William Churton
Encyclopedia
William Churton was an early North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 surveyor.

He moved to Great Britain's North American colonies in about 1749 as a surveyor and cartographer for the Granville District
Granville District
The Granville District was a 60-mile wide strip of land in the North Carolina colony adjoining the boundary with Virginia, lying between north latitudes 35° 34' and 36° 30'....

 which included all of North Carolina north of the 35 degree, 34 minute parallel, a strip 60 miles (96.6 km) wide. This line had only been surveyed as far west as the Haw River
Haw River
The Haw River is a tributary of the Cape Fear River, approximately 110 mi long, that is entirely contained in north central North Carolina in the United States...

 at that time. The northern boundary, the Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 line, had been run as far west as the Blue Ridge
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...

 in present-day Stokes County by 1729. At that date, the entire area was still a part of Bertie County and extended west to the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

, the claims of the Spanish and French notwithstanding.

In 1749, William Churton, and Crown lawyer Daniel Weldon, representing the interests of Lord Granville
John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville
John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, 7th Seigneur of Sark, KG, PC , commonly known by his earlier title as Lord Carteret, was a British statesman and Lord President of the Council from 1751 to 1763.-Family:...

, along with Peter Jefferson
Peter Jefferson
Peter Jefferson was the father of American President Thomas Jefferson . A surveyor and cartographer, his Fry-Jefferson Map of 1751 accurately depicted the Allegheny Mountains for the first time and showed the route of "The Great Road from the Yadkin River thro Virginia to Philadelphia distant 455...

 and Joshua Fry
Joshua Fry
Colonel Joshua Fry was a surveyor, adventurer, mapmaker, soldier, and member of the House of Burgesses, the legislature of the colony of Virginia...

, representing the interests of the Colony of Virginia, surveyed an additional 90 miles (144.8 km) westward of the Blue Ridge to Steep Rock Creek.

Daniel Weldon’s seat was near the present town of Weldon
Weldon, North Carolina
Weldon is a town in Halifax County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,374 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina Micropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Weldon is located at ....

. Peter Jefferson was the father of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 and Joshua Fry was formerly a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at William and Mary College.

Jefferson and Fry had earlier (1746) completed a similar survey of the extensive holdings of Lord Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron was the son of Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and of Catherine, daughter of Thomas Culpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway....

 in western Virginia. More to the point, they had, in 1749, formed a venture called the Loyal Land Company, which included Lewises and Meriwethers and other Albemarle County residents. The Loyal Land Company was chartered “... for the discovery and sale of western lands” and was granted “eight hundred thousand acres [3,200 km²] in one or more surveys beginning on the Bounds between this Colony & North Carolina & running to the Westward & the North...” Jefferson and Fry needed to establish the southern boundary of Virginia so as to delineate the limits of their grant.

The southern boundary of the Granville district was soon extended as far west as Cold Water Creek at what is now the Rowan, Cabarrus county line but did not reach the Blue Ridge until September of 1772.

Churton further surveyed a portion of the area beyond the Blue Ridge between August of 1752 and January 1753, accompanied by Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg
August Gottlieb Spangenberg
August Gottlieb Spangenberg was a German theologian and minister, and a bishop of the Moravian Brethren. As successor of Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, he helped develop international missions, as well as stabilize the theology and organization of the German Moravian Church.-Early life and...

 and a party of Moravians to survey tracts totaling 98,925 acres (400 km²) in the “Blue Mountains” for the Moravians.

Bishop Spargenburgs’ diary provides glimpses of William Churton wherein he is characterized as “certainly a reasonable man” and “excessively scrupulous” in his surveying practice and a “good companion”. Churton maintained a relationship with the Moravians until his death.

The Virginia commissioners, Jefferson and Fry, produced a map of Virginia in 1751 which showed much detail in the adjacent Granville district. They again produced a second edition in 1755 with significant increases in detail in the western areas of the Granville district. It appears that said detail was, in both cases, obtained from William Churton, although no credit is given to Churton on either of the Jefferson-Fry maps.

Lord Granville’s revenue from his land was derived from a “quitrent” to be collected yearly from the landholders of his land. The term is derived because it “quit” the landholder from certain feudal obligations to which Lord Granville was entitled under provisions of the charter. The quitrent varied from time to time from a farthing to a halfpenny per acre, without regard to location, productivity or other consideration.

Churton deferred the drawing of the plats and writing of the deed until he returned to Granville’s office in Edenton
Edenton, North Carolina
Edenton is a town in Chowan County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 4,966 at the 2008 census. It is the county seat of Chowan County. Edenton is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. In recent years Edenton has become a popular retirement location and a destination for...

. Long delays inevitably ensued. Churton sometimes assisted the waiting grantees caught in such delay by intervening with Granville’s agents and on occasion, paying the accumulated quitrents himself.

A few of his plats survive today in the Archives in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

.

In 1753, Churton and one William Vigers received a grant for 635 acres (2.6 km²) to hold in trust for the establishment of the Town of Salisbury
Salisbury, North Carolina
Salisbury is a city in Rowan County in North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census . It is the county seat of Rowan County...

. The next year, Churton likewise received a grant of 663 acres (2.7 km²) to establish the town of Orange, which was subsequently renamed Corbinton, then Childsburg and finally Hillsborough
Hillsborough, North Carolina
Hillsborough is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,653 at the 2008 census. It is the county seat of Orange County....

 on the north bank of the Eno River
Eno River
The Eno River, named for the Eno Indians who once lived along its banks, is the initial tributary of the Neuse River in North Carolina, USA.The Eno rises in Orange County. The river's watershed occupies most of Orange and Durham counties...

.

Churton and his assistant Enoch Lewis laid out 120 lots of 1 acre (0.00404686 km²) for the new town in the summer of 1754. Churton had been appointed Register of Deeds for the new county of Orange County
Orange County, North Carolina
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 133,801. Its county seat is Hillsborough...

 when it was erected in 1752, but the actual function was carried out by his deputy, William Reed, because of his necessary extended absences in his surveying practice.

Churton was a representative from Orange in the Colonial Assembly from 1754 until 1762, although he appears not to have been a resident of what was then Childsburg until 1757. He was a town commissioner from 1759 until his death and served as Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 after 1757 and likewise was appointed County Surveyor for Orange County in 1757.

In 1759, Churton received by an act of the Assembly, four lots of 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) in the town, designated as lots F, G, H and K in the southeastern quadrant, “in consideration of the many services he hath performed for the Inhabitants of the said Town, and his Labor, Expense, and Pains in laying out the said Town.” This grant was reaffirmed in the act of 1766 which renamed the town Hillsborough.

Churton was actively engaged in producing a topographic map of the Province of North Carolina from 1757 although he did not himself survey the southern and coastal areas, but relied of “information and old maps”. In November of 1766, Governor Tryon
William Tryon
William Tryon was a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as governor of the Province of North Carolina and the Province of New York .-Early life and career:...

laid the finished Churton map before the General Assembly which paid Churtons’ fee of 155 Pounds. The Governor assured Churton that if he would endeavor to “complete and make perfect the southern and maritime parts of the province’” he should with Tryon’s approval take the map to England and present it to the Board of Trade.

In 1767, when Churton began to actually survey the coastal areas he discovered that that portion of his map was so defective that he “condemned and cut off that portion.”

Churton died in December of 1767 and Governor Tryon caused the work to be completed by Claude Joseph Sauthier and John Abraham Collet, Swiss Engineers and Cartographers, and the work is known today as the “Collet Map”.

Churton Street, the main north-south street in Hillsborough, is apparently the only memorial in the State to the Granville surveyor.

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