Scarborough, Macrora

1693–1752

Macrora Scarborough, colonial official, sprang from the Quaker Scarboroughs of Pasquotank Precinct, although there is no indication that Macrora was a practicing Friend as an adult. He was appointed a justice of the peace for Pasquotank in April 1724 and served as one of the precinct's assemblymen in 1725–26. Subsequent terms in the lower house in 1731, 1739–40, and 1743–45 were served from Perquimans.

Shortly after George Burrington became royal governor early in 1731, Scarborough became associated with him. The governor commended Scarborough to the Board of Trade for appointment to the Royal Council as early as 1731. In October 1732 Burrington placed him on the General Court, where Scarborough worked with Chief Justice William Little to protect the governor's interests. With his government collapsing around him, Burrington made an emergency appointment of Scarborough to the Council in September 1734, but it was voided two months later with the arrival of Gabriel Johnston as North Carolina's new royal governor.

Scarborough was named treasurer for Perquimans County in 1739 and held the office for five years. Around 1740 he married a widow named Elizabeth Reed. At his death early in 1752, he had three sons and a daughter: Benjamin, Macrora, William, and Elizabeth. After 1745 he withdrew from political life and tended to his several plantations in Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.