Austyn Farber, Susan Griffin, and Shane Mason, Historic Interpreters
As a child, Susan Griffin visited Tryon Palace with her grandmother. It was the first permanent royal capitol of North Carolina and known by the name of the royal governor who built it. Griffin’s grandmother, however, gave the Palace another name: Caswell’s Capital.
Richard Caswell was more than just the first state governor. Once a loyal servant of the Crown, Caswell eventually became a rebellious patriot. He participated in all five NC Provincial Congresses, represented North Carolina at multiple Continental Congresses, was general of the North Carolina militia, served three terms as governor of North Carolina, and was a major contributor to the first North Carolina State Constitution.1 And he did much of this from the former royal governor’s house in New Bern. The building became Caswell’s capital.
Years later, Griffin—by then a historic interpreter and full-time member of Tryon Palace’s Education Branch—saw the approaching America 250th as an opportunity to tell Caswell’s story. In August 2022, she and fellow interpreter Shane Mason discussed and developed a special tour focusing on the lead up to and events of the American Revolution. After two years of researching and documenting, Griffin and Mason were joined by interpreter Austyn Farber in 2024—just in time to put the finishing touches on the tour before the 250th Anniversary arrived. Farber, with a background in North Carolina Revolutionary War history, reset one of the unused second floor rooms in the Palace as the Revolutionary War Gallery, creating a space with flags, maps, and reproduction uniforms. She expanded the tour to include North Carolina’s role within the broader context of the war. With those final touches, the new tour was ready: Discovering Tryon Palace: Caswell’s Capital.
First and foremost, the Caswell’s Capital tour is a North Carolina Revolutionary War tour and serves as a sequel to the standard Tryon Palace tour. It provides a richer context for aspects of the American Revolution. If you have ever wondered what North Carolina contributed to the war or what happened to our former royal governors after they left the colony, if you are curious about royal Governor Josiah Martin fleeing Tryon Palace or about the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, this is the tour for you.
Caswell’s Capital runs on the first and third Thursday of the month at 3:30pm. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TryonPalace.org.