(1663), was granted by King Charles II to Sir William Berkeley and the seven other lord proprietors. Named “Carolana” or “Charles’land,” after King Charles I of England, it had initially been granted by Charles I to Sir Robert Heath, 1629. English colonists began to settle the area permanently in the in the 1650’s. The first governor, William Sayle, was a Nonconformist and allowed religious toleration to all denominations: Calvinists and Baptists from England and parts of New England, Huguenot Protestants from France, Episcopalians, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, Lutherans, German Reformed, Moravians, etc.374 Many Christians began to settle in North Carolina beginning in 1653, with some of the most notable being the Quaker missionaries. Even George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, preached there. At a later date, the Quaker family of Daniel Boone, along with others, pioneered the Yadkin River Valley along the North Carolina frontier. The first Baptist congregation was formed there in 1727, followed later by the Methodist congregations, who recognized Negro ministers and preached strongly against slavery.375
The Charter of Carolina, 1663, stated:
Being excited with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian faith. … have humbly besought leave of us … to transport and make an ample colony … unto a certain country … in the parts of America not yet cultivated or planted, and only inhabited by some barbarous people, who have no knowledge of Almighty God.376