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 SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 Harnett County and the Town of Lillington 
 
 AUGUST 3, 1905 
 
 ADDRESS BY 
 
 Hon. JOHN D. BELLAMY 
 
 ON THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF 
 
 GENERAL ALEXANDER LILLINGTON 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 
 
 OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
 
 Harnett County and the Town of Lillington 
 
 AUGUST 3, 1905 
 
 ADDRESS BY 
 
 Hon. JOHN D. BELLAMY 
 
 ON THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF 
 
 GENERAL ALEXANDER LILLINGTON 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 PRKSS OF JUDD & DF.TWEILKR (INC.) 
 
 1905 
 
Gift 
 Author 
 (Person) 
 
 21A^'05 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 We have assembled on this occasion to celebrate the 50th 
 anniversary of the founding of the town of Lillington, and 
 to commemorate the life and services of the great patriot 
 and soldier in whose honor the village was named. 
 
 Situated as it is on the banks of the Cape Fear river, we 
 are reminded of the fact that nearly every hamlet from 
 Lillington to the sea is associated with some historic inci- 
 dent which had its influence on the revolt of this colony 
 from the government of England and the final wresting of 
 its independence from the crown. 
 
 The banks of the Cape Fear in colonial times were peopled 
 by a race of Englishmen who for the valor, chivalry, and 
 intelligence of its men and the purity, culture, and patriot- 
 ism of its women have never been surpassed by any Anglo- 
 Saxon settlement. 
 
 There is something mysterious in the atmosphere which 
 envelops this region, in the aroma of the pines which fills 
 it, in the majestic sweep of the river as it rushes to the sea, 
 in the soil which feeds its people, that stimulates ambition, 
 excites patriotism, enkindles a pride of state, and reall}^ pro- 
 duces in the inhabitant a yearning for the best of life. 
 
 It was this region that produced Robert Howe, probably 
 the greatest man yet born upon North Carolina soil, and 
 furnished to the Revolution James Moore, the Ashes, Cor- 
 nelius Harnett, Alexander Lillington, and a host of patriots 
 whose names are indissolubly linked with the great struggle 
 for American independence, and which has ever since then 
 furnished men whose impress has been felt in the councils 
 of the state and nation in shaping its policies for the general 
 welfare. 
 
 The province of North Carolina was from the earliest 
 times ever jealous of the rights of Englishmen, which had 
 
been lianded down to its settlers as their inheritance and 
 had been guaranteed to them in the Great Charter of the 
 Forest. While it loyally sa})ported the crown so long as tlie 
 crown respected the inherent rights of the people, yet when 
 the home government taxed the colony without giving it a 
 voice in the enactment of the law, and deprived it of local 
 self-government, it earnestly and vigorously protested, and 
 continued to protest until protest proved ineffectual, when 
 revolt and revolution followed, which culminated in the 
 establishment of American independence and the formation 
 of the government of the American Union, which was then, 
 is now, and ever will be an emphatic protest and warning 
 against a colonial system of government. 
 
 When the iniquitous stamp act of 1765 received the 
 royal a})proval and the ship Diligence arrived in the Cape 
 Fear river with the stamp })aper, it is a familiar tale to the 
 people of North Carolina, and should be to all the people of 
 the United States, how th(> stamp master was seized at 
 Wilmington, in the presence of the royal governor, and 
 openly and boldly carried to the public market-house and 
 there made to take a solemn oath not to execute or offer to / 
 execute the infamous law. ■^ 
 
 It was then and there that Alexander Lillington first 
 sprung into public gaze ; with Colonel John Ashe, Harnett, 
 and Waddell, he participated in the seizure of the stamp 
 master and wrote the communication to Governor Tryon, ' 
 signed by Colonel Ashe, Lloyd, and himself, assuring the 
 Governor of personal protection, but impressing upon him 
 that the force under them would resist the enforcement of tlie 
 law. Governor Tryon subsequently calling Lillington's bold 
 act to the attention of the crown. 
 
 Alexander Lillington was sprung from a noble ancestry — 
 born in the year 1725, in Beaufort precinct, where his father, 
 John Alexander Lillington, liad been treasurer, being left 
 an orphan, he early moved with his uncle, Edward Mosely, 
 about 1735, to Rocky Point, on the Cape Fear, near Wil- 
 mington, where many of his mother's relatives (his mother 
 
being ISarali Porter) then resided. There he passed his 
 early 3'ears and married Sarah Watters, and in this way 
 became by blood and marriage connected with nearly all 
 the prominent families of the Cape Fear region. 
 
 He was the grandson of Major Alexander Lillington, the 
 first Dei)nty Governor of the province, and who was Presi- 
 dent of the Provincial Conncil in 1693 and also Governor. 
 
 The oldest public record extant in North Carolina is a 
 commission issued in 1679 to Alexander Lillington and to 
 George Durand and others, authorizing them to act as con- 
 servators of the peace in Berkeley county and to hold the 
 courts in that precinct. 
 
 This Governor Lillington was the son of George Lilling- 
 ton, a distinguished gentleman and a major in the British 
 army, who first settled in Massachusetts, then went to Bar- 
 badoes, became a member of the Royal Council of that island, 
 and towards the middle of the seventeenth century settled 
 with his son in the Edenton section of this state. 
 
 The family of Lillington possessed a coat-of-arms with 
 three crescents, engraved with the motto " Liberty or Death," 
 which seems afterwards to have been adopted as the watch- 
 word of the patriots. 
 
 Alexander Lillington, the subject of our discourse today, 
 was well educated, as most of the gentlemen of the Caj^e 
 Fear section then were, and was possessed of a good fortune 
 and a large landed estate. 
 
 He resided on his plantation on North East river, a dis- 
 tance of about thirty miles by water and about half that 
 distance by land from Wilmington, where his residence, 
 Lillington Hall, was said to have been one of the best built 
 and furnished mansions in the colony — specially noted and 
 commented upon by many of the old residents, some now 
 living, for the secret recesses built as hiding places for the 
 women and children when attacked by hostile Indians or a 
 retreat from Tory incursions. Lossing, in his Field Book of 
 the American Revolution, gives a picture of it as one of the 
 most notable homes of the colony. 
 
And here he lived and, except in the trying times of 
 tlie Revolution, when absent in the field with his troops, he 
 led the life of a gentleman, dispensing a most refined and 
 lavish hospitality. 
 
 General Lillington possessed a splendid figure and car- 
 riage. He was six feet in height and had, it is said, hercu- 
 lean strength, and few men of his day possessed greater per- 
 sonal attractions. 
 
 Inheriting a fondness for military life from his ancestry, 
 after the repeal of the stamp act, which gave the colony 
 hopes for the enjoyment of a long period of good government 
 from the crown, and especially local self-government, when 
 the war of the Regulators in Alamance broke out he became 
 a lieutenant-colonel under Governor Tryon, and with Colo- 
 nels Ashe and Caswell with the King's forces engaged in 
 the battle with the Regulators in May, 1771. It is remark- 
 able to note that in this battle on the King's side were Colo- 
 nels Ashe, Caswell, Bryan, Lillington, Captain Moore, and 
 even General Waddell and others, who became afterwards 
 conspicuous leaders in the Revolution, thus exhibiting their 
 loyalty and demonstrating the trutli of the declaration of 
 Patrick Plenry, that in the beginning the patriots " aimed 
 not at independence." 
 
 I After the suppression of the insurrection in Alamance 
 Governor Tryon was transferred to New York as governor 
 of that state, and w^as succeeded in tlie province of North 
 Carolina by Josiah Martin. Governor Martin was a man 
 of fine ability and of good character ; but his execution of 
 laws that had been passed for the colony were so rigid and 
 the laws themselves so arbitrary that these very officers who 
 had been under Tryon at Alamance resigned their commis- 
 sions and afterward entered into an active resistance to the 
 oppressions of the crown, and from thenceforth they devoted 
 their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honor to the cause of 
 independence. 
 
 Showing Colonel Lillington's prominence in the scheme 
 and activity in promoting the cause, as early as January 4, 
 
1775, the freeholders of New Hanover county elected him a 
 member of the Committee of Safety for that county. At all 
 the meetings of the committee he was active and wise in 
 its councils, and we find him in June, July, and October 
 engaged in his duties, which had then become so important 
 to the advancement of the cause. 
 
 On August 8, 1775, the same day that Governor Martin 
 issued his proclamation denouncing the Mecklenburg Re- 
 solves, an election was held in New Hanover county for 
 delegates to attend a congress to meet at Hillsboro. Colonel 
 Lillington was elected by his constituents to this congress, 
 and on the 24th of that month qualified as a member and 
 actively participated in its deliberations, assisting in the 
 preparation of the system of government for the colony in 
 opposition to Governor Josiah Martin, who had then become 
 governor in name merely, having no actual dominion except 
 over the deck of a ship, holding his office on board His 
 Majesty's ship the Cruiser in the Cape Fear river. The colony 
 of North Carolina thus eff'ectually broke off" all allegiance 
 to the crown and set the ball of revolution rolling. 
 
 While a member of this congress and attending its sessions 
 Colonel Lillington was appointed colonel of the Minutemen 
 of the Wilmington district, when at the same time his com- 
 patriot. Colonel Caswell, was appointed colonel of the Minute- 
 men of the Newbern district. 
 
 This same congress decided to raise two regiments of Con- 
 tinental troops, and appointed James Moore colonel of the 
 first and Robert Howe colonel of the second regiment, and 
 formulated rules for the conduct of the military forces of 
 the province, prescribing the precedence of rank and right 
 to command as between the officers of the Continental troops, 
 the Minutemen, and the militia, making the Continental 
 colonel first in right to command, the colonel of tiie Minute- 
 men second, each taking precedence of the colonel of the 
 militia. 
 
 The adoption of these rules was the exhibition of wonder- 
 ful wisdom and foresight, prevented friction, and produced 
 
8 
 
 luirmoiiy in the ranks of the North Carolina troops. Some 
 of the other colonies failed to prescribe such rules, and had 
 the misfortune to see serious and bitter disputes arise and a 
 clash between Continental troops and the state militia, which 
 on one prominent occasion resulted in a duel between two 
 distinguished generals. 
 
 When the year 177G was ushered in it found Governor 
 Martin still in his refuge on the Cruiser on the Cape Fear 
 river, endeavoring by proclamation and offer of commis- 
 sions to excite the Scotch Highlanders of Cumberland and 
 the Royalists of Orange and the Yadkin to rally to the 
 King's standard to suppress the rebellion which had broken 
 out. The committee of safety of the Wilmington district, 
 ever alert in their observance of the governor's actions, dis- 
 I)atched Colonel Moore, of the 1st Regiment of Continental 
 troops, with his regiment, and the Minutemen of the Wil- 
 mington district under Col. Alexander Lillington, Colonel 
 Ashe with his volunteers, and Colonel Kenan with his 
 militia to Rock Fish, just below Cross creek, where the 
 Highlanders had assembled under General McDonald, with 
 the view of being led to Governor Martin at Brunswick to 
 form a junction with the forces of Sir Henry Clinton, which 
 were expected there, to begin a campaign for the subjuga- 
 tion of the colony. 
 
 General McDonald Avith his Tory forces started out for 
 Wilmington, when General Moore dispatched Colonels Lil- 
 lington and Ashe to Moores Creek bridge. A special courier 
 was sent to Colonel Caswell, who had been sent by the Com- 
 mittee of Safety of the Newbern district to join General 
 Moore's forces, to take possession of ('orbetts Ferry, while 
 Colonel Thackston was ordered to take possession of Cross 
 creek to cut off McDonald's return. Colonel Lillington had 
 in the early evening of the 2bth of February arrived at 
 Moores Creek bridge, crossed it, and immediately began to 
 throw up entrenchments, both near to and about 100 yards 
 from the bridge, on a sandy elevation. Colonel Caswell, 
 finding that General McDonald's forces had crossed Black 
 
river about dve miles above him, withdrew his forces and 
 proceeded to reinforce Colonel Lillington, already entrenched 
 at the bridge, and arrived at the bridge after night. After 
 Caswell and his men crossed over Colonel Lillington directed 
 the bridge to be torn up by his forces and the girders to be 
 greased with tallow and saturated with soft soap, which he 
 had procured that evening from the patriot women living 
 in the neighborhood, and there the two armies lay on their 
 arms during the night of the 26th, in sight of each other. 
 
 On the morning of the 27th the Highlanders, who were 
 no strangers to war, many of whom had been at Culloden 
 and had military training, determined to give battle, ex- 
 pecting an easy victory over the raw and undisciplined 
 patriots, and at early dawn the sound of the pibroch was 
 heard and the weird strains of the bagpipe urged the 1,800 
 Tories to the fray. They rushed forward to the attack, led 
 by Captain McLeod, and John Campbell, second in command. 
 They crossed the sleepers, the redoubtable Scotchmen fol- 
 lowing, and, finding a small entrenchment next the bridge 
 empty, advanced to within 30 paces of the breastworks behind 
 which Colonel Lillington and his forces and the forces of 
 Colonel Caswell were posted. 
 
 Immediately Colonel Lillington led the advance, his men 
 enthusiastically following him, and there in the forefront, 
 with the silver crescent from his family escutcheon glittering 
 on his hat in the morning sun, drove back the foe, putting 
 them to flight, killing and wounding 30 Tories accounted 
 for, and a numljer shot from the bridge and falling into 
 the creek, and capturing 850 soldiers, together with guns, 
 ammunition, wagons, and money, with which the student 
 of history is familiar. - — 
 
 While the movement of the troops and the assignment of 
 the difi'erent officers to the positions on the river and at the 
 bridge was made by Col. James Moore, to whom all honor 
 should be given, and while Colonel Caswell assisted in the 
 battle, history and tradition alike show that Colonel Lilling- 
 ton was the hero, the prominent and conspicuous figure of 
 
10 
 
 the Battle of the Bridge ; and yet so early in history the 
 Sampson and Schley procedure takes place. 
 
 On the 2d of March Col. James Moore, in command, re- 
 ports the battle to President Harnett, of the Provincial Coun- 
 cil, mentioning both Caswell and Lillington, and on March 
 4th the Congress passed a resolution of thanks to " Col. James 
 Moore and all the brave officers and soldiers under him." 
 
 But it remained for Colonel Caswell, instead of I'eporting 
 the engagement, if he reported at all, to Colonel Moore, his 
 superior officer, to make a report to the Provincial Council, 
 and Congress passed a resolution thanking " Colonel Cas- 
 well and the brave officers and soldiers under his com- 
 mand." 
 
 But his cotemporaries accorded the chief glory of the 
 battle to Col. Alexander l^illington, and by them and all 
 students of history he is known as the hero of the Battle of 
 the Bridge. 
 
 The effect of this battle on the colony was electrical and 
 far-reaching in its consequences. It not only suppressed 
 the Tory uprising, but it gave confidence and hope to the 
 patriot cause, which was felt by the Whig troops whenever 
 led into action as the Revolution progressed. 
 
 The memory of the Battle of the Bridge is therefore treas- 
 ured not only by the inhabitants of Cape Fear who have a 
 just pride in the achievements of their ancestors, but it is 
 regarded in history as a pivotal point in the progress of the 
 cause of the Revolution ; for today, in looking back through 
 the vista of time, we can readily see if the Tory forces had 
 won the day at the Battle of the Bridge, McDonald's forces 
 would have been augmented by active Loyalists and by 
 lukewarm Whigs, a junction would have been formed of 
 the Loyalists throughout the whole colony with the forces 
 of Sir Henry Clinton and Cornwallis on the Cape Fear, 
 and long indeed would have been the struggle to dislodge 
 the British from the province, and possibly independence 
 lost to the dispirited patriots. 
 
11 
 
 8o, all honor to Alexander Lillingtou, the hero of the 
 Battle of the Bridge, and the brave officers and soldiers with 
 him, resolved to achieve on that day the motto of his silver 
 crescent, " Liberty or Death." 
 
 Colonel Lillington wore his honors with modesty, which 
 had ever been a prominent element of his character and 
 which is always associated with the truly brave man and 
 genuine hero. It is said of him that modesty was an in- 
 herited characteristic from his ancestry. No Lillington ever 
 sought honor except as it lay in the path of duty ; or ever com- 
 plained if preferment did not come ; or ever heralded his 
 performances. If honors came, they were the result of merit, 
 which an appreciative people voluntarily bestowed. 
 
 After the Battle of the Bridge the Provincial Congress de- 
 cided to furnish and equip a number of regiments for the 
 common cause. On April 15, 1776, Colonel Lillington was 
 appointed colonel of the 6th Regiment, and served with his 
 command in the defense of the province. 
 
 To the legislature of 1777, the first legislature that assem- 
 bled after the election of a governor, Colonel Lillington was 
 sent by New Hanover county to the House of Commons, and 
 took an active part in its proceedings, aiding in passing tlie 
 urgent legislation needed for the struggling colonists. 
 
 The province with its new governor had begun to have 
 peace at home, although the scenes of war were transferred 
 to other portions of the Union. Really from the 29th of 
 May, 1776, when the British fleet with Josiah Martin, Sir 
 Henry Clinton, and Cornwallis sailed away from the Cape 
 Fear river, the last vestige of royal power ceased and the 
 province of North Carolina became quiet and was without 
 interference from the royal government until 1781. 
 
 During this period, soon after the expiration of his term 
 in the legislature of 1777, Colonel Lillington was made a 
 brigadier general and placed in charge of the Wilmington 
 Military District. Here he was kept busy in recruiting his 
 forces and preparing them by drill and otherwise to repel 
 any return of the British force to the Cape Fear and in 
 
12 
 
 suppressinjjj any sporadic Tory ui)risiiig which constantly 
 threaened. 
 
 On November 13, 1779, the governor of the state, as com- 
 mander-in-chief, directed General Lillington to take com- 
 mand of the troops and place himself in readiness to proceed 
 south to the assistance of General Lincoln and his forces in 
 South Carolina. 
 
 In December he proceeded to Brunswick with a small 
 force, there to await the arrival of the Duplin and Bladen 
 forces. 
 
 On January 10, 1780, we find him encamped with his 
 troops near Little river, or the boundary, and on January 28 
 he arrived at CUiarleston, where he was put under Genera! 
 Lincoln. Being sent by General Lincoln southward toward 
 Savannah, he there remained until aftei' the fall of Charles- 
 ton, and, not being thereat, was not included by General 
 Lincoln in his surrender. After the fall of Charleston, in 
 May, 1780, and the disastrous battle of Camden in which he 
 fought, finding that the Cape Fear region and his own state 
 was about to be invaded again, he withdrew his command 
 to Georgetown or that vicinity, but afterward was ordered to 
 return to the Cape Fear, but arrived to findtliat the British 
 under Major Craig had sailed from Charleston with 400 
 British regulars, and had captured the town on January 29, 
 1781, and was then in possession with a strong garrison. 
 
 Just as soon as the capture of AVilmington by Major Craig 
 had been made the news spread through the u[)per Cape 
 Fear. The irrepressible Scotch Tory, whose loyalty had been 
 smoldering, encouraged l)y the emissaries of Major Craig, 
 who Avere sent among them secretly with assistance, began 
 to embody again, and, upon the retreat of General Green 
 across the Dan into Virginia, General Lillington, with his 
 corps, was sent to Cross Creek to overawe or dissuade them 
 from their purpose, and so successful was he, by his firm 
 and kindly course toward them, that when a month later 
 Cornwallis went to Cross creek on his march to Wilmington 
 from Guilford court-hou.se these lovalists had become active 
 
13 
 
 or passive Whigs. Coriivvallis in a letter written to General 
 Clinton stated that " North Carolina is, of all the provinces 
 of America, the most difficult to attack (unless material 
 assistance could be e^ot from the inhubitants, the contrary 
 of which I have sufficiently experienced)." 
 I When Cornwallis, on April 7, 1781, reached Wilmington 
 and joined Major Craig, General Lillington, with his corps, 
 was directed to watch Cornwallis and confine the incursion 
 of Craig and his men to as narrow a compass as possible. 
 Cornwallis, liowever, refreshed his men and replenished his 
 commissar}', having his headquarters at the present resi- 
 dence of Mrs. A\^. H. McRary, still standing ; there he re- 
 mained for eighteen days, and then began his last march 
 to Virginia, where, in October of the same year, he surren- 
 dered his forces at Yorktown. 
 
 On this march northward toward Halifax he was con- 
 stantly harassed by General Lillington's troops without 
 any decisive engagement, Lillington's troops at that time 
 being very short of ammunition. In fact, in a letter to the 
 Governor at this time, he stated that his force was so reduced 
 in ammunition that it had but one round left. 
 
 When, on the 17th of April, Cornwallis had passed McLain's 
 bridge, Major Craig set out with a considerable force to 
 capture Newbern. Learning of this, Lillington diverted his 
 troops at once to the pursuit of Craig. At Richlands, Onslow 
 county, he found him advancing with 800 Tories and regu- 
 lars from Rutherford's mills, but upon the marching of 
 Colonel Caswell from Newbern to join Colonel Kenan in 
 Duplin, and thus form a junction with Lillington, Craig 
 returns to Wilmington. During the period from April to 
 July numerous small engagements took place between the 
 Whigs and Tories, notably the engagement at Elizabeth- 
 town, which was so gallantly captured by Colonel Brown 
 and his compatriots, and that at Rock Fish creek, in Duplin, 
 where the Whig forces were repulsed with a loss of 30 killed. 
 
 Major Craig, the Britisli commander at Wilmington, was 
 not idle in his actions against the Whig forces. He sent out 
 
14 
 
 foraging parties in all directions, and a number of these 
 penetrated far into the interior of the state. One proceeded 
 as far as Hillsboro under the command of the notorious 
 David Fanning and a Scotch Tory, Hector McNeill, and there 
 captured and carried away the Governor, Thomas Burke, and 
 other prominent Whigs, and speedily took them to Wilming- 
 ton, where they were imprisoned and afterwards sent to 
 Charleston for more secure detention. Another captured 
 the great patriot and leader Cornelius Harnett, bound him 
 with cords and, with his arms pinioned behind him, carried 
 him on horseback to Wilmington, where he died in captivity 
 and was buried by the hands of friends under Tory supervis- 
 ion in the old St. James churchyard, where his remains 
 still lie. Another party captured General Ashe, who was 
 likewise spirited off to Wilmington, and there imprisoned 
 liim with other Whigs in the common goal, where he con- 
 tracted a virulent case of smallpox, and was only released 
 in time to die at his home, near Clinton, a few days after his 
 return. 
 
 The surrender of Cornwallis, however, taking place in 
 October, at Yorktown, Craig called in all his forces, and, 
 fearing an attack by Lillington's forces, now encouraged by 
 the news of the surrender, took his effects and troops aboard 
 the transports lying in the river and sailed away from Wil- 
 mington to Charleston, thus ending forever the British oc- 
 cupation of North Carolina. ^ 
 
 Upon the evacuation of Wilmington by Craig, General 
 Lillington, with his forces, took possession again of the town, 
 and were hailed b}'' the inhabitants with great rejoicing, 
 having been for over nine months chafing under the domi- 
 nation of Craig, the invader. The citizens of Wilmington 
 during the occupancy of Craig remained loyal and true to the 
 cause of Independence and did not receive or ask his favor 
 or swear allegiance to the King, as did many of the inhab- 
 itants of Charleston to Sir Henry Clinton on the surrender 
 of General Lincoln ; but they sustained their reputation 
 as the leaders of the Revolution, which they proudly claim 
 even down to this day as their glory. 
 
15 
 
 General Lillington continued in the command of the 
 state troops in the Wibnington district until the treaty of 
 peace was finally signed, in the fall of 1783. During this 
 time, under Governor Alex. Martin, besides superintending 
 and ordering the exchange of prisoners at Wilmington under 
 flags of truce from Charleston, he was frequently called 
 upon to assist in upholding and enforcing the administra- 
 tion of law, when called upon by the civil authorities, until 
 he was finally mustered out of service. 
 
 Like the military leaders of the time, however, he took 
 no relish in observing the harsh execution of the drastic 
 and heartless confiscation laws. Like his great friend and 
 fellow-soldier Major General Howe, he felt it to be the part 
 of the victor to be magnanimous to the vanquished, and at 
 one time Governor Martin complained of his indifference to 
 the orders of the executive in this respect; but Lillington 
 was in hearty sympathy with the able and spirited protest 
 and petition of the ladies of Wilmington, sent at this time 
 to Governor Martin, asking the governor to revoke his order 
 for the deportation of the women and children of the mis- 
 guided Tories and the sequestration of their estates. 
 
 The military leaders all seemed to oppose these laws 
 against the Tories. It was said of General Marion that 
 when the sister province of South Carolina had passed a 
 similar law, being invited to a dinner at Governor Mat- 
 thews' table, toasted, "Here is damnation to the Confiscation 
 Act." 
 
 And when we reflect how utterly severe the confiscation 
 and deportation laws were and how rigidl}' they were en- 
 forced, extending them to estates of children whose inher- 
 itances came not from a Tory father, it would have been more 
 to the honor and credit of the state had they never been passed, 
 and North Carolina, entering on her new career of sover- 
 eignty, would have at once invited to her domain an English- 
 speaking people, who would have been attracted by a spirit 
 and policy of toleration and liberality. General Lillington, 
 after the war, retired to his home, Lillington Hall, and there, 
 in his declining years, led the life of a hospitable gentleman 
 
u 
 
 of wealth, beloved alike by the rich and the poor, and by 
 none esteemed more than by those who had at one time 
 been Tories, yet who, notwithstanding his activity in the 
 patriot cause, for his broad charit}" of feeling, preserved for 
 him at all times the highest respect and admiration. 
 
 Tradition says that Lillington Hall was more than once 
 saved from the torch of the l^ritish by the Tory who had 
 been ever his admirer and once his friend. And here, in 
 the bosom of his family, amid the scenes of his actions in 
 war, still engaged in the pursuit of agriculture, rich in the 
 affections of his countrymen, liaving his name deeply en- 
 graved on the scroll of history, at peace with all mankind, 
 he was gathered to his fathers and buried in the family vault, 
 leaving tlie following inscription carved by his friends and 
 neighbors on his tomb — a just tribute to his memory : 
 
 Beneath this Stone, 
 
 Lie the mortal remains of 
 
 General 
 
 John Alexander Lillington 
 
 A soldier of the Revohition 
 
 Wlio died in 178G 
 
 He commanded the American P'orces 
 
 At the Battle of Moores Creek 
 
 On the 27th February 1776 ; — 
 
 And by his Military Skill 
 
 And Oool Courage in the Field, 
 
 At the head of his troops, secured a 
 
 Complete and decisive victoiy. 
 
 To intellectual powers of a high order 
 
 He united an incorruptible integrity 
 
 And a devoted and self-sacrificing patriotism ; 
 
 A genuine lover of Liberty — 
 
 He imperilled his all to secure the 
 
 Independence of his Country 
 
 And died in a good old age 
 
 Bequeathing to his posterity 
 
 Tlie remembrance of his virtues — 
 
 nSH4 
 
LIBRARY OP CONGRESS 
 
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