Christopher Gale (1670February 17, 1735) was the first Chief Justice of the

Colony of North Carolina In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

. He was also briefly

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

and a customs collector for various ports of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Biography

Christopher Gale was born in 1670 (some sources say 1679) in

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, the son of the Rev.

Miles Gale Miles Gale (1647–1721) was an English antiquary. Gale was the eldest son of John Gale. His father, a descendant of the Gales of Scruton and Masham in Yorkshire, served under Count Mansfeld in the Low Countries (1622–5), returned to England, ...

and Margaret Stone. He read law under an attorney in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

but Gale migrated to Carolina when he was in his early twenties, settling in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

. He made his fortune in trade with the Indians. In 1702, Gale married Sarah Laker Harvey, widow of Governor Thomas Harvey. They had four children: Miles, Theophilus, Penelope and Elizabeth. He lived at Kirby Grange, a large plantation near Bath.

Career as a Justice

In 1703, Proprietary Governor

Robert Daniel Robert Williams Daniel, Jr. (March 17, 1936 – February 4, 2012) was an American farmer, businessman, teacher, and politician from Virginia who served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. He was first elected in ...

appointed Gale to serve as a Justice of the General Court, the supreme court of the colony and in 1704, he concurrently was appointed attorney general of Carolina. Following the upheaval of

Cary's Rebellion Cary's Rebellion (also known as the Cary Rebellion) was an uprising against the Deputy Governor of North-Carolina in 1711 led by Thomas Cary, who refused to give up his governorship to Edward Hyde. The rebellion was a part of a long-standing t ...

in 1708, Gale was removed from office as Chief Justice by Governor William Glover. Gale traveled to

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where the Lords Proprietors of the Carolina colony were meeting to lay his case for reinstatement before them. He was immediately reinstated. Gale was a capable explorer and was slated to go with John Lawson and Baron

Christoph de Graffenried Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg (15 November 1661 – 1743), from a Swiss patrician family, was the founder of New Bern, North Carolina, land speculator, and leader in the early Swiss and German colonization of America. Much of ...

on their fateful 1711 expedition into Indian territory. De Graffenreid and Lawson were captured by

Tuscarora Indians The Tuscarora (in Tuscarora ''Skarù:ręˀ'', "hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People") are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government of the Iroquoian family, with members today in New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada. They co ...

and Lawson was killed. Gale was unable to join them due to his wife Susan's illness. Gale later reflected that her illness likely saved his life. Later that year Governor Edward Hyde sent him to

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to secure military aid for the war against the Tuscarora Indians. On his return trip, Gale was captured by the French who held him briefly as a prisoner of war on

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. Finally arriving home in July 1712, Gale was rewarded for his service with a re-appointment as Chief Justice. He held that office, with only brief interruptions, until 1731, during which time he obtained commissions as collector of customs at the ports of

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

, Currituck, and Roanoke successively. He also briefly served as the absentee Attorney General of the

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. In 1729, Gale was appointed to a commission to determine the boundary between North Carolina and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

along with Colonel

John Lovick John Lovick is an American magician, writer, and director. Since the 1990s he has performed as a magician throughout the United States and Canada, as well as England, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia. His performing alter ego, Handsome Ja ...

and William Little.

End of life

His wife Sarah died in 1730 and Gale married Sarah Catherine Ismay, widow of John Ismay, about 1733. Gale died in 1735 in

Edenton, North Carolina Edenton is a town in, and the county seat of, Chowan County, North Carolina, United States, on Albemarle Sound. The population was 4,397 at the 2020 census. Edenton is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. In recent years Edenton has b ...

leaving a will that stated, “To All my friends I leave my hearty prayers & Good wishes, To my Enemys forgiveness & prayers for their Repentance for the many ill offices done me.” Several of his letters are printed in John Nichols's ''Illustrations'', iv. 489–92.

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References

External links

North Carolina Historical Marker B-5
* William S. Price Jr., “A Strange Incident in George Burrington’s Royal Governorship,” North Carolina Historical Review (Spring 1974): 149-158 * Alan D. Watson, Bath: The First Town in North Carolina (2005) * Marshall DeLancey Haywood, Builders of the Old North State (1968) {{DEFAULTSORT:Gale, Christopher 1670 births 1735 deaths People of colonial North Carolina American jurists People from Beaufort County, North Carolina