Arthur Dobbs was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on April 2, 1689. A longtime bureaucrat in the British government, Dobbs held numerous posts from survey-general of Ireland to royal governor of North Carolina (1754-65). He died in North Carolina on March 28, 1765.

John Dalrymple was born circa 1705 most likely in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dalrymple was a British army officer who served as commander of Fort Johnston (Brunswick County) in the 1750s and 1760s. Sometime before 1760 he left North Carolina and went to England without permission, leaving Fort Johnston without a commander during wartime. Dalrymple reappeared in 1762 ready to resume his post, but Governor Arthur Dobbs had him arrested instead.