ay to Durant's Neck, we can only conjecture. Possibly a coach
and four may have borne Governor Eden and Governor Hyde the long journey
from Chowan and Bath to Hecklefield's door. Possibly Judge and advocate,
members of the Assembly and councilors, preferred to make the trip on
horseback, breaking the journey by frequent stops at the homes of the
planters in the districts through which they traveled, meeting along the
road friends and acquaintances bound on the same errand to the same
destination. And as the cavalcade increased in numbers as it drew nearer
the end of the journey, doubtless the hilarity of the travelers
increased; and by the time the old sycamore was sighted, it was a gay,
though weary, procession that turned into the lane and passed beneath
its branches, down to where the old house stood near the banks of the
river.

More probably, however, the members of Council, Court or Assembly, met
at some wharf in their various precincts, and embarking on the swift
sloops of the great planter, made the trip to Durant's Neck by water.
Down the Pamlico, Chowan, Perquimans and Pasquotank the white-sailed
vessels bore their passengers into Albemarle Sound and a short distance
up Little River; then disembarking at the Hecklefield Landing, where the
hospitable host of the occasion was doubtless waiting to receive the
travelers, they made their way with many a friendly interchange of
gossip and jest to the great house, standing back from the river beneath
the arching branches of the sheltering sycamores.

One of the most interesting and important of all the public gatherings
convened at the Hecklefield home was the meeting of the Assembly on
October 11, 1708, to decide which of the two claimants of the office of
President of the Council, or Deputy Governor of North Carolina, should
have just right to that office. The two rival claimants were Thomas
Cary, of the precinct of Pamlico, and William Glover, of Pasquotank. To
understand the situation which necessitated the calling of a special
session of the Assembly to settle the dispute between the two men, it
may be well to review the events leading up to this meeting.

In 1704, when Queen Anne came to the throne of England, Parliament
passed an act requiring all public officers to take an oath of
allegiance to the new sovereign. The Quakers in Carolina, who in the
early days of the colony were more numerous than any other religious
body in Albemarle, had hitherto been exem