Granville District

The Granville District (or Granville's district) was an approximately 60-mile wide strip of land in the North Carolina colony adjoining the boundary with the Province of Virginia, lying between north latitudes 35° 34' and 36° 30'. From 1663 until 1779, the District was held under control of the descendants of Sir George Carteret, one of the original Lords Proprietor of the Province of Carolina. After 1729, the Granville District's land allotment totaled nearly half of the land in North Carolina.

The area that became the Granville District had been a part of the Province of Carolina, which was a proprietary colony under the control of eight Lords Proprietor from 1663 to 1729. In 1729, seven of the eight heirs to the original Lords Proprietor decided to sell their shares back to The Crown.

The eighth share belonged to Lord Carteret, great-grandson of original Lord Proprietor, Sir George Carteret. He surrendered any future participation in the colonial government in order to retain ownership of his share of the colony's land.

Due to political reversals in England, Carteret was unable to attend to his colonial interests until 1742. Then he appointed the first of several agents to operate on his authority for the district that he never visited in person. In 1742, the king's Privy Council agreed to Carteret's request to plan his allotment. The task was given to Samuel Warner, a London surveyor, who determined that Carteret was entitled to fifty-six and a quarter minutes of north latitude. The northern boundary was to be the Virginia–North Carolina border (36° 30') making the southern line at 35° 34'. In 1743, the initial portion of the boundary line was surveyed by a commission appointed jointly by Carteret and North Carolina Governor Gabriel Johnston. As the frontier pushed further westward, the boundary line was extended in 1746, and again in 1753.

In 1744, Carteret inherited the title, Earl of Granville, and from that time on, the district became known as Granville's district or simply, the Granville District. After the 1753 extension, other area land owners, including governor Arthur Dobbs, began to complain that the line had been run up to 13 and a half miles too far to the south. This caused some resentment of Granville's district because the royal government of North Carolina was still responsible for the security and upkeep of the area, but did not receive any revenue from it.

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