Zealots once plotted to assassinate NC’s 1st governor. It’s getting a historic marker
This week, North Carolina will formally recognize a long-forgotten plot to murder its first governor, seize a cache of gunpowder and start a holy rebellion in the early days of independence — a web of 18th-century intrigue hatched in a field full of pumpkins.
The Gourd Patch Conspiracy has largely disappeared from popular Tar Heel legend, perhaps because its fun-sounding name hides the violence these farmers imagined for their leaders in state government, all of them brand-new to the job.
But on Wednesday, this band of ardent Anglicans and its hatred of all things Catholic will get its own NC Highway Historical Marker in Tarboro, not far from the swampy grounds where their ringleader first called the roll.
“It seems a strange tale from an obscure place,” writes historian Brendan McConville in his book The Brethren. “...For those living in the Albermarle the moment of independence was a time of fear and bewilderment during which the familiar became strange and neighbors sometimes turned violently against each other.”
Unified under a terrifying menace: popes
In 1776, after colonists famously thumbed their noses at Great Britain, North Carolina composed its first state Constitution without any state religion, adopting a policy of tolerance toward all.
However noble, this move sat poorly with the planters around Martin, Tyrrell, Pitt and Bertie counties, many of whom wanted very much for the state religion to remain ardently, officially and exclusively Protestant. They feared the Continental Army might seek aid from Catholic France and Spain, both of which, to their minds, took orders directly from Satan.
John Lewellen, the plot’s leader, united his neighbors around a terrifying menace: Popery.
“Many colonists had learned every Sunday since their birth that their freedom as British subjects was constantly under threat from Catholics under the devil’s influence,” according to MosaicNC, the digital publishing arms of the NC Archives. “Now suddenly they heard that it was only through a Catholic alliance that Americans could truly be free.”
Secret Club Handshake
The anti-Catholic gang called itself The Brethren, and however overzealous and distastefully intolerant they might have been, they dreamed up some cool secret club stuff — especially the codes.
Newbies got a special club stick with three notches cut into it. If they wanted to join in any of the secret doings, they had to find a “senior warden,” show them the stick and follow this script:
“A sign.”
“What sign?”
“The sign of a secret.”
“Have you that secret?”
“I have. ”
From there, a young member of the Brethren spoke the password: “Be True.”
Now, like any militia inspired by inflexible religious beliefs, these folks wanted firepower and plenty of it. They hatched a plan to swipe the gunpowder magazine in Halifax, and they met in the Martin County pumpkin patch near Lewellen’s home to hash out how to manage this holy task.
As leader, Lewellen thought it best to carry out this raid while Gov. Richard Caswell was planning a visit. But when they got there, Caswell had evidently changed his plans, so the gang of roughly 30 turned around and tried for the secondary gunpowder target in Tarboro, where they were promptly placed under arrest.
The NC governor grants would-be assassin a pardon
The state’s legal system was only a few months old, and suddenly it was trying a man for treason and sentencing him to death by hanging. And suddenly Caswell, governor for only a hot minute, found himself fielding a long line of pleas to spare Lewellen’s life, including an in-person from his wife, Mary.
Caswell granted his would-be assassin a pardon — North Carolina’s first.
So what to make of these pumpkin patch insurgents?
I’m trying to think of any modern parallels: a group of people so angry about a change in the government they oppose it violently, fail and seek a pardon.
Thinking. Thinking.
No matter. Peace prevails.
Gourd Patch Conspiracy marker dedication in Tarboro
The marker commemorating the Gourd Patch Conspiracy will be dedicated at 1 p.m. Wednesday at 14189 NC 42 in Tarboro.
This story was originally published January 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Zealots once plotted to assassinate NC’s 1st governor. It’s getting a historic marker."