Chatham County, North Carolina in 1771 from Orange County. It had been named in 1758 for William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who served as British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768 and opposed harsh colonial policies. In 1907, parts of Chatham County and Moore County were combined to form Lee County. While not devoted to large plantations, the county was developed for small farms, where slave labor was integral to the owners' productivity and success. By 1860 one-third of the county population were African Americans, chiefly enslaved. George Moses Horton, Historic Poet Laureate of Chatham County, (1797?-1883) lived most of his life enslaved
Earl of Kingston In 1764 Edward was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Kingston, of Rockingham in the County of Roscommon, a revival of the barony held by his kinsmen which had become extinct three years earlier. He was further honoured when he was made Viscount Kingston, of Kingsborough in the County of Sligo, in 1766, and Earl of Kingston in 1768, also in the Peerage of Ireland. He was succeeded by his son, Robert, the second Earl, who represented County Cork in the Irish House of Commons. He married his kinswoman, the heiress Caroline Fitzgerald (died 1823), daughter of Richard