© 2023 Public Radio East
Public Radio For Eastern North Carolina 89.3 WTEB New Bern 88.5 WZNB New Bern 91.5 WBJD Atlantic Beach 90.3 WKNS Kinston 88.1 W201AO Greenville 88.5 WHYC Swan Quarter
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations

A 200-year-old duel documented in merchant's ledger

Published May 1, 2023 at 1:43 PM EDT
Jim Hodges, a curator at the New Bern Historical Society, studies the collection of historical books and documents collected by the historical society, including the John Oliver ledger, which recorded the infamous Stanly-Spaight duel.
Ryan Shaffer
/
PRE News & Ideas
Jim Hodges, a curator at the New Bern Historical Society, studies the collection of historical books and documents collected by the historical society, including the John Oliver ledger, which recorded the infamous Stanly-Spaight duel.

"Killed in a duel with Mr. John Stanley at the fourth fire. I was present and saw him fall." - J. Oliver

Those are the words written in John Oliver's ledger. Oliver was a merchant in New Bern who had accounts with many of the town's political powerhouses, including Richard Dobbs-Spaight, North Carolina's eighth governor and an American Founding Father.

He died on September 6, 1802, in New Bern in a duel with his long-standing political rival John Stanley. What is perhaps the only surviving written account of the duel is in John Oliver's ledger. The ledger is stored in the archives of the New Bern Historical Society.