James Hasell was a British

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who served as the

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governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The governor directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander in chief of the military forces of the state. The current governor, ...

in 1771.

Early life

In 1763 when Governor

Arthur Dobbs Arthur Dobbs (2 April 1689 – 28 March 1765) was a British colonial official who served as the seventh governor of North Carolina from 1754 until 1764. Early life and career Dobbs was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, where his mother had been sen ...

was absent from the colony on a visit to

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, Hassel, as senior member of the Council, was in charge on the government. Hasell also had other experience in colonial affairs as judge of the Court of

Oyer and Terminer In English law, oyer and terminer (; a partial translation of the Anglo-French ''oyer et terminer'', which literally means "to hear and to determine") was one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat. Apart from its Law French name, the ...

(a court to hear and determine cases) for Craven, Carteret, Johnston,

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, and Hyde counties. He lived at Belgrange on the

lower Cape Fear Cape Fear is a coastal plain and Tidewater region of North Carolina centered about the city of Wilmington. The region takes its name from the adjacent Cape Fear headland, as does the Cape Fear River which flows through the region and empties ...

. In 1766 Governor Tryon wrote the British

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that he had given the commission of chief justice to James Hasell and described him as "senior member of his Majesty's Council, next to the President. He is much the gentleman, has acted in this office at different times seven years to general satisfaction: has been always esteemed a steady friend to the measures of government...."

Acting governor of North Carolina

After Governor Tryon left North Carolina to become governor of

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, the Council met on July 1, 1771, and Hasell took over office of the governor until the appointment of

Josiah Martin Josiah Martin (23 April 1737 – 13 April 1786) was a British Army officer and colonial official who served as the ninth and last British governor of North Carolina from 1771 to 1776. Early life and career Martin was born in Dublin, Ireland, ...

, the last of the British governors. Governor Martin recommended that Hasell be made

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in the place of Lieutenant Governor George Mercer, thinking that Mercer was to be appointed governor of

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. Though this appointment did not materialize, Mercer, remaining in

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, nonetheless kept the office in the colony. During the course of this year, he also helped to found and establish the present-day

Queens University of Charlotte The Queens University of Charlotte is a private university in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has approximately 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students through the College of Arts and Sciences, the McColl School of Business, the Wayland H. Cato, ...

(then known as the classical school Queens Museum). James Hasell (sometimes spelled Hassell) was onboard the HMS Cruizer on the

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with Governor Josiah Martin as the Council met in its final meeting that called an end to the

Province of North Carolina Province of North Carolina was a province of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712(p. 80) to 1776. It was one of the five Southern Colonies, Southern colonies and one of the Thirteen Colonies, thir ...

. The record of that meeting notes that Hasell said that the governor should "take every lawful measure in his power to suppress the 'unnatural rebellion' now fomenting".

Legacy

Hasell was apparently a book collector. His "lost" library was discovered in the early part of the 20th century in one of the old houses on the

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near Wilmington. Described as "all that remains of North Carolina's oldest library," the collection contained a number of first editions, and many autographed by the leading men of the period.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasell, James Governors of North-Carolina (1712–1776) Members of the North-Carolina Provincial Council Presidents of the North-Carolina Provincial Council