Royal governor; born in
Ireland about 1725; became an officer in the
British army, and married Miss Wake, a beautiful and accomplished kinswoman of the
Earl of Hillsborough, the
secretary of state for the colonies, Through him
Tryon procured the office of lieutenant-governor of
North Carolina in 1764, and on the death of
Governor Dobbs, in 1765, he was appointed governor.
He was fond of ostentatious display, and built a palace at
Newberne at an expense to the colony of $25,000. To gain this appropriation,
Lady Tryon and her beautiful sister, Esther Wake, gave brilliant balls and dinner-parties to the members of the legislature, and used every blandishment
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they possessed.
The taxes on account of this palace added greatly to the burdens of the people, and brought about the “Regulator” movement in the western counties.
The history of
Tryon's administration in
North Carolina is a record of folly, extortion, and crime, and he gained the name of “The Wolf of
North Carolina.”
He was governor of New York when the
Revolutionary War broke out, and he was the last governor of that province appointed by the crown.
Compelled to take refuge from the Sons of Liberty on board a vessel in New York Harbor, it proved to be a permanent abdication.
He entered the
British military service, and engaged in several disreputable marauding expeditions.
His property in
North Carolina was confiscated.
He went to
England in 1780, and became lieutenant-general in 1782.
He died in
London,
England, Feb. 27, 1788.
