Chief Nicholas (Nick) Major

In the spring of 1711, Nick Major, a Meherrin “chief and “Several of the old men of the Meherrin Indians 69 and upwards” were examined by North Carolina Commissioners Edward Moseley and John Lawson regarding the Weyanock Indian towns and the names of the rivers, in hopes of settling the boundary dispute (Document B-33). Nick Major commented that he knew a Tuscarora queen and two kings “very well.”

The Surveyor John Lawson was put on trial and executed by the Tuscarora in the events that led up to the Tuscarora war. Barron de Graffen Reed, who witnessed this, said that a Meherrin man named Nick Major was a participating member of the Tuscarora Council. (The Colonial Records of North Carolina, Second Series – Volume VII
– Records of the Executive Council – 1674-1734. pp 167-169)