quimans River,
from Mrs. Anne Wilson's to James Thickpenny, and that Mrs. Wilson do
keep the same, and that no other persons presume to ferry over horse or
man within five miles above or below that place."

As time went on, the crowds attending the courts and Assemblies became
too large to be accommodated in private dwellings. As early as 1722, the
General Assembly ordered a court-house to be built at Phelps Point, now
the town of Hertford, and tradition states that the old building was
erected on the point near the bridge, where the home of Mr. Thomas
McMullan now stands.

One of the most interesting spots in Perquimans County is the strip of
land lying between the Perquimans and the Yeopim rivers, known as
Harvey's Neck. This was the home of the Harveys, men who for over a
century bore an important part in the history of our State. It was in
older days, as now, a fair and fertile land. Herds of deer wandered
through its forests; and great flocks of swan and wild geese floated
upon its silver streams, feeding upon the sweet grass which then grew in
those rivers. The waters were then salt, but with the choking up of the
inlets that let in the saline waves of the Atlantic, the grass
disappeared, and with it the wild fowl who wintered there.

Of all the members of the famous Harvey family whose homes were builded
on this spot, none proved more worthy of the fame he won than John
Harvey, son of Thomas Harvey and Elizabeth Coles.

Elected when just of age to the Assembly of 1746, he continued to serve
his State in a public capacity until his death in 1775.

Resisting the tyrannical endeavor of Governor Dobbs to tax the people
against their rights, he nevertheless stood by the same governor in his
efforts to raise men and money for the French and Indian War. Serving as
Speaker of the House in 1766, he took an active part in opposing the
Stamp Act, and boldly declared in the Assembly that North Carolina would
not pay those taxes. In the Assembly of 1769 he proposed that Carolina
should form a Non-Importation Association; and when Governor Tryon
thereupon angrily dismissed the Assembly and ordered its members home,
Harvey called a convention independent of the Governor, and the
association was formed.

When Governor Martin refused to call the Assembly of 1774, for fear that
it would elect delegates to the Continental Congress, John Harvey
declared: "Then the people will call an Assembly themselves"; and
following their