This collection consists of 19 letters and documents related to a dispute between John Carteret, Earl Granville, and Henry McCulloh over the ownership of land in the Carolinas in the mid-18th century. The collection includes 11 letters and 8 documents, notes, and observations. Henry McCulloh wrote 5 letters to Lord Granville between November 25, 1758, and February 18, 1760; 1 letter to an unnamed recipient (February 12, 1760); and 3 letters to Joshua Sharpe, solicitor to the Privy Council and Granville's lawyer (December 19, 1759-January 3, 1760). Henry McCulloh's son, Henry Eustace McCulloh, sent 2 letters, dated January 8, 1761, and January 26, 1761.
The remaining items are drafts of agreements, proposals, and related notes and observations. These manuscripts include a 4-page response to McCulloh's proposal of April 21, 1759, and an 8-page fair copy of articles of agreement, with additional notes and observations, dated January 27, 1761. Additional notes and documents concern financial agreements and payments between Granville and McCulloh, and at least one item explicitly mentions a provision for granting land to settlers in South Carolina (undated note).
John Carteret, Earl Granville, was born on April 22, 1690, to George Carteret, Baron Carteret, and his wife, Grace Granville. After inheriting his father's baronetcy and attending Westminster School and Oxford's Christ Church College, he entered the House of Lords in 1711. He held several additional appointments, including ambassador to Sweden (1719-1720), secretary of state for the southern department (1721-1724), lord lieutenant of Ireland (1724-1730), secretary of state for the northern department (1742-1744), and lord president of the council (1751-1763). He married Frances Worsley in 1710 and they had several children. Following Frances's death in 1743, he married Sophia Fermor; they had one daughter before Sophia's death in 1745.
John Carteret claimed vast tracts of land in the province of North Carolina, though he became involved in a dispute with Henry McCulloh over ownership claims in the 1750s. The men agreed to an arrangement in 1755, but continued to debate its provisions into the following decade. John Carteret, Earl Granville, died on January 2, 1763.
See Howard H. Peckham's Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the William L. Clements Library (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1942), for additional information about this collection.
