Lord Proprietors

The title of Lord Proprietor was a position akin to head landlord or overseer of a territory. It was not a title of peerage or nobility, although it was occasionally hereditary. Lords Proprietor oversaw a territory on behalf of a higher sovereign; for example the Isle of Mann and Isles of Scilly are ruled by a Lord Proprietor on behalf of the British Sovereign.

There were eight Lords Proprietor of the Province of Carolina. By 1729, when seven of their descendants, all but the heir of Carteret, had sold their shares to the Crown, the province had been split into two provinces: North Carolina and South Carolina.

• George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (1608–1670)
• Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674)
• John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton (1602–1678)
• William Craven, 1st Earl of Craven (1608–1697)
• Sir George Carteret (c. 1610–1680)
• Sir William Berkeley (1605–1677)
• Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet (1608–1666)
• Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–1683).