John Culpeper, an early political leader of the provinces of North and South Carolina, was a refugee from the southern or Clarendon colony, and in 1678 was the head of an insurrection in the northern or Albemarle colony in favor of popular liberty. The navigation acts, by which excessive taxation was imposed on commerce, and an abridgment of political freedom by the "denial of a free election of an assembly," were the chief grievances. Under his direction, the people deposed the president and deputies of the proprietaries, seized the public funds, appointed new magistrates and judges, called a parliament, and took all the functions of government into their own hands; after which they sent Culpeper to England to negotiate a compromise. He was indicted for high treason, but through the influence of Shaftesbury was acquitted on the ground that no regular government had existed in Albemarle. He returned to Carolina, and in 1680 laid out the city of Charleston, reducing the paths, streets, and squares to comparative regularity, and enclosing the town site with a line of fortifications.