A Forgotten Prophet: Henry McCulloh and Reform of the British Empire

A Forgotten Prophet: Henry McCulloh and Reform of the British Empire J. M. Bumsted History has not been kind to the memory of Henry McCulloh. After a century and a half of almost total obscurity, he emerged for a time in historical accounts as an important colonial expert, an advisor to ministries, and an eminence grise on such important colonial matters as the Stamp Act and Sugar Act. 1 More recently, he has been exposed as a self-serving land speculator and placeseeker whose influence on government was far less significant than once was argued. 2 Throughout most accounts has run a thread of misinformation, which, as one scholar has pointed out, resulted from his being confused with another man of similar name. 3 Unfortunately, in all the claims and countercharges, a large part of Henry McCulloh's rightful place in the history of the first British Empire has become obscured. For while McCulloh may have been a land-grabber and placeseeker (and who involved in imperial affairs in the eighteenth century was neither?), while he may not have been singlehandedly responsible for either the idea or the execution of the Stamp and Sugar Acts, in the decade of the 1750shis was an articulate voice in Britain on the subject of the American colonies and the themes of imperial regulation and colonial reform. In memorials to ministers and through the publication of a series of lengthy pamphlets on American affairs, McCulloh put forward a faNeaching and coherent series of proposals for reform. While attributing influence to such ideas may well be fraught with danger, McCulloh and his writings nevertheless provide an important Canadian Review of American Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1. Spring 1982, 1-14 2 J. M. Bumsted illustration of how the American Empire could be viewed by knowledgeable men in the 1750s,as well as indicate the sorts of motivations which prompted such scrutiny and perhaps even some of the ultimate reasons for the failure to pay proper attention to the advice proffered. The story of McCulloh's early career and his machinations in the Carolinas has been well (though unsympathetically) told elsewhere;4 consequently only a brief summary is needed here. McCulloh was Scots (or perhaps Scots-Irish) by origin, and a successful London merchant by the 1730s.He had somehow come under the patronage of Colonel Martin Bladen, perhaps the most influential member of the Board of Trade, and had in turn his own young protege-Gabriel Johnston-who was appointed governor of North Carolina in 1734.All three men and many others were involved in a scheme to reassert royal authority in North Carolina by engrossing certain choice Cape Fear lands. The ostensible rationale behind the various land grants McCulloh and others received was to populate the region and to grownaval stores and other raw materials needed in England. These Carolina schemes were typical of many projected at the time.5 The principal complaint against McCulloh and his associates was not that they were engrossing land, but that they were using royalauthority to grab it from local speculators. Although Governor Johnston assisted in some of the earlier operations, he found it politic to support local interests in opposition to an attempt by a number ofmerchants backed byMcCulloh to acquire a grant of over a million acres. Undoubtedly regarding Johnston's action as a double-cross, McCulloh was, through the influence of Bladen, appointed in 1739as a special commissioner to investigate the land question and to enforce the collection of unpaid quitrents to the crown. In 1740 the governor and the assembly, in alliance, passed an act substantially reducing the grant. McCulloh had the law disallowed, and after his arrival on the scene in North Carolina in 1741fought desperately to protect his position, insisting on quitrent exemption for his own lands and fee payment for those of others. Although partially settling his own claims in 1746,McCulloh, having fished in the troubled waters of Carolina politics, returned to Britain in 1747to defend his own activities and to fight Johnston. Back in England, McCulloh's influence at the Board of Trade continued to be considerable. Associated with Arthur Dobbs, he nearly succeeded in getting Johnston removed from...