[Illustration: COMMISSION OF LOUIS DE ROSSET AS CAPTAIN IN THE FRENCH ARMY, SIGNED BY LOUIS XIV., AND COUNTERSIGNED BY TELLIER.] It was in the dissensions preceding the Revolution that Wilmington first assumed the position of leadership in the Province. She had no single man superior to Iredell or Johnston of Edenton, but there were in Wilmington, and residing in the country around, a larger number of men than could be found in any other portion of the Province of like commanding character and eminent ability. Wilmington may fairly claim the first place among all the towns of America for resistance to the Stamp Act. Governor Tryon, in his despatches, tells us how Colonel Ashe, with the militia of New Hanover County, came openly to the Governor’s house in Brunswick and compelled William Houston, the stamp master, who had gone to the Governor for protection, to go with them to Wilmington, and before the Mayor, Moses John de Rosset, and the City Council, in the Court-House, to resign his office and to take an oath that he would not receive the stamps. He also says that upon the arrival of the sloop of war _Diligence_ at Brunswick with the stamps, they were not landed, as there was no person to receive them. But he neglects to give the true reason, which was that the men of New Hanover, under Colonel Waddell, assembled at Brunswick and notified the commander of the _Diligence_ that they would not allow the stamps to be landed. A few weeks later, when Captain Lobb, of the _Viper_, had seized two vessels in the harbor for the want of proper papers bearing the required stamps, the men of Wilmington, this time under the lead of Moore, Harnett, Lillington, Lloyd and Ashe, in defiance of two armed vessels, the _Viper_ and the _Diligence_, compelled the surrender of the vessels which had been seized, to the great disgust of the Governor. All these actions were open and undisguised, the people of the country assembling in arms under their chosen leaders, and compelling both the civil and the naval authorities to yield to their demands. [Illustration: HUGH WADDELL.]