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
Lawrence Dundas, 1st Earl of Zetland Lawrence Dundas, 1st Earl of Zetland Lawrence Dundas, 1st Earl of Zetland (10 April 1766 – 19 February 1839) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1790 to 1820 when he was raised to the peerage. Dundas was the son of Thomas Dundas, 1st Baron Dundas and was born in Westminster on 10 April 1766. He was educated at Harrow and was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge. He married Harriet Hale, one of the twenty-one children of General John Hale and his wife Mary Chaloner, by whom he had three sons and four daughters. Dundas