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Type: Hidden History
County: Anson

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In a copse of trees at the summit of a hilly cornfield, on a peninsula between Buffalo Creek and Blewett Falls Lake on the Pee Dee River, lies the Patriot namesake of Wadesboro. The first Anson County Courthouse was steps away. A mile south, the homesite and grave of a Patriot who held court there are behind the gates (at the coordinates) of the community named for him, Spencer Pointe. This page tells three related stories linked to these sites out of public view.¹

Please respect the property rights of the owners protecting them by not trespassing.

Description

Anson County Courthouse

In the decade before the American Revolution, people in what then was the western half of the Province of North Carolina—now the Piedmont and foothills—were protesting corrupt officials, and provincial taxes and court fees they considered unfair. They called themselves the “Regulators.”

An 1894 history of the Regulators explains the problem of the “courthouse ring” in much-larger Anson County: “Samuel Spencer was at once clerk of the county, assemblyman, and colonel of the county militia. Anthony Hutchins had formerly been sheriff, and as such was behind with his accounts, and was charged with having fraudulently conveyed his land to escape payment. He was now a justice of the county court. Charles Medlock had also been sheriff, and was behind with his accounts. He also was a justice. These three men managed the politics of the county. The sheriff, justices, and other officers were all appointed on their recommendation.”²

The Anson County Courthouse where they served was a 1755 log building surrounded by the Mount Pleasant Plantation.³ A ravine to the northeast may have provided visitors an easy route from the Pee Dee River, the highway of its day. By whatever route, Regulators showed up in force to express their complaints in 1768.

Spencer wrote Royal Gov. William Tryon that on Thursday, April 21, there “came up to the Court House… about forty armed with Clubs and some Fire Arms and before the opening of the Court, took possession of the Court House and soon gave out that no Court should be held there.”⁴ The court met quarterly, and this was supposed to be the first day of the new term. The other justices made themselves scarce, while he waited things out in a separate office nearby. Apparently he was a stickler for procedure: Late in the afternoon, he tried to get into the courthouse to officially open and then adjourn court for the day. Friends stopped him halfway and offered to negotiate with the Regulators. They convinced the mob that bloodshed would result if they continued to block the court, and the term eventually got under way.

A week later, the justices were at work inside when nearly 100 men appeared outside, many carrying hunting weapons, led by Patrick Broggan. The door opened, and Spencer stepped out. He demanded to know what the group wanted. “They told me they came to settle some matters to the county for which they wanted use of the Court House.’” He went back in and returned with a law book, from which he read them the British law “against riot and unlawful Assembly”—that is, he literally read them the Riot Act!

The men were unimpressed. “They seemed great (sic) exasperated and lifted their clubs and threatened.” But then, “the mob grew laxer and asked to come in and present grievances.”

Spencer wisely stepped aside and the “mob” entered. A question-and-answer session ensued between them and Spencer on taxes, and then they forced the other magistrates off the bench. They threatened to take the court records, and Spencer threatened to kill anyone who tried. The Regulators debated tearing down the jail and courthouse. They declared they would refuse to pay their taxes, and selected their own delegate to the colonial legislature.

Apparently that day they wrote a document Spencer copied for Tryon. After declaring that “the Tax for the present year is very high” and money was scarce, they wrote out an oath: If officials tried to take property in lieu of taxes from any signer, or arrest that person, the others would gather to free him or his property by force.⁵ Their point made, they then left peacefully.

Perhaps that day, the Regulators also wrote a petition directly to Tryon. Among their complaints was, “Innocent persons are committed to jail by the jailor himself, being a magistrate, then put to considerable expense, and then discharged.” They complained that the sheriffs collected illegal taxes, and charged people they didn’t know more than those they did.⁶

The petition adds, “‘no people have a right to be taxed without by consent of themselves or their delegates.’” This somewhat garbled statement was the first written complaint sent to British authorities in the colonies against what later was termed “taxation without representation.” The Regulators’ point related to the fact county officials were appointed instead of elected. But they merely asked Tryon to “remove most of the magistrates from their seats, and appoint better men.” Ninety-nine men signed it.

Tryon took no action other than sending them a copy of his July order for officials to publish a list of fees and only charge what the law allowed. Privately, he called the Regulator’s oath illegal and authorized Spencer to call out the militia if needed.⁷

Wade Grave

Near the courthouse site in a small stand of trees is a boulder referred to as “Indian Execution Rock.” The name is based on a local tradition that Catawba Indians used it for that purpose. Supposedly red liquid sometimes appears on the rock on humid days, likely due to its iron content, clearly visible on the rock’s surface. There is no evidence the Catawbas killed anyone there.

As shown on plaques on and beside the rock, close by is the grave of Col. Thomas Wade, owner of Mount Pleasant during the Revolution. Wade was a Patriot militia leader who played a significant role in suppressing Loyalist (“Tory”) activity throughout the state. He was a leader at the “Tory War” battles of Beattie’s Bridge, Raft Swamp, and Lindley’s Mill. (Read a short biography.) Several small, unmarked fieldstones stand near the rock, but his exact grave is unknown.⁸

His home was nearby. In June 1780 Tory forces gathered there while he was away. They used it as a headquarters for a while, and stole the modern equivalent of millions of dollars plus crops.⁹

The courthouse was likely a muster point for Patriot militia throughout the war. One source says, for example, that a large force gathered there on Thursday, July 20, 1780. From there it joined the Continental Army on the way to a terrible defeat at the Battle of Camden (S.C.).¹⁰

Nearby Wadesboro was founded in 1783 by Wade and Broggan, his brother-in-law, who also served in the Revolution. Broggan’s home, built that year, still stands as a museum.

Samuel Spencer Home

Spencer, a graduate of what became Princeton University, lived a mile south of the courthouse near Smith Creek. He probably married Sybil Tisdale, of New Bern, the December after his confrontation with the Regulators.¹¹ Spencer marched with Tryon against the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance, which ended their movement.

When Revolution came, however, he joined the Patriot cause. After the colonial governor took refuge on a ship at the mouth of the Cape Fear River in June 1775, a Loyalist reported to him that Spencer “was persuading the People to sign the Association of the (Continental) Congress and… said that His Majesty George the Third had broke his Coronation Oath…”¹² Spencer led a meeting in the courthouse to form the rebellious Committee of Safety for Anson County.

When a government for the new state of North Carolina was formed in 1776, Spencer was named one of its first Superior Court judges. As such, he joined in the first judgment in the nascent United States to declare a law unconstitutional. As a delegate after the war to the state convention to consider the draft U.S. Constitution in Hillsborough, he voted against it due to the lack of a Bill of Rights.

Sadly, he is perhaps best known for his demise. One day in 1793, Spencer was napping on a chair in the yard or on his porch. He was wearing a red stocking cap. A wild turkey approached, and was attracted by the bouncing cap. The bird attacked Spencer, leaving him with severe scratches on his neck and head before he could fight it off. He died of an infection from the wounds. One historian says he “may hold the dubious distinction of being the only veteran of the fight for independence who was killed by a turkey.”¹³

The Anson County Historical Society now owns his homesite. The society constructed a round monument atop the old homesite well in 1973 using “curbstones” from its lining.¹⁴ The Spencer family graveyard was moved to the site, with Samuel Spencer, who lies for eternity steps away from the site of his feathery doom.

More Information

• ‘Anson County Historical Society’ <http://www.ansonhistoricalsociety.org/home.html> [accessed 17 March 2020]
• ‘Association by Some Inhabitants of Anson County Concerning the Payment of Taxes’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, April 1768 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr07-0284> [accessed 12 June 2026]
• ‘Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina’, 2010 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/912/> [accessed 14 February 2020]
• ‘Dedication of Judge Samuel Spencer Well and Homesite’, Pamphlet, Anson County Historical Society, Inc., 15 August 1973, Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Dedication of Judge Samuel Spencer Well & Homesite’
• ‘Spencer’, Handwritten document, Wadesboro, N.C., n.d., Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Spencer: Dunlap Collection’
• ‘Thomas Wade’, Typewritten document, n.d., Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Wade’
• ‘Wade Family, Anson County (Abstracts)’, n.d., Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Wade: Ingram’
• Barefoot, Daniel, Touring North Carolina’s Revolutionary War Sites (Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, Publisher, 1998)
• Bassett, John S., ‘John Spencer Bassett, 1867-1928. The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771)’, Documenting the American South, 1894 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/bassett95/bassett95.html> [accessed 4 May 2020]
• Boggan, W. K., ‘Colonel Thomas Wade: Distinguished Citizen, Patriot and Soldier’, October 1927, Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Colonel Thomas Wade’
• Copeland, J. Isaac, and Jerry Cashion, ‘Spencer, Samuel’, NCpedia, 1994 <https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/spencer-samuel> [accessed 15 February 2020]
• Cotton, James, ‘Deposition of James Cotton Concerning Treatment of Loyalists in Anson County, Volume 10, Pages 127-129’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, 1775 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr10-0066> [accessed 23 May 2023]
• Crofts, et al., Solomon, ‘Petition from Inhabitants of Anson County Concerning Taxes and Fees for Public Officials, Volume 07, Pages 806-809’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, 1768 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr07-0332> [accessed 12 June 2026]
• Dalton, Carol, ‘Wade, Thomas’, NCpedia, 1996 <https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/wade-thomas> [accessed 15 February 2020]
• Ingram, Mrs. Benjamin, ‘Colonel Thomas Wade: Distinguished Citizen, Patriot and Soldier’, Wadesboro, N.C., n.d., Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Wade: Ingram’
• Lewis, J. D., ‘A History of Anson Court House, North Carolina’, Carolana, 2007 <https://www.carolana.com/NC/Towns/Anson_CH_NC.html> [accessed 14 February 2020]
• Medley, Mary, History of Anson County, North Carolina, 1750-1976 (Anson County Historical Society, 1976)
• Sherman, Wm. Thomas, Calendar and Record of the Revolutionary War in the South: 1780-1781, Tenth Edition (Seattle, WA: Gun Jones Publishing, 2007) <https://www.americanrevolution.org/calendar_south_10_ed_update_2017.pdf>
• Spencer, M. G. ‘Jerry’, ‘Change the Records! Regarding Judge Samuel Spencer’, Le Despencer, 29.3 (2005), Hampton B. Allen Library, Vertical Files, ‘Dedication of Judge Samuel Spencer Well & Homesite’
• Spencer, Samuel, ‘Letter from Samuel Spencer to William Tryon, Volume 07, Pages 722-726’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, 28 April 1768 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr07-0283#p7-722> [accessed 12 June 2026]
• Tryon, William, ‘Letter from William Tryon to Samuel Spencer, Volume 07, Pages 727-728’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, May 1768 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr07-0285> [accessed 12 June 2026]
• Wade, Thomas, ‘Letter from Thomas Wade to Abner Nash, Volume 14, Pages 865-866’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, 28 June 1780 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr14-0829> [accessed 13 June 2026]
• Wheeler, John Hill, Historical Sketches of North Carolina, from 1584 to 1851; Compiled from Original Records, Official Documents, and Traditional Statements, with Biographical Sketches of Her Distinguished Statesmen, Jurists, Lawyers, Soldiers, Divines, Etc. (Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., 1851) <http://archive.org/details/historicalsketch01wheeuoft> [accessed 12 June 2026]
• Williams, Samuel, ‘Deposition of Samuel Williams Concerning Treatment of Loyalists in Anson County, Volume 10, Pages 125-126’, Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, 1775 <https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr10-0066> [accessed 23 May 2023]