Samuel Stephens was the Governor of the Albemarle colony (which would later become North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

) from 1667 until his death in late 1669. He was appointed by the Lords Proprietor

Lords Proprietor

Lords Proprietor was the name for the chief or highest owners or proprietors of certain English proprietary colonies in America, such as Carolina, New Jersey and Barbados....

 to succeed William Drummond

William Drummond (colonial governor)

William Drummond was the first colonial governor of Albemarle Sound settlement in the Province of Carolina and a participant in Bacon's Rebellion....

.

Before King Charles II of England

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 established the Province of Carolina

Province of Carolina

The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...

, Stephens had served as "commander of the southern plantations" for the Colony of Virginia between 1662 and 1664. The "southern plantations" roughly corresponded to what would later be northeastern North Carolina.