Curiosity gets the better of me

In the past few weeks, I have been reading an excellent book and resource called, From Frontier to Factory: An Architectural History of Winston-Salem, written by Gwynne Taylor, in 1981. It can be downloaded (big file) here http://www.cityofws.org/Assets/CityOfWS//Documents/Planning/HRC/Frontier_to_Factory/Frontier_To_Factory.pdf



On pg. 1 of the introduction, it states that Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenburg chose 100,000 acres in the heart of what is now known as Forsyth County (known as the Wachovia tract and constitutes 37% of the current land in Forsyth County). It says that it was deeded to the Moravians by Lord Granville in 1752.


I don't know why, but I started to wonder who Lord Granville was and how did he come to own this land that was sold to the Moravians. Here is what I found out. Lord Granville inherited a portion of his great grandfather's holdings along with other relatives. His great grandfather was given the land by the King of England (Charles II) for his loyalty during his time where the monarchy was overthrown by the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War.

Here is an interesting link about how Lord Granville sold his lands in North Carolina.
http://www.co.davidson.nc.us/leisure/AcquiringLandintheYadkinValley.aspx

All of this information is very brief and clearly could even be slightly inaccurate, in the sense that I use Wikipedia to reference some of the findings. If you really want to learn more you should visit this tremendous resource right here in the heart of Winston-Salem in Old Salem, called the Moravian Archives.