ARCHDALE, arch-dal, John, American colonial governor: b. Buckinghamshire, Eng land, probably about 1635. Ferdinando Gorges, the fast proprietor of Maine, married his sister Mary in 1660, and in 1664 sent him to Maine to set up Gorges government afresh in opposi tion to Massachusetts, under whose protection the settlements there had placed themselves.
(See GORGES). They resisted Archdale so fiercely that the next year he sailed for home, entirely baffled. In May 1681 he acquired a dubious title to a share in the proprietorship of the Carolinas, and in 1682 the proprietors commissioned him to come over and receive their rents from ((Albemarle' (North Caro lina). He was there by 1683, with the intention of settling permanently (as his daughter did) —perhaps drawn by a liking for the Quakers in the colony, he having been converted by George Fox. A few years later, however, he returned to England, and was one of the chief managers of the proprietary affairs. In 1688 he appears on depositions in the Gorges matter, private claims being still unsettled; but there is no evidence that he visited Maine again. In 1694, the Carolina proprietors needing some manager on the spot he was induced to become governor of South and North Carolina by the title of ulandgrave" and the attendant barony of 48,000 acres; but it was not till 17 Aug. 1695 that he assumed the government at Charleston, and he retained it but a year, then turning it over to a deputy and returning to England again. The complimentary address of
the assembly on his departure .has been taken literally as a proof of influential and pregnant statesmanship; but in fact he dissolved his first assembly in haste from a quarrel over abatement of quit-rents, compromised with the second, left the Huguenots unenfranchised and the unsatisfactory Indian trade as it was and made no strong impress. His spirit was good, however: he treated the Indians with humanity and modified some hard restrictions on them; drew up a militia act (into which the assem bly unanimously refused to put a clause ex empting the Quakers), and established a bureau of public charities.
He is also credited with having introduced rice culture into the Carolinas, through a bag of rice which a merchant vessel brought from Madagascar and he distributed among his friends.
In 1698, elected a member of Parliament, he refused to take the oath; would only affirm, and was not permitted to take his seat. In 1707 appeared New Description of that Fertile and Pleasant Province of Carolina,) by him, a vindication of his administration, of little value except for some original documents.