerk (John Haywood), Assistant Clerk (Sherwood Haywood), Doorkeeper, and Assistant Doorkeeper. The following Senators were elected by the voters of North Carolina to represent each county:

Legislation

This assembly approved an act to require county courts to conduct a census of white and black residents. Other acts concerned the following: * public taxes * taxes on imports * sale of confiscated property * regulation of superior courts, * real estate * sales of slaves * appointment of county commissioners * building public roads, ferries, and bridges * providing for the safe keeping of the estates of idiots and lunatics * repealing the act from the previous assembling concerning sale of western lands to the U.S. Congress, * accurate accounting of war service for pensioners * fraudulent claims for western lands * prohibiting loyalists from holding public office and establishing an oath for those taking public office * prohibiting paid public servants from holding office in the assembly * establishing a court for dealing with foreign mercantile transactions and transient persons and maritime affairs * prevention of horse stealing * regulating county court of pleas and quarter sessions * amending the act of the April 1784 assembly dealing with when the assembly would meet * changing the start date of the assembly from the first Monday in October to the first Monday in November * creation of the District of Morgan, which would include Burke, Lincoln, Rutherford and Wilkes Counties * creation of the District of Washington, which would include Washington, Sullivan, Greene, and Davidson Counties * encouraging learning in Salisbury District, which dealt with the former Liberty Hall academy, which was renamed Salisbury Academy in Rowan County * levying a tax in Salisbury and Hillsborough Districts to repair district buildings * building a

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cri ...

in Wilmington * establishing principal streets in Fayetteville * inspecting tobacco in Hillsborough * disposition of the estate of Simon Cleary * establishing a town in Jones County * establishing the town of Morgan * creating a local tax in Warren and Franklin counties for building public buildings * changing taxes in New Bern District * empowering Wayne County to establish a tax to pay for public buildings * empowering Bladen County commissioners to purchase land for public buildings * changing the location of public buildings in Mecklenburg County from Charlotte to a more central location * clearing and opening the Tar River and Fishing Creek * empowering commissioners in Northampton County to repair public buildings * extending the dividing line between Tyrrell and Hyde counties * several acts dealing with the estates of individuals For additional details of the legislation of this assembly, se
Legislative Documents

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:North Carolina General Assembly of 1784 October 1784 October

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

1784 October 1784 October