I04 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



the Church of England in the colony, but with such 

 provisions that the Bishop of London and the 

 Society for Propagating the Gospel in America re- 

 solved not to send or support any missionaries in 

 the province until the act, or the clause relating to 

 the establishment of lay commissioners, should be 

 annulled. 



Oldmixon says that the law was declared null and 

 void by Queen Anne, at the suggestion of the 

 House of Lords ; but, as the act still remains on 

 the statute-book, and the church continued from 

 that date (1704) to receive the aid of the state, as 

 well as of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, 

 it is more likely that the offensive clauses were ren- 

 dered inoperative, without being formally annulled. 

 The act of conformity was passed by a vote of 

 twelve members against eleven dissentients. A full 

 house numbered thirty members, so that this act was 

 passed by little more than a third of the whole 

 house. Every Dissenter was thereupon turned out 

 of his seat, and his place supplied by the person, 

 being a Churchman, who had the most votes next to 

 him. In six months afterwards, the same Assem- 

 bly, in a full house, passed a bill to repeal the act, 

 but it was rejected in the upper house, and the gov- 

 ernor, in great indignation, dissolved the Commons' 

 house, by the name of the Unsteady Assembly. 



During this period of the colonial existence, the 

 only part of Craven County which was settled was 



