as it were, the stage upon which all the eminent men of the country around performed their parts. It was at once the head and the heart of the Cape Fear section. Its history is not the history of the dwellers within its corporate limits alone. The owner of a house and lot in the town could vote for its member of the Assembly, though he left his house vacant and lived in the country; and the qualification of its representative was not residence in the town, but the ownership of town property. So it came about that many of the most prominent characters in its history, those who were actors in its most stirring scenes, and who are identified with its memories and traditions, never resided within its limits. There were wealthy and intelligent and public-spirited townsmen,—James Innes, Louis and Moses John de Rosset, William and George Hooper, Archibald Maclean, Eagles, Quince, Lloyd, Davis, Hogg, Campbell and others; but the greater number of its most eminent names are those of men living in the country around,—Ashe, Waddell, Moore, Burgwin, Harnett, Lillington, Moseley and Swann. One of its notable citizens was Colonel James Innes, who, having been an officer in the
