Original Owners of the Carolina Colony: The Eight Lords Proprietors (1663)

King Charles II granted the Carolina charter (1663) to eight Lords Proprietors — political allies who helped restore the Stuart monarchy.

The Eight Lords Proprietors

1. Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury — Chief architect; philosopher John Locke's patron
2. Sir George Carteret — Royalist governor of Jersey; Carolina's namesake (Carteret County, NC)
3. William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven — Soldier, courtier, investor in Royal African Company
4. John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton — Co-founder New Jersey; Royal African Company
5. Maurice Berkeley, 3rd Viscount Fitzhardinge — Courtier, Irish landowner
6. Sir William Berkeley — Governor of Virginia (1642–52, 1660–77); brutal suppressor of Bacon's Rebellion
7. James Stuart, Duke of York — Future King James II; Royal African Company governor
8. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon — Lord Chancellor; historian of the Civil War

Governance & Development

• 1663–1712: Proprietary colony. Proprietors appointed governors, granted land, established courts, collected quitrents.
• Fundamental Constitutions (1669): Locke-drafted feudal model — never fully implemented.
• Settlement: Charles Town (1670) — first permanent. Northern (Albemarle) and southern districts developed separately.

Transition to Royal Colony

• Proprietors failed to defend against Spanish/French/Native attacks (Yamasee War 1715)
• Colonists resisted proprietary authority, quitrents, land policies
• 1712: North Carolina separated administratively
• 1719: South Carolina revolution — colonists overthrow proprietary government
• 1729: Crown buys out 7 proprietors (Carteret heir retains 1/8 — Granville District)
• Both become royal colonies with royal governors

Legacy

Proprietary names persist: Craven, Carteret, Berkeley, Hyde, Clarendon counties (NC/SC); Ashley, Cooper rivers (SC); Shaftesbury (UK street names). The grant shaped the Deep South's political economy — plantation slavery, rice culture, aristocratic governance.