An Act Setting Up the Town and Its First School—1783We give the law, in large part, as follows:
“Whereas, the establishing of public schools at convenient places for the education of youth will be attended with great advantage to the inhabitants of this State;
“Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the same, that George Mitchell, Reuben Grant, William Nelms, Joseph Lillibridge and John Pasteur, Esquires, be and they are hereby constituted and appointed trustees with full power and authority to receive into their hands and possession all monies which have been heretofore or may be hereafter subscribed for the purpose of erecting a public school in the village commonly called New-Town, at the mouth of White Oak River in Onslow County, and to ask for and demand of the several subscribers all sums by them respectively subscribed; and in case of refusal by any of them to pay the same, to sue for and recover by action of debt in the name of the trustees, the sum which the person so refusing shall have subscribed . . . and the monies when collected to be applied by the said trustees . . . towards purchasing a lot of ground in the said village and for erecting thereon a suitable and convenient house, to contract with and employ tutors, and to perform every act and thing they or a majority of them shall think necessary for the advancement and promotion of the said school.
“And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said village of New-Town shall be and is hereby erected into a town by the name of Swannsboro, and that the trustees for the school aforesaid shall be and they are hereby appointed commissioners of the said town.” And should any of the commissioners die or resign, the remaining commissioners were to nominate others in their stead.
The town commissioners were to pass such rules and others “as to them shall seem meet for removing all nuisances within the bounds of the said town, for persons to remove dirt and rubbish from before their doors, to grub and clean their lots, for pulling down all wooden chimneys built in the said town, and prevent the building thereof for the future, in order to prevent danger by fire.” Six months notice was to be given the owners of wooden chimneys already built.
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