Sometime prior to July 29, 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was governor of both the Carolinas in Charles Town, appointed as his Deputy Governor for the northern province, Col. Robert Daniell. He was already a prominent resident of South Carolina and was an ardent churchman.

Though the contemporary sources of information are very scanty, it has been maintained with a considerable degree of probability that in 1704 the passage of an Act by the North Carolina General Assembly was procured, which not only provided again for the establishment of the Church of England, but also for a religious test for office-holders in Albemarle County.

The Act provided for "a fine on any person holding a place of trust who should neglect to qualify himself by taking the oath required by law." The Act itself, like its predecessor of 1701, has been lost, but it has been supposed that it was substantially a copy of the measure which in the same year raised such a storm in South Carolina. In North Carolina, the commotion which was occasioned by the Act was almost as great.

Only a few records of his Executive Council and no records of the General Assembly under Deputy Governor Robert Daniell have survived to the present day.

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