At the same time, a trouble spot had developed in southwestern Dobbs County as is indicated by the following letter to Governor Caswell from Stephen Cobb who resided near where the present town of Goldsboro stands: 

26th July 1779 

Dear Sir: Mr. John Barefoot informed me yesterday that he saw one Stanly that was confined in Kingston to a bar of lead, and has since been two or three days and nights with the Bass’s in the woods. He told Mr. Barefoot that Moses Bass told him that while he was confined in Kingston, he watched several days for an opportunity to get a loaded gun, and said if he could get one he would be damned to hell if he did not waylay the road from your house to Kingston and kill you as you passed, for you passed every day that way. If you can see Stanly you can inform yourself of their behavior while he was with them. I am informed that they are determined to kill me and jas. Simms and every other person that attempts to take them, if they can, and are determined to fight as long as life subsists. I have tried everything and way in my power to take them without killing them, but to no purpose. I have lived sometime in expectation of the State Regiment coming up and Captain Harrison appointed to be up last Saturday to try to take them, but he failed to come. If neither the State Regiment nor Captain Harrison” will not come up, I wish if in your power you’ll send me a warrant to take them dead or alive, and to destroy what they have if they will not surrender themselves; and I will endeavor to get some men in whom I can confide and encamp myself in the woods where they pass and try lives with them, as I cannot be satisfied to live so; and I do not believe they will surrender till some of them are killed, tho’ I had much rather that a part of the State Regiment or Captain Harrison would come up and do something with them as I expect every time I go out of sight of my house to be shot from behind some log, bush or thick place. 

I am, Dear Sir, Your Most Obedient Servant, 

Stephen Cobb” 

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With reference to Caswell’s influence in the Halifax Convention, John D. Toomer, speaking at a State Constitutional Convention in Raleigh in November 1835, stated:

A Congress was convened in Halifax in 1776 to form a Constitution for our State. The most popular man in the country was Richard Caswell who was President of that Congress and the most influential member in that body. On the ratification of the Constitution, he signed it as presiding oflicer. Such was his influence in that body that tradition says he dictated the principles if not the terms of the instrument.

The Halifax Convention also appointed Justices of the Peace to conduct the civil government of the several counties. Justices appointed for Dobbs County were Thomas Edwards (Hookerton), Henry Goodman (Southwest Creek), Robert Simms (Wayne County area), William Hooker (Rainbow Mill section of Greene County), Thomas Williams (near present Walston— burg), William Whitfield, Junior (near Seven Springs section), Robert White, Junior (Kinston area south side of Neuse), George Miller (Kinston), Joseph Pipkin (Grantham section of present Wayne County), Constantine Whitfield (Whitfield’s Ferry on Neuse River south of La Grange), John Cobb (Kinston), Joshua Herring (Falling Creek), William Sasser (Stoney Creek Church area—now near Goldsboro), Spyers Singleton (between Hookerton and Snow Hill) and Etheldred Ruflin (Ruflin’s Bridge—formerly Peacock’s Bridge near Stantons— burg)? 

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