Seth Sothel

Seth Sothel
8th Colonial Governor of Albemarle Sound (North Carolina)
In office 1678–1678
Preceded by	Thomas Miller
Succeeded by	John Harvey
12th Colonial Governor of Albemarle Sound (North Carolina)
In office 1682–1689
Preceded by	John Jenkins
Succeeded by	John Gibbs
9th Colonial Governor of South Carolina
In office 1690–1692
Preceded by	James Colleton
Succeeded by	Philip Ludwell
Personal details
Died	1691 North Carolina
Occupation	colonial administrator

Seth Sothel (also spelled Sothell and Southwell, d. c. 1694) was a colonial American proprietor and governor of the Province of Carolina. He ruled the northern portion, Albemarle Sound (future North Carolina), in 1678 and the southern portion (future South Carolina) from 1690 to 1692. He died in North Carolina in about 1694.^[1][2]

Biography[]

Sothel purchased a propriety from Edward Hyde, which made him become a Lord Proprietor. The Lord Proprietors decided to send Sothel to Albemarle with the order to become governor of the colony. This was based on the fact that Sothel was not a partisan of any faction of the Culpeper's Rebellion, which was still in development.

After leaving England, he was captured by Algerian corsairs. During the time he waited to be released, Albemarle was governed by John Harvey and, upon Harvey's death, by John Jenkins. After Sothel was released, he took the role.

During his administration, he caused many crimes. Sothel prohibited trade between the settlers and the Amerindians, but he kept the benefits. He imprisoned people who opposed him (including Thomas Pollock and George Durant) and kept his lands. He confiscated "merchant ships and their cargoes", stole slaves, cattle, and farmlands and accepted bribes from criminals in exchange for releasing them without prosecution.

However, in 1689, after he established the Salmon Creek plantation, the residents of the colony revolted against him and captured him. They sent Sothel back to England for trial where he was punished by forbidding him from another office in North Carolina. He was expelled from the government of the colony on December 2, 1689, and exiled for a year.

The Lords Proprietors on December 5, 1689 issued a commission to Philip Ludwell, who was the third husband and sole heir of Lady Berkeley (her second husband having been the late Proprietor William Berkeley and her first husband was Samuel Stephens the 2nd governor of the Albemarle Sound colony). Ludlow sailed from London and established a government for the northern colony the following spring, but his authority was challenged by Virginia John Gibbs, who had assumed power when Sothel left. Both Ludwell and Gibbs sailed to London by years end, where the Lords Proprietor disallowed Gibbs' claim (which was based on the Fundamental Constitution's requirement of a resident governor), so he sailed back to Virginia. The Lords Proprietors then explicitly revoked the Fundamental Constitution and in November 1691 issued another commission to Ludwell (who also lived in Virginia with Lady Berkeley) with explicit power to appoint a deputy governor for northern Carolina, and expecting that he would make Charles Town the government seat. He arrived there in April 1692, published his new commission and established a government, although he found affairs wthere chaotic and returned to North Carolina and Virginia by May 1693.^[3]

By this time Sothel had fled to South Carolina. He announced himself as governor in 1690, but was suspended on November 8, 1691. Sothel then returned to Albemarle, to Salmon Creek, where he died a year later, in about 1694.^[4]

Personal life[]

Sothel was a landowner and he married Anna Willix. They had no children.^[2]

References[]

External links[]

• McCrady, Edward. The History of South Carolina during the Proprietary Period (covers Sothel's governance of South Carolina)
• Powell, William. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Volume 5 (contains a biographical sketch)