BEAUFORT COUNTY
Map of Beaufort County, North Carolina
BEAUFORT COUNTYTwo Centuries of Its HistoryBy C. Wingate Reed Col. USA Retd.1962
Copyright 1962 By
COL. C. WINGATE REED
PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE U. S. A.
HENRY, DUKE OF BEAUFORT
Palatine of Carolina, 1712, in whose honor Beaufort County was named.
From an engraving in State Department of Archives and History.
TO
my wife
ANICE BRIGHT REED
Whose roots are sunk deep in Beaufort County, and whose love of her native soil is exceeded only by her patience, tolerance, and understanding. She listened many hours, read and reread each rough draft; made many valuable suggestions; proofread the completed work; and helped with the indexing. More important, she provided the encouragement that brought this work to completion.
PREFACE
HISTORY is neither the dull study of meaningless dates nor the chronicling of wars and battles. The history of a place or an area is the record of its people. Emerson correctly wrote; “There is properly no History; only Biography.” While history must record the actions of kings and generals; of dynasties and wars; if it is to be a true history, it must also record the doings of the great body of the people who constitute the strength of a county, state, or nation.
It was with this conviction firmly in mind, that I undertook the chronicling of the first two centuries of Beaufort County's history. In this work I have tried to depict the lives of the people of Beaufort County; where they settled and how they lived; their efforts to provide for their religion and education; and to develop transportation, commerce, and industry.
No political body is a separate entity. The smaller such political entity, the more necessary it becomes to refer to the larger, of which it is a part, if we are to explain the causes whose effects are exemplified by the actions of the people of the smaller entity. Beaufort County is an integral part of the the State and Nation. Hence it has at times been necessary to go beyond the bounds of the county to explain the actions of its people. When I have done so, I have leaned heavily upon Dr. Hugh T. Lefler's superior History of North Carolina. In the main, I have tried to restrict the actions and reactions, causes and effects, deeds and misdeeds recorded, to those within the bounds or direct interest of Beaufort County.
Beaufort County is one of the seven oldest counties extant in North Carolina. It is rich in history. It first came into existence as a political entity on 3 December, 1705, as Pamptecough Precinct of Bath County. In 1712 the name of Pamptecough Precinct was changed to Beaufort Precinct, in honor of Henry, Duke of Beaufort, who became Palatine of Carolina in that year. By action of the 1729 General Assembly, Beaufort Precinct became a separate county in that year. At that time (1729)
it included all of present Beaufort and Pitt counties and the northern portion of present Pamlico County.
Beaufort County lies in the coastal plane of North Carolina, roughly between 35° 15′ and 35° 40′ north latitude, and 76° 30′ and 77° 15′ west longitude. Occupying approximately 537,600 land acres, it straddles the Pamlico River from its source, at the mouth of the Tar, to its confluence with the Pungo River, a distance of about thirty-five miles.
For the material contained herein, I am obligated to hundreds of authors and officials, both living and dead. They range from Levi Truewhite, first clerk of Bath County's court, who painstakingly recorded even such triviality as John Lawson's gift of a cow to his daughter Isabella; to the Honorable Lindsay C. Warren, whose Beaufort County's Contribution to a Notable Era of North Carolina History is an epic of North Carolina political history. I also acknowledge my indebtedness to Edmund H. Harding, Beaufort County historian and humorist, who made his vast collection of early Beaufort County material available to me. Without his promotional efforts, as President of the Beaufort County Historical Society, the publication of this volume would not have been possible.
Acknowledgement is made to the Smithsonian Institution of the U. S. National Museum for the John White paintings reproduced herein; to the Journal of the Washington Academy of Science for the map showing the location of Indian nations and towns of Eastern Carolina; to the State Department of Archives and History for maps and other material provided; and to Dr. William S. Powell, Librarian of the North Carolina Collection of the University of North Carolina Library, and his staff for their assistance.
To these and many others, whose names and works are recorded in the Chapter Bibliographies, I proffer my sincere thanks. Should Dr. Lefler glance over this book, and the format strike a familiar note, I trust he will remember, “imitation is the sincerest flattery,” and bear in mind I am a novice in this complex but interesting vocation.
C. WINGATE REED
CONTENTS| Chapter | Title | Page |
| Dedication | iii | |
| Preface | v | |
| I | Red Man-White Man | 1-8 |
| II | Charles II Pays a Debt | 9-19 |
| III | Bath County and Its Precincts | 20-28 |
| IV | The People of the Pamlico | 29-42 |
| V | Bath Town | 43-56 |
| VI | The Cary Rebellion | 57-64 |
| VII | The Tuscarora War | 65-75 |
| VIII | Crown Colony, 1729-1752 | 76-88 |
| IX | Crown Colony, 1753-1775 | 89-101 |
| X | Washington | 102-113 |
| XI | War for Independence | 114-121 |
| XII | Sovereign State | 122-134 |
| XIII | Religion and the Churches | 135-150 |
| XIV | Education, Schools, and the Press | 151-160 |
| XV | Transportation, Commerce, and Industry | 161-174 |
| XVI | The War for Southern Independence | 175-191 |
| XVII | Aftermath of Defeat | 192-206 |
| Chapter Bibliographies | 207-214 |
| A | State or Federal Officials from Beaufort County | 215-216 |
| B | Members of the State or Colonial Assembly or Legislature 1697-1899 | 217-220 |
| C | Rosters of Washington Grays and Beaufort Ploughboys | 221-223 |
| D | Provost Marshals and Sheriffs of Bath and Beaufort Counties 1696-1899 | 224-225 |
| E | Freeholders, Beaufort and Hyde Precincts, 1723 | 226 |
| F | Population, 1723-1960 | 227-228 |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| Between Pages | |
| Henry, Duke of Beaufort, Palatine of Carolina—1712 | Frontispiece |
| Map of Early Algonkian Tribes and Towns | 8-9 |
| Town of Secotan, near mouth of South Creek, on Pamlico River | 8-9 |
| Secotan Hunter and Warrior | 8-9 |
| Wife of Herowan or Chief of the town of Secotan | 8-9 |
| Plan of Bath Town, with names of lot owners as of fall of 1717 | 48-49 |
| Plan of the Town of Washington, 1851 | 104-105 |
| Elmwood, the home of Colonel Allen Grist | 104-105 |
| Masthead of the newspapers Whig, August 1, 1835; the Washington Whig, February 6, 1838; and the North State Whig, April 20, 1843 | 152-153 |
| Section of Moseley Map of Eastern Carolina, 1733 | 168-169 |
RED MAN—WHITE MAN
IN THE BEGINNING there were only vast forests of giant trees; broad savannas of lush grass; pocosins, or stagnant swamps; and the wide, slow flowing Pamlico, with its many tributary creeks. Bear, deer, and a hundred lesser animals roamed unmolested by man. Then came the Indians.
From whence they came, and how long they had been on the Pamlico before the white man came, are questions that have vexed ethnologists for many years. The most generally accepted theory is that they came from Asia, many thousands of years ago. Crossing Bering Strait, they worked their way south, gradually, through the years, spreading across the continent.
The land that is now Beaufort County was occupied by two Indian tribes or nations. The Secotan Confederation occupied the extreme eastern portion of the present county, and some land south of the Pamlico. The Pomouik Nation occupied the western portion of the county, from near North Dividing Creek to Tranter's Creek.
Widely scattered Secotan towns occupied the coastal counties of North Carolina from Albemarle Sound to the Pamlico. At least two of these towns, Secotan and Secotaoc, lay south of the river. The Secotan town of Pomeioc was located near the present site of Engelhard, in Hyde County, and Aquascogok on the Pungo River, near the present site of Belhaven.
The Secotans were of the linguistic stock known as Algonquins. Their neighbors north of Albemarle Sound were of the same stock, and were their allies.
The Pomouik (Pamlico) Indians who occupied the western portion of the county, were enemies of the Secotans, and allies of the powerful Tuscarora Nation adjoining them to the west. The Pomouiks were also allies of the Neusiok Nation which occupied the Neuse River area. As the Tuscarora and Neusiok Indians were of Iroquoian linguistic stock, and close kinsmen of
the war-like Five Nations of New York, it is reasonable to assume the Pomouik Indians were of the same stock.
The first historical reference to land that is now Beaufort County, was made in 1584. Raleigh's first expedition to Carolina, or Virginia, as he called it, was made that summer. Captains Arthur Barlowe and Philip Amadas commanded the two small ships of the expedition. They anchored off Roanoke Island where they explored the immediate neighborhood, fraternized with the Secotan Indians, and made friends. Two months later, when they returned to England, Manteo and Wanchese, first of many million American tourists to later visit England, went with them.
In his report to Raleigh, Barlowe wrote of the Secotans; “(Their) King is called Wingina * * * the countrey Wingandacoa. Toward the southward four days journey is situate a towne called Sequotan, which is the southermost town of Wingandacoa.” This was the town of Secotan, located on or near Hickory Point, just west of the mouth of South Creek.
Barlowe did not venture as far south as the Pamlico River, but he provides us with our first recorded information of the Indians who occupied the western portion of Beaufort County. “Adjoyning to this countrey called Secotan beginnith a countrey called Pomouik, belonging to another king whom they call Piamacum, and this king is in league with the next king adjoyning toward the setting Sunne (Tuscarora), and the countrey Neusiok, situate on a goodly river called Neuse; these kings have mortall warre with Wingina, King of Wingandacoa.”
Barlowe's report was received enthusiastically by Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth, and others interested in “planting the English nation” in the new world. Raleigh was knighted, and the new land christened “Virginia” in honor of the virgin Queen. Encouraged by the findings of Barlowe and Amadas, Raleigh dispatched a second expedition the following year. One hundred and eight men, in a “fleet of seven ships well stocked and manned,” sailed from Plymouth, England, on 9 April, 1585. Sir Richard Grenville was in command. Ralph Lane was second in command, and was to remain as Governor when
Grenville returned to England. Captain Amadas also returned with this expedition. Thomas Heriot, a mathematician and scientist; and John White, an artist and mapmaker, were included in the expedition. The tourists, Manteo and Wanchese, returned with them.
Three months later, Grenville's fleet anchored off Wocokon (Ocracoke) Island. Manteo was sent to Roanoke Island to advise King Wingina of their arrival. Leaving his fleet at anchor off Ocracoke, Grenville took four boats; “the tiltboat, the new pinnesse, and two ship-boats, * * * passed over the water from Wocokon to the main lande victualled for eight days.” Lane, Heriot, and White accompanied Grenville on this trip. Wanchese is not mentioned as having accompanied Manteo, so probably accompanied Grenville as guide and interpreter.
The record of this exploration is preserved with the detailed accuracy of a ship captain's log. They landed first at the town of Pomeioc (Engelhard), where they explored “a great lake called by the Savages Paquique (Mattamuskeet).” On the following day they “Passed over the water to Aquascogok (Belhaven).” Thus, on 13 July, 1585, white men, for the first time in recorded history, set foot on the soil of Beaufort County. On 14 July the expedition “came to Secotan, and were well entertained there by the Savages.”
While on this trip, John White made sketches and paintings of the people and places they visited. Seventy-six of White's original paintings, depicting the Indians of coastal Carolina, their towns, and their customs, are preserved in the British Museum in London. Black and white reproductions of these pictures are in the Smithsonian Institution of the United States National Museum in Washington. These pictures tell us more fully than words how the first inhabitants of Beaufort County looked, dressed, and lived, when first seen by white men, more than three and three-quarter centuries ago.
Grenville and his party started on their return trip the following day. That they did not continue on to the larger Indian town of Cotan, later called Pampteco's Town, on Old
Town Creek (Bath), makes it evident that the town near the present site of Bath, belonged to the hostile Pomouik Nation.
When Grenville arrived off the mouth of the Pungo River, he sent a boat up the Pungo to Aquascogok to demand, “a silver cup which one of the Savages had stolen from us, and not returning it according to promise, we burnt and spoyled their corne and Towne, all the people being fled.” So, in Beaufort County, near the present site of Belhaven, began the feud between English-speaking white men and the American Indian, that was to continue for nearly three centuries.
Grenville's fleet moved on to Roanoke Island, where Lane built Fort Raleigh. Grenville returned to England. After ten months of exploring the Albemarle Sound area, and perhaps as far north as Chesapeake Bay, Lane's colony returned to England on ships of Sir Francis Drake's fleet. Lane's brutal treatment of the Indians during these ten months converted them from friends to bitter enemies.
Barlowe, Lane, and Thomas Heriot all wrote glowing accounts of the new-found land and its people. Barlowe wrote the soil was “the most plentifull, sweete, fruitful and wholsome of all the world, * * * (the people) the most gentle, very handsome and goodly * * * loving and faithful, void of all guile and treason, and such as live after the manner of the golden age.”
Thomas Heriot's Brief and True Report on the New Found Land of Virginia may well be considered the first history of North Carolina. It antedates Lawson, who is generally conceded to be North Carolina's first historian, by nearly a century. Heriot records that the towns he saw were all small, and always close to the water.
Except on foot, through forest and swamp, the Indian's only method of transportation was by canoe. This necessitated their towns being close to the water. Most of these towns contained ten or twelve houses. They were constructed of small, upright poles, fastened together with strips of bark or rawhide. Their roofs were arched and covered with bark. Some of the houses were made of mats of woven rushes.
A Herowan, or Chief, ruled one or more towns. A Wioran, or King, ruled the tribes or confederation of towns that formed the nation. Heriot wrote; “The greatest Wioran that yet we have had dealings with, had but eighteen towns in his government, and was able to make not over seven or eight hundred fighting men at most.”
The Indians of coastal Carolina knew no metal except copper. This was used entirely for ornamental purposes, as ear rings, arm and leg bands, and around their necks. Their weapons were bows, made of witch-hazel wood, with small reed arrows, tipped with points made of bone or shell. After wounding their enemy, or larger game, with the arrow, they made the kill with flat wooden clubs.
Heriot reported that the Indians of North Carolina planted corn, pumpkins, beans, peas, and two items previously unknown to the English; the Irish potato, which the Indians called openauk, and tobacco, which they called uppowoc.
The women did most of the gardening, cooking, and caring for the children. The men spent most of their time hunting and fishing, or fighting with their neighbors. Hunting and fishing were not sports, but an essential, and often dangerous occupation, as they were dependent upon the game brought in for their meat.
Within the limits of their civilization, the Indians were ingenious. Their European chroniclers were impressed with their skill in making a canoe without the use of sharp-edged tools. Using only fire, they could fell a large tree, remove its limbs, cut it to proper length, and hollow it into a canoe. But the Indian civilization was thousands of years behind that of the Europeans. Though the Indians possessed copper in its pure form, they had not learned to harden it into bronze to make cutting tools or weapons, though this art had been known in Egypt and Mesopotamia for over two thousand years.
In their constant wars with neighboring tribes, the Indians depended more upon stealth and treachery than upon strength, courage, or the power of their weapons. They made surprise attacks upon sleeping villages; laid in ambush for their foes;
or, pretending friendship, visited a neighboring village, waited until the host was off guard, and attacked. When such stealth and trickery failed, the assailants beat a hasty retreat. As a precaution against such attacks, most of the villages were protected by log stockades.
The Indians of coastal Carolina believed there were many gods, of varying degrees of power and authority, but there was only one Great God—the Great Spirit. When the Great Spirit decided to create the world and people it, he first created lesser gods, including the sun and moon. In their belief, the Great Spirit first created woman, instead of man. Then, with the cooperation of a lesser god, she conceived and brought forth children to people the world. They had no written records of when these things occurred, but only legends, handed down from father to son.
They believed in the immortality of the soul after life on this earth. Depending upon the life they had lived, their souls went either to a Happy Hunting Ground in the sky, the habitat of the Great Spirit; or to a great pit or hole, somewhere toward the setting sun, which they called Popequsso, there to burn forever.
John Lawson confirms the fact the Indians believed in life after death, but gives a different version of their Heaven and Hell. Heaven was a place where the deceased “will have the enjoyment of young Women, great Store of Deer to hunt, (and) never meet with Hunger, Cold, and Fatigue.” Hell was just the opposite. There the departed hunter would always have “Hunger, Cold, Troubles, and only old, ugly Women for their Companions.”
Lane never admitted undue cruelty to the Indians during his ten months in Carolina, though his record for brutal treatment often equalled that the Spaniards. Heriot later admitted this; “* * * some of our company, toward the end of the yere, shewed themselves too fierce in slaying some of the people in some Townes, upon causes that on our part might easily enough have been borne withall.”
A century later, when the first settlers began to filter south
into the Pamlico River area, they did not find the Indians as populous as the Raleigh explorers had found them. Such distinguished ethnologists as James Mooney and John R. Swanson estimated the Indian population of eastern Carolina, at the time of Raleigh's expeditions, as approximately 13,800. Of these, about 1,200 were of the Secotan Confederation and 1,000 were Pomouiks.
A little more than a century later, at about the time of the founding of Bath Town, John Lawson estimated the Indian population of eastern Carolina as approximately 5,000. The Secotan Confederation had dwindled to three small towns; Machapungo, Maramaskeet, and Hatteras, with a total population of about 190. The Pomouiks, called Pamptecoughs by Lawson, had shrunk to one town, with a population of 75. Lawson called this town “Island.” It seems probable it was located on present Indian Island, off the mouth of South Creek.
This reduction of the Indian population, amounting to more than sixty per cent in about one century, is not all attributable to the white man, though he is responsible for most of it. John Archdale, Governor of Carolina in 1694, attributes the reduction in strength of the Pamptecoughs to “a great mortality” of a few years previous. This was probably an epidemic of smallpox, a disease to which the Indians were very susceptible. It was also a disease unknown to the Indians before the white man came.
Knowing the susceptibility of the Indians to smallpox, General Jeffray Amherst, commander of the British forces in America in 1732, wrote a subordinate; “You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets in which smallpox patients have slept, as well as by every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race; I should be very glad if your scheme of hunting them down with dogs could take effect.”
John Lawson attributed the loss in population to: “the continual Wars these Savages maintain, one Nation against another, which sometimes holds for Ages, killing and making Captive, till they become so weak thereby, that they are forced
to make Peace for want of Recruits to supply these Wars. * * * These poor Creatures have so many Enemies to destroy them, it is a wonder one of them is alive near us.”
The white man's ability to exploit the enmity of one Indian nation for another, is discernible throughout all of the Indian wars. The Yamassee Nation in South Carolina provided the vast majority of the fighting men used in subduing the Tuscaroras. Later, friendly Catawbas were used against the Cherokee; and still later the Cherokee were pitted aginst the Creeks.
One obvious reason the Indians of eastern Carolina succumbed so easily to foreign conquest is that, considering the vast area they occupied, there were so few of them. With the exception of the Tuscaroras, they were all small nations. The most plausible reason is that the bows and arrows of the Indians were no match for the arquebuses and escopets of the English. A quarter of a century after Lawson, Governor Burrington estimated there were only six nations in the province, and of these the Tuscarora Nation was the only one which numbered over twenty families. At that time, the Catawbas of the Piedmont region, and the powerful Cherokee across the mountains, were unknown to Burrington.
Governor Dobbs, as were other Englishmen before him, was initially impressed with the Indians. He suggested that the soldiers on outpost duty among the Indians, take unto themselves Indian wives. After his experience during the French and Indian War, Dobbs changed his opinion. He then recommended killing off the warriors and making slaves of the women and children. For many years the practice of buying women and children, captured by one nation in raids against the town of another, was followed by the white settlers. This practice was one of the causes of the Tuscarora War.
Chart No. 1
EARLY ALGONKIAN TRIBES AND TOWNS OF EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA
Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 34, No. 6, p. 183.
TOWN OF SECOTAN, NEAR SOUTH CREEK, ON THE PAMLICO RIVER
From John White Collection in the Smithsonian Institution of the National
Museum, Washington, D. C.
SECOTAN HUNTER AND WARRIOR
From John White Collection in the Smithsonian Institution, Na-
tional Museum, Washington, D. C.
WIFE OF HEROWAN OR CHIEF OF THE TOWN OF SECOTAN
From the John White Collection in the Smithsonian Institution,
National Museum, Washington, D. C.
CHARLES II PAYS A DEBT
AFTER JOHN WHITE returned to Roanoke Island in the summer of 1590, to find the colony he had planted three years before had vanished, Raleigh made no more attempts to “plant the English nation in the New World.” Though Englishmen had trod the soil of what was to become Beaufort County, nearly a century was to pass before they came again. When they did, it was not from across the ocean, but by filtering down through the forests and swamps from the Albemarle settlement.
During the intervening years, many changes had taken place in England. Queen Elizabeth had died and been succeeded by James I. After James ascended the throne, Raleigh lost his prestige, most of his fortune, then his liberty, and finally, in 1618, his head. James Town, the first permanent English colony in the New World, had been planted. Charles I had succeeded James to the throne; then lost both the throne and his head. After nearly two decades of Civil War and Commonwealth government, Charles II had been restored to the throne.
On 24 March, 1663, Charles II paid his political and personal debt to the eight distinguished Englishmen most responsible for his restoration. On that date he issued a Proprietary Charter, granting to “the true and absolute Lords Proprietors * * * all territory lying between 31 and 36 degrees north latitude, extending westward to the South Seas (Pacific Ocean).” This included a tract of land so vast that neither the grantor nor grantees had the most vague idea how much land was included.
This was approximately the same area granted three decades before by Charles I, to his Attorney General, Sir Robert Heath. Heath failed to settle his grant, and later assigned it to Henry, Lord Maltravers, later, Duke of Norfolk. Maltravers also failed to plant a colony.
The grant of Charles II, to the Lords Proprietors, like the one to Heath, used the County Palatine of Durham as a prototype.
The Lords Proprietors were to have, exercise, use, and enjoy the same rights and privileges as “any Bishop of Durham in our Kingdom of England.”
The eight Lords Proprietors who had given much of themselves and their fortunes to restore Charles II to the throne were:
1) Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon: Hyde had been a member of the Privy Council of Charles I, and took the lead for the restoration of Charles II. He became Lord High Chancellor to the younger Charles. Through the marriage of his daughter Anne to the King's brother, the Duke of York, later James II, Hyde became the grandfather of two of England's future Queens, Mary and Anne.
2) George Monk, Duke of Albemarle: After a long and distinguished military career, during which he served first the crown, then Cromwell's Parliament with equal loyalty, Monk, who had become supreme commander of the army of the Parliament, threw his support toward the restoration of Charles II, thus assuring its accomplishment. Monk's own regiment, the Coldstream Guards, now form the royal guard at Buckingham Palace.
3) William, Earl of Craven: Craven was the son of the Lord Mayor of London. He too chose the military as a profession. He served under the Prince of Orange, in the Netherlands, and later in Germany. He devoted much of his life and fortune in an attempt to restore Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James I, to her throne in Bohemia and her Schloss in Heidelberg.
4) John, Lord Berkeley: Lord Berkeley, a brother of Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, became a member of the Privy Council of Charles II.
5) Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury: Like Monk, Cooper served first under the crown, then under Parliament. As a commissioner of the Parliament, he worked for the complete return of power to Parliament, which was the first step in restoring the younger Charles to the throne.
6) Sir George Carteret: Carteret's home on the Isle of Jersey
became the refuge for royalist fugitives during the Rebellion. He too became a member of the King's Privy Council. Carteret's share in Carolina eventually passed to his great-grandson John, who became the Earl of Granville, and owner of the Granville Grant in North Carolina.
7) Sir William Berkeley: Berkeley served as Governor of Virginia for nearly thirty-five years. During the civil war, he supported the crown. After the restoration, he returned to Virginia in the dual capacity of Governor of Virginia, and one of the Proprietors of Carolina.
8) Sir John Colleton: During the civil war, Colleton raised a regiment in support of the crown, and spent some forty thousand pounds of his personal fortune in support of the crown. About 1651 Colleton went to the Island of Barbados, in the West Indies. After restoration, he returned to England, where he was knighted. It is generally accepted that the idea of obtaining the Carolina grant from the King originated with Colleton, who sought the influence of the others in obtaining it.
The powers and privileges of “any Bishop of Durham” were great. The charter gave the Lords Proprietors all the authority they required to establish and maintain a sound government. It was the limitations to these powers that gave the greatest comfort to the settlers of Carolina. Under the provisions of the grant, laws were to be enacted “only with the advice, assent, and approbation of the freemen, or the greater part of them, or their delegates.” Each settler was guaranteed the “liberties, franchises, and privileges of the King's subjects resident within the realm of England.” The charter also guaranteed freedom from taxation, except “by and with the consent of the free people, or the greater part of them.” These fundamental rights, granted under the charter, became the corner stone of the General Assembly of North Carolina. The people clung tenaciously to them through both the Proprietary and Royal governments. It was this refusal to accept taxation without representation, even from the Crown, that led eventually to the Revolution.
The legality of the grant to the Lords Proprietors was promptly
challenged by the Duke of Norfolk, son of Henry Maltravers, and other heirs under the Heath grant. Their claim was referred to the King's Privy Council, of which four of the Lords Proprietors were members. The Council promptly found that as “no English whatsoever have, by virtue of any such Grants (Heath's), hereto planted in the said Province, such letters were become voyd.”
With their title to Carolina now clear, the Lords Proprietors made plans to establish three counties in their new Province. 1) Albemarle: This county was to embrace “all that part of the Province which lyeth on the northeast or starboard side entering the river Chowan now named by us Albemarle river (Sound), together with the Islands and Isletts within ten leagues thereof.” 2) Clarendon: This county was to include the land south of Albemarle, and to extend to the Cape Fear basin. 3) Craven: To include the area that is now South Carolina.
In September 1663 the other Lords Proprietors directed Sir William Berkeley to establish a government in the County of Albemarle; appoint a governor; and make arrangements for granting land and collecting quitrents, so the King would see they “slept not with their Grant.”
Prior to receiving these instructions, Berkeley, as Governor of Virginia, and with the approval of the Virginia Assembly, had appointed Samuel Stephens, a close personal friend, as “commander of the southern plantations (the Albemarle area).” As Berkeley did not comply with the instructions of the Lords Proprietors, it would appear he had discovered that the northern boundary of the Proprietary grant, 36 degrees north latitude, cut through the center of Albemarle Sound, and did not include the populated area north of the sound, for which he was to appoint a governor. Leaving the government of the Albemarle area in the hands of his friend Stephens, Berkeley seems to have initiated proceedings to get the northern boundary changed to include this area.
For at least two decades prior to the Proprietary grant,
settlers of the expanding James Town colony had been working their way south through the Chowan River and Albemarle Sound area. During this period, at least two attempts were made by the Virginia Assembly to encourage settlers to move into the Albemarle region. Dr. Lefler lists nine families, at least four of which owned slaves, who had settled in the Albemarle area before the Proprietary grant. The Comberford Map, prepared in 1657, shows a plantation located between the mouth of the Roanoke River and Salmon Creek, designated as “Batts House.” This was undoubtedly the home of Captain Nathaniel Batts, a Virginian who moved to this area prior to the grant. The oldest private land grant of record in North Carolina was made to George Durant by Kilcocanen, King of the Yeopin Indians. This grant for land in Perquimans County, now known as Durant's Neck, is dated 1 March, 1662. In his History of North Carolina, written about 1708, John Lawson says: “A settlement of this Country was made about fifty years ago, in that part we now call Albemarle.”
In October, 1664, apparently assured the Proprietors’ Charter would be amended to include the Albemarle region, Berkeley appointed William Drummond, a Scotch merchant of Virginia, as “governor and commander in chief of Albemarle.” So, after nearly eight decades, the permanent colony Raleigh failed to establish in North Carolina, was given form as well as substance. The southward movement, always in search of “good bottom land,” continued after the establishment of the Albemarle government. Settlers moved across the Albemarle, planting on its south shore and tributary creeks. When the “good bottom land” of this area was exhausted, they filtered south through the forests and swamps to the Pamlico.
Drummond served as Governor of Albemarle for three years. In 1667, he was succeeded by Berkeley's friend, Samuel Stephens. Returning to Virginia, Drummond became involved in the Bacon Rebellion against Berkeley. When captured by Berkeley's troops, Drummond was assured by Berkeley he would be hanged “as soon as a council of war could meet, his sentence
be dispatched, and a gibbet erected.” Thus North Carolina's first governor ended his political career on the gallows; hanged by the man who had appointed him.
While negotiating for the extension of their northern boundary, the Lords Proprietors interested themselves in a colony for the proposed Clarendon County, to be established in the Cape Fear region. This area, they knew, was definitely theirs. Their “Declaration and Proposals to All that will Plant in Carolina” expounded the virtues of Carolina, and made special inducements to those who would settle there. Similar instructions and promises were later given to Drummond for the Albemarle area.
Two abortive efforts were made to plant in the Cape Fear region. The first, in 1663, was made by a group of New England adventurers. After a short stay on the Cape Fear, they abandoned the attempt. The second effort was made by a colony from the island of Barbados, one of England's first colonies in the West Indies. Sir John Yeamans, a friend of Sir John Colleton, was commissioned “Governor of the County of Clarendon near Cape Faire and all that tract of ground which lyeth southerly as far as River St. Mathias (St. John's River).” This attempt failed in 1667, and all attempts to settle Clarendon County were abandoned for the time.
No attempt to plant the proposed Craven County was made until 1670. At that time Sir John Yeamans again led a colony to the “maine.” This colony settled first at Port Royal, near the present town of Beaufort, South Carolina. After a short and unhappy stay, the colony moved to the south bank of the Ashley River. Finding this site undesirable, they later moved to the present site of Charleston. This colony eventually expanded into the State of South Carolina. The present Craven County, in North Carolina, was not erected until many years later, first as a precinct of Bath County.
The Lords Proprietors were disappointed in the failure to plant Clarendon County, and dissatisfied with the slow growth of Albemarle. After the amended charter of 1665 placed the
Albemarle area safely in their possession, they prepared a new document for the government of Carolina. This document, known as the “Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina,” was issued in 1669. John Locke, who for a time was Secretary to the Lords Proprietors, is supposed to have written it.
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina were designed “to avoid a numerous democracy in Carolina.” They proposed to establish a feudal system, with an order of Proprietary nobility for Carolina. The elder of the Lords Proprietors was to be known as the Palatine of Carolina, and preside over the Palatinate Court. Each of the other seven Lords Proprietors were to have titles such as Admiral of the Palatinate, Chamberlain, Chancellor, Chief Justice, etc. George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, became the first Palatine of Carolina on 21 October, 1669. The Constitutions provided the “dignities” of Landgrave and Cacique for members of this Proprietary nobility who resided in Carolina. Each title carried with it a vast estate in the new world, to be known as a siegnory. As originally planned, each county erected would be allotted one Landgrave and two Caciques.
Though many of the features of the Fundamental Constitutions were liberal for their time, the colonists found the feudal provisions repugnant, and the Assembly refused to approve them. After trying for thirty years to get the Assembly to approve the Fundamental Constitutions, the Lords Proprietors, in 1693, declared “they are now ceased.”
In theory, the government of Albemarle was headed by the Lords Proprietors, sitting as a Palatine Court. Actually, Albemarle, and later North Carolina, was governed by the Governor and his Council, appointed by the Lords Proprietors, and an Assembly, elected by the freeholders. From 1664 to 1691, the elected representatives sat with the Governor and his Council as a unicameral body, presided over by the Governor or his deputy. After the adoption of a bicameral system, the House of Commons, as it was first called, elected its own Speaker and other officials, adopted its own rules of procedure, and exercised many parliamentary privileges similar to those of
the British House of Commons. The most important of these was the right to initiate money measures. The Governor's Council sat as the Upper House.
The House of Commons could meet only upon the call of the Governor. As there was no fixed seat of government, it met at the place designated by the Governor. The Governor had the power to prorogue and to dissolve the Assembly, or to veto any law passed by it. The strength of the Lower House lay in its “power of the purse.” It was largely through this weapon the Lower House increased its prestige and influence, at the expense of the Governor and Council. Before becoming law, all acts of the Assembly were also required to have the approval of the Palatine Court.
From 1664 to 1689 the governor was designated as Governor of Albemarle. From 1689 to 1712, he was known as the Deputy Governor of that Part of Carolina North and East of Cape Fear. After 1712, with the appointment of Governor Hyde as Governor of North Carolina, the province was separate and distinct from South Carolina. In the absence of a governor properly commissioned by the Lords Proprietors, the President of the Council acted as governor, at the pleasure of the Lords Proprietors.
In addition to sitting as the Upper House of the Assembly, the Council assisted the Governor in administrative and executive matters. In the beginning, the Council, sitting with the Governor, was the highest court of the Province. At various times the number of Councilmen varied from six to twelve.
Under the Concessions and Agreements of 1665, the Lower House consisted of twelve men, to be elected annually. In 1670, when Albemarle County was divided into four precincts, Chowan, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Currituck, each precinct was allotted five delegates. When Bath County was erected, it was allotted only two delegates for the entire county. Later, when it was divided into three precincts, each precinct received only two delegates. This unequal distribution of delegates continued throughout the Proprietary and Royal periods of
government, and was a constant source of discord between the Albemarle area and the other counties of North Carolina.
Initially, the Governor and his Council, sitting as a General Court, headed the judicial system of Albemarle, and later, North Carolina. Near the turn of the eighteenth century, at the direction of the Lords Proprietors, “four able discreet men” with legal training and background, were selected as justices of Albemarle. This was in answer to protests that men without legal training or experience were passing on fine points of the law, of which they knew little or nothing. In 1712, Christopher Gale of Beaufort Precinct, who had recently returned from a trip to London, was appointed Chief Justice of North Carolina. Gale held his commission directly from the Lords Proprietors.
During the Proprietary period, the procedure for acquiring and holding land, and the rate and method of paying quitrents, was perhaps the greatest source of discord between the settlers and the Lords Proprietors. Quitrents in Virginia were one farthing (one-fourth of a penny) per acre, payable in produce. In the Albemarle they were one-half penny per acre, payable in specie, which the settlers seldom had. The first Assembly of Albemarle petitioned the Lords Proprietors, “praying that the inhabitants of the said County may hold their land upon the same terms and conditions that the inhabitants of Virginia hold theirs.”
In 1668, the Lords Proprietors complied with this request. They sent Governor Stephens a document, known thereafter as the “Great Deed of Grant.” This document superseded the land provisions of the Concessions, and promised the Albemarle settlers they would hold their land upon the same terms “as the Inhabitants of Virginia.”
The settlers of Carolina considered this Great Deed of Grant to be “as firm a document as the Proprietor's own charter from the Crown.” The Lords Proprietors apparently did not so consider it. Later, when they found it was not to their best interests, they revoked it, over the vigorous protests of the settlers. Later governors, following instructions from the Lords
Proprietors, raised quitrents to the old half-penny per acre, or even higher. One planter of the Albemarle wrote the Lords Proprietors, protesting: “the people have no assurance of their lands, for that never any Patents have been granted under your Lordships to the Inhabitants, is a matter of great discouragement for men of Estate to come amongst us, because those already seated there have no assurance of their enjoyment.”
For the sixty-five years of its existence, Proprietary government in North Carolina was unsatisfactory to everyone concerned. The Lords Proprietors blamed the people who “neither understood your own, nor regard our Interests.” They admitted their failure to provide strong, competent governors, explaining that it was “a very difficult matter to gitt a man of worth and trust” to accept the office. The settlers, with equal vigor, blamed the Lords Proprietors for every misfortune that befell them, from taxes to hurricanes.
Governors sent by the Lords Proprietors from England complained of the usurpation of power by the Assembly; of the Assembly's control over their salaries; and of “this Lawless people (who) allow of no power or authority in either Church or State save what is derived from them.” The settlers retaliated by complaining of the weak, unstable government provided them, but their main complaint was always the vascillating land policies of the Proprietors.
Those planters who had settled in the Albemarle region prior to the 1663 grant, were never happy with the Proprietary government. Their desire was to acquire a firm title to good land, at a quitrent not in excess of that paid in Virginia, which was what they expected when they planted on the land. When this desire was interfered with, they were loud and vigorous in their protests.
The best government provided North Carolina in the early days seems to have been by Governors selected from among the inhabitants of the Province, or by Presidents of the Council, while acting as governor. Few of the Proprietary appointed governors were the incompetent, greedy dictators they were accused of being. Seth Sothel, a Proprietor himself, having
purchased the Clarendon share in the colony, was perhaps the worst. He was eventually tried by the North Carolina Assembly, expelled from the colony for one year, and barred forever from having any part in the government of North Carolina. This action is indicative of the authority assumed by the elected Lower House.
The Quaker, John Archdale, also a Proprietor, was perhaps the most capable of the governors sent over by the Lords Proprietors. After Ludwell had been removed from office for granting land under the terms of the Great Deed of Grant, which the Lords Proprietors had forbidden him to do, Archdale was instructed to “dispose of land at moderate and reasonable rates, so long as they (the quitrents) were not below a half-penny per acre.” This doubling of the quitrent, in violation of what the settlers considered a firm agreement, promptly aroused their wrath. Archdale seems to have been sufficiently tactful and capable to overcome the objections of the settlers, though this question continued to plague the Proprietary government for the remainder of its existence.
Though seated in Charles Town, Governor Archdale spent considerable of his time in North Carolina. It was during one of his last tours of North Carolina that Bath County was erected.
John Lawson did not concur in the general opinion that land rates in Carolina were excessive. He believed the planters in Carolina enjoyed “the Advantage of purchasing the Lords Land at the most easy and moderate Rates of any Lands in America.”
CHAPTER III
BATH COUNTY AND ITS PRECINCTS
APPROXIMATELY a century elapsed between the time Englishmen of Raleigh's second expedition trod the shores of the Pamlico River and the first white settlers returned. These settlers did not come from across the ocean, but filtered south through the forests and swamps from the Albemarle region. Some few may have worked their way north from the abandoned Clarendon colony on the Cape Fear. John Lawson and his companions came overland from Charles Town.
The first white men to live along the Pamlico were probably hunters or Indian traders. These men lived among the Indians for a year or more at a time; took Indian wives; and learned the language of the Indians, the better to conduct their business. Children of these squaw-man marriages were considered Indians by both the whites and Indians.
The name of the first white settler on the Pamlico is unknown. It is recorded to whom the first land grant in Beaufort County was issued. Under the Fundamental Constitutions, Governor Seth Sothel, as a Lords Proprietor, having purchased the Earl of Clarendon's share in 1681, was entitled to a siegnory of 12,000 acres of land in each county. On 10 November, 1684, Sothel issued land grants to himself for more than 20,000 acres of land in Chowan and Perquimans precincts and Albemarle County. At the same time, probably on the assumption that the Pamlico River would be the dividing line between two counties yet to be erected, Sothel also issued grants to himself for two siegnories on the Pamlico; one on the north bank and one on the south.
The first grant, for the tract on the north bank, began at the mouth of a creek just east of present day Bayview, and extended west along the north bank of the Pamlico for 1,300 “perches,” to Duck Creek. From there it extended north to about Harvey Creek, thence east to about the source of Rowland Creek, and
south to the beginning. This grant included about a four mile square area, with Bath Creek in the center.
Sothel's second 12,000 acre siegnory lay almost directly across the Pamlico from the first. Beginning at Core Point, it extended west to Maule's Point, then followed the east bank of Blounts Bay and Creek for a depth of 1,360 perches.
Neither Sothel nor his heirs ever attempted to claim either of these tracts. Sothel's will, probated 3 February, 1694, makes no mention of either of them. The early settlers along the Pamlico were either ignorant of these grants or ignored them. They apparently found the land they wanted, and took possession of it.
This theory is supported by the action of Governor Cary in 1705. At that time he issued grants to a number of settlers for plantations upon which they had been living for several years. Just prior to the incorporation of Bath Town, Cary issued a grant to David Perkins for “one hundred and sixty acres and eleven poles,” on Old Town Creek. This tract, on which Perkins had been living for several years, included the sixty acres that were to become the town of Bath. At about this same time, Cary issued grants to Captain William Barrow and Collingswood Ward for land adjoining the Perkins plantation, upon which they lived. This action by Cary seems to have been an effort to give clear title to future lot holders in Bath Town, and clear the titles to the other land which Cary later bought.
With the exception of the unclaimed Sothel grants, which are recorded in the Office of the Secretary of State in Raleigh, most of the early records of land grants, bills of sale, deeds, and other transactions of early Bath County, which are now available, can be found in the Deed Books of the Register of Deeds for Beaufort County, which is the custodian for the old Bath County records. The first ten books of Bath County, covering the period 1701 (with a few earlier entries) to 1729, have been carefully transcribed into Deed Book No. 1 of Beaufort County.
Though Bath County was not erected until 1696, and the first grant recorded in Deed Book 1 is dated 1696, there is no
doubt the Pamlico area, from the Pungo River to above Bath Creek, was at least thinly settled before that date. On 1 April, 1701, Thomas Arnold, “Planter in Pamteco River,” sold a “house and Plantation with cherry trees and apple trees” to William Butcher. Prior to that time, writs had been issued referring to the region as the Precinct of Pamptecough, in the County of Archdale.
On 9 December, 1696, “at a Palatine Court” held in Edenton, Governor Archdale recognized the existing situation. By order of this court, the Pamlico and Neuse area was “erected into a County & by the special direction of the Right Honorable the Governor, is nominated the County of Bath.” The same court authorized “the Inhabitants of the County of Bath to make choice of two Burgesses to sit in the Grand Assembly to be holden at the home of Thomas Nicolo the eighteenth day of January next.”
The new county was named in honor of John Grenville, Earl of Bath, who was Palatine of Carolina at the time. The land in Bath County was to be laid out after the manner in Albemarle County, to hold and occupy on payment of three shillings quitrent per hundred acres, annually. The grantee was required to clear part of his land and settle on it within two years. Captain Nicholas Daw and Captain Richard Smith were chosen as Bath County's first representatives to the General Assembly.
The earliest land grant on record in the Beaufort County Deed Books is dated 10 February, 1696. This grant for 550 acres was issued by Governor Thomas Harvey to William Glover, a planter of Chowan Precinct. Like the Sothel grants, it apparently was never “planted.” Under the provisions that the land granted be cleared and settled within two years, this land probably reverted to the Lords Proprietors.
The first recorded land grant in Beaufort County, upon which entry was made, was issued by Governor Harvey on 5 March, 1697, to Captain Thomas Blount. This grant was for 266 acres on the north bank of the Pamlico and west of Mallard Creek, on what is now known as Ragged Point. Blount made entry upon this land on 21 May, 1701.
Captain Richard Smith was one of Bath County's first settlers, and one of the county's first two representatives to the 1697 Assembly. It was at Smith's plantation that John Lawson was “well received” when he arrived on the Pamlico in February of 1701. Yet the first recorded grant for the 2,000 acre plantation on which Smith lived was not issued until 1705, by Governor Cary. According to the wording of the grant, the plantation was known as “Smith's Neck.”
On 10 August, 1700, John Buntin and his wife Ellis, sold the plantation on which they lived to Captain Nicholas Thomas Jones, Mariner. This land lay “on the west side of a creek called ye ould town creek ye s'd Land lying at ye mouth of ye said creek.” This was the plantation now known as Archbell Point. Being desirably located with regard to Bath Town and water transportation, this plantation changed hands a number of times during the early Eighteenth Century. The Landgrave Robert Daniel, first Governor to live on the Pamlico, bought this plantation and lived there, as did Tobias Knight, Secretary of the Council under Eden. There is no record of how long Buntin had been living on this plantation before he sold it in 1700. There is definite evidence he was not its first owner, or the original grantee. In his deed to Jones, Buntin refers to “an entry of Captain Richard Smith as appears upon Record.”
Richard Durham (Derham-Dearham) for whom Durham Creek was named, had been living on his plantation on the east bank of Durham Creek for a number of years before his grant was issued in 1706. The original grant was for 640 acres, extending from Durham Creek eastward. Richard Durham bequeathed this plantation, later known as the “Garrison,” to his brother John. John sold it to William Hancock, who eight years later sold it to Benjamin Peyton.
From 1700 to the incorporation of Bath Town in 1705, the population of Bath County increased rapidly. The vast area-of land along the Pamlico, acquired by ship captains for transs porting new settlers to the area, is ample proof of this. For each freeman or member of his family transported to the area, the ship captain received a “Rite” for fifty acres of land. For each
indentured servant or slave, he received from twenty to fifty acres.
Captain Thomas Blount received his grant to land on Ragged Point for transporting six persons to the Pamlico. Apparently two of them were either indentured servants or slaves. On 28 March, 1702, Captain Richard Smith “did lay these six Rites upon an entry of Land by him made on Broad Creek.” After this entry on the records was listed the names of William Willson, his wife Ann, and their four children, Ann Jr., Mary, James and Richard. Captain William Barrow received a single grant for 900 acres for transporting 18 freemen to the Pamlico on 1 May, 1701, and Captain John White received a grant of 1,200 acres for transporting 24 freemen (or women).
Other ship captains who received grants or acquired “Rites” for transporting new settlers to the Pamlico included Captain Nicholas Daw, Captain James Neville, and Captain Jeremiah Goodridge, master of the Pink Adventure. These grants were issued by the Governor or Deputy Governor in the name of “His Excce ye Palatine and Lords Proprietors.”
The names that appear frequently among the early records of Beaufort County (Bath County), many of whose descendants now live in the county, include: John Archbell, Thomas Arnold, Simon Alderson, John Bernard, William Barrow, Abraham Batson, Thomas Blount, William Brice, William Butcher, John Buntin, Jacob Carrow, William Collins, Richard, John, and Thomas Durham, Thomas Deadham, David Dupree, Francis Garganus, Farnefould Green, John Grimes, Nathaniel Hall, William Hancock, Thomas Harding, James Hogg, Nicholas Thomas Jones, Josiah Jones, Fred Jones, John Lawson, Abraham Leeds, Thomas Lepper, John Lillington, Patrick Maule, Robert Mellyne, Roger Montagne, Thomas Neuman, James Neville, Richard Oden, David Perkins, John Porter, William Powell, Lionel Reading, Giles Shute, Levi Truewhite, Collingswood Ward (sometimes Collings Woodward), William Winn, Nathaniel Wyersdale, and George and John White.
Because of the vague descriptions of the location of their land, and boundary marks that have long since vanished, it is
difficult to locate the tracts referred to in many of the old grants. The term “Neck” was used to describe property on the river that was bordered by creeks on each side, such as; Smith's Neck, and “John Black's Neck, lying upon ould town creek.” Most boundary descriptions started “at a White Oak standing by the water edge,” or “a Pine tree standing and growing by dear Path marked with three marks.”
Toward the end of February, 1701, John Lawson, a young Englishman of good family, and apparently ample means, arrived on the Pamlico. He was accompanied by three other Englishmen whose names he never mentions, but who are probably included in the names listed above. They completed a hazardous overland trip from Charles Town, in South Carolina, which carried them across the territory of several Indian Nations. In ending the account of their adventure, Lawson wrote: “we came safe to Mr. Richard Smith's of Pamptecough River, in North Carolina; where, being well received by the Inhabitants and pleased with the Goodness of the Country, we all resolved to continue.” For the next decade Lawson was destined to play an important role in the development of Bath County and Bath Town.
When Deputy Governor Thomas Harvey died in 1699, he was succeeded by Captain Henderson Walker, who was President of the Council. Walker, who was an ardent Anglican, was disturbed because the province had been settled forty years, and as yet there was no Church of England organization within the province. He was also much disturbed by the growing Quaker influence within the province, though the Anglicans were in the majority.
In 1701, Walker persuaded the Assembly to pass a Vestry Act, the first Church law enacted in North Carolina. It provided for laying out parishes, organizing vestries, erecting churches, and for a poll tax on all tithables for the support of the Church. No copy of this act is now available, but it is believed to have been similar in most respects to the Vestry Act of 1715, which is preserved. St. Thomas Parish, which included all of present Beaufort and Pitt counties and the northern portion of Pamlico
County, was established by this act. Like the first Vestry Act, the names of the first vestrymen of St. Thomas are not available, but probably included a number of the names of the 1715 Act.
The passage of the Vestry Act aroused intense opposition among the Quakers, Presbyterians, and other dissenters. The Lords Proprietors disapproved the Act, not because of the opposition of the dissenters, but because it gave too much authority to the vestry, and did not provide adequate salaries for the clergy.
The year before the Vestry Act was passed, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bray, founder of the Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, better known as the S. P. G., purchased a library, valued at fifty pounds, for St. Thomas Parish. In December 1700, Dr. Bray entrusted this library to the Rev. Daniel Brett, whom Dr. Bray had chosen as St. Thomas’ first missionary, for delivery. Brett delivered the library safely. From the records, this seems to have been about the only thing Brett did that was to the satisfaction of the Churchmen of the province. Governor Walker denounced Brett as “ye Monster of the Age,” and he was eventually sent back to England.
The library arrived in a wilderness that had neither a church nor library building in which to house it. Neither was there a minister or librarian to care for it. As the library arrived before passage of the first Vestry Act, it seems probable that Act made some provision for the care and maintenance of the library, similar to those contained in the 1715 Act.
A decade later the Rev. Benjamin Davis, a young Anglican minister on his way to his parish in South Carolina, accompanied Governor Hyde on a march from Albemarle to Bath Town. After Hyde returned to Albemarle, Davis remained in Bath Town awaiting passage on a ship to South Carolina. In a letter to the Secretary of the S. P. G., Davis wrote: “During my stay here I lodged at one Major Gale's, a very civil gentleman, at whose house the people met each Sunday, where a young gentleman, a lawyer, was appointed to read prayers and a sermon, they having no minister.” Christopher Gale came to
the Pamlico about 1700 and built his home (Kirby Grange), on the east bank of Adams (Back) Creek. He was the son of an Anglican minister of Yorkshire, and a kinsman of the Dean of York. It seems probable that as services were read at Gale's home, that the library was entrusted to his care, and that the sermons read were from the large collection in the library.
On 8 March, 1702, Anne, second daughter of James II and his wife, Anne Hyde, ascended to the English throne. One historian describes Anne as “dull, ignorant, and indolent, * * * fond of flattery * * * as ardent (an) Anglican as her father had been Romanist.” Queen Anne has been considered by some as the patroness of Bath Town and St. Thomas Parish. She is credited with having donated the Queen Anne Bell to the parish, and with favoring it in other ways. Actually, many of the early disasters that befell Bath Town and St. Thomas Parish may be traced indirectly to Queen Anne or her advisers. Her requirement that the Quakers and other dissenters take an oath of allegiance to her, rather than accept the “affermation” previously permitted them, led to the Cary Rebellion. This rebellion, by disclosing the weakness and discord within the province, encouraged the Tuscaroras to launch their war.
Governor Walker died in 1704, and was succeeded by the Landgrave Robert Daniel. Daniel was the first member of the Proprietary nobility, established under the Fundamental Constitutions, to live in North Carolina. He was also the first of the Deputy Governors of that Part of Carolina North and East of the Cape Fear to live on the Pamlico. A Barbadian by birth, Daniel had settled in Charles Town, where he had participated in South Carolina's wars with the Spaniards and Indians. Daniel purchased the home of Captain Nicholas Thomas Jones, on Archbell Point, and established his home there.
To the dismay of the Quakers, who were well represented in the Assembly, Daniel proved a more zealous Anglican than Walker. Shortly after taking office, he persuaded the Assembly to enact a second Vestry Act, much like the first, only more distasteful to the dissenters. This Act is believed to have included
not only the requirement of an oath of allegiance to Queen Anne, but also an oath by all Assemblymen that they were communicants of the Church of England.
The Rev. John Blair, a missionary of the S. P. G., who was in the province at the time, is accorded much credit for the passage of this act. It proved so distasteful to all dissenters that they combined their protests to Governor Nathaniel Johnston in Charles Town, and also protested to the Quaker Proprietor, John Archdale, who had returned to London. Daniel, who was a man of strong character, and above average as a Proprietary Governor, was thoroughly disliked by the dissenters, who described him as “brutal, bigoted, and a fiery Anglican.” As a result of these protests, Daniel was suspended from office and Colonel Cary, a merchant of Charles Town, sent to replace him.
Cary also chose to make his home on the Pamlico. Prior to Cary's administration, Bath County had but two representatives in the Assembly. Both the Governor's Council and the Assembly were dominated by men from the Albemarle. One of Cary's first acts was to see that Bath County had more representation. At a meeting of his Council on 3 December, 1705, held at the home of Edward Moseley in Chowan Precinct, Bath County was divided into three precincts.
The Council ordered; “* * * whereas the County of Bath has now grown populous and daily increasing, * * * it is hereby ordered that three Precincts be erected in the said County, * * * The Precinct of Pamptecough (Beaufort) * * * Wickham (Hyde) * * * and Archdale (Craven).” The Precinct of Pamptecough was described as “lying on the north side of the Pamptecough River and beginning at Moline's (North) Creek, and westerly to the head of the river (Tar).” Archdale (Craven) Precinct included “all of the south side of the said river and at present including all the Inhabitants of Neuse.” Each of the new precincts was authorized two representatives in the Assembly. This still left the Albemarle precincts with a 20 to 6 majority.
CHAPTER IVTHE PEOPLE OF THE PAMLICO
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLERS along the Pamlico were of English stock. Most of them came south from Albemarle, either by land or water. Others may have come from the short-lived Yeamans colony on the Cape Fear. A few came from South Carolina, among whom was John Lawson. In his writings, Lawson refers only to “the English settlements” on the Pamlico. His first mention of the French settlers from Mannakin Town, on the James River, is that the French “removed themselves to Carolina, to live there before I came away (returned to London in 1708, in connection with the publishing of his book), and the rest were following, as their minister (M. Philip de Rixbourg) told me, who was at Bath Town, when I was taking my leave of my Friends.”
The legend of an early French Huguenot colony on the Pamlico may be attributed to Dr. Daniel Coxe of England, a claimant under the Heath grant. Coxe planned such a colony, but like so many of Dr. Coxe's plans, it was never executed. Had there been a French colony on the Pamlico at the turn of the Eighteenth Century, Lawson, who covered each point of interest with minute detail, would have mentioned it. The Rev. Wm. Gordon, who visited Bath Town in 1708, confirms this opinion. In a letter to the Secretary of the S. P. G. he mentions the Neuse River, “which being but lately peopled with a few French who left Virginia.”
The early settlers of the Pamlico came from all classes of society and from all walks of life. Some few were men of considerable wealth. Others had enough to establish themselves comfortably. By far the greater number had little more than the bare necessities of life. Early records, land grants, and records of sales, wills, and other legal documents show conclusively these settlers brought with them the inherited English idea of class distinction; nobility, gentry, yeomanry, and peasantry.
In the early records, the Governor of Carolina is referred to
as the “Right Honorable.” The Deputy Governor for North Carolina was the “Honorable.” Sir Richard Everard, the last Proprietary Governor, was the only Baronet to hold the office of Governor of North Carolina, though several Governors of Carolina, seated in Charles Town, held the title. Two of North Carolina's Governors, Daniel and Eden, held the Proprietary “dignity” of Landgrave. The only other person who lived in North Carolina who held this title was von Graffenreid, who was also a Swiss Baron, and possibly Christopher Gale. There is some evidence Gale received this “dignity” upon his last visit to London, about 1716 or 1717.
Despite the efforts of the Lords Proprietors to establish a feudal, landed nobility in North Carolina, and to “avoid a numerous democracy,” their efforts failed, and a democracy flourished. The conditions under which the early settlers lived, the hardships of the wilderness, the close dependence of the settlers upon each other, and the possibility for a man to rise from one social strata to the next, through the acquisition of land and slaves, made for the very democracy the Lords Proprietors hoped to avoid. These men had one thing in common, whether rich or poor, gentry or redemptioner. Their new home was more to be desired than the one they had quitted.
At the top of the social and economic ladder were the gentry, the large planters, and the wealthy merchants. After their signature, they affixed the title “Gent.,” “Esq.,” or “Planter.” With indentured servants or slaves to perform the menial tasks of the plantation, they lived in relative ease. Members of the council, the judiciary, other government officials, and professional men were in this group.
Members of the council affixed both “Gent.” and “Esq.” after their signatures. Those who had family crests or coats-of-arms proudly displayed them as a badge of social rank. Though this group was in the minority, they controlled the government and had great influence upon the political, social, and economic life of the province.
Next below the gentry on the social and economic ladder, and providing the great bulk of the population, were the small
farmers, skilled artisans, and small merchants. These men came to the Pamlico seeking the always desired “good bottom land.” This had become increasingly scarce in the more populous region to the north.
The small farmers cleared their own land. With the help of their neighbors, they erected their home, such as it was. Few if any of them owned even one slave, though some had indentured servants. With the help of their wives and children, they wrested a meager living from their stump-filled acres. As the noncommissioned officers are the backbone of a regiment, these small farmers were the backbone of the province. Dr. R. D. W. Connor aptly describes them as “a strong, fearless, independent race, simple in taste, crude in manners, provincial in outlook, democratic in social relations, tenacious of their rights, sensitive to encroachment on their personal liberties, and when interested in religion at all, narrow and dogmatic.” These men first made their influence felt during the Cary Rebellion. Their political power was not fully realized or appreciated until after the province had become a Royal colony. Then, as Regulators, they made their strength known.
Next below the small farmer and artisan were the volunteer indenture servants, known as “redemptioners.” They were the poorer people of England who could not finance their passage across the Atlantic. They voluntarily bound themselves to a planter for three or four years of servitude in return for their passage, their “keep” for the period of servitude, and their “freedom dues” when that period had been served.
Four years of servitude, bending always to the will of a master, may seem to us a high price to pay for less than steerage passage across the Atlantic. Passengers of this class were crowded into the dark, smelly hold of a small ship. There was no privacy. Men, women, and children slept huddled together on the sand ballast floor of the hold. There were no toilet facilities. One stove, with a pipe running up through the deck, provided the only facilities for them to prepare their meals. But to these people, after the grinding poverty of Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Century England, it must have seemed the fulfilment
of a dream. After three or four years, probably spent more pleasantly than they would have been back in England, they would be free men and women, with a hundred acres of land of their own.
At the end of their period of servitude, they were given their “freedom dues.” This included fifty acres of land per person, warm clothing, a gun, and probably a cow or a sow, with which to start their own herd or drove. Many indenture contracts provided that the servant, particularly if under age, should be taught a trade, and perhaps to read and write. On 4 November, 1700, Stephen Swetman, of Baffin, in Hertfordshire, indentured himself to Thomas Durham, “Carolina Planter,” for four years; guaranteeing himself to be over twenty-one years of age, of good health, and single. Durham was to pay Swetman's passage, provide him with food, clothing, and lodging during the period of indenture, and at the end, provide the “freedom dues.”
Below the “redemptioners” on the social ladder were the involuntary indentured servants. Under the drastic laws of England of that period, a man could be sentenced to death for stealing a shilling, a pig, or a lamb; for poaching, or many other trifling offenses. Lenient Judges, and apparently there were some, even then, were reluctant to impose the death penalty for such offenses. Prisoners found guilty were given a choice of going to the new world as bound servants, or going to the gibbet. Their period of servitude ran from five to seven years. When that period was served, they became free men. With such a choice, it seems unlikely any chose the gibbet.
Women and children, kidnapped from the streets of London, Liverpool, and other cities, were sold to unscrupulous ship masters for a small sum. Carried to America, they were sold into bondage to pay for their passage. The ship master pocketed the profit. As North Carolina protested the shipping of felons and kidnapped persons to her ports, there were relatively few of this class of servant brought into the province.
Lowest on the social and economic ladder were the Negro and Indian slaves. In theory they were chattel; to be bought and sold like horses and cattle. In 1619, a Dutch vessel brought
twenty Negroes to James Town, where they were sold as slaves. These are the first recorded slaves in the South.
Some of the first settlers to move into North Carolina from Virginia, prior to the Proprietary grant, brought their slaves with them. Old wills and inventories of the early planters on the Pamlico show they owned a relatively large number of slaves. Negroes were mostly brought into the province by New England ship masters, who did a thriving business in this traffic. North Carolina planters claimed that because of their poor ports, the best Negroes were sold in Virginia or Charles Town, while they got only the culls. Negroes born in the province, who spoke English, and did not have to be broken to slavery, brought the best prices.
It was also common practice among the white planters to buy Indian women and children who had been captured by warring tribes, or kidnapped from their village. As Indian men made poor slaves, and were hard to hold in bondage, they were usually shipped to the West Indies.
The possession of slaves was a form of wealth among the early planters. They were disposed of in wills just as any other property. Edward Salter, a merchant of Bath, left many slaves to his heirs. Samuel Slade left “a Negro boy named Joshawa” to his grandson, Samuel Blount. To his granddaughter Mary Blount, he left “my Female Negro Slave named Charley.” Patrick Maule left several plantations and a goodly number of Negro slaves to his son John. Forty years later, John bequeathed “the mannor plantation whereon I now live * * * which was given me by my father, Patrick Maule,” to his widow for her life, and then to his son Moses. He divided thirty-six Negro slaves among his five children.
Captain Nicholas Thomas Jones, a mariner who lived on Archbell Point when not at sea, had two indentured servants, John Mattson and Thomas Blangoe. He also owned two slaves, an Indian named Pete, and a Negro woman named Dido. When he left the Pamlico for a cruise, he left his servants and slaves with his friend, Captain William Barrow. Barrow contracted with William Gormson, a bricklayer, to rent the services of
the four for a season, while Jones was away. In return for their labor, Gormson was to provide their food, clothes, and lodging.
The Fundamental Constitutions, which were never approved by the General Assembly, provided that in each county erected there would be reserved a siegnory of forty-eight thousand acres for the Landgrave of that county, and for each of the two authorized Caciques, there would be a twenty-four thousand acre siegnory. In addition to these siegnories for the county “nobility,” there would be Manors. Each Manor would consist of not less than three, nor more than ten thousand acres. The possession of three thousand or more acres did not necessarily constitute a Manor. To rate this distinction, the plantation had to be designated as a Manor by the Lords Proprietors. Lords of Manors were to exercise the same feudal rights within their Manor as a Landgrave or Cacique within his barony or siegnory. There is no record of a Manor being designated as such by the Lords Proprietors in Bath County or its precincts. Though the planters opposed the provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions, they were at least impressed with the prestige conferred upon Lords of Manors. In their will many of the owners of large plantations referred to their plantation as “the Manor, Mannor, or Manner Plantation on which I now live.”
John Lawson left an interesting description of the lives of the early settlers of Beaufort County. He wrote: “Some of the men are very laborious, and make great Improvement in their Way; but I dare hardly give them that Character in general. The easy way of living in this plentyful Country makes a great many Planters very negligent. * * * The women are the most industrious Sex in that Place, and by their good Housewifery, make a Cloth of their own, * * * They are as well featured as any you will see anywhere, and have very brisk, charming Eyes, which set them off to Advantage. They marry very young; some at Thirteen or Fourteen; and she that stays ’till Twenty, is reckoned a stale Maid. * * * The women are very fruitful, most houses being full of Little Ones. The Girls are not bred up to the Wheel and Sewing only, but the Dairy and affairs of the House.”
Lawson spoke with the voice of experience. He succumbed to the “charming Eyes” of his “Dearly beloved Hannah Smith,” who bore him a daughter, Isabella Lawson. Hannah Smith later bore Lawson another child, who apparently died at birth, or in infancy. On 12 August, 1708, before his departure for London, Lawson filed his will. In this will he provided for his daughter Isabella and her mother, Hannah Smith, and an unborn brother or sister, “which her mother (Hannah Smith) is with Child off at this present * * * .”
Few attractive widows, particularly those with estate, remained long in a state of bereavement. Elizabet Stephens, mother of Governor Samuel Stephens, married Governor John Harvey after a brief period of mourning. Dame Frances Stephens, the widow of Governor Stephens, emulated the example of her mother-in-law, and upon the death of Stephens, married Sir William Berkeley. Upon Berkeley's death, and having developed a liking for the position of “First Lady,” she married the widower, Governor Philip Ludwell of Carolina. Elizabeth Reed, widow of former President of the Council, William Reed, who was perhaps the wealthiest woman in Currituck County, married MacRora Scarborough, an Assistant Judge of the General Court, not too long after Reed died. Ann Lillington Walker, widow of Governor Henderson Walker, married Edward Moseley. Moseley later moved to Bath, and still later to the Cape Fear. After the death of his wife, her body was returned to Albemarle and buried beside her first husband.
The life of the mistress of the early Carolina plantations was not one of ease, as so often has been depicted. She was an active and important member of the management of the plantation. Usually an intelligent, capable woman, who had been trained early for her responsibilities, she was responsible for the health and welfare of all the slaves, and for the training of the house servants. She supervised the sewing room, the dairy, the kitchen, and the plantation garden. She rationed food to the families of field hands, and supervised the canning, preserving, and other activities pertaining to the preservation of food for the winter. She was usually present for the birth of slave babies, cared for
the sick, and supervised the burial of the dead. Regarding her activities, an anonymous rhymster of the period wrote:
“Dat ole plantation, hit war runOn ’rangemants ’bout like dis.Der place, hit belong to Ole Massa,But Ole Massa, he belong to Ole Mis.”Not all of the women of the Pamlico were industrious, or given to “good Housewifery.” In May, 1702, George Mungumery posted his wife Elizabeth from “having any credit in this Government from this day forward and forever.” Mary Cotton, of Bath Town, was found guilty of “feloniously carrying away” several articles belonging to Roger Kenyon, of Bath Town. These items included white linen shirts, white cotton and linen sheets, and a bill of credit for eight pounds. Mary was found guilty and sentenced to be “tied to the whipping post and given thirty-one lashes on her bare back.” She was also directed to post one hundred pounds as bond for her good behavior “for twelve months and one day.” In addition, Mary was to pay all court costs. These costs included “twenty pence per day each, for four witness for four days, and their ferry fare of ten shillings each.” Mary was given four days to raise her bond and pay all costs. If she failed, she was to be sold (indentured) to the highest bidder who would give security to transport her out of the province.
In comparison to modern justice, this punishment seems harsh indeed. In comparison to the courts of England of that period, it was lenient. Prisoners found guilty of even lesser offenses could be hung. Roger Kenyon probably felt this punishment was too light. An indenture servant, William Doyle, was found guilty of stealing from his master, and was sentenced to be “tyed to the tayle of a Cart & be whipt on the bare back with thirty-nine stripes through Edenton.” On the following Friday, he was to “be whipt in like manner through Bath Town.”
Negro slaves were executed for felonies, and their owners recompensed by the Assembly, at a value determined by the court. Alexander Grant was allowed eighty pounds for a Negro
slave named Simon, and John Cherry a like amount for his Negro Luke, both of whom were executed. Matthew Rabour received only fifty pounds for a Negro woman belonging to him, who was executed for house burning. Dr. Jacob Deadham was allowed his claim of three pounds for castrating a Negro man named Charlie, the property of Samuel Duncomb, found guilty of attempted assault.
Not all sentences were so severe. A man's standing on the social and economic ladder was considered in determining the sentence. In 1703, Thomas Dewham, “Gent.” was found guilty of “Man Slaughter” for whipping one William Hudson with a “Catt of Nine tayles” until Hudson died. For beating this man to death, Dewham was sentenced “to be Burnt in Brawne of ye Left Thumb with a hott Ironing having—ye Letter M and to pay all Costs that Doth acrue.”
Though many planters referred to their homes as “Manor Plantations,” they fell far short of the stately homes of English country gentlemen, visualized by the Lords Proprietors. The normal permanent home of the early planter was patterned after an age-old English plan. The house was a story and a half high, of frame construction, and usually unpainted. It probably consisted of two rooms on the first floor, one larger than the other, with a loft above. The loft was sometimes divided. The larger room on the first floor was the “Great Hall”; the smaller, the kitchen. Later, a kitchen and “buttery” were constructed back of the main house, and connected with a porch or “dog run.” The master and his wife usually slept in the “Great Hall.” Other members of the family, and perhaps indentured servants, slept in the loft. To avoid passing through the “Great Hall,” the two ground floor rooms were usually separated by a hall about four feet wide. From this hall, a stair or ladder mounted to the loft. The chimneys at each end of the house were of brick. Lawson says: “We there (in North Carolina) make extraordinary good brick throughout the settlement.” The quality of these early Carolina brick is evidenced by brick lately removed from the foundation of Eden's home across Bath Creek from Bath Town. After more than two centuries,
these brick are still solid and strong. Though not quite as old as the bricks from the Eden house, the bricks in the fireplace of the house built by Coutanch, and later occupied by Robert Palmer and the Marsh family, attest to the quality of these early Carolina brick.
Though architectural beauty was sacrificed for comfort, convenience, and safety, the interior of these homes was usually much better finished than the outside would indicate. Ceilings were plastered or beamed, and walls were plastered or paneled. The “White House,” near Hertford, in Perquimans County, which was built about the time Bath Town was incorporated, is an excellent example of the center hall type house of this period.
The home of Lionel Reading, on the south bank of the Pamlico, was one of the few plantation homes of Beaufort County to survive the Tuscarora War. This house was probably similar in design to the “White House.” Benjamin Peyton's plantation, “Garrison,” is another house that survived, and could have been of this type. Only planters with slave labor, for hand sawing the boards, attempted houses of this type.
The wills and inventories of the planters show their homes were comfortably, and sometimes elegantly furnished. Much of their furniture was brought in from England or the West Indies. They had ample quantities of plate, flat silver, china, glassware, and pewter.
For the planter and gentry, food was ample and varied. Fish, oysters, crab, and shrimp could be had for the taking. Deer, bear, and lesser game abounded in the forests and swamps. Wild duck were so plentiful a law was passed in Maryland limiting the number of times it could be fed to slaves. The hunter, seeking food instead of sport, who could not bag half a dozen ducks with a shot, was wasting powder and shot.
Hams, cured over hickory smoke, coated with salt and pepper, then hung to age for two or three years, were among the choice food stores of every good planter. Each plantation had its own milk, butter, eggs, and poultry, with probably a peacock strutting on the lawn. Opossum, caught on moonlight nights
and roasted in a nest of “sweet taters,” was a favorite with the slaves. It was usually so fat few others could eat, let alone digest it.
Fine clothes of satin and broadcloth, with silver knee-buckles, silk or woolen stockings, and shoes with silver buckles were the mark of the gentry. Fast horses with fine saddles and harness were a necessity. The Governor, members of his Council, and many of the planters wore swords, more as a mark of distinction than as a weapon.
Hunting, horse racing, cockfighting, dancing, and card games provided the entertainment. Distances were great, and travel limited to horseback or flatbottom boats, poled by slaves, but this did not deter visiting. Weddings and funerals provided opportunity for days of eating, drinking, and visiting. Whiskey, wine, rum, beer, and hard cider were in ample supply for those who could afford it. Militia musters and the Quarter Sessions court provided further opportunity for social activities, as well as the necessary military and political activities.
Guests, even strangers, were always welcome on the plantation. The news they brought of the outside world more than compensated for their food and lodging. The arrival of a schooner or brig, to anchor in the channel off the dock of the plantation, was another cause for celebrating. Taverns, where available, were usually so poor that travelers of the gentry class rarely stopped at one, if there was a plantation he could visit. Custom sanctioned these visits. As one writer stated, “the planter seemed to consider himself the party obligated by this freedom.” In writing of the planters of the Pamlico, John Brickell said: “the better sort, or those of good economy, (keep) plenty of wine, Rum, and other Liquors at their own houses, which they generously made use of among their Friends and Acquaintances, after a most decent and discreet manner.”
Life for the small farmer or artisan was neither so easy or pleasant, yet few complained. In the new world they were freemen and landowners, no longer the economic serfs of the landed gentry of England. Without the labor of slaves, they had to clear their land, build their houses, and plant their crops.
Literary evidence points to the use of frame buildings for the homes of even the poorer classes of early English settlers. Considering the conditions under which the small farmer had to operate, it seems more probable he came to use the log cabin as the immediate answer to his housing problem. The frame house for this group came into use a half century or more later, when sawmills were in operation, and he could exchange his logs for lumber.
In England, where lumber was in great demand for ship building, and labor was cheap, log construction was uneconomical and practically unknown. In the forests of eastern North Carolina the situation was reversed. The land on which these people settled was heavily forested. Before they could build or plant, it had to be cleared. In the clearing process, large quantities of virgin timber were cut. To convert this timber to planks required many hours of hard labor and the possession of a whip-saw or pit-saw. While such tools were available, they were expensive, and not easily carried into the forest. They also required two men to use them.
The settler who had little time and no money, was forced to find another solution. To construct a log house from the material lying on his land, which had to be removed, he needed only an axe, an adz, and an augur. With the help of his neighbors, his house could be erected within a few weeks. This theory is supported by William Byrd, Virginia's representative in running the border line between the two colonies. In 1728, Byrd wrote: “Most of the houses in this part of the Country (border swamps of North Carolina and Virginia) are Log houses, covered with Pine or Cypress Shingles, three feet long and one broad. They are hung upon Laths with Peggs, and their doors turn upon Wooden Hinges, and have Wooden Locks to secure them, so that the building is finished without nails or other Iron-work.”
The furniture for these houses was simple, sturdy, and entirely utilitarian. Much of it was made by candle light, or the light of a fire, after the day of labor in the field was over. Many of the platters, plates, spoons, and other utensils were carved by hand. Until a bunk could be made and laced with heavy cord,
or rawhide thongs, the settler and his family slept on the floor, on ticking filled with pine straw.
The housewife cared for the home and children, nursed the ever present baby, milked the cow, if they were fortunate enough to have one, churned, spun and wove the cloth from which she made their clothes. In planting and harvesting time, she helped her husband and children in the field.
Their food consisted of what they could grow, or kill in the forest, and there was little time for hunting. The first crop had to produce enough corn, beans, and peas to survive the first winter. Like the plantations of the more opulent, each small farm had its fruit trees, and usually a scuppernong vine, supported on its trellis of cedar poles. After the first year, there were hogs and chickens and geese. The housewife and her older children attended the garden. A well-sweep, with a cypress-knee bucket, the size and shape of an inverted slouch hat, was a necessity, as was a dog to warn of prowlers at night, and run rabbits in its moments of leisure.
The Rev. Mr. Gordon, in describing the diet of the poorer farmer and his family, wrote: “they feed mostly upon pork * * * and bread of Indian corn, which they are forced, for want of mills, to beat * * * there is but little difference between the corn in the horse's manger and the bread on their tables.” On this same subject, a rhymster of the time, with tongue in cheek, wrote:
“The place where we live is a wilderness wood,Where grass is much wanting, that's fruitful and good.But if fresh meat be wanting, to fill up our dish,We have carrots and pumpkin and turnips and fish.”Hurricanes have plagued the people of Beaufort County since the beginning of the colony. Early references are replete with records of storms, and the damage done by them. Parson Stewart wrote of one that swept over the Pamlico in September 1769. “We had the most violent Gale of wind and the highest Tide ever been known since the Country was inhabited. Tide rose in a few hours at my house 12 feet higher than I ever saw
it before. * * * Every Vessel, Boat, and Craft were driven up in the woods, and all the large Oaks, Pines &c., broken either off or were torn up by the roots.” Stewart reported that his leg was injured during this storm, while “endeavoring to save some of my houses.” He reported his personal loss in this storm as six hundred pounds.
CHAPTER VBATH TOWN
BY THE YEAR 1704, planters along the Pamlico realized that if their community was to achieve commercial and political importance within the province, it should have a town as the center of its activities. There is no record of who first initiated the action to incorporate the town of Bath. The new deputy Governor, the Landgrave Robert Daniel, fresh from Charles Town, and conscious of the fact the vast area he governed was without an incorporated town, and had no permanent seat of government, was undoubtedly among those who initiated it. John Lawson, Joel Martin, and Simon Alderson, who became the first commissioners of the town, were also undoubtedly involved. Major Christopher Gale, Captain William Barrow, Captain Nathaniel Daw, and David Perkins, all land owners in the neighborhood, were probably also involved.
A site was selected on the eastern bank of Old Town (Bath) Creek, on the point formed by the confluence of Old Town and Adams (Back) Creek. This had been the site of the Indian town referred to as Pamtico's Town in the 1684 Sothel grant. It was also the site of the old Pomouik town of Cotan, from which the creek derived the name “Old Town.”
This site was part of a plantation settled earlier by David Perkins. It adjoined the plantation of Captain William Barrow, to the east. At some time during the year 1704, John Lawson, Joel Martin, and Simon Alderson bought about sixty acres of the Perkins plantation, and laid out streets and lots for a town. There is no direct record of this sale in the present Beaufort County records. However there is a record which confirms this sale. Two years later, when Perkins sold the remainder of his plantation to Governor Cary, for the use of the Governor's son John, the record of transfer states: “the within mentioned Tract (160 acres and 11 poles) except that Part which we formerly sold to Joel Martin Gent., Simon Alderson Gent., and John Lawson and now laid out for a town.”
On 2 March, 1705, the new deputy Governor Thomas Cary issued a patent to David Perkins, confirming his title to the plantation. At about the same time, Cary issued a patent to Barrow for his plantation, which Cary also later bought.
On 8 March, 1705, the tract of land purchased by Lawson, Martin, and Alderson, was incorporated into the town of Bath, by the General Assembly meeting at the home of Captain John Hecklefield, in Albemarle. It now seems obvious by the timing of Cary's grant to Perkins that this action was to give validity to the title to lots to be sold in the new town.
Apparently the name “Bath” had been selected for the new town prior to its incorporation. On 11 February, 1705, a month before the town was incorporated, Simon Alderson sold to Mr. Nathaniel Wyersdale “a certain Lott in Bath Town formerly called Jacob Conrow's Lott lying about the middle of Town, a front lott and all the background.” This is one of two land transactions in Bath Town in which Alderson's name appears as grantor. It also shows that if houses had not yet been built, lots were certainly being sold or optioned prior to the incorporation. More than a year later, Lawson and Martin recorded the sale of about two dozen lots in Bath Town. lot to Wyersdale, “on which the said Wyersdale now lives.” Again, this appears to be a transaction to validate Wyersdale's title, rather than a new sale.
Between 26 September and 2 October, 1706, Lawson and Martin recorded the sale of about two dozen lots in Bath Town. The vague description of these lots, which were not recorded by number at first, makes it practically impossible to say who bought which lot during these first sales. Most of the lots sold were on “front street with front privelages.” The “front” street referred to was the 100 feet wide main street, running parallel to Old Town Creek for the length of the town, shown on Chart 2 as Water Street. These lots were on the east side of the street, and the “front privelage” meant the use of the extension of these lots west of the street to the creek.
Early records in the office of the Register of Deeds for Beaufort County include the following names among the early
purchasers of lots in Bath Town: Nathaniel Wyersdale, Christopher Gale, Dr. Maurice Luellyn, Daniel Matthews, Captain James Beard, Levi Truewhite, Richard Oden Jr., George Birkenhead, Otho Russel, Lionel Reading, Giles Shute, Joel Martin, Captain Nathaniel Daw, John Lawson, and the new Governor, Thomas Cary. The names of Thomas Sparrow, a merchant of Maryland; John Porter and John Worley, merchants of Chowan; and Thomas Peterson, a merchant of Albemarle, were among the out of town purchasers recorded. Sparrow, Porter, and Worley later moved to the Pamlico.
It is now difficult to determine which of the early lot owners actually lived in Bath Town. We know that Wyersdale and Shute did. Their deeds read “the lott on which he now lives.” Christopher Gale and Dr. Luellyn did. The title to Gale's lot reads “the lot on which Dr. Luellyn now lives.” John Lawson owned two lots, “containing an acre and eight poles, within a fence.” In December, 1706, Lawson leased “all his site and Lots of Land whereon he now liveth * * * on front street in Bath Town, also all houses, edifices, buildings etc. * * * ” to Hannah Smith for seven years, for an annual rent of “one ear of Indian corn, if demanded.”
In 1709, the Rev. William Gordon, a missionary of the S. P. C., visited Bath Town. In May of that year, he wrote the Secretary of the S. P. G.: “Here is no church, though they have begun to build a town called Bath. It consists of about twelve houses, being the only town in the whole province. They have a small collection of books for a library, which were carried over by the Rev. Dr. Bray, and some land is laid out for a glebe; but no minister would ever stay long in the place, though several have come hither from the West Indies. * * * There is no money * * * everyone buys and pays with commodities—pork, pitch, and corn, which price, though fixed by law, they can seldom reach anywhere else * * * the difference in their money and sterling is one to three. If you buy a plantation for £300 of their pay, they would much rather take £100 in England.”
Gordon described the Pamlico area as “not the unpleasantest
part of the country—nay, in all probability it will be the center of trade, as having the advantage of a better inlet for shipping and surrounded with most pleasant savannas very useful for stocks of cattle.”
Among the first inhabitants of Bath Town were at least two lawyers, Christopher Gale and the “young gentleman” who read prayers each Sunday at Gale's home. There was a doctor, Dr. Maurice Luellyn “physician and Chirurgeon”; a blacksmith, Collingswood Ward; a silversmith, Robert Mellyne; and two shipwrights, Thomas Harding and William Powell.
The first recorded ship to be built on the Pamlico was in 1707. In that year Governor Cary entered into a contract with Thomas Harding for the latter to build “at his landing in Bath Creek one sloop, 46 feet by the keel, 18 feet by the beam, and 8 feet in the hold.” Harding was to do all the ship carpenter work and finish the sloop “workmanlike.” Cary was to furnish all plank, iron, oakum, tar, and pitch. Cary also agreed to “find meat, drink, and lodging” for Harding and his helpers while the sloop was being built.
In 1710, Christopher Gale, who had been in London, apparently in connection with the feud between Glover and Cary over who was Governor, and John Lawson who had been in London in connection with the publication of his book, returned to the Pamlico. They brought with them a group of German Palatines, destined for the settlement on the Neuse. After a long and disastrous thirteen-week voyage, during which almost half the settlers died, they reached the entrance to the James River. There the ship carrying the more prosperous of the settlers was stopped and plundered by a French privateer. The Frenchmen took everything the settlers had, including their clothes and personal property.
Those who survived the voyage marched through the wilderness from Virginia to Albemarle. Thomas Pollock provided them with food and a vessel to transport them to the Neuse. Gale had authority from the Lords Proprietors to use such public funds as might be available for the support of the Germans
until they could get established. But Cary, who was aware of Gale's friendship with Pollock, and suspicious that Gale's trip to London had been to secure his replacement as Governor, refused the use of funds for this purpose.
In July 1709, the Landgrave Robert Daniel, who, after his removal from office, had continued to live on his plantation on Archbell Point, returned to South Carolina. Before his departure, he made his will. James Leigh and Edmund Pierce were named as his Trustees. Daniel left his plantation on Archbell Point; a 270 acre tract on Broad Creek; 16 Negro and Indian slaves; and his ship “named Martha, now riding at anchor in Bath Town Creek”; his plate, jewels, rings, furniture and all stores to “Martha Wainwright for her life, or until my son, John Daniel, born of the body of said Martha Wainwright, is twenty-one.” At that time the property was to go to John. In the event of John's death before he was twenty-one, the property was to go to Daniel's daughter Sarah, and if she died, to a second daughter, named Martha, for her mother.
The records show that before Daniel was appointed deputy Governor of South Carolina, under Governor Craven, he returned to North Carolina for a short time. Martha Wainwright and their children either returned to South Carolina with Daniel at that time, or followed him a short time later. On 5 June, 1718, Martha Wainwright Daniel, widow and executrix of Daniel's will, sold the plantation on Archbell Point to Tobias Knight, Secretary of the Colony under Eden.
With the exception of the governors who lived in or near Bath Town, and the possible exception of John Lawson, Christopher Gale was Bath Town's most important citizen. Gale was the son of the Rev. Miles Gale, Rector of Kighley, in Craven, England. He was also a kinsman of Thomas Gale, Dean of York. Gale came to Carolina about 1698 or 1699. He resided in Perquimans County for a short while. On 10 May, 1700, he received a grant of 315 acres of land on the east bank of Adams (Back) Creek, which was then called the East Branch of Old Town Creek. Gale probably moved to the Pamlico in
the summer of 1700. In September of that year he bought from “Henry Warren of Pamtico” another “52 acres and 4poles” of land adjoining his grant.
Gale built his home, Kirby Grange, on this land, and lived there for more than a decade. In December 1716, he bought lot number 16 in Bath Town from Colonel Maurice Moore, and half of lot 17. He probably moved to Bath Town in the spring or summer of 1717. Gale's brother Edmund also came to Carolina, but apparently did not achieve the prominence of Christopher.
After Gale and his wife Sarah moved to Bath Town, Gale, “for and in consideration of the natural love and affection I have and bear to my daughter Elizabeth Gale,” gave her his plantation, Kirby Grange, on which Colonel Moore was then living. Being a lawyer and wanting to be certain her title could not be questioned, he increased the consideration to include “the sum of ten shillings,” which he probably took from one pocket and returned to another.
During its early days, three governors, Daniel, Cary, and Eden lived in or near Bath Town. Matthew Rowan, who later became governor, lived in Bath Town for a number of years when he first came to Carolina. It also seems probable that Burrington resided in Bath Town for a short while after being relieved of his duty as a Proprietary governor. Hyde, Johnston, and Dobbs each visited Bath Town and held one or more meetings of their Council there.
The Rev. John Urmston, an S. P. G. missionary who visited Bath Town in 1717, held a very low opinion of Bath Town's First Citizen, and thought even less of Governor Eden than he did Gale. In a letter to the Secretary of the S. P. G., Urmston wrote: “He (Gale) is a clergyman's son in Yorkshire, bears the great name Gale—I know not how near kin to the late Dean of York. He has a little smack of school Learning, was sometime Clerk to a country attorney at Lancaster * * * (this) great show of Learning gains him great Esteem. Among the Beasts in the woods (the Pamlico settlers) he has passed
Chart No. 2
PLAN OF BATH TOWN
From John Gray Blount Papers, State Department of Archives and
History, Raleigh
long for an Oracle, * * * and being learned in the Law, was made Chief Justice of the whole Province. Being arrived at that High Pitch of supposed grandeur, he grew very impertinent, he hath often opposed me in matters relating to Church discipline * * * I can't see why I should be borne down by such a Blockhead.”
Urmston's description of Governor Eden was even less flattering: “a complete ruffian, * * * a boatswain's mate, who are commonly the greatest reprobates on a man-of-war, fit only to command the forecastle Gang.” Urmstom wound up this diatribe with a final slap at the Carolina settler in general: “Seeing the Genius and tempo of the People are so like the said Gentry, there cannot be a fitter man (than Eden) to govern them.”
Governor Eden established his first seat of government in Bath Town. In the year 1717, he owned lots number 9, 10, 22, and 23 on Front Street, with front privileges down to the water. He also owned back lots number 67 and 68. Eden also purchased a four hundred acre plantation on the west side of Bath Creek, adjoining the land of the late Landgrave Robert Daniel. The remains of the brick foundation of Eden's home may still be seen. The old brick, which according to John Lawson “were made exceptionally well in the province,” are strong and firm after two and a half centuries of exposure to the weather. Tobias Knight bought the Daniel Plantation on Archbell Point from Daniel's widow, and became Eden's neighbor. Eden sold this plantation to John Lillington in 1718, and moved to Chowan (Bertie) County.
Bath Town's most notorious citizen was Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. When George I succeeded Queen Anne to the English throne, his Mercy Act provided that pirates who surrendered and threw themselves upon the mercy of the Crown, would be pardoned. Teach accepted this offer and surrendered to Eden. He was tried before the Vice Admiralty Court in Bath Town, which determined he was a privateersman instead of a pirate. Pardoned by Eden, in the
King's name, Teach was permitted to keep his ship. Teach then established his home on Plum Point, across Bath Creek from Eden's home.
Legends of Blackbeard are numerous in the Bath Town area. One is that Blackbeard paid unsuccessful court for the hand of Governor Eden's daughter. Being engaged to another man, she rejected him. Angered by her rejection, Blackbeard kidnapped his rival, carried him out to sea, where he cut off the hands of his rival and dumped the man into the sea. He then placed the severed hands in a jewel casket and sent them to Miss Eden. It is alleged she promptly languished and died.
Another Teach legend is that during his short time as a resident of Bath Town, he took the sixteen-year-old daughter of a Bath County planter for his thirteenth or fourteenth wife.
Teach's pirate crew probably brought some gold and silver to the money-starved merchants of Bath Town, but not enough to compensate for the plundering of their ships. It became known that Teach was slipping away, presumably on a business trip to the West Indies. When he returned, his ship would be ladened with valuable cargo. During the period Teach was away, ships of the merchants of Bath Town, and other ports in Carolina and Virginia would be mysteriously lost at sea.
Both Eden and Knight are alleged to have known of Teach's activities, and to have participated in his spoils. Eden's house sat on a high bank above Bath Creek. There is a legend that a tunnel was cut through this bank to the cellar of Eden's house. Under cover of darkness, boats slipped away from Teach's landing to carry Eden's share of the loot through this tunnel to his cellar.
Suspicious of Teach's relations with Eden and Knight, Edward Moseley, Maurice Moore, and Jeremiah Vail searched Knight's home for evidence. Though they found much evidence, including many barrels of sugar from the West Indies, they were arrested and charged with breaking and entering. Moseley and Moore were found guilty. Moseley was fined one hundred pounds and barred from public office for three years. Moore received a fine of only five pounds, and Vail was not found
guilty. During his trial, Moseley bitterly assailed Eden, asserting: “the Governor could find men enough to arrest peacable citizens, but none to arrest thieves and robbers.”
Some effort was made in North Carolina to control Teach's activities. Four of Teach's men were charged with robbing the Periangor (flat bottom boat) of William Bell, which was anchored off John Chester's landing. During their trial, these men admitted carrying “three or four Caggs of Sweet meats, some Loaf Sugar, a bagg of Chocolate and Some boxes, the Contents of which they did not know,” to Knight's house, and that Knight was at home to receive them. On their return from Knight's house, they encountered Bell's boat, boarded it, and after threatening Bell and his crew with pistols, robbed them and continued on their way to Ocracoke Island. Though conviction for such crimes carried the death penalty, the records do not show what punishment these men received.
The Governor's Council constituted the court that sat in judgement on these men. It included Thomas Pollock, William Reed, Frank Foster, Fred Jones, and Richard Sanderson, probably the five most important planters in the Albemarle area. Realizing they would get no relief from Eden, the merchants of Bath Town appealed secretly to Governor Spotswood of Virginia. Under pressure from Virginia merchants also, Spotswood sent Lieutenant Robert Maynard of the Royal Navy to apprehend Teach. On 22 November, 1718, Maynard overtook Teach near Ocracoke Island. In the fight that followed, Teach and nine of his crew of eighteen were killed. The other nine were carried back to Virginia and hanged.
Eden's relations with Teach should not be judged too harshly. British trade laws were unpopular in the colonies. Smuggling was considered proper and smart, provided you did not get caught. Almost every New England skipper entering the Port of Bath smuggled undeclared articles to the merchants and their friends. The ships of the merchants of Bath Town were guilty of the same offense.
The fine line between legal privateering in time of war, and the same thing in time of peace, which was called piracy, was
sometimes hard to distinguish. Eden probably remembered that many years before, Queen Elizabeth had been faced with a problem similar to his. When Sir Francis Drake, after sailing the first British ship around the world, returned to England, his ship, the Golden Hind, was ladened with gold. This gold had been taken from Spanish towns and cities, though at that time England and Spain were not at war. The Spanish Ambassador charged Drake with piracy, even as the citizens of Bath Town charged Teach.
Elizabeth had difficulty trying to decide whether to receive Drake as a hero, and risk war with Spain, or hang him as a pirate, as the Spanish demanded. Fortunately for Drake, and later for England, Elizabeth decided he was a hero.
It should also be remembered that Eden, like other governors sent over by the Lords Proprietors, was not of the caliber of those Carolinians who served as President of the Council. Though usually men of good family, they were also usually needy adventurers. They came to Carolina not with a burning zeal to provide a sound government, but primarily to improve their economic standards.
It also seems apparent the Lords Proprietors did not take the charges against Eden too seriously. In the same year Teach was killed by Lieutenant Maynard, Eden was appointed a Landgrave by the Lords Proprietors. Eden was the third, and with the possible exception of Gale, the last of the Proprietary nobility to live in North Carolina.
Eden's first Assembly, which met in 1715, did much to improve conditions within the province. It revised and codified the laws of North Carolina; passed a new Vestry Act; and passed an act of Liberty of Conscience, permitting the Quakers the right of affirmation and other dissenters the legal protection they sought.
It also provided for a revision of the incorporation of Bath Town and a resurvey of the town. The original act in 1705 specified each lot was to be one half acre in size. The lots as laid out and sold, contained one half acre and four poles, or about one tenth of an acre more than the law provided. The
1715 act required the lots to be reduced to the original half acre.
To encourage building within the town, this act provided that if “a good, substantial, habitable house” had not been built on a lot within one year after purchase, the sale would be cancelled, and the lot revert to the commissioners to be sold again. The commissioners ruled that a habitable house, fifteen feet square, or the equivalent thereof in area, constituted a “good substantial house.” From this provision came the term “saved lot,” meaning a lot on which a minimum standard house had been built, so the owner could retain ownership.
After the resurvey of the town, Bath Town experienced a minor boom. Chart No. 2 shows the seventy-one lots and six streets into which Bath Town was divided by the 1715 survey. This is a copy of a “Plan of Bath Town” which was copied in 1807 from a plan dated 22 February, 1766, now preserved with the John Gray Blount papers in the Department of Archives and History in Raleigh. It will be noted this plan, made the same year the Assembly directed the courthouse be removed from Bonner's Field and returned to Bath Town, does not show the courthouse at the end of Craven Street, as shown by the Sauthier Map of Bath Town, made three years later.
Between the dates of 25 March and 20 October 1717, all owners of lots on Water (Bay) Street, initially called Front Street, paid ten shillings per lot to retain ownership of the extension of their lot from the west side of the street to the low water mark of Bath Creek. Chart No. 2 shows the lot owners, as of the dates shown above. These names, taken from the records in the Office of the Register of Deeds for Beaufort County, have been added to the original chart. A footnote on the 1807 chart lists lot “No.29, Publick School Lotte.” This could mean that Mary Clarke, the minor daughter of John Clarke, who paid her ten shillings to retain her “front privelages,” did not build the “good and substantial house” on her lot within the required time, and the lot reverted to the commissioners.
A second footnote on the 1807 copy of the plan, refers to the 145 acre Bath Town Commons, authorized by the 1729
General Assembly. “Beginning at a Marked Pine at the East Branch of Old Towne Creek (Back Creek), running up Captain Barrow's line * * * .” This placed Bath Town Commons in the northeast corner of the point formed by Bath and Back creeks, or just east of the north gate to the town.
The 1715 Assembly made provisions for a courthouse to be built in Bath Town to serve Beaufort, Hyde, and Craven precincts. It authorized justices of the peace of the precincts to lay a levy against the inhabitants of the precincts to pay for it. However, it provided this levy could not be laid until the precincts had recovered from the effects of the Tuscarora War. Later action of the 1722 Assembly indicates this levy was never laid, nor was a courthouse built. This Assembly also provided that a collector's office, clerk's office, and an impost office be established and maintained at Bath Town.
Governor Eden died in the spring of 1722, at his home in Chowan (Bertie) County, and was succeeded by Thomas Pollock, President of the Council. Pollock survived Eden by only a few months, dying in August of the same year. In September, 1722, Colonel William Reed, who had succeeded Pollock as President of the Council, assumed the duties of Governor, “till the pleasure of the Lords Proprietors’ be further known.”
Reed's home was in Currituck (Camden) County. Like Pollock, he never lived in Bath Town or Beaufort County, but like most wealthy planters of the Albemarle region, he speculated in land on the Pamlico. He bought a 700 acre plantation on the north bank of the Pamlico, and later sold it to Thomas Juell (Jewell). He also purchased a large tract on the south side of the Pamlico, near South Creek. This was probably in the neighborhood of present Reed's Point.
The 1722 and 1723 Assemblies, which met during Reed's administration, contributed much to the welfare of Bath Town and Beaufort Precinct. The 1722 Assembly directed the immediate construction of a courthouse in Bath Town for the use of Beaufort and Hyde precincts. In the meantime, Craven had been authorized its own courthouse at New Bern. This action by the Assembly indicates beyond a reasonable doubt
that a courthouse had not been built under the 1715 authority. This courthouse was probably built in the spring or summer of 1723. The 1723 Assembly authorized a further levy for the building of a jail at Bath Town.
The exact location of this first Beaufort County courthouse is not known. All evidence points to lot 62, designated on the plan for a courthouse. Through surveying errors, the courthouse could have encroached upon lot 61, designated for a church, and thus account for the fact that St. Thomas Church, which was started a dozen years later, was built in the center of Craven Street, instead of on lot 61.
The Sauthier Map of Bath Town, made in 1769, shows the courthouse and jail at the end of Craven Street, between Water (Bay) Street and the Creek. As a new courthouse and jail was authorized in 1766, when the court was ordered to return to Bath Town from Bonner's Field, it seems more likely the Sauthier Map shows the second courthouse rather than the first, as the new courthouse was finished prior to 1769.
The 1715 Assembly provided that when Bath Town had reached a population of sixty families, it would be given a representative in the Assembly. This number had not been reached in 1722, but the Assembly of that year decided the town was entitled to a representative. The 1723 Assembly prescribed the procedure for selecting this representative, and the eligibility requirements for voting. The candidate must have lived in Bath Town for at least eighteen months and be a freeholder or owner of a “saved lot” in Bath Town. The ballot was limited to the owner of a house in Bath Town in which he lived; was vacant; or was rented to a person not eligible to vote. Renters who had paid the previous year's levy or polltax were eligible to vote. If the renter voted, it barred the owner of the house, unless the owner had another house in Bath Town in which he lived, or was vacant.
In 1724, George Burrington was appointed by the Lords Proprietors to succeed William Reed as Governor. After one turbulent year, during which he quarreled violently with his Council, the Lower House, and the Courts, and incurred the
displeasure of the Lords Proprietors, Burrington was summarily dismissed.
Sir Richard Everard, Baronet, a native of Essex in England, succeeded Burrington, and became North Carolina's last Proprietary Governor. Burrington remained in the province for a short time after his dismissal. It was probably during this period that Burrington resided in Bath Town. His high-handed conduct, after his dismissal, indicates he was probably negotiating with the Crown at that time, planning to return as North Carolina's first Royal Governor. While in Bath Town, his conduct was such that a grand jury returned a true bill against him, charging him with assault upon Roger Kenyon, a merchant of Bath Town, and with an attempt to burn Kenyon's house. He was also charged with assault upon Robert Route, Provost Marshal of Albemarle County. By the time the grand jury had heard the case and returned a true bill, Burrington had departed for England.
During this eventful year of 1725, “a mighty storm destroyed all corn and a great mortality prevailed among stock, making provisions short.” This was one of the many hurricanes to visit the Pamlico that were recorded in the early Beaufort County records.
Governor Everard's first Assembly met at Edenton on 5 April, 1726. Beaufort County was represented by John Baptista Ashe and Joshua Porter. Though Bath Town was authorized a representative, his name does not appear on the records. Ashe was elected Speaker of the Lower House, and Christopher Gale, as a member of Everard's Council, represented Beaufort County in the Upper House.
CHAPTER VITHE CARY REBELLION
THE CARY REBELLION was, in a sense, North Carolina's own small Civil War, and was the beginning of the separation of Church and State in North Carolina. Its roots reach back to the removal of Governor Daniel from office. The Dissenters, aroused over Daniel's Second Vestry Act, had secured his removal from office for being too ardent an Anglican. With Cary's appointment, they had expected more lenient treatment.
To their consternation Cary aligned himself with the Anglican group, led by Thomas Pollock of Chowan. He not only refused to accept the Quaker affirmation in lieu of an oath, but imposed a fine of five pounds upon anyone entered into an office without taking an oath.
This so aroused the Quakers that in 1707 they sent John Porter to London to protest to the Lords Proprietors. Cary, who had come to the province well recommended, and who had done much for the improvement of Bath County and Bath Town, was referred to as “an unscrupulous politician, always seeking his own advancement.” Through the influence of the Quaker Proprietor, John Archdale, Porter succeeded in his quest. He returned with a directive from the Lords Proprietors to suspend all laws regarding oaths, and to remove Cary from office.
Upon his return to North Carolina, Porter found that Cary was in South Carolina, and William Glover, President of the Council, was acting Governor. Porter and the Quakers accepted Glover as the replacement for Cary, hoping he would comply with the directive of the Lords Proprietors. To their disappointment, Glover declined to accept Porter's directive, or to accept Quakers to the Council or Assembly until they had taken the oath.
The Quakers then negotiated with Cary and reached an agreement whereby he was to return to North Carolina and turn Glover out of office. Glover, now aware of the Lords
Proprietors’ order removing Cary, refused to surrender the office to him. With feelings running high, the province was quickly divided into two camps, though not entirely Anglican against Dissenter.
Thomas Pollock, one of the wealthiest and most influential men of the province, supported Glover. A former member of Cary's Council, and a vestryman of St. Paul's Parish, Pollock was supported by the majority of the “Church Party.” He was scornful of both Cary's “pretended Presidentship and pretended Council.”
Edward Moseley, also a wealthy planter of Albemarle, and also a vestryman of St. Paul's, supported Cary. He too had been a member of Cary's first Council. Although he was a staunch Anglican, Moseley did not believe that any man should be compelled by law to support the Anglican, or any other Church. Thus began an enmity between former friends that was to last until Pollock's death.
Cary, Moseley, and their followers were as vitriolic in denouncing Glover and Pollock as the Anglicans were in denouncing Cary. They charged that Glover had failed to maintain law and order, and had acted as if “the days of Oliver Cromwell had come again.”
To ease the tension and avert bloodshed, both Cary and Glover agreed to submit their claims to the voters. Both Cary and Glover issued writs for the election of a new Assembly, which was to convene in October, 1708.
When the Assembly convened, it was found that Pasquotank and Perquimans precincts, which were well populated by Dissenters, had each sent five delegates for Cary. Each of the three Bath County precincts sent Cary delegates. Currituck sent five delegates for Glover, and both sides claimed the delegates from Chowan, which at the time was the home of both Pollock and Moseley.
While the Assembly wrangled over the seating of the Chowan delegates, both Cary and Glover met with their Councils in nearby, but separate rooms. Robert Daniel, asserting his right
as a Landgrave to sit on the Governor's Council, sat first with one group, then with the other.
With a clear majority for Cary, regardless of the outcome of the Chowan conflict, the Assembly elected Edward Moseley as Speaker, and declared Cary to be President of the Council. Glover, refusing to concede defeat and fearful of retaliation by Cary, fled to Virginia with Pollock and others of their following.
John Lawson, who was in London at the time, seems to have kept free from entangling alliances with either group. Christopher Gale and Lionel Reading were also in London at the time. As both men were vestrymen of St. Thomas, and in view of Cary's later treatment of Gale, it seems probable they were both for Glover, and were in London in connection with the discord in the province. If this were true, they were in the minority in Beaufort Precinct and Bath County.
As President of the Council, Cary governed the province from October 1708 until January 1711. During this period, while there is no evidence of an armed conflict, the settlers of the province lived in an atmosphere of tension. Glover and Pollock, apparently fearing Cary, remained in Virginia.
In 1710, the Lords Proprietors, disturbed by the chaotic conditions that prevailed in the province, and probably influenced by Gale and Reading, appointed Edward Hyde, a namesake and kinsman of the deceased Earl of Clarendons and a cousin of Queen Anne, as Deputy Governor of North Carolina, under the newly appointed Governor Tynte of Carolina.
Hyde arrived in Virginia in August, 1710. He found that Governor Tynte had died prior to his arrival, and that his commission as Deputy Governor, which had been sent to Tynte, could not be found. Warned by Glover and Pollock of the danger of going to North Carolina before his status was clarified, Hyde remained in Virginia.
With the use of personal letters and other evidence, Hyde convinced Governor Spotswood of Virginia, and the leaders of both factions in North Carolina that he had been appointed.
The Baron von Graffenried, who had reached Carolina in connection with his colony at New Bern, testified that he had been present when Hyde received his appointment from the Lords Proprietors. Facing the danger of being deserted by Moseley and his followers, Cary finally agreed to surrender the government to Hyde, if the latter was elected President of the Council.
Although he was not a member of the Council, Hyde was unanimously chosen as President. He came to North Carolina in January, 1711. He established his home in Chowan (Bertie) County, on the west bank of the Chowan River, only a few miles from Pollock's plantation. From there, he issued a writ for the election of a new Assembly.
Hyde appointed both Pollock and Glover to his Council, and chose the remainder of the members from among their followers, ignoring the Cary faction. The new Assembly met in March, 1711. The majority of the members, including Lionel Reading, were supporters of Glover, Pollock, and the Church party.
Instead of enacting remedial and conciliatory laws, intended to restore peace and confidence within the province, they succumbed to the temptation to wreak vengeance. Cary and John Porter were summonsed before the Assembly, where they were charged with “High Crimes and Misdemeanors,” which included a charge of trying to incite the Tuscarora Indians to “cut off all inhabitants in that part of Carolina that adhered to Mr. Hyde.” When Cary and Porter refused to appear before the Assembly, they were tried “absent reo.” Found guilty by the Assembly, the Council issued a proclamation ordering their arrest.
The Assembly declared all proceedings of the Assembly for the past two years, void. They accused Edward Moseley, who was Surveyor General as well as Speaker of the Lower House of the previous Assembly, with embezzling funds belonging to the Lords Proprietors; and with making many surveys “wherein the Surveyor had never set foot” on the land he professed to have surveyed. The Assembly made it a crime
to “speak seditious words, write or dispense scurrulous Libels against the present Government, * * * instigate others to seditious Caball, or meet together to incite Rebellion.” Penalties for these offenses varied from fines to imprisonment, the pillory, or other punishment at the discretion of the Justices of the General Court.
The Assembly called upon Moseley to surrender his records as Surveyor General for inspection. They appointed commissions in each county and precinct to check the land claims of the settlers. Each landholder or settler claiming land, was given two months in which to appear before these commissioners, make known their claims, and show from whom the land was obtained. Those who failed to appear before the commissioners would forfeit their land to the Lords Proprietors. Joel Martin was appointed commissioner for Beaufort (Pamlico) Precinct. Craven (Archdale) had two commissioners appointed, Lionel Reading for that part of the precinct south of the Pamlico River, which later became part of Beaufort County, and Captain William Brice for the Neuse area.
This arbitrary action proved too much for Cary and his followers to accept. Declaring Hyde had not been duly or legally appointed Governor, and that the Hyde Assembly was not legally elected, Cary began assembling an armed force with the avowed purpose of overthrowing the Hyde government. Cannon, small arms, powder, and other supplies were provided by a Captain Roach, whose ship had recently arrived at Bath Town. Roach was a friend of the Quaker Proprietor Archdale, and a Cary sympathizer.
On 27 May, 1711, Governor Hyde, who had been advised of Cary's actions, gathered a force to take Cary into custody. With about eighty men, he crossed Albemarle Sound and went up the Roanoke (Morotoc) River about twelve miles. There he was joined by approximately seventy more men. As is so often the case, much of the information pertaining to the activities of Beaufort's early settlers comes from letters and reports of missionaries of the S. P. G. The Rev. Benjamin
Dennis, who was on his way to Bath, there to take ship for his parish in South Carolina, accompanied Hyde on his march to Bath Town. Dennis provides a complete, if biased, account of Hyde's march.
Warned of Hyde's approach, Cary left his home near Bath Town, probably the old William Barrow plantation just east of Bath Town, and moved down Bath Creek “to the house of one Colonel Daniels.” This could only have been the home of the Landgrave Daniel on Archbell Point, though Daniel was in South Carolina at the time. Cary fortified the house and point with “five pieces of cannon,” and deployed about forty men for defense.
On the morning of 29 May, Hyde moved against Cary's stronghold. Hyde soon discovered that Cary was strongly fortified, and refused to accept Hyde's terms of surrender. After waiting for a couple of days for Cary to change his mind, Hyde, “reluctant to bring bloodshed to the province,” withdrew his troops and returned to the Albemarle. This left Cary in command of the Pamlico. Dennis reported that during Hyde's maneuvers, “a young Gentleman, a relative of Governor Hyde's,” was accidentally killed.
Hyde's retreat without making a sustained attack, gave Cary and his followers the encouragement they needed. Men rallied to his standard. Edmund Low provided an armed brigantine. Late in June, Cary and his men sailed to attack Hyde. On the morning of 30 June, they arrived off the home of Colonel Pollock, near the mouth of the Chowan River. There they found that Hyde and his Council were in session. Cary and his men attacked, but were repulsed by the defenders. There are several versions of this abortive battle. One is that Cary's men saw the livery of Pollock's servants and mistook them for British Marines. When Cary withdrew, a sloop, manned by Hyde's followers, pursued. Cary's brigantine ran aground in the unfamiliar waters, and Cary and his men abandoned the vessel. Fleeing on foot through the swamps, they returned to the Pamlico.
Upon the urgent request of Hyde, Governor Spotswood of
Virginia, as Admiral of the Queen's forces in America, sent a detachment of Royal Marines from a British man-of-war to the Pamlico. Cary's forces, unwilling to bear arms against the Queen's Marines, dispersed, and the rebellion came to an end. Spotswood later explained his action against the rebels on the Pamlico by stating “there was no other way to restore peace.”
Cary, with some of his supporters, fled to Virginia. On 24 July, 1711, or within less than two months after Hyde had staged his first march to the Pamlico to apprehend Cary, Spotswood issued an order for the arrest of Cary and “other Seditious and Fractious persons that have made their escape from North Carolina into this colony.” This proclamation read like a “Who's Who” for Bath Town. It included the names of John Porter, Edmund Low, Nevil Low, Edmund Porter, Wm. Barrow, Thomas Sparrow, George Birkenhead, Henry Warren, Simon Alderson, Jr., Samuel Boatwell, Levi Truewhite, who had been the Clerk of the Bath County Court almost since the erection of the county, Captain Roach, who had supplied the cannon, fire arms, and powder for the rebellion, and a Captain Stone, probably master of Low's brigantine.
These men were practically all respectable and respected planters of the Pamlico region. At least two were vestrymen of St. Thomas Parish or members of the commission appointed to supervise and watch over the Bath library.
Cary, Truewhite, and Edmund Porter were apprehended, as were George Lumley and Collingwood Ward, whose names did not appear on the proclamation. When they refused to make bond for their good behavior, they were placed upon the British man-of-war Reserve, and sent to England for trial. Spotswood wrote the Lords Proprietors: “the greatest justice I can do them is to leave (them) to Your Lordship's Examination.”
On 22 August of the same year, Hyde wrote the Lords Proprietors and presented his accusations against Cary. He explained that he would have sent his charges sooner, but Cary and the others were sent to England before he knew of it, so could not send evidence of their misdeeds with them. Hyde called Truewhite and Lumley “two of most eminent villains,” and
charged that Truewhite, “as Clerk of Peoples Court forged false judgements,” and that Lumley, as Secretary of the Council, had “cut out whole Council meetings from books.” Collingswood Ward and Edmund Porter were described as “useful for any wicked purpose.” Hyde also charged that all of these men were on the brigantine that had attacked Colonel Pollock's plantation on 30 June. Of the elder Porter (John), who had “gone in a rush to England,” Hyde wrote: “He has been a disturber of the Peace in this Government ever since he came into it.”
The Lords Proprietors, probably influenced by John Porter, who escaped Spotswood and took ship for London, felt that Hyde's charges lacked sufficient evidence for conviction. After being detained in England for fourteen months, Cary and his confederates were permitted to return to their homes in North Carolina. They arrived back on the Pamlico in the spring of 1713. Cary took no further part in the politics or government of the province. He survived Governor Hyde by a decade, dying at his home on Back Creek in 1722, the same year his arch enemy, Thomas Pollock, died.
Several years later the Palatine Court directed that Edmund Low's brigantine, seized by Hyde after it ran aground, be returned to Low or his heirs. The Lords Proprietors also sent a Colonel Nicholson to the province to inquire into the troubles and disorders. Other than the release of Low's brigantine, there is no evidence of any action having been taken as a result of this investigation.
Political, religious, and personal bitterness and animosities so clouded the records of the Cary Rebellion that it is practically impossible, even now, to separate facts from prejudice. Practically all of the evidence available is that of the prosecution: Spotswood, Hyde, Pollock, and Anglican missionaries, all of whom were bitterly prejudiced. To judge the motives of Cary and his followers on these records alone, without considering their past records as citizens of Bath County, would be as unfair as judging the motives and actions of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee on evidence provided by Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Summer, and the inflammatory New York Tribune.
CHAPTER VIITHE TUSCARORA WAR
THE TROUBLES OF THE NEW GOVERNOR, nor those of the settlers along the Pamlico, did not cease with the collapse of the Cary Rebellion. During this short but bitter civil strife, plundering and destruction had ruined many of the plantations and farms. Those men who had been under arms, on both sides, had been unable to plant their crops. Those who did plant, suffered from a severe drought during the summer of 1711. To add to their hardship and misery, the dreaded scourgs of yellow fever raged through the province during this disastroue summer, taking a toll of many lives.
On 10 September, John Lawson, who had returned from London the year before, began his last trip into the Indian country. Accompained by the Baron von Graffenried, two Negro slaves, and two trusted Indian guides, they started to explore the upper reaches of the Neuse River. Their announced purpose was to discover how far up stream the Neuse was navigable, and if possible, to locate a new and better road to Virginia.
Near dusk of the third day of their journey, the entire party was taken prisoner by a force of fifty or sixty Indians. They were taken to the town of Catechna, the home of King Hancock of the Tuscaroras, on Contentnea Creek. The only information pertaining to the murder of Lawson by the Indians comes from the pen of von Graffenried. He wrote voluminously, if not convincingly, explaining why his life was spared, while that of Lawson, the best English friend the Indians had, was taken. Von Graffenried alleges the Indians spared his life because he convinced them of his importance, and they feared reprisals by the Queen of England if they killed him. As they took the life of the Surveyor General of the colony, and a few days later slaughtered nearly half of the Queen's colony south of the Pamlico, this explanation is not very convincing. It seems more likely von Graffenried entered into some contract with the Indians, with which Lawson would have no part.
This opinion is supported by von Graffenried's allegation that he made a treaty with the Indians while still their prisoner. This alleged treaty between “Baron and Landgrave de Graffenriedt, Governor of the German Colony of North Carolina and Indians of the Nation of Tuscarora,” was an agreement that in time of war between the English and the Indians, the German colonists would “keep quiet in their house and town, and let pass neither English nor Indian.” Von Graffenried also agreed to occupy no more Indian land without first discussing it with the Indians.
Von Graffenried admits he promised to pay ransom to the Indians after his release, and that he promised not to cooperate with the English in their war against the Indians. For this promise he was rebuked by Captain William Brice, a planter who had moved from the Pamlico to the Trent, and commanded the militia that was hastily mobilized in that area. In his white paper, von Graffenried refers to Captain Brice, who was one of the leading planters of the section, as “a man called Brice—commander of that seditious gang which gave me much trouble.” The “seditious gang” were some fifteen or twenty German settlers who ignored von Graffenried's alleged treaty, and joined with Brice's militia in driving the Indians out of the New Bern area.
It has been stated that the immediate cause of the Tuscarora War was the settling of New Bern in 1710. This is probably true, but the root of the trouble between the Indians and the English goes much deeper. For years the Tuscaroras had watched anxiously as the English settlers spread over the land of the smaller Indian nations along the seaboard. From Albemarle Sound to the Pamlico, the whites took over the land of the Secotan Nation, which was an enemy of the Tuscaroras. Then they spread west and south over the land of the Corees, Pamptecoughs, and Neusiok, all of whom were allies of the Tuscaroras.
To the constant encroachment upon the land of their allies, was added the indignity of their women and children being sold into slavery. They were also well aware of the white man's
trick of getting them drunk and cheating them out of their furs and other goods. Most of all, being a proud race, they resented the contemptuous manner in which they were treated by the whites.
In his discussion of the Indians, Lawson said: “They are really better to us than we are to them * * * . We look upon them with Scorn and Disdane, and think them little better than Beasts in Human Shape.” Prophetically, he added: “The Indians are very revengful, and never forget an injury done, till they have received Satisfaction.”
When the white settlers moved to the Neuse and Trent, land of the last of their allies, the Tuscaroras knew they would be next. For three years they had watched the whites quarreling among themselves, and had observed throughout the spring and summer how ineffective they were in waging war. While the whites sickened and died with yellow fever, the Tuscaroras increased their strength with guns and ammunition traded from the whites they planned to slaughter.
Lawson's trip up the Neuse probably triggered the war, but it had been planned long before. The Tuscaroras knew Lawson as a surveyor, and as the forerunner of white expansion. They knew he had brought the Germans to the Neuse, and no doubt believed, as was true, that he now had designs upon their land.
With Lawson dead, and von Graffenried a prisoner, the Indians moved quickly. King Hancock, leader of the younger element of the Tuscarora Nation, and principal instigator of the war, set the date with his allies. The remnant of the old Secotan Nation, the Corees, and the Neusioks could muster about 250 fighting men. Hancock had a force of about the same strength. Fortunately for the settlers of the Albemarle region, and those north of the Pamlico, Chief Tom Blunt, who controlled the majority of the Tuscaroras, refused to participate in the war.
King Hancock's plan called for the murder of every settler on the Pamlico, Neuse, Trent, and Core Sound. Every plantation was to be burned and the crops destroyed. A few days after Lawson's murder, the Indians gathered at Hancock's
town of Catechna for their final instructions. With their plans well coordinated, they separated into small groups and returned to the area each war party was to destroy. Local Indians, to whom the settlers had become accustomed, and in whom they saw no threat, visited the plantations and farms, reassuring themselves the settlers were unaware of Lawson's death, and of their plans.
At dawn, on Saturday, 11 September, 1711, the Indians struck. From the Pamlico to the Trent, the widely scattered farms provided little defense. Tradition has it that the home of John Porter, Jr., at the head of Chocowinity Bay, was the first house attacked in the Pamlico area. Porter, with the help of Patrick Maule, who was visiting him at the time, beat off the attack. Taking their women and children with them, they escaped down river by boat.
Scores of other families were not so fortunate. In a letter to the Governor of South Carolina, Christopher Gale gave a vivid and detailed account of the massacre. He wrote: “One hundred and thirty people (were) massacred at head of Neuse, and on the south side of the Pamlico rivers, in space of two hours; butchered after the most barbarous manner that can be expressed, and their dead bodies used with all the scorn and indignity imaginable; their homes plundered of considerable riches (being generally traders), then burned, and their growing and hopeful crops destroyed.”
Women were laid upon the floors of the houses, and stakes driven through their bodies. More than eighty infants were slain. Pregnant women had their unborn babies ripped from them, and hung upon trees. The entire attack was carried out with unsurpassed savagery, brutality, and sadism.
Settlers who were bypassed, or escaped the first onslaught, fled to other homes or settlements that offered some protection. Bath Town and New Bern were crowded with refugees. Lionel Reading's home, which was said to be the only plantation on the south side of the Pamlico to survive, was converted into a fort. The home of Captain Brice on the Trent was also converted into a fort. Both were soon filled with refugees.
After three days of brutal slaughter, pillage, and burning, the Indians returned to their towns, taking some twenty or thirty women and children prisoners with them. All livestock that had not been slaughtered by the Indians, was driven away. As the white settlers dared not venture from their poorly defended places of refuge, the dead and mutilated were left the prey of wolves and vultures.
Unfortunately for the German and Swiss settlers on the Neuse and Trent, King Hancock had neglected to tell his warriors of von Graffenried's alleged treaty, or the savages, in their lust for blood and plunder, could not, or would not distinguish between them and the English. Their losses were as great, if not greater, than those of the English settlers. The town of New Bern survived, not because of the treaty, but because there were enough men to repulse the Indian attack. Bath Town also survived, though some of the houses, including the home of John Lillington, next door to John Lawson's home, were burned. Bath Town was reported to have had over three hundred refugees, mostly widows and orphans, whose husbands and fathers died defending their homes. These were “in a pitiful condition.”
Governor Hyde faced his second critical emergency within his first year in office. The southern portion of the province was in ruin. A large proportion of the population had been slaughtered or left homeless. Food was scarce and ammunition even more so. Those who had survived dared not leave the protection of the town or fort that had provided security.
Hyde acted promptly. Summoning his Assembly, he rushed through legislation authorizing the issue of four thousand pounds in paper money, with which to pay for necessary supplies. This was the first issue of paper money in the history of the province. Hyde also secured the passage of the province's first draft law. All men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were conscripted for the militia. Those who could not fight were required to pay five pounds for the prosecution of the war. To add to Hyde's difficulties, the Quakers of the Albemarle area refused to bear arms.
Colonel Thomas Pollock, who was again President of the Council, was appointed a Major General and placed in command of all militia. One hundred and fifty men were sent at once to Bath Town, and a force of fifty or sixty men were recruited in the New Bern area. Captain William Brice was appointed their captain. This company included the fifteen or twenty German settlers referred to by von Graffenried as “traitirs.”
Under orders from Pollock, Brice marched his force up the Neuse to an abandoned Indian town, where the force from Bath Town was supposed to meet him. The militia at Bath Town refused to leave the stockade, so Brice advanced into the Tuscarora country without them. Confronted by some three hundred Indians, Brice was compelled to fall back to the stockade on his plantation on the Trent.
Finding the task of defeating the Tuscaroras too much for his small force and improverished province, Hyde called upon the Governors of Virginia and South Carolina, and the Lords Proprietors for help.
Admitting that “the Indians are better provided with ammunition than we ourselves,” Spotswood stopped all trade between Virginia traders and the Indians. He sent Virginia militia to patrol the Virginia border, and called upon Chief Tom Blunt for assurance of his neutrality. He refused to send militia to North Carolina unless the province guaranteed the support of his troops while they were there; and that North Carolina agree to surrender the boundary area between the two colonies, that was in dispute. The impoverished province could not meet the first conditon. Hyde considered the second condition a form of blackmail, and refused to meet it, so the war was waged without the help of Virginia.
Governor Robert Gibbs of South Carolina was more responsive. He “felt duty bound to go to the relief of the Queen's subjects and our fellow tennents of the Lords Proprietors.” The South Carolina Assembly promptly voted money to finance an expedition. Colonel John (Tuscarora Jack) Barnwell was appointed commander of a relief expedition. With a force
of about thirty white officers and men, all mounted, and between three and four hundred Indians he marched for North Carolina. About half of Barnwell's Indians were Yamassees, who were enemies of the Tuscaroras, and “acquainted with the Tuscaroras manner of Fighting.” The Cherokees, led by Captains Harford and Thurston, were interested only in prisoners, to be sold as slaves. This was the first the settlers of the Pamlico and Neuse had seen of the Cherokees, whose nation beyond the mountains was even more powerful than the Tuscaroras.
Barnwell's force arrived on the upper Neuse on 29 January, 1712. When he was certain the Tuscaroras had discovered his presence within their territory, he attacked one of their forts and carried it by storm. Fifty-two Tuscaroras were killed and thirty prisoners taken. Continuing his march through the Tuscarora Nation, Barnwell burned their towns and destroyed their crops. By this time his Cherokees were deserting him to carry their prisoners back to Charles Town, to sell them as slaves. Barnwell decided it would be wiser to join with the North Carolina forces before attacking Fort Hancock, and marched for Bath Town. By the time he reached Bath Town, on 11 February, his force was reduced to about twenty-five whites and one hundred and eighty Indians.
Sixty-seven North Carolina militiamen joined him at Bath Town. Thus reinforced, he marched on Fort Hancock. This fort was located on the west bank of Contentnea Creek, a short way above the town of Catechna. Barnwell delayed his attack because of the cries of the women and children captives within the fort. At the request of the North Carolinians, who had relatives among the captives, Barnwell agreed to negotiate with Hancock.
As a result of the negotiations, Hancock agreed to release his captives, provided Barnwell would withdraw his force. Barnwell agreed to do this, provided Hancock would meet with him near New Bern, on 19 March, and discuss a general peace. Hancock agreed, and the captives were turned over to the North Carolinians.
Carrying the released prisoners with him, Barnwell withdrew
to a point on the Neuse, near the present town of Grifton, and built a stockade. When Hancock did not meet as agreed, Barnwell prepared for a second attack on Fort Hancock.
After waiting for nearly a month for Hancock to appear, Barnwell marched on 12 April. His force consisted of 153 whites, mostly North Carolina militia, and 128 Indians. After a ten day siege, the Indians within Fort Hancock surrendered, on terms favorable to them. King Hancock, three other chiefs, and a few others, considered most responsible for the uprising, were taken prisoner.
Barnwell was severely criticised by Hyde for his failure to destroy the Tuscaroras. The North Carolina Assembly refused to grant Barnwell the land he requested. The always verbose Spotswood, who had rendered no assistance whatever during the emergency, was loud in his condemnation of Barnwell, calling the settlement a “Clapt up peace upon very unaccountable conditions.”
Angered by North Carolina's ungrateful treatment, Barnwell collected the remnant of his force and returned to South Carolina. Before leaving the Neuse, he seized a number of the Tuscaroras he had taken prisoner, and carried them back to Charles Town with him. There they were sold as slaves.
With an uneasy peace hanging over the province, Hyde met with his Council at his home in Chowan, on 9 May, 1712. At this meeting Hyde presented his newly arrived commission from “the most noble Henry, Duke of Beaufort & Palatine and ye rest of the true and absolute Lords Proprietors.” This commission designated Hyde as “Governor, Captain General, Admiral, and Commander in Chief of ye Province of North Carolina.” Thus, in its hour of trial, this commission by the Lords Proprietors severed the two Carolinas, and each became a separate and distinct province, with separate and distinct governors.
At this same Council meeting authority was granted to build forts at strategic points. One was to be at Cow Town, called Hyde Fort; and one to be on the plantation of Lionel Reading, to be called Fort Reading. This Council also provided
a patrol of twenty men and two large canoes to patrol the shores of Pamlico and Core sounds, to suppress Indians in those areas.
In the summer of 1712, the Tuscaroras, claiming that Barnwell had violated the treaty by carrying off prisoners to Charles Town, resumed their raids against the settlers who had begun returning to their homes. As the settlers scurried back to the forts for refuge, Hyde gathered his militia at Bath Town. From that point he proposed to personally lead an expedition against the Indians. His plan was not to be carried out. During the summer, yellow fever again ravaged the province. On 8 September, Hyde, after being in office less than two hectic, war torn years, died of the dreaded disease.
Pollock, as President of the Council, assumed control of the government, and called a meeting of his Council for 12 September, at his home. Madam Catha Hyde, widow of the late Governor, requested the Council to send to her home for “20 guns” to be used by the troops against the Indians. This Council was also asked by Mrs. Hannah Smith, executrix of John Lawson's will, to appoint an appraiser to evaluate the estate of the late John Lawson in Albemarle.
During this disastrous year, the name of Pamptecough Precinct was changed to Beaufort Precinct, honoring Henry, Duke of Beaufort, who was Palatine of Carolina at the time. Wickham Precinct was renamed Hyde, in honor of the late Governor, and Archdale Precinct was renamed Craven.
With the province ravaged by fever, and the Indians again on the war path, Pollock again called upon South Carolina for help. Despite the shabby treatment accorded Barnwell, South Carolina again promptly responded. On 12 December, Colonel Maurice Moore, who was to remain in North Carolina, arrived at Fort Barnwell with a force of 33 whites and near 1,000 Indians. Finding neither food nor supplies for his army, Moore marched first to New Bern, then to Bath Town. Finding no supplies at either place, he marched north to Chowan. Feeding and supplying a thousand savage, warlike Indians posed a problem, but Pollock and his Council met it as best they could.
The winter of 1712-1713 proved exceptionally severe, with unusually deep snows. It was not until 4 February that Moore's army, reinforced with North Carolina militia, marched against the Tuscaroras. The point of attack was to be Fort Neoheroka, the new Tuscarora stronghold, a few miles upstream from old Fort Hancock.
After three weeks of siege and fighting, Moore captured the fort and crushed the last resistance. On 23 March he reported 558 Tuscaroras killed during the campaign, and 392 prisoners taken. Later, a number of these prisoners, probably women and children, were sold as slaves. They brought an average of ten pounds each.
After this crushing defeat, and the loss of nearly a thousand dead and captured, the power of the Tuscarora Nation was broken in North Carolina. Those Indians who escaped death or capture began a migration to New York, where they joined their Iroquois kinsmen, the Five Nations.
Moore's crushing defeat of the Tuscaroras did not entirely end the Indian war. While Moore was campaigning against the Tuscaroras, their allies among the Coree and Machapungo tribes attacked the settlers along the Pungo River, and the area east of Bath Town. After each raid, they fled to the wilderness swamps, where it was impossible for a white man to follow them. Pollock asked Moore to use his Indians to hunt them down. Moore complied with the request, but being strange to the particular swamps, they were only partly successful.
It was not until February 1715 that the last of the hostile Indians were run down and subdued. Those who survived signed a treaty with the North Carolina government, whereby they accepted a reservation in Hyde County, near Lake Mattamuskeet, and surrendered all claim to other land within the province.
There are no exact figures regarding the population of Beaufort, Hyde, and Craven precincts either before or immediately after the Tuscarora War. It has been estimated that about half their population was wiped out during the war and the two yellow fever epidemics of the same period.
When peace was restored, those who survived returned to their ruined homes. Widows and orphans found new homes with relatives and friends. Orphans without relatives or friends to care for them, who were without means of support, were indentured. Girls were bound out until they were eighteen, boys until they were twenty-one.
In the meantime, Charles Eden had replaced Pollock as Governor. Eden took office in May 1714, a little over a year after Moore's defeat of the Tuscaroras, but before the last of the Machapungoes had been run down and subdued. Under the leadership of Eden, sometimes wise and sometimes foolish, the authority of government in North Carolina was restored; religious and political wounds healed; and the province reunited. North Carolina, now a separate and distinct province, entered into a brief era of peace and prosperity.
In 1715, the Yamassee Nation, who had provided so many warriors for the war against the Tuscaroras, rose against the government of South Carolina. Governor Eden promptly sent troops from North Carolina to assist in putting down the rebellion, thus partly repaying North Carolina's debt to its sister Proprietary colony. History fails to record how the Yamassees, who had done so much for the whites of North Carolina, felt about the actions of Governor Eden.
CHAPTER VIII
CROWN COLONY—1729-1752
IN 1719, SOUTH CAROLINA rose against the Lords Proprietors, and sought the protection of the Crown. This was unquestionably a warning to the Lords Proprietors and to the people of North Carolina as to the future of that province. Burrington probably over-anticipated the transfer of authority from the Lords Proprietors, and this resulted in his removal from the office of governor. Everard, when he took office, knew there was strong feeling, both in England and in the province, for this transfer of authority and responsibility.
The primary interest of the British Parliament in the colonies, was their value as a source of trade and profit for England. Parliament had already decided it would be better if the Carolina provinces were under control of the Crown.
Under this pressure from the government and the merchants of England, the Lords Proprietors, in 1728, submitted a proposal to the Crown for the disposal of their shares in Carolina. In response to this proposal, the Parliament passed an act granting each Lord Proprietor the sum of two thousand five hundred pounds for his one-eighth share of Carolina. An additional lump sum of five thousand pounds was granted in payment of all back quitrents due them.
John, Lord Carteret, later Earl of Granville, refused to sell his share of Carolina. In 1744 this one-eighth share was exchanged for ownership, but not governmental control, of a vast area of northern North Carolina that became known as the Granville Tract. This Granville ownership was to plague both the provincial government and property owners in this area until the Revolution. Doubt has been expressed as to whether, during the time Granville held this land, he received a profit equal to the two thousand five hundred pounds he would have received from the Crown. During the Revolution, the Granville land was confiscated by the State of North Carolina.
In the same year the Lords Proprietors made their proposal to the Crown, Governor Everard appointed a commission to work with a similar Virginia commission to settle the boundary line dispute between the two colonies. Christopher Gale, Edward Moseley, William Little, and John Lovick were the North Carolina members.
The commissioners met at Currituck Inlet on 5 March, 1728. After some argument as to where they should start, the commission completed the survey to the “Hycoote River.” This was 161 miles west of the starting point, and 55 miles west of the nearest settler. The North Carolina commissioners then came home, while the Virginia commissioners extended the line for another 72 miles. To everyone's surprise, this survey gave North Carolina more land than she had claimed. During the time required to run the survey, the transfer of Carolina to the Crown was completed. The results of the survey, started under the Lords Proprietors, was reported to the Crown.
On 26 July, 1729, after sixty-five years of turbulent, controversial, and sometimes rebellious Proprietary rule, North Carolina became a Royal colony. During the Proprietary period at least six governors were removed from office by the people or their representatives. At the time of the transfer, Beaufort County was still a precinct of Bath County.
Transition from Proprietary rule to that of the Crown brought little change in either the organization or administration of the government. Sir Richard Everard remained as governor for the first two years under the Crown. The duties, powers, and privileges of the Governor, his Council, the Lower House, and the Courts remained essentially the same, though every later Royal governor tried to increase his power.
Everard's last Assembly met in November, 1729. It enacted a number of laws that directly affected Beaufort Precinct. One was the act changing Beaufort from a precinct to a county. Another separated the governments of Beaufort and Hyde counties, and gave Hyde authority to erect its own courthouse and hold its own courts. A third act confirmed the grant of
land for Bath Town Commons. This land lay to the northeast of Bath Town, and north of the land formerly owned by Captain William Barrow, and sold by him to Governor Cary.
Either from habit, or through failure of the Crown to direct otherwise, this Assembly, held after the transfer of authority to the Crown, continued to use the enabling clause, “done under authority of Palatine and Lords Proprietors.” For this reason, the validity of these laws was later questioned. The Attorney General to the Crown eventually ruled these laws null and void, but the people of the province ignored the ruling and continued to consider them valid.
At the time the Crown assumed control of Carolina, there were, despite the complaints about them, very limited taxes in the province. The freeholders of Beaufort Couhty paid a quitrent, which was in substance a property tax, of only two shillings per hundred acres of land held. There was also a poll tax of five shillings for each tithable. All free males over sixteen years of age, and all slaves over sixteen, male or female, Negro or Indian, were considered tithables.
To permit St. Thomas Parish, which included the same area as Beaufort County, to maintain its poor and pay its minister, the vestry and wardens were authorized to raise money by a poll tax, not to exceed five shillings per tithable. From the almost unanimous complaints of the early ministers of St. Thomas Parish that they could not collect their salaries, it would appear the wardens and vestry seldom, if ever, took advantage of this tax.
The only import duty was one of three shillings four pence per ton on each ship entering the Port of Bath. This duty was called “powder money,” as it was first paid in flint, powder, and shot, to provide ammunition for protection against the Indians.
George Burrington was the first Royal governor of North Carolina appointed by the Crown. He took the oath of office at Edenton on 25 February, 1731. His vile temper that had gotten him into trouble under the Lords Proprietors soon became evident. Everyone who disagreed with him promptly
became a personal enemy, if not a villain. He quarreled with the members of his Council, the Lower House, the Chief Justice and Attorney General of the Province, and with Judges of the Admiralty Court. In an outburst of temper, he called Chief Justice William Smith “an ungrateful, perfidious scoundrel, egregious sot, (whose) father (was) a smuggler, (and) mother a woman of poor, mean family.” He alleged Smith “did not know enough law to be clerk to a Justice of the Peace.”
Burrington apparently had anticipated trouble with his Council. Before leaving England, he submitted a list of names to the Crown, designating the men he wished appointed to his Council as replacements. Members of his Council who disagreed with him were promptly replaced by men whose names appeared on this list. The name of Matthew Rowan of Bath Town was on the list. Rowan was appointed to Burrington's Council on 17 June, 1732.
Burrington was not so successful in his conflict with the Lower House. Led by Speaker Edward Moseley, the Assembly resisted every effort by Burrington to encroach upon the rights of the people. The Assembly was convened three times during Burrington's tempestuous three years and nine months in office. In the 1731 Assembly, Beaufort County was represented by Edward Salter and Symington Alderson. Roger Kenyon, who six years before had charged Burrington with assault, represented Bath Town. In the Assemblies that were convened in 1733 and 1734, Robert Turner and Patrick Maule represented Beaufort County, and John Lehay represented Bath Town.
Obeying a directive from the Crown, one of Burrington's first official acts was to increase the quitrent from two shillings per hundred acres, to four shillings. Because it was a directive from the Crown, the Assembly reluctantly complied. When the new governor attempted to have this quitrent paid in sterling, the Assembly refused. Moseley advised Burrington: “Whereas there is not in this Province Gold and Silver Coin sufficient to answer one-tenth part of the Quit Rent and Fees as mentioned in this Act * * * .” When the Assembly passed an act listing “rated commodities” to be used as legal tender in paying
these taxes, Burrington disapproved the act. In his disapproval, Burrington accused the Assembly of having “always ursurped more power than they ought to be allowed.”
When Burrington's conduct became too arbitrary and dictatorial, the opposition, led by Moseley, wrote the Board of Trade and complained of his conduct. As a result of this protest, Burrington was either asked to resign, or was dismissed. There seems to be some question as to which. Gabriel Johnston was appointed in his place. Burrington's last Assembly was in session at Edenton when Johnston arrived on the Cape Fear.
On 11 November, 1734, Speaker Moseley received a message from Colonel Maurice Moore, advising him of Johnston's arrival. The bearer also carried a letter from Johnston to Chief Justice Smith. This letter advised Smith that Johnston had taken his oath of office at Brunswick, on 2 November, 1734. The Lower House adjourned the following day, and sent two of its members to Brunswick to greet the new Governor.
Gabriel Johnston served as Governor of North Carolina almost eighteen years, or until his death on 15 July, 1752. This was the longest term ever served by a North Carolina governor. Although Johnston was almost constantly in disagreement with his Assembly over vital issues, he proved to be one of North Carolina's most tactful and successful governors. During his tenure of office the population of the province more than doubled; industry expanded; and direct trade with England, particularly in naval stores, was developed. Sawmills were established, and lumber added to the products of the forests.
During his first year in office, Johnston, accompanied by Chief Justice Smith and Nathaniel Rice, Secretary of the Council, toured the province. Council meetings were held at various towns, convenient to the members of the Council. The Council met at Bath Town in the spring of 1735, but as Gale was no longer a member of the Council, and Matthew Rowan had moved to Bladen County, the only members present were the Governor, Chief Justice Smith, and Rice.
Johnston's first Assembly met in Edenton on 15 January, 1735. Robert Turner and Patrick Maule represented Beaufort
County, and Roger Kenyon, who had been unseated by John Lehay after Burrington's first Assembly, again represented Bath Town. Other representatives from Beaufort County during Johnston's administration included Benjamin Peyton, Simon Alderson, and John Barrow. During this time Bath Town's representatives also included Richard Rigby, Michael Coutanch, and Wyriot Ormond.
Though Johnston constantly urged the Assembly to select a permanent seat of government for the province, this question was never settled during his administration. Johnston preferred Wilmington. It was the only deep water port in the province; was the fastest growing community in the province; and he lived in nearby Brunswick. The Albemarle Sound representatives, who outnumbered the representatives from other counties by a five to two ratio, favored Edenton.
Representatives from each area had ample reason to dread the long and often hazardous journey from one place to the other. On at least one occasion the Assembly, which met in Wilmington, had to be dissolved because the members from Albemarle could not reach Wilmington. The Speaker advised Governor Johnston: “Wind is against those other Members that are expected from Pasquotank and other parts thereabouts so that there is no likehood of making a House (quorum).” During the years this controversy continued, the Assembly met either in Edenton, Bath Town (1744 and 1752), New Bern, or Wilmington.
Benjamin Peyton and John Barrow represented Beaufort County in the 1746 Assembly. Wyriot Ormond represented Bath Town. This Assembly, after much discussion, passed an act to make Bath Town the permanent seat of government for North Carolina. This represented a compromise between those who favored Edenton and those who favored Wilmington. The Council, sitting as the Upper House, refused to accept Bath Town, stating that New Bern was the only compromise they would accept. When the Lower House refused to approve New Bern, the act was shelved. Thus ended Bath Town's hope of becoming the first permanent capital of the province. Matthew
Rowan, a former resident of Bath Town, was a member of Johnston's Council at this time.
Assemblyman Benjamin Peyton was master of the plantation on the east bank of Durham Creek, at its confluence with the Pamlico, later known as the “Garrison.” Prior to 1738, when the principal law officer of the county was known as the Provost Marshal, Peyton had held that office. After 1738, the office was changed to Sheriff, or High Sheriff.
Benjamin Peyton had four daughters: Elizabeth, Sarah, Elenor, and Grace. Elizabeth married John Peyton Porter. After his death, she married the Rev. Alexander Stewart. Sarah married Colonel Thomas Bonner, father of the founder of Washington. Elenor married William Tripp, the son of John Tripp, a neighbor on Durham Creek. Grace married Lionel Reading.
In 1738, a new town was laid out and started on land that is now in Beaufort County, but was then a part of Hyde. Hyde County had been authorized a separate government and courthouse since 1729, but had no town in which the courthouse could be built. William Harris, Samuel Sinclair, and John Smith were appointed commissioners to lay out a town in “half acre lots and streets not less than 60 feet wide.” Lots were to be sold for forty shillings. Provision was made that if the buyer had not built a house of minimum standard upon his lot within a period of two years, the lot reverted to the town for resale.
This was the colonial town of Woodstock. It was located on the west bank of the Pungo River, on the plantation of William Webster. This is in the vicinity of the present community of Winsteadville. A courthouse, jail, and pillory were built in Woodstock, which became the first county seat of Hyde County. During the Revolution, Woodstock served as a port for shipping naval stores and other produce of the area. In the late 1780's, the courthouse and jail were burned. At a later date the public lots were sold, as the seat of government for Hyde County was being moved. Woodstock has now vanished. Part of the ruins are now covered by the Pungo River, and the remainder of this
early town has become a dairy farm. The name Woodstock is preserved in the name of the rural electric cooperative that serves the area.
In 1739 war started between England and Spain, and merged into war with France, known as King George's War. This war lasted until 1748. North Carolina provided four companies of 100 men each, who joined a British expedition against the Spanish town of Cartagena. The expedition failed, with great loss of life. There are no records to indicate whether any men from Beaufort County volunteered for any of these companies. During these eight years, North Carolina's greatest loss was occasioned by the activities of French and Spanish privateers off her coast. While other towns, including Ocracoke, suffered heavily, Bath Town and Beaufort County were spared raids by either the Spanish or French.
In the same year this war started, Sir Richard Everard, son of the former Governor Everard, sold Indian Island, in the Pamlico off South Creek, to Robert Campen. Governor Everard had acquired this island from Roger Kenyon. The last town of the once powerful Pomouik Nation, called Pamptecoughs by John Lawson, was located on this island.
The 1740 Assembly enacted three laws which directly affected Beaufort County and Bath Town. One established a public ferry between Bath Town and Core Point, replacing the private ferry which had been in operation. The law specified that no other ferry would operate within ten miles of the public ferry. Another act exempted the citizens of Bath Town from having to work the public roads, and placed upon them the responsibility for maintaining the streets of the town. A third act named Bath Town as the place where quitrents would be paid for Beaufort and adjoining counties, and authorized the construction of a warehouse in Bath Town for the safe keeping of rated commodities taken in as payment of quitrent. This Assembly also authorized building a substantial fence inclosing Bath Town. There was to be a main gate for carts and wagons, and a smaller gate for pedestrians.
In spite of King George's War, and attending shipping
difficulties, the 1740's was a decade of prosperity for Bath Town. Near the year 1740, Buzzard's Hotel was built on Water Street, facing Bath Creek. It bore the name of its builder and operator. This old house, antedating the Palmer or Marsh house by several years, is probably the oldest privately-owned building extant in Bath Town or Beaufort County.
Buzzard's Hotel was not the only tavern or inn in Bath Town, nor perhaps the best. Abraham Duncan, “an Inn-holder at Bath Town,” owned and operated an inn which was located on King Street, near the town gate. Duncan was a man of considerable wealth, and was an influential citizen of the town. There were seven in his family, and he owned fifteen slaves and approximately one thousand acres of land in Beaufort County. He was proud of his inn and its distinguished guests. He made an affidavit that in December 1746, “because of exceedingly bad weather and great frost,” Governor Johnston spent eleven days at his inn. This leads to the conclusion that Duncan's tavern was far above the average of the time. Had it not been, the Governor would have been the guest of Commissioner and Assemblyman Michael Coutanch, whose pretentious new house was then completed.
At that time the courts fixed the price an innkeeper could charge for lodging, food, service, wine, rum, whiskey and beer. Breakfast and supper were each six pence. Dinner was one shilling. Overnight lodging, with a bed, but rarely a private room, cost the traveler two pence. Stabling his horse for twenty-four hours, with hay and fodder, cost six pence. Shelled Indian corn for his mount was an additional two pence a quart. New England rum was 10 shillings a gallon. If the traveler was particular, and demanded good West Indian rum, the cost was 16 shillings.
In the winter of 1743-1744 the boundary line between the land of the Earl of Granville, known as the Granville District, and the land of the Crown, was run as far west as a point just north of Bath Town. The Granville District extended south from the Virginia line about sixty miles, to 35 degrees and 34
minutes. In 1746 this line was extended west to the Haw River. The line passed north of the town of Washington and south of Greenville, crossing present N. C. 264 in the vicinity of Grimesland.
On 5 March, 1739, Captain Michael Coutanch, of Boston, New England, Mariner purchased “two saved lots or parcels of land * * * known in the plan and model of said Town (Bath) by the numbers twenty-four (24) and twenty-five (25) * * *.” On 21 January, 1740, Coutanch bought the adjoining lot 26, described as the “lott of ground that said Rowan's Kitchen standeth,” and lot 40, a large lot back of 26, on which Matthew Rowan's house stood. Coutanch bought these lots from James Brickell, who in turn had purchased them from Rowan in 1736, or about the time Rowan left Bath Town. Coutanch later bought lot 23, giving him a frontage of about 340 feet on Old Town Creek. It was on this land that Coutanch built Bath Town's most ostentatious and famous private residence. This house, now designated as the Palmer-Marsh House, is now being restored by the Beaufort County Historical Society and the Historic Bath Commission.
Coutanch probably moved to Bath Town at some time between March 1739, when he was recorded as “of Boston,” and January 1740, when his deed refers to him as “Merchant of Bath Town.” In September 1740 Coutanch bought from Richard Jones, “a certain house in Bath Town (where I do now dwell) situate on two half lots, known in the model of said Town as numbers 63 and 64.” It seems probable Coutanch lived in this house while building his new home. He also acquired at auction, from Sheriff James Ellison, a tract of 250 acres of land, “North of, and adjoining Bath Town.”
Coutanch became a person of importance in Bath Town. In 1745 Governor Johnston appointed him a commissioner for Bath Town, and in the same year he was elected as Bath Town's representative to the Assembly. Coutanch died at some time between his re-election to the 1761 Assembly, and the date when that Assembly convened, as his name was removed from
the Assembly roster of that year. At some time prior to June 1763, Coutanch's widow, Sarah, married the Rev. Alexander Stewart.
On 16 June, 1763, after Stewart and his wife Sarah, “late widow of Michael Coutanch of Bath Town,” had moved to the newly constructed house on St. Thomas’ Glebe, the Coutanch heirs sold the Coutanch house and the other properties collected by Coutanch, to Lillington and James Lockhart, of Bertie County. There is no record that the Lockharts ever occupied the Coutanch house. The following year the Lockharts sold to the Hon. Robert Palmer, Esq., the Coutanch house and exactly the same pieces of property they had bought from the Coutanch heirs.
Seven years later, when Robert Palmer moved to New Bern to be on the Council and Staff of Governor Tryon, he gave this house and the other parcels of land and fifteen Negro slaves to his son William. In retrospect, it seems probable that Colonel Palmer, an ardent Loyalist, anticipated the events of the next decade, and was preparing for them.
With the beginning of the Revolution, Colonel Palmer returned to England. His son William took the oath of allegiance to North Carolina. Though more than 5,000 acres of land in Hyde, Beaufort, Anson, Wayne, and Craven counties, belonging to Colonel Robert Palmer, were confiscated by the State and sold, no question was ever raised over the Bath Town property or adjoining 250 acres given to William.
Colonel William Palmer retained the Coutanch House for the next quarter century, though there seems to be some doubt as to whether he continued to live there. Upon the death of William Palmer, his daughter Euphan Alston Palmer drew the Bath Town and adjoining property as her share of her father's estate. She married Arnold Rhodes, and on 18 May, 1796, Arnold Rhodes and his wife Euphan Alston Palmer Rhodes sold this entire parcel of land to Lewis LeRoy, “Merchant of the Town of Washington,” subject to a claim by the heirs of Peter Caila and William Boyd. As Euphan Alston Palmer Rhodes was not of age when she signed this deed to LeRoy,
she later signed a quitclaim deed for the same property after reaching maturity.
On 10 June, 1802, LeRoy and his wife Hellen, sold this same parcel of land to Jonathan and Daniel Gold Marsh, brothers, subject to the same claim. On 29 April, 1808, David W. Marsh paid Sheriff Slade Pearce 750 pounds, satisfying the claims against the property, and giving the Marshes a clear title.
Jonathan Marsh married Nancy Bonner, whose sister Sarah had married Henry Ellison. Prior to the marriage of the Bonner girls, Seth Wilson of Beaufort County willed six Negro slaves to his wife Elizabeth for her life. Upon her death, they were to go to Nancy and Sarah Bonner. When the widow Elizabeth was remarried to William Wallace, an agreement was reached whereby each of the three women got two of the slaves, without any strings attached.
With the death of Edward Moseley on 11 July, 1749, Beaufort County lost one of its most distinguished former citizens, and the people of North Carolina lost their greatest champion of free government by and for the people. Moseley was several times a member of the Council, was Treasurer of the Province, and Surveyor General. However, he was at his best as Speaker of the Lower House, where he lost no opportunity to uphold the rights of the people against encroachment by either the Lords Proprietors or the Crown.
Toward the end of the Johnston administration, another historic Bath Town house was built, which is still standing. This was the “Bonner House” on the point between Bath Creek and Back Creek. The land on which this house stands once belonged to John Lawson, and included the lots number 5 and 6 for which his daughter Isabella paid her twenty shillings in 1717, to retain her “front privelages.” Through the generosity of the Oscar F. Smith Memorial Foundation, this house is part of the restoration plan of the Historic Bath Commission.
Governor Gabriel Johnston died 17 July, 1752. He had served long and well, in comparison to many of the Proprietary governors. He took great pride in the way in which he “managed the Assembly,” but many of the fundamental problems he inherited
had not been solved. No permanent seat of government had been selected. The problem of quitrents was still an issue, and the problem of payment of the salary of the governor and other government officials was still in dispute. It is said that at the time of his death, Johnston's salary was in arrears fourteen years.
CHAPTER IXCROWN COLONY—1753-1775
UPON THE DEATH OF GOVERNOR JOHNSTON, Nathaniel Rice, President of the Council, assumed the duties of governor. Rice survived Johnston by only six months, dying in January of 1753. He was succeeded as President of the Council by Matthew Rowan, formerly a merchant of Bath Town.
Rowan was of Scotch descent, though probably born in Ireland. He was the fifth son of the Rev. Mr. John Rowan and Margaret Stewart Rowan, of County Down, Ireland. It is not definitely known when Rowan first came to Bath Town. His name first appears in North Carolina records as a warden of St. Thomas Parish, in 1726. He is next listed as a member of the 1729 Assembly. Whether he represented Beaufort Precinct or Bath Town in this, Governor Everard's last Assembly, is not stated.
The first Beaufort County record of Rowan is dated April, 1728. On that date Matthew Rowan, “of the City of Dublin, in Ireland,” bought three lots in Bath Town. Lot number 40 was purchased from Rhoda Maech Fox; number 41 from the town commissioners, Thomas Harding and William Sigley; and lot number 26, with its “front” from John Adams. Rowan apparently built his home on lots number 40 and 41, facing Church Street to the east, with his kitchen extending over the line on to lot 26. His wharf was on the “front” of lot 26.
As a merchant of Bath Town, Rowan dealt in “Irish goods,” for which he made voyages to Ireland. In 1733, Burrington, when defending his claim there was ample silver coin in the province with which to pay quitrents and government fees, cited Rowan as having “caryed to Ireland above one hundred pounds in silver money in one voyage.”
Rowan was appointed a member of Burrington's Council in 1732; appointed by Johnston as Surveyor General of North Carolina in 1736, “in the room of Thomas Wardroper, Jr. Esq.” He was a member of the Council and Upper House which,
in 1746, refused to confirm Bath Town as the first capital of the province. While Suryevor General, Rowan headed the commission which extended the Granville District line to the Haw River.
Shortly after Rowan took office, he received a request from Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia for help in repelling the French, who were building forts in the Ohio valley on territory claimed by Virginia. Upon Rowan's recommendation, his Assembly voted 12,000 pounds to raise and support a force of 750 men to go to the aid of Virginia. When Rowan learned Virginia would not maintain these troops while in Virginia, he cut the strength of the force to 450, which was all the available funds would support. Four decades before, Virginia had refused to send troops to North Carolina's aid, under similar circumstances. There are no records to show whether anyone from Beaufort County enlisted for this force, but it is reasonable to assume some did.
In the fall of 1754, Arthur Dobbs, the newly appointed Royal governor, arrived in Virginia. He stopped there to confer with Governor Dinwiddie and Governor Sharpe of Maryland, regarding a joint expedition to the Ohio vally. On 31 October, Rowan met Dobbs at Bath Town, and accompanied him to New Bern. Dobbs took his oath of office there, on the same day.
Dobb's first official act was to call upon the officers of the militia for an exact list of men capable of carrying arms. They were also to report the arms and ammunition these men had, and the quantities in public stores. This report was to be in Dobbs’ hands by 12 December of that year.
Colonel John Barrow, commander of the Beaufort regiment, which then included Pitt County, reported there were 1,338 tithables in Beaufort County (771 white, 567 Negro). Only 680 of the whites were eligible for the militia. Barrow also reported there were no arms in public stores; about 50 pounds of powder; and 150 pounds of large shot.
Barrow's report is the first reasonably accurate estimate of the population of Beaufort County. At that time, it was estimated that the tithables amounted to about thirty per cent of the population
of the province. Using this basis, the population of Beaufort, including Pitt, was about 4,460 in 1755.
An earlier estimate, based upon a list of 120 “Journeymen” or white male tithables in the same area in 1723, gave Beaufort County an estimated population of 500. As this estimate was made just six years before the Crown took over the government, it gives a good indication of the growth of the county and province during the first quarter century of Royal government.
Governor Dobbs was not pleased with the report he received from the offices of the militia. He reported to the British Board of Trade, “there are not half of the militia armed.” There was but 1,591 pounds of powder in the entire province, and only 5,525 pounds of shot. Of this total, only about ten per cent was in Bath Town. This is a measure of the diminishing importance of Bath Town as a port, in comparison with Edenton, New Bern, and Wilmington.
After submitting his report to Dobbs, Colonel Barrow requested he be relieved of his command. Lieutenant Colonel John Boyd was promoted to Colonel, and succeeded Barrow. Major Wm. Carruthers was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel; Captain Isaac Buck to Major; John Handy was appointed Captain, to replace Buck, and John Alderson was appointed Captain to replace a Captain Newman, who was infirm, and desired to be excused. The other five captains of Beaufort County's seven companies were Captains Simon Jones, Wm. Spier, Wm. Peyton, Philip Pritchet, and Josiah Jones.
One special benefit that Bath Town, St. Thomas Parish, and Beaufort County derived from the appointment of Dobbs, was the almost simultaneous arrival in the province of the Rev. Mr. Alexander Stewart. Stewart came to Carolina as chaplain to the household of the new governor. He intended locating in New Bern, but upon arrival, found that parish filled. Looking around for a parish, he accepted the offer of St. Thomas. He was promised a salary of fifty pounds per annum.
Stewart served as Rector of St. Thomas for over a quarter of a century, until his death in 1771. He brought his wife and two sons, Alexander, Jr., and Charles, to Bath Town with him.
Shortly after their arrival in the colony Mrs. Stewart and both of the boys died, probably of the dreaded yellow fever, or “yellow Jack,” brought into the colony by ships from the West Indies, which took the life of so many of the early settlers of the province.
John Peyton Porter, owner of the plantation on Durham Creek, known as the “Garrison,” also died in April 1754. Porter's widow Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Peyton, soon married Alexander Stewart. In 1755, as Elizabeth Peyton Porter Stewart, she qualified as executrix of Porter's will. Captain Michael Coutanch, a close friend of Porter's, was one of the witnesses of Porter's will. Elizabeth Peyton Porter bore Stewart one daughter, Rosa Stewart.
Whether Elizabeth Peyton Porter Stewart died at the birth of her daughter, or shortly thereafter, is not recorded. After her death, Stewart married a Miss Johnston, said to be the sister of Governor Johnston. She too died some time prior to 1762, on which date Stewart is recorded as having been married to Sarah Coutanch, widow of the late Captain Michael Coutanch. After the death of Sarah Coutanch Stewart, Stewart is believed to have married a Miss Hobbs. She was the widow who survived him. Stewart was injured in the great hurricane of 1769. This injury led to his death in the spring of 1771.
Rosa Stewart married an English official named John Kewell. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Kewell moved his family to England. Ann Maria Kewell, a daughter of this marriage, later came to North Carolina. She married John Gallagher, a resident of Washington.
Governor Dobbs, as had Johnston before him, urged the Assembly to select a permanent site for a capital. In 1758, encouraged by Dobbs, the Assembly selected Tower Hill, on the Neuse River, near the present site of Kinston, as the location of the first capital. There was no town on this site, and the land was owned by Dobbs. Charges were made of corruption in getting the law passed, and Dobbs was charged with speculating in land. When the King's Privy Council learned these facts,
it promptly disapproved the act, and rebuked Dobbs for having signed it.
By the middle of the Eighteenth Century, half the population of Beaufort County lived west of Tranter's Creek. As had the people of the Neuse and Trent, they complained of the long, hard trip to Bath Town for court week, musters, and other official business. Unlike the people of the Neuse and Trent, who had New Bern, they had no nearer town that could be designated as the county seat.
In response to complaints and petitions from the people of the upper Pamlico and the Tar, the 1755 Assembly found that “the place where the Court of said County (Beaufort) is held is very inconvenient to the Inhabitants * * * and the Court House of the said County is becoming very ruinous.” To remedy this situation, the Assembly appointed a commission to build “a suitable courthouse, pillory, and stocks * * * on the land of Thomas Bonner Junior, on the North side of the Pamlico River.” Thus, nearly a score of years before the founding of the town of Washington, Bonner's farm became the seat of government for Beaufort County.
This arrangement was never satisfactory to either the eastern or western portion of the county. There were no taverns, and few houses, where the citizens of the county could find lodging and food during court week. Despite these conditions, the court continued to be held in the courthouse on Bonner's farm for the next four years.
The 1760 Assembly remedied the situation by severing the county at Tranters Creek, and erecting Pitt County in the western portion. This act, passed in November 1760, was approved by Governor Dobbs on 3 December of the same year. This act also provided for “adjourning the Court from the Court House on the land of Thomas Bonner to the Court House at Bath Town.”
In May 1761, the Rev. Mr. Stewart wrote the Secretary of the S. P. G. bemoaning the fact he had “lost the better half of my white Parishoners, so that the whole number of whites
in the Parish of St. Thomas is not 1,000, besides about 400 taxable Negroes.”
In the summer of 1764, Bath Town, having regained its position as seat of the county government, was to receive another boost. Colonel Robert Palmer arrived, bearing a commission from the Crown as Surveyor General of the province. He bought the Coutanch house, which was then vacant, and established his home in Bath Town. The inhabitants of Pitt, Beaufort, Craven, Dobbs, and Johnston counties were notified that after 1 January, 1765, “all Enterys for land” in those counties would be taken at the town of Bath.
During the seven years Robert Palmer was a citizen of Bath Town and Beaufort County, he received many honors. He was elected as a representative to the Lower House; later appointed to the Governor's Council, thus becoming a member of the Upper House; and was appointed Colonel of the Beaufort County regiment of militia. After moving to New Bern, Palmer was a member of the Governor's Council, and Adjutant General of militia, with the rank of Colonel.
Robert Palmer's first wife, Margaret, died at Bath Town in 1765. A slate tablet, which is still preserved, was erected in her memory in St. Thomas Church. Some time after leaving Bath Town, and probably after returning to England, Palmer remarried.
During the Revolution, Robert Palmer's property was confiscated by the State. He made a claim for 8,103 pounds against the British government for losses suffered because of his loyalty to the Crown. After some delay, he was actually paid 87 pounds, 8 shillings. He was given a pension of 300 pounds per annum from 1790 until his death in 1802. His widow, Helen Palmer, was paid a pension of 60 pounds per annum from his death until 1826, though she remarried in 1818. Robert Palmer was the only Loyalist or Tory of record in Beaufort County who received indemnity or payment of any kind from the British government.
Governor Dobbs estimated the population of North Carolina had increased to approximately 100,000 during the first ninety
years of its existence. He claimed that during his decade in office, it increased to 125,000. He also estimated that three-quarters to four-fifths of these were white. This estimate was based upon a record of 24,607 tithables in the province in 1755, approximately one-half of whom were eligible for the militia. Using the same ratio of tithables to total population, the population of Beaufort County in 1755 would have been 4,000 (including Pitt). This estimate checks reasonably well with Stewart's estimate of his parishioners, after his parish was severed.
In 1764, William Tryon, a young and able military officer, arrived on the Cape Fear. He carried a commission from the Crown as Lieutenant Governor of the province. The aging Dobbs, sick and weary after a decade of conflict with the people he governed, received leave, and permission to return to England. In March of 1765, a short time before he was to sail, he “suffered a seizure” and died. Tryon was sworn in immediately as governor.
The following year, Tryon's first Assembly decided the courthouse and prison at Bath Town were in “great Decay and so ruinous Condition that the Courts cannot be held there nor Prisoners detained; and the Lot whereon same stands is very low, sunken, and inconvenient.” A commission, consisting of “the Hon. Robert Palmer, Esq., John Barrow, Thomas Respess, Wyriot Ormond, & Thomas Bonner, Esqrs.,” was appointed to “contract within six months for a new Court House, Prison, Pillory, and Stock in Bath Town, for use of said County.” They were authorized to sell the old courthouse and lot, and apply the money received to the new buildings.
The new courthouse was erected at the end of Craven Street, between Water (Bay) Street and Bath Creek. As it is the courthouse shown on the Sauthier Map, made in 1769, and was “to be contracted for within six months,” it was probably built in the summer of 1767. Despite its “low, sunken, and inconvenient” location, the old courthouse and lot were sold. On 6 June, 1780, Thomas Bonner conveyed this lot to William Fullerton.
Tryon's administration was turbulent from the very beginning. In the month he took office, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This act was to become effective on 1 November of the same year. The people of North Carolina flatly refused to comply with the act. When an attempt was made to enforce it, the attempt was met with organized, armed resistance. The attempt ended in defeat and humiliation for Tryon. The act was repealed the following year.
Though thwarted in his effort to enforce the Stamp Act, Tryon achieved one success that none of his predecessors had been able to accomplish. The 1766 Assembly passed an act designating New Bern as the first permanent capital of North Carolina. It appropriated five thousand pounds to “erect a Convenient Building within the town of New Bern for the residence of the Governor.” To raise this money, it imposed a tax of two-pence on each gallon of wine, rum, and distilled liquors imported from any place except Great Britain. It also imposed a poll tax of eight-pence per poll. The following year an additional ten thousand pounds was appropriated, and the poll tax increased to two shillings, eight-pence.
These and other extravagances of the new Governor, combined with charges of crooked, grafting court and land officials in the western counties, and particularly within the Granville District, led to a second act of open, armed rebellion. This rebellion, known as the War of the Regulators, was not a rebellion against the British government, but one against extravagant and poor colonial administration.
In Beaufort County and the other older, eastern counties, the court officials were from among the leaders of the community, and supported the governor. The trouble arose in the new, more populous counties to the west. There many of the court officials, including justices of the peace, sheriffs, and lesser court officials, were newcomers to the province—mostly adventurers, seeking a “fast dollar,” to use a modern expression. Edmund Fanning, a well educated adventurer; justice of the peace in Orange County; Colonel of militia; and personal friend of the governor, was perhaps the most daring of these
carpetbagging officials. Henry Eustace McCulloh, the representative of the Earl of Granville, and a land speculator in his own right, was probably the next most hated man in the province.
This rebellion came to a head in 1770, when the Regulators refused to pay the tax imposed for building and maintaining the governor's mansion; declared Edmund Fanning an outlaw, to be killed on sight; and forbade any sessions of court, under penalty of death to the judges and lawyers.
Tryon had been appointed Governor of New York, and was preparing to leave the colony. Realizing this was a rebellion against him and his actions, he decided the issue must be settled before he left the colony. He ordered a special session of court to meet in Hillsboro, the seat of Regulator activities, and called out the militia to protect the court.
Beaufort County was called upon to provide one company of fifty men for Tryon's expedition against the Regulators. This company was commanded by Captain John Patten, who rose to the rank of colonel during the Revolution, and commanded the 2nd. North Carolina Regiment. The company consisted of the captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, one adjutant, two sergeants, a drummer, and thirty-four privates. This was a composite company, assembled from men from the various companies of the Beaufort County militia. Tryon's “Order of Battle” for the Battle of Alamance, shows the Beaufort company was in the front line, and on the right flank of Tryon's forces. In April 1771, Tryon wrote Colonel Palmer to have the Beaufort company march to a place near the present site of Smithfield, and there join the force of Lt. Col. Wm. Bryan.
On 16 May, 1771, Tryon assembled his force of 1,452 officers and men on Great Alamance Creek, a few miles from the town of Hillsboro. He was opposed by a force of about 2,000 Regulators. When the Regulators requested an audience with the governor, he refused to meet with them “as long as they were in arms against the government.” Tryon issued an ultimatum, giving the Regulators one hour to lay down their arms and disperse.
At the end of the hour, when the Regulators had not complied, Tryon gave the order to fire. After two hours of fighting, the Regulators were defeated and scattered. Tryon lost nine men killed and sixty-one wounded. The Regulators also had nine men killed. As their wounded were either carried away, or escaped under their own power, there are no figures on the number of their wounded. Records do not disclose whether men from Beaufort were among the dead or wounded. As they were in the front line, it seems reasonable to assume they suffered their proportionate share of the casualties. Tryon reported the battle as “a signal and glorious victory.”
Twelve leaders of the Regulators were tried for treason and convicted. Six were promptly hanged. The other six were pardoned by the governor. Tryon offered clemency to all Regulators who would lay down their arms, take a new oath of allegiance to the Crown, and submit to authority, which included paying the tax for the maintenance of the governor's mansion. More than six thousand Regulators submitted. Many, “despairing of seeing better times,” collected their meager belongings and left the province.
Satisfied with his victory, Tryon departed for New York at the end of June. On 1 July, James Hassel, President of the Council, assumed control of the government. His tenure of office lasted a little over one month. On 12 August, Josiah Martin, who was to be North Carolina's last Royal governor, took the oath of office at Edenton.
Compared with Tryon's tempestuous term, Martin's first two years in office were disarmingly quiet. His first Assembly met in New Bern on 19 November, 1771. James Bonner was one of the representatives from Beaufort County, and Wyriot Ormond the other. John Marle represented Bath Town. During this session of the Assembly, Bonner made his first attempt to obtain legislative approval to erect a town on his farm. He presented a petition by “Sundry of the Inhabitants of the Counties of Beaufort and Pitt for altering the Dividing Line between the said Counties, and praying a Town may be erected at the head of Pamlico, on the Plantation of Major James
Bonner, and William Boyd, a minor.” This bill was read twice and approved by the Lower House, then sent to the Council. There is no record of this act having been approved by the Council, or becoming a law. A similar act, passed by the Assembly a decade later, confirms the opinion the 1771 Assembly did not authorize the establishment of a town.
When Colonel Robert Palmer moved to New Bern to become a member of Martin's Council and Military Staff, Martin appointed William Palmer, the son of Colonel Robert Palmer, as commander of the Beaufort County militia.
By this time a strong sentiment was growing in all of the American colonies to unite in resisting the attempts of Parliament to tax the colonists without representation. To coordinate the acts of the colonies, Committees of Correspondence were organized to “obtain early information of any acts of the British government in regard to the colonies, and to correspond with committees of other colonies as to their plans of resistance.”
The Tea Act of 1773 brought on the Boston Tea Party. The Port of Boston was closed as punishment. The Boston Committee of Correspondence asked the other colonies to consider Boston as suffering in a common cause. North Carolina responded by sending the sloop Penelope to Salem, which was still open, with a cargo of pork, flour, and corn for the relief of Boston.
As a result of these incidents, and a growing spirit of resistance, the First Continental Congress was called. When Martin refused to convene the Assembly, so delegates from North Carolina could be selected, Speaker Harvey and others in the Cape Fear area issued an invitation to all counties to send delegates to the First Provincial Congress, to meet in New Bern on 25 August, 1774.
Roger Ormond and Thomas Respess were elected to represent Beaufort County, and William Brown to represent Bath Town. Prior to this time, the colonies had made it clear by their acts and utterances that they considered Parliament, not the King, as their enemy. The first business of the new Congress was to proclaim itself to be “His Majestie's most dutiful and Loyal
subjects * * * with the most sacred respect for the British Constitution.”
This Congress selected William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Richard Caswell as North Carolina's delegates to the Continental Congress. They closed the session with the unveiled threat that “if American grievances had not been redressed before October 1st., 1775, they would ban all trade with Great Britian.”
In an effort to check the increasing unity among the colonies, Martin called for his Assembly to meet at New Bern on 4 April, 1775. Speaker Harvey promptly called for a second meeting of the Provincial Congress, to meet at New Bern on the day preceding the convening of the Assembly. Ormond and Respess again represented Beaufort County in both the Congress and the Assembly, and Brown represented Bath Town.
The Second Provincial Congress re-elected Hooper, Hewes, and Caswell to the Continental Congress, and assessed each county twenty pounds to defray their expenses. It authorized Harvey to call the next Congress when he felt it was necessary. As Harvey was a very sick man, they authorized Samuel Johnston to assemble the Congress in the event of Harvey's death.
The Assembly, which met the following day, approved its own action as a Provincial Congress. This so angered Martin that, although the Assembly had accomplished nothing else, he dissolved the Assembly as of 8 April. This was the last Royal Assembly to meet in North Carolina.
Events moved quickly in the spring and summer of 1775. Talk of independence replaced opposition to Parliament. Lexington and Concord ignited the flame of revolution. Martin sent his family to New York for their safety, and sought personal safety at Fort Johnston. From there he prorogued the meeting of the Assembly, due at New Bern on 12 July.
In April, the Parliament, hoping to punish the colonies, banned all trade between them and Great Britain or the British West Indies. As North Carolina's naval stores were vital to the British navy, North Carolina was exempted from this act.
North Carolina refused to accept the bribe, and cast her lot with the other colonies. Martin, fearing Fort Johnston might be attacked, and its guns turned against the British ships anchored in the Cape Fear, spiked the guns of the fort, and fled to the British man-of-war Cruizer, lying off Fort Johnston. Thus ended forty-six years of turbulent, controversial Royal government in North Carolina.
CHAPTER X
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON, THE COUNTY SEAT of Beaufort County, is the largest city in the county, and within the county, second only to Bath Town in age. It is the first city of that name that was named in honor of General Washington. The town of Washington was created amidst the strife and turmoil of the approaching Revolutionary War.
In 1771, James Bonner, then a member of the General Assembly from Beaufort County, presented a petition “praying a Town be Erected at the head of the Pamlico, on the Plantation of Major James Bonner and William Boyd, a minor.” A bill to this effect was passed by the Lower House and sent to the Council or Upper House.
In the confusion of Tryon's march against the Regulators, and the constant conflict between the Lower House and the Governor and his Council, this bill was never approved by the Council or the Governor. The year 1771 has frequently been erroneously referred to as the date of the founding of Washington.
Washington was actually founded in the fall of 1775. It is perhaps the first town erected in America after the collapse of the British Royal government in North Carolina. Governor Martin had fled to the safety of a British man-of-war, from where he prorogued the General Assembly, which was never again to assemble under Royal government; and the Third Provincial Congress, meeting in Hillsboro, was too engrossed in the preparation for war to give time to erecting a town.
In the midst of this confusion, James Bonner, without the approval of either the General Assembly or the Provincial Congress, established his town. The town was first known as the “Town at the Forks of the Tar River.” He laid out thirty acres of his farm, with a frontage of about 1,200 feet on the north bank of the Pamlico River, into sixty lots, six streets, and an alley. The six original streets were Water, Main, Second,
and Third paralleling the river, with Market and Bonner streets and Union Alley running north from the river.
The boundaries extended from the western side of Union Alley, at the river, eastwardly to a point 210 feet east of Bonner Street. From there it ran north, paralleling Bonner Street to a point 210 feet north of Third Street; thence west, paralleling Third Street to the west side of Union Alley, and south with the Alley to the beginning. Following the custom established at Bath Town, the land between Water Street and the river was not laid out as separate lots, but provided a “front” for the lots on the north side of Water Street.
This land was originally granted by the Lords Proprietors to Christopher Dudley on 30 July, 1726. The Dudley grant was for three hundred and thirty-seven acres. The grant included all of present day Washington from the mouth of Jack's Creek, westerly along the course of the Pamlico River to Union Alley; thence north, with the extension of Union Alley to about Fifteenth Street. From there the line ran east and south to about where Twelfth and Charlotte streets would intersect, if Charlotte Street were extended. From that point it ran south along Charlotte Street to the northeast bank of Jack's Creek, and along that bank of the creek to the beginning.
The Dudley grant or patent changed hands twice during the same year it was issued. Dudley sold this grant almost immediately to Edward Salter, who in November of the same year sold it to John Worsley. Worsley built a house on this farm and lived there for about three years. This is the first recorded house to be built on land that is now Washington. On 16 October, 1729, Worsley sold the 337 acres to Captain Thomas Bonner, describing it as “the plantation whereon I now dwell.” On this deed, Worsley signed his name “Worley.”
Nearly twenty years later, on 8 March, 1748, Thomas Bonner gave his son James the western 130 acres of his farm, “for and in consideration of the Natural love and affection I have and bear to my son James.” The farm given James Bonner extended from present Union Alley to a point 210 feet east of present Bonner Street, then north to present 15th Street. The
town of Washington was initially laid out on the south end of this strip of land.
Four years later, in December 1751, Thomas Bonner gave the remaining 200 acres of his farm to his son, Thomas Bonner, Jr.
Immediately west of James Bonner's land was a tract of 520 acres belonging to William Congleton. The Congleton farm extended westward from Union Alley to about present Hackney Avenue, and north to about present 15th Street, tapering toward the river as the north boundary moved westward. This 520 acres was surveyed initially by John Aldrige, but upon his death was patented by his heirs, Edward Ward and his wife Elizabeth. This patent was also issued in 1726. On 22 September, 1731, Edward and Elizabeth Ward sold this 520 acre farm to William Congleton. Congleton built a house on this farm and was living there in 1748, when Thomas Bonner gave the western portion of his farm to his son James.
Congleton later sold the eastern 120 acres of his farm, adjoining that of James Bonner, to William Phelps. This was a strip of land extending westward along the river front from present Union Alley to a point about 100 feet east of present Van Norden Street, and north to 15th Street.
Evidently James Bonner was considering erecting a town on the south end of his farm long before he did so. On 15 March, 1758, he sold a “lot,” 105 feet on the river and back 210 feet, to Aquila Sugg, a merchant of Edgecombe County. This was lot No. 1 of his future town. A short time later Sugg bought the adjoining two acres to the west from Phelps. This was lots 1, 2, 3, and 7, 8, 9, as laid out later in Thomas Respess’ plan of Respess Town, though these lots apparently were never owned or sold by Respess. Sugg erected a wharf, warehouse, and other buildings on this land, from which he trans-shipped naval stores and other produce brought down the Tar on flat-bottom barges, poled by slaves.
In the fall of 1775, James Bonner held a lottery for the purpose of disposing of lots in his “proposed town” on the north bank of the Pamlico. Each purchaser paid five pounds, then drew a number. This number indicated the lot Bonner was to
Chart No. 3PLAN OF THE TOWN OF WASHINGTON, 1851
From original loaned by Mr. Owen Rodman of Washington, N. C.
RESIDENCE OF C. F. GRIST, ESQ.
From drawing by Porte Crayon (David H. Strother), N. C. Collection, UNC Library.
deed to him. The first deeds, dated December 1775, were to John Cowper, Henry Erwin, William Groves, and the mercantile firm of Scott, Erwin, and Cowper. These deeds, and all others issued for the next year, specified a lot number “in an intended Township which was disposed of by said James Bonner by Lottery.”
On 23 December, 1776, Bonner sold George Horn lot number 15, “in the Town of Washington.” This was the first time Bonner entered the name of his new town on the records of Beaufort County. The name Washington apparently had been in general use for several months before that date. The Journal of the Council of Safety, dated 27 September, 1776, reads: “the brig General Washington, now lying at Washington, * * * proceed with all possible speed to Ocracoke Bar.” This is the first record of the name of the new town being Washington.
On 3 February, 1776, James Bonner transferred to John Cowper, Henry Bonner, Robert Salter, and Joseph Blount, “Commissioners appointed by the Proprietors of an intended Township, * * * (a deed) to the Streets and Lot 21, for Public use of said Township (the lot on which the courthouse now stands) and Lot 50 for the building of a Church on.”
In 1761, William Phelps sold his remaining 118 acres, to the west of Bonner's town, to John Boyd. When John Boyd died, William Boyd, a minor, inherited the land. Twenty years later, in September 1781, William Boyd sold this land to Thomas Respess. Respess laid out his land as far north as the border of Bonner's town of Washington, and called it Respess Town.
Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, and the War for Independence won, before the North Carolina General Assembly of 1782 passed an act incorporating the town of Washington. This same act appointed Nathan Keais, Richard Blackledge, John Bonner, James Bonner, Jr., and John Gray Blount as commissioners for “designing, building, and carrying on said town.” The Assembly also specified the town “shall be called Washington.” In the meantime, Washington had become a thriving port.
The preamble of the 1782 Act confirms the fact the 1771
Assembly did not approve the incorporation of the town. It says: “Whereas it has been represented to this General Assembly, that in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, thirty acres of land was purchased by a number of persons for a town from Colonel James Bonner * * * and whereas several habitable houses are already erected thereon, and the same might be improved if it was erected into a town by lawful authority * * * .”
Before it became a town, Washington became a center of commerce. Vessels tying up to Sugg's wharf brought their cargos twenty miles nearer the people of the back country than did the vessels tying up at Bath Town. It seems probable that the merchants of Bath Town, noting Sugg's advantage, encouraged Bonner to start his town without waiting for legislative authority. James Latham, who had a water-powered grist mill at the head of Old Town (Bath) Creek, William Palmer, Daniel and Jonathan Marsh, all of Bath Town, were among Washington's early merchants. This group also included Eli Hoyt, Lewis LeRoy, Joseph Potts, and Thomas and John Gray Blount.
Naval stores were Washington's most important and profitable initial exports. As these items were urgently needed for the British navy, the British government paid a bounty for them. With the approach of the war, and the economic blockade adopted by the First Continental Congress, this profitable trade quickly vanished. Trade came to a halt. Merchandise piled up on the wharves and in the warehouses of the merchants, who faced bankruptcy. It looked as though the new town might die in its infancy.
Two unforeseen circumstances, and the ability of the merchants to adjust to these circumstances, brought new life to the dying infant town. The Continental Army and the Militia that was under arms were in dire need of food and supplies. This provided a new market for the plantations which used Washington as a port. The shallow, treacherous inlets and shifting channels of Pamlico Sound, which had previously been a handicap to shipping,
now became a boon. Small vessels, ladened with supplies for or from New England or the non-British West Indies, could navigate the sound or slip through the inlets, defying the efforts of the larger British men-of-war to intercept them. On this trade, the new town again began to flourish.
Ocracoke became an important trans-shipment point. Thomas and John Gray Blount erected warehouses and a salt factory on Shell Castle Island. Light draft vessels and barges carried supplies from Washington to Ocracoke. There they were transferred to fast sailing brigs or schooners for shipment to the ports of Europe. Return cargoes of arms, ammunition, and other supplies badly needed by the Continental Army thus passed through Washington. North Carolina sent John Gray Blount on a special mission to the French and Dutch West Indies in search of arms and ammunition and other supplies. With Norfolk burned and Wilmington either blockaded by the British, or later in their hands, most of these supplies came through Washington.
Small coastal vessels required from two to three months for a round trip to the West Indies. The round trip to Europe required an extra month. Hazards were great, both from the British fleet and the elements, but the reward was even greater. Ocracoke became such a thorn in the flesh of the British government that Lord George Germaine, Lord Commissioner of the British Board of Trade, insisted: “The contemptible little port of Ocracoke should be closed.” The British fleet made some attempt to do this, but were unsuccessful. Their efforts proved too expensive, both in ships and men lost off Hatteras.
Fast sailing schooners and brigs were in great demand, both as merchant vessels and privateers. Ship builders in Washington prospered. The armed brig General Washington, having survived two years of war, and served its purpose in getting the name of the town of Washington on the records, was put up for auction at Wilmington. The notice of auction recommended this vessel as “a fast sailer, well calculated for a privateer or merchant vessel.” In either capacity, she
would prove more valuable to her new owner than to the State. Her guns were not heavy enough to engage the British ships of war.
Bearing in mind the complaints of the planters as to the inadequacy of Bath Town's taverns, one of the first houses built in Washington was Mulberry Tavern. This tavern, facing the river from the north side of Water Street, was on lot 31, of Bonner's Old Part of the town. For more than a half century, this old tavern provided food and drink for seafaring men whose ships were in port, and lodging for planters and farmers in town on business. Later the Wiswell Hotel was built on the northwest corner of Main and Market streets, on lot number 20. When Wiswell sold this hotel, its name was changed to the Washington Hotel. Horn's Tavern was another of Washington's early inns, though the records do not show where it stood.
After the first discouraging year of the war, Washington grew and prospered during the Revolution. Norfolk had been burned. The Chesapeake and Cape Fear were blockaded by the British. Charles Town and Augusta were in the hands of the British. This all increased the importance of Washington as a port. The capture of Wilmington by the British only served to increase this importance.
Cornwallis’ surrender, and the evacuation of Wilmington by the British, did not diminish Washington's importance as a port. In the summer of 1782 Thomas Respess began the sale of lots in his addition. His first sale was the water-front lot number 24, to Town Commissioner Nathan Keais. He next sold water-front lot number 49 to Town Commissioner John Gray Blount. This lot was only half the width of the lot sold Keais. Keais paid eighty-four pounds for his lot, whereas Blount paid but fifty-five. Both represented considerable increase over the five pounds paid for the first Bonner lots. John Worden bought lot 29, and William Kennedy, Mariner, bought number 34. Within six months, Respess had sold all of his lots except twenty-seven. These were sold in a group to John Mulloney. On 5 February, 1783, Respess sold the remainder of his land lying north of
Respess Town, to John Gladden. Gladden later developed this area as Gladden Town.
Though Washington has far surpassed Bath Town in size and importance as a port, Bath Town continued to be the seat of county government. After listening to the complaints of the people of the more populous central and western portion of the county as to the “want of accommodations for persons obliged to attend on courts * * * and the ruinous condition of the Court House (in Bath Town),” the 1785 General Assembly acted to remedy the situation. On 29 December of that year, a law was enacted to “Alter the Place of Holding the County Court of Beaufort County from Bath to the Town of Washington, in said County, and to erect a new Court House, Prison, Pillory, and Stocks in said County.”
Nathan Keais, Richard Blackledge, and Joseph Palmer were appointed commissioners to erect the new courthouse and other installations. The justices of the peace of Beaufort County were authorized to dispose of the old courthouse and jail, and apply the funds received to the county's use. They were also directed that after 1 January, 1786, court would be adjourned from Bath Town to “the School House which stands on the public lot (No.21) in the Town of Washington.”
There is no record of the exact date the new courthouse was completed. With good brick available, and labor no great problem, it was probably completed by the end of the year 1786. The Assembly specified the building should be not less than 40 by 25 feet. The building erected was about 42 feet square, two stories high, with an attic and clock tower. It was built on the southwest corner of Market and Second streets, on the northern end of the public lot number 21, which was deeded by James Bonner to the town commissioners. The original building, now nearing the end of its second century of service to the county, is still in use. Additions have been made to house the offices of the Register of Deeds and the Clerk of the Superior Court, with necessary space for their records.
The courtroom occupies the second floor. Two narrow flights of stairs, ascending from each side of the front door of
the building, lead to the courtroom. The walls of the courtroom are hung with the portraits of Henry, Duke of Beaufort, the Lord Proprietor for whom the county was named, and distinguished sons of the county who adopted the legal profession.
William Attmore, a merchant of Philadelphia, visited Washington in the winter of 1787. Though he had a reservation at Horn's Tavern, where he was to pay six shillings, paper money, per day for board and lodging, he accepted an invitation to be the guest of Richard Blackledge, where he “could have a Room for myself.” Attmore records that the trip from Philadelphia to Washington, aboard the sloop Washington Packet, Captain Charles Kirby, master, required twelve days. With favoring winds, this trip could be made in half that time.
After Washington was designated as the county seat, Wiswell built a new hotel on the northeast corner of Main and Market streets. This hotel occupied lots 26 and 32, with its stables and servant's quarters extending back to Second Street, on lot 33. He named this hotel the Lafayette. It had a spacious, forty foot square dining room on the first floor, and a ballroom of similar dimensions above it on the second floor. President James Monroe visited Washington during his administration (1817-1825), and was entertained with a grand ball at the Lafayette, among the other activities of his reception. Another distinguished visitor to Washington was the venerable Lafayette, for whom the hotel was named. At the end of the Revolution, Lafayette returned to his own strife-ridden country. After the end of the French Revolution, he returned to America for a good-will tour. In 1825 he visited Washington, where he was received warmly, and entertained at the hotel which bore his name.
As the town grew and prospered, Hadrianus Van Norden, who had purchased the land west of Thomas Respess, laid out Van Norden Town. This extended from Respess Town to present Washington Street, and north to Sixth Street. John Gladden opened his property to the north of Respess Town, and called it Gladden Town. James Bonner then added land from his farm,
as far north as Sixth Street, and called it Bonner's New Part, to distinguish it from the original town, which became Bonner's Old Part. When the Thomas Bonner land east of Bonner Street was opened later, it was first called Pungo Town, as the first lot owners in that area were from the Pungo River section.
Initially, lot number 50 of Bonner's Old Part was used for a community church and a public burying ground. As the various denominations constructed their own churches, it reverted to a burying ground. The town had outgrown this burying ground by 1835, and the commissioners purchased lots number 81 and 84, in Bonner's New Part, for a burying ground. These lots were located on the southwest corner of Market and Fifth streets. Lots number 73 and 74, in Gladden Town, on the southwest corner of Respess and Fifth streets, were bought for a Negro burying ground. Twenty years later, a large tract of land on the east side of the Washington-Jamesville Road (Market Street extended), and north of the original Thomas Bonner farm, was purchased as a burying ground. This was the beginning of Oakdale Cemetery.
Washington experienced its most serious epidemic of yellow fever in the summer of 1843. Mosquitoes, brought in on a vessel from the West Indies, were the carriers. The cargo was assigned to C. N. LeRoy, who was among the first victims of the disease. The scourge swept through the town, with as many as seven victims dying in a single day.
Fire was an ever present danger in this town of wooden houses, open fireplaces, and wood-burning stoves. The town water system was primitive, consisting of a number of wells and pumps located at convenient and strategic points throughout the town. One was on the southeast corner of Main and Market streets. Five were on Second Street, and another on Third, west of Market. Four volunteer fire companies, with hand-pumper engines, provided the only fire protection. The Ocean Engine Company was located on the west side of Market Street, near the present location of the City Hall. The Neptune Engine Company was on the east side of Gladden Street, in the then Town Hall. This was next door to the Presbyterian
Church. The Ocean Wave Division was located in the old Academy building, on the northwest corner of Bridge and Second streets. The Phoenix Engine Company was located on the “water front” of lot number 56, in Van Norden Town. These four hand-pumpers, with bucket brigades, where buckets of water were passed from hand to hand from the source of water supply to the fire, were never adequate if the fire got a good start.
The 1851 map of the town of Washington, from which Chart No. 3 was copied, shows the location of Washington's first post office as the southwest corner of Main Street and Union Alley. Papers in the John Gray Blount collection in the State Department of Archives and History, indicate that Richard Blackledge, one of the first commissioners of the town, was the first postmaster. An article published in the Washington Gazette-Messenger in 1903, credits this distinction to a Mr. O'Cain.
At some time prior to 1851, a two-story brick Market House and Armory was built at the end of Market Street, overlooking the river. This building was destroyed by fire in 1900. When it was rebuilt, the second floor, which had been used as an armory, was omitted. This building was recently razed, and the area converted to a park.
David H. Strother, who sketched and wrote under the penname Porte Crayon, visited Washington on his southern tour before the Civil War. While in Washington, he sketched Elmwood, the home of Allen Grist. This house stood at the west end of Main Street, facing present Hackney Avenue. This house, built by Colonel Joshua Tayloe in the early Nineteenth Century, was Washington's most pretentious home. Ownership of this house changed hands a number of times. Moved to the south side of Main Street, overlooking the Pamlico River, and remodeled, it is now the home of Mrs. Marcia Myers Knott.
The two oldest homes in Washington, which escaped the numerous disastrous fires, are the old Telfair and Myers homes on Water Street, between Bonner and Harvey. Each of these houses occupy half of lot number 55 in Bonner's Old Part.
Both homes were damaged by artillery fire from the Confederate battery located across the river from the town, during the siege of Washington. The Telfair house is believed to have been built by Jonathan Marsh in the late 1790's. On 12 September, 1795, Jonathan and Daniel Marsh bought the west half of lot number 55, Bonner's Old Part, from John Gray Blount. In the deed, the lot is described as “adjoining the lot where Philip Riley lives.” Riley's home was on lot 49, on the northeast corner of Bonner and Water streets.
CHAPTER XI
WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE
The Third Provincial Congress met at Hillsboro on 20 August, 1775. Thomas Respess, Jr., Roger Ormond, Wm. Salter, John Patten, and John Cowper represented Beaufort County. Bath Town was represented by Wm. Brown. Before taking his seat in the Congress, each member was required to sign a “test oath,” wherein he professed allegiance to the Crown, and denounced the Parliament for having illegally imposed taxes upon the colonies. Having gone on record as being loyal to the Crown, the Congress then proceeded with the business of preparing for war against it.
Fear was uppermost in the minds of the members of Congress that the Scotch Highlanders of the upper Cape Fear and the Regulators of the back country would favor the Tories. Before granting land to the Highlanders, Governor Martin had required them to take a special oath that if necessary, they would “lay down their lives in defense of His Majesty's government.” When the Regulators laid down their arms, they too had been required to take a new oath of allegiance to the Crown. The first business of the Congress was to appoint committees to meet with these questionable groups in an attempt to win them over to the Whig cause.
Having “resolved” that Governor Martin had “deserted” the colony, and there was no longer a responsible Royal government, the Congress enacted laws establishing a temporary Provincial government. They provided for a Provincial Congress which would have five elected members from each county, and one from each of the six borough towns. There would be a Provincial Council of thirteen members to replace the Royal governor and his Council. Two members of this Council would be elected from each of the six military districts, and the thirteenth member elected by the Provincial Congress. Safety Committees were authorized for each military district, each
county, and each borough town. These committees were to be elected annually by the freeholders.
The Congress resolved that “hostilities being actually commenced in Massachusetts Bay by British Troops * * *this colony be immediately put into a state of defense.” The Congress then authorized two regiments of 500 men each for the Continental Line. These were troops that would be available to leave the province, and be under control of the Continental Congress. Colonel James Moore of New Hanover County was chosen as commander of the First Regiment and Colonel Robert Howe of Brunswick County, commander of the Second Regiment.
A battalion of “Minutemen,” 500 strong, was authorized for each of the six military districts. Beaufort County, which was in the New Bern Military District, was to provide one company of “Minutemen.” Richard Caswell was designated as commander of the New Bern Military District Battalion.
A Brigadier General was authorized to command the militia in each of the military districts. Based upon its population, each county was to provide one or more regiments of militia. Beaufort County, being one of the less populous counties, was to supply one regiment. The field officers of this regiment were appointed by the Congress. James Bonner was appointed Colonel, replacing William Palmer, who had been appointed by Governor Martin. Thomas Bonner, Jr., was appointed Lieutant Colonel; Roger Ormond, First Major; and William Brown, Second Major. Both Ormond and Brown were members of the Congress.
All white males between the ages of sixteen and fifty years were declared eligible for the militia. Regiments were to be composed of ten companies of not less than fifty men each. For each company there would be a captain, a lieutenant, an ensign, two sergeants, two corporals, one drummer, and one fifer.
Every soldier was to have a good gun, a shot bag, a powder horn, and a cutlas or tomahawk. If the soldier provided his own weapon, he was authorized an annual allowance of “ten
shillings for a good smooth bore gun or musket, and twenty shillings for a rifle. The Kentucky Rifle, made famous on the Kentucky frontier, but actually manufactured in Pennsylvania, was the most accurate firing weapon of its period, and the choice of frontiersmen. When a soldier could not provide a weapon, one was to be issued to him for each muster or call to active service, and returned to the company commander when the muster or period of active duty was over. The company commander was responsible for the safe storage and maintenance of the weapon when not in use. Each sergeant, corporal, and private was allowed twenty-five shillings with which to buy a uniform. This consisted of “a good hunting Shirt, Leggins or Splater dashes, and Black Garters.”
In the early days of the war, with the British in control of Norfolk, Sir Peter Parker's fleet rumored to be off the North Carolina coast, and the threat of a Tory uprising plaguing the Whigs, partriotic enthusiasm was high and recruiting was relatively easy. It was patriotic fervor, not the military pay scale established by the Hillsboro Congress that led men to enlist. A Colonel received twelve shillings, six-pence per day, or about $54.00 per month. Pay for the other grades was in proportion. A private soldier, called a “common man” on the roster, received two shillings, four-pence per day, or about $10.00 per month.
The Congress which met at Halifax on 12 November, 1776, adopted a Constitution, a Bill of Rights, and provided for the organization of a permanent government for North Carolina. John Barrow, Thomas Respess, Thomas Respess, Jr., Francis Jones, and Robert Tripp were the representatives from Beaufort County for this Congress.
The new government was to consist of a Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branch. The Legislative Branch consisted of a Senate and a House of Commons. Each county was authorized one Senator and two Commoners. The Executive Branch consisted of the Governor, a seven member Council of State, a Secretary, Treasurer, and Attorney General. One member of the Council of State was to be elected from each
military district, and the seventh member by the Legislature. The Legislature retained control of both the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch by providing that the Legislature elect the Governor and each of the other members of the Executive Branch, and control the salaries of the Judicial Branch.
Richard Caswell, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, was elected the first Governor of the new State, and served four one-year terms. John Gray Blount, Thomas Bonner, and Thomas Respess of Beaufort County served as members of Caswell's Council of State.
Thomas Respess represented Beaufort County in the Senate for the war years 1777 to 1780. The Commoners for those years were: 1777, Wm. Brown and Nathan Keais; 1778, Wm. Brown and Andrew Ellison; 1789, Robert Tripp and John Kennedy; 1780, Wm. Brown and Samuel Willis. For the last two years of the war, Wm. Brown replaced Thomas Respess in the Senate. The Commoners were: 1781, Charles Crawford and Thomas Grist; 1782, Richard Stevens and John Gray Blount.
The first North Carolina unit to see action against the British was Colonel Long's Minutemen from the Halifax Military District. On 9 December, 1775, this battalion supported Virginia militia at the Battle of Great Bridge, nine miles south of Norfolk. It is possible some Beaufort County men were in this unit. Some time later, Colonel Bonner reported to Governor Caswell: “I marched twenty-one men from Bath, on their way to Halifax.”
Colonel Howe's Second North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line joined the Virginia-North Carolina force at Norfolk a few days later, and were present during the bombardment and burning of Norfolk by the British fleet. This regiment was recruited from the New Bern Military District, and included many men from Beaufort County. The Scotch merchants of Norfolk were predominantly Tory. When the British evacuated Norfolk, these merchants fled with them to ships in the harbor. Where the incendiary shells from the British war ships failed to ignite the warehouses of these Tory merchants, the soldiers from Virginia and Carolina completed the job.
Two months later, on 27 February, 1776, the Beaufort County company of Minutemen who were assigned to the New Bern Military District battalion, met the Scotch Highlanders at Moore's Creek Bridge. This battalion, called Caswell's Partisan Rangers, played an important part in this victory, which did so much to dampen Tory ardor in North Carolina.
Only the names of a few field officers of these North Carolina units are readily available. Under the direction of Mrs. Hattie Reed Whitaker, State Regent of the North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution, rosters were prepared of all North Carolina men who participated in the War. Neither this monumental work, nor the records of the North Carolina State Department of Archives and History record these names by counties.
North Carolina provided ten regiments of infantry, one battery of artillery, and three troops of cavalry for the Continental Line. John Patten was appointed a major in the Second North Carolina Regiment and rose to the rank of colonel and commander of the regiment. Colonel Robert Howe rose from the grade of colonel to major general, and as such, replaced the traitor, Benedict Arnold, as commander at the Battle of West Point. Major Reading Blount was also assigned to the Second Regiment towards the end of the war.
Estimates of the number of North Carolina troops who saw service in the Continental Line vary from 5,454 to 7,663. They saw service from Stony Point, New York, to Savannah, Georgia. They shared the suffering and hardships of the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge. A brigade of six North Carolina regiments formed the right flank of General Washington's army at the Battle of Germantown. General Nash, the Brigade Commander; Colonel Robert Buncombe, for whom Buncombe County was named, who commanded the Fifth North Carolina Regiment; and Lieutenant Colonel Irwin, all died of wounds received in this battle. This Brigade, under the command of Brigadier General James Hogun, who had commanded the Seventh North Carolina Continental Regiment, was detached from General Washington's army in 1779, and sent south to the
relief of Charles Town. When General Lincoln, who had replaced General Howe as commander of the Southern Department, permitted his troops to be bottled up by the British, these six regiments, by now reduced to only 700 men, were surrendered to the British. General Hogun, who was wounded during the defense of Charles Town, died while a prisoner of the British. This disastrous and unnecessary sacrifice of troops left South Carolina in the hands of the British, and North Carolina undefended, except by her militia.
Though damned by many Continental Line officers, particularly General Nathaniel Green, the men of the North Carolina militia distinguished themselves at this time, as they had earlier in the war. General Griffith Rutherford's militia units suppressed the South Carolina “Scovellite” Tory uprising early in the war. The march of his brigade of militiamen over the mountains from Davidson's (Old) Fort to the present site of the town of Murphy, eliminated the threat of Cherokee warfare on the Carolina border. Moore's Creek, Ramseur's Mill, and finally King's Mountain, were all victories won by North Carolina militiamen, or units that had not yet joined the Continental Line.
Beaufort County, though dominated by conservative Whig merchants and planters, who initially were reluctant to sever relations with the Crown, was never invaded by British troops, or seriously threatened with a Tory uprising. There were a few British sympathizers, but they remained passive. Based upon State records of those who received pensions from the British government, or reimbursement for damages received through their loyalty to the Crown, there were but two Tories of substance in Beaufort County. One was Colonel Robert Palmer, the other Andrew Sprourl.
Small lawless bands, taking advantage of the war and the weakness of the civil government, raided homes, robbed and pillaged isolated farms, and attempted to interrupt the flow of replacements to the Continental Line regiments. In their raids, these outlaws seldom distinguished between the homes of patriots and those of British sympathizers. In July 1778,
Colonel Bonner, commanding the Beaufort County militia, wrote Governor Caswell: “about twenty or more (men) combined together in this county for mischiefous purposes * * * caused Drafted men to desert, and declared publicly they would support them (the draftees) with their Guns * * * mobs broke open stores for salt etc.” Bonner closed his report with a request for help to “subdue these lawless fellows.”
With the majority of her young men away at war Beaufort County's greatest fear was for a British instigated slave unprising. At the beginning of the war, Lord Dunsmore, Royal Governor of Virginia, with far more courage than Martin, had threatened: “By the Living God, if any insult is offered to me, or to those who have obeyed my orders, I will declare freedom to the slaves and lay the town (Williamsburg) in ashes.” He issued such an order for the defense of Norfolk, freeing all indentured servants and slaves “of the rebels, that are able and willing to bear arms.” He added the proviso that they join the British troops. Some two or three hundred Negroes were freed, and joined in the defense of Norfolk as “Lord Dunsmore's Ethiopians.”
In Beaufort County and other eastern counties where there was a large Negro population, this threat of a slave uprising was an ever-present cause for concern. In July of 1775, shortly after Dunsmore had made his threat, a “Horrid, Tragic Plan” for such an uprising was discovered. A loyal Negro slave who belonged to Captain Thomas Respess revealed the plot to Colonel Simpson, who was Chairman of the Pitt County Committee of Safety. Simpson promptly notified Colonel Blount, Chairman of the Beaufort County Committee, and Colonel Cogdell of Craven County. A Tory named Johnson, apparently from another county, engineered the plan. A Bath Town slave named Merrick was the Negro leader through whom he worked. The plan was simple, and strikingly like that of the Tuscarora Indians, which had such disastrous effect upon the inhabitants of Beaufort and Craven counties more than a half century earlier.
On the night of 8 July, 1775, the slaves on each plantation
were to turn on their masters, and slay them and their families. They would then join with the slaves from other plantations. Armed with the weapons of their murdered masters, they were to go from farm to farm of the neighboring, non-slave holding farmers and surprise and murder them. Moving westward through the counties, they were to be met by an agent of the British government, who would supply them with more ammunition. As a reward, they would later be settled in a free government of their own.
Over one hundred mounted patrollers were promptly dispatched to warn all plantation owners and farmers, and were directed to apprehend all Negroes found off their plantations. Over forty Negroes suspected of being leaders in the plot were apprehended. One group of about two hundred and fifty Negroes was located. When surrounded by two companies of Light Horse, they fled into the swamps.
Many of the captured Negroes confessed to their part in the plot. Records do not specify their punishment. As the law prescribed death for such an offense, and provision was made to reimburse the owners of slaves “destroyed,” they were probably hanged or shot. Johnson, the instigator of the plot, escaped. Though the threat hung over the eastern counties for the remainder of the war, no other attempt at an uprising is recorded.
As the war dragged on, recruiting for the Continental Line units became more and more difficult. Bounties were offered for enlistments. When that failed, the State resorted to the draft.
Colonel Thomas Bonner, Jr., replaced Colonel James Bonner as commander of the Beaufort County militia. On 6 October, 1779, Thomas Bonner returned his commission to the Governor “because of frequent returns of my old complaints.” Elias Hoell of Washington, who was appointed an ensign by Governor Caswell, also returned his commission to the governor, for “particular reasons.” In doing so, he assured the governor of his “loyalty and obediance.”
CHAPTER XII
SOVEREIGN STATE
IN 1783, GOVERNOR ALEXANDER MARTIN notified the Legislature that Great Britain had recognized the independence of the United States, and the war was over. To this announcement, Martin added: “Nothing now remains but to enjoy the fruits of uninterrupted Constitutional Freedom.” Martin, the Legislature, and the people of the new State were soon to learn this was a masterpiece of overstatement.
Common dangers and common fears had united the Whig party during the first year of the war. Long before the war ended, all semblence of unity had vanished. This disunity, the lack of a strong Exective Branch either in the Federal or State government, and the ravages of inflation had left the State in economic and moral bankruptcy, and the government in chaos.
Many problems stood between the people of the State and the “enjoyment of the fruits of Constitutional Freedom.” Thousands of soldiers, released from the Continental Army and British prison camps and prison ships, returned home. They were demanding their long overdue pay, and compensation for losses they had suffered while in service. The new Sovereign State had neither money nor credit with which to pay them. Inflation had reduced the value of paper money of the Federal and State governments to practically zero; or, in the language of the era, “not worth a Continental.”
The relationship between the new Sovereign State and the loosely united Federal government was a problem of equal urgency. The Legislature had ratified the Articles of Confederation. This Confederation had provided a weak and inefficient government during the war. After the war, it proved to be a complete failure. The Articles made no provisions for a President, an executive branch, or a judicial branch. The Congress amounted to little more than a debating society, or sounding board from which the individual States could
broadcast their opinions. Its acts were accepted or rejected, according to their effect upon a particular State. Like the State, the Federal government had neither money nor credit.
The Whig party of North Carolina was united in the need to compensate the returning soldiers. The radical and conservative elements differed widely as to the means to be employed. The already overworked printing press was no solution. The radicals urged the sale of confiscated Tory property, and the grant of land in the newly acquired Cherokee country beyond the Blue Ridge. The conservatives, with no plan of their own, considered the latter method the best.
In the end, the radicals prevailed. Confiscated property, sold during the war, and as late as 1790, provided more than 868,000 pounds to meet the State's obligations. To forestall legal action that might cloud the title of confiscated property, the Legislature enacted a law prohibiting the courts of North Carolina from “entertaining suits for the recovery of confiscated property.”
Grants of western land, ranging from 640 acres for a private to 12,000 acres for a brigadier general, were also approved. Other than the grants for vast amounts of land to John Gray Blount, it is difficult to determine who, in Beaufort County, took advantage of these grants.
The problem of North Carolina's relationship with the Federal government was not so easily solved. Again the Whigs were divided. Those who favored a strong Federal government became known as Federalists. Those who wished to limit the power of the Federal government to certain essential functions were called Republicans. The term Democrat, and sometimes Republican-Democrat, was also applied to them.
Beaufort County was predominantly Federalist. Her representatives in the 1787 Legislature, John Bonner in the Senate, and John Gray Blount and Henry Smaw in the Lower House, favored drastic changes in the Articles of Confederation. Blount took a leading role in the effort to have North Carolina participate in a national convention to provide a new Federal Constitution. When this action was finally approved, Blount,
for some unaccountable reason, was not appointed as a member of the North Carolina delegation.
In 1788, the new Constitution was presented to North Carolina for ratification. Blount, Nathan Keais, Charles Crawford, and James Bonner represented Beaufort County at the convention. Beaufort's representatives all favored ratification of the Constitution. The Republican majority, led by Willie Jones of Halifax, opposed ratifying the Constitution as written. Jones and the Republicans were not opposed to a Federal government stronger than that provided by the Articles, but were opposed to the Constitution without a bill of rights. After eleven days of discussion, the Republican majority passed a resolution which neither ratified nor rejected the Constitution, but suggested a bill of rights and several amendments. In the meantime eleven States ratified the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation ceased to exist.
Greatly concerned that North Carolina was no longer in the Union, the 1788 Legislature promptly called for another convention, to be held in Fayetteville, in November 1789. In this Legislature, William Brown replaced Bonner in the Senate, but both Blount and Smaw returned to the Lower House. All of them favored the new convention.
Before the election of delegates to the new convention, the Federalists waged an effective campaign of education throughout the State. Blount, Brown, Richard Grist, Alderson Ellison, and Silas Arnette represented Beaufort County at the convention. With an overwhelming majority in favor of the Constitution, it was ratified on 21 November, 1789. This was too late for North Carolina to participate in the unanimous election of General George Washington as the first President of the United States. It was also too late for the North Carolina delegates to be seated in the 1790 Congress, which convened in New York.
Beaufort County's economy was founded upon the trade that passed through the port of Washington. This economy had flourished during the war, and continued to do so after the war. Though essentially Federalists, the merchants and
planters did not approve of many of Hamilton's fiscal policies. When, in 1792, war began between England and France, they resented Washington's proclamation of neutrality, which affected their trade.
Later, in retaliation against the British for stopping American ships on the high seas and seizing American sailors, Jefferson secured the passage of an Embargo Act. This act prohibited all American vessels to leave port. As this struck directly at the life blood of Beaufort's economy, it was resented even more than Washington's neutrality act. The act was repealed by Madison's first Congress, before any great harm had been done. The Madison amendment barred American ships from British ports only. Cities of the North, and non-British West Indies provided ample commerce for the port of Washington.
“Free trade and sailor's rights,” which became a slogan of the Madison campaign, became a battle cry with the declaration of war in 1812. This war was not popular in North Carolina. Her long coast line became an object of great concern. In July, 1813, Admiral Cockburn's British fleet came to anchor off Ocracoke. The narrow passages to, and shifting, shallow channels of Pamlico Sound again saved the day. Cockburn's heavy ships could not sail into the sound, and he was unwilling to risk his lighter ships without their protection, so the fleet soon sailed away.
Beaufort County's principal contribution to this unpopular war was in volunteers to guard her coast line; in fast sailing brigs and schooners to run the British blockade; and in the privateer Hawk. Based at Washington, the Hawk contributed to the destruction of the British merchant fleet, and brought rich spoils back to her home port.
In 1815, land in Beaufort County was listed on the tax books as valued in excess of $800,000. With values deflated for tax purposes, this meant a real evaluation of more than $3 million. There were nearly 3,000 slaves in the county at that time, with an estimated average value of $200.00. The 1820 census listed the population of the town of Washington as 1,034. Her forests and the availability of water transportation
were Beaufort County's greatest assets. Next to the products of her forests, corn, beef and pork were the principal exports of the county.
The Federalist party had vanished from the political scene by 1820, leaving the Jeffersonian Republican-Democrats in full control of the State. This party, which had at first represented only the radical element, was beginning to come under conservative control, and the State reverted to a one party system.
During the decade that began in 1820, the emancipation of slaves was looked upon with favor by many of the slave holders of North Carolina. Manumission was easier than in other Southern states. Slavery was recognized as an evil, and efforts were made to mitigate it. Stiff taxes were imposed upon the importation of slaves, and slaves were not permitted to be brought into North Carolina from states where slavery was being abolished. As a result, there were many free Negroes in North Carolina. Some of these prospered, as did Hull Anderson of Washington. Many became a drain on the towns in which they congregated. To relieve the situation, philanthropic citizens aided organizations in exporting free Negroes to the newly established Negro Republic of Liberia. Despite all this, the Negro population of the State, and particularly the eastern counties, including Beaufort, increased rapidly.
Before Whitney invented the cotton gin, cotton growing was neither profitable nor popular in North Carolina. It required twenty-five slaves, working one hundred days, to pick the seed from the cotton one slave could produce in a growing season. Whitney's gin reversed this procedure. One small, handpowered gin could do the work of a dozen slaves, freeing eleven for the fields. A larger, but quite similar simple machine, powered by a horse, could do the ginning work of fifty slaves. Under the impetus of this simple but revolutionary machine, cotton became the major money crop of Beaufort County and the State, as well as the entire South. Slave labor, believed necessary for its profitable growing, became a fixed and deep-rooted factor in the economy of the county and state.
This brought about a reversal of feeling throughout the
eastern counties. Slavery was accepted as a necessary evil’ and sentiment turned against the free Negro. An influx of free Negroes, many of whom were lazy, shiftless, and irresponsible, had gathered in Washington, and were becoming a burden upon the citizens. As all male free Negroes over twenty-one enjoyed equal suffrage with the whites, they were also becoming a political hazard. Most of them were ignorant, illiterate, and knew nothing of the politics and problems of the county, yet their vote counted as much at the ballot as that of the most informed white. Fearful of this vote, which it was alleged could be bought for a drink of whiskey, sentiment grew for the disfranchisement of the free Negro.
The western and piedmont counties had been seeking a revision of the State Constitution for half a century, without success. They saw in this desire of the eastern counties to disfranchise the free Negro an opportunity for success. In 1834, with the cooperation of certain eastern legislators, a Constitutional convention was called for 1835.
Joshua Tayloe and Richard Bonner represented Beaufort County at this convention. Through both Tayloe and Bonner voted against it, a new Constitution was submitted. It provided many important changes. The Legislative assemblies were changed from annual to biennial. The governor was to be elected by the people instead of the Legislature. He was to have a two-year term, instead of the one that had prevailed since the Revolution. Separate representation by the six borough towns, long a thorn in the flesh of the other towns of the State, was abolished. In payment for these concessions by the eastern counties, suffrage for the free Negro was abolished.
On the critical question of apportionment of representatives, the west won a victory in the Lower House, and compromised in the Senate. The Lower House, with 120 members, would allot one to each county; the remainder would be apportioned according to population. All property-holding requirements for both candidates and voters was removed. Only adult male whites were eligible to vote. The Senate was to have fifty members. The apportionment of Senators was based upon the
amount of taxes paid by a county. Less prosperous counties would be grouped to share a Senator. The requirement that a candidate for the Senate be a property holder was removed, but the suffrage requirement of fifty acres was retained. On a population basis, Beaufort County retained its two seats in the Lower House until after the Civil War. On a “Tax paid” basis, it retained its Senator for the next five years. After that, it shared its Senator with one or more other counties.
All opponents of the Jackson Democrats, as the radical Republicans were then called, combined to form a new party. They adopted the old name of Whig. Though the Whigs and Democrats were nearly evenly matched throughout the State, Beaufort County was predominantly Whig. Both parties contended bitterly for control of the State government. This required both parties to put forward their most able candidates, and to present a sound and progressive platform for the voters to consider. Party loyalty was mandatory. The spoil system was used to reward the faithful. In 1836, the Whigs elected Edward Dudley as Governor, defeating the Democratic encumbent, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr., by a small majority. In this election Beaufort County gave Dudley an overwhelming majority. For the next quarter century the two-party system, with its healthy, if sometimes bitter competition, brought honest, enlightened, efficient, and progressive government to the State.
From 1835 throughout the Civil War, the Whigs gave Beaufort County able, intelligent, and strong leadership. Their representatives to the Senate and Lower House included outstanding members of the Washington bar and leaders among the planters and merchants. J. O. K. Williams was a member of the Senate when the amendment was ratified. He served the next two biennial terms, and was replaced by William Selby. W. B. Hodges followed Selby, and in 1844 was succeeded by Joshua Tayloe. Tayloe also served on the Council of Governor Graham.
During this decade, Beaufort County was represented in the Lower House by Fenner B. Satterthwaite, S. Smallwood,
W. A. Blount, John McWilliams, S. P. Allen, J. W. Williams, Frederic Grist, and Edward Stanley.
During this period Churchill C. Cambreling, a native son of Washington, was achieving success in business and politics in New York. He was elected to Congress from New York, as a Tammany Democrat, and served nine terms. Toward the end of the Jackson administration, Cambreling, then Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee of Congress, returned to Washington for a visit. He was warmly received by his friends and relatives, and made a speech espousing the cause of Martin Van Buren, the Democratic candidate for President. Though the people of Beaufort County thought highly of Camberling, his speech had little effect on the heavy Whig vote of the county. Two years later, when Camberling was defeated for re-election, Van Buren appointed him Minister to Russia.
The next decade was to see new faces at the helm in Beaufort County. Edward Stanley, Richard Donnell, and Thomas Sparrow, all of whom were born in New Bern, had come to Washington to practice law. Stanley, a graduate of Norwich University, served three terms in the Lower House of the North Carolina Legislature, was Attorney General of the State in 1847, and served in the Congress of the United States for ten years. Donnell, a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Yale, was the grandson of former Governor Richard Dobbs Spaight, who was killed in a duel with Stanley's father. Donnell served two years in the Senate and seven in the Lower House of the Legislature, and two years in the U. S. Congress, from 1847 to 1849. He was Speaker of the Lower House of the Legislature during war years from 1862 to 1865. Thomas Sparrow became a law partner of Stanley's, and served in the Lower House from 1858 to 1860. He then migrated to Illinois, where he expected to practice law. The gathering war clouds brought him quickly back to Washington, where he entered the Confederate Army. After the war, he again served in the Lower House.
In the year 1846, another young man who was destined to make his mark in local and State politics, came to Washington. Edward J. Warren, a native son of Vermont, was a graduate of Dartmouth College. When he first came to Washington, he taught at the old Washington Academy. While teaching, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1848. An ardent Whig, he soon took his place among their leaders. Warren represented Beaufort County in the Senate throughout the war, and was again elected in 1870. He was President Pro Tem of the Senate from 1870 to 1872. After the impeachment of Governor Holden, he became Lieutenant Governor.
David M. Carter, a native of Hyde County, who studied at the University of North Carolina, was another outstanding leader of the Whig party who was a member of the Washington bar. Carter served in the Senate two years, and rose to the grade of Colonel in the Confederate Army during the war.
Other leaders of the Whig party in Beaufort County during the two decades from 1840 to the beginning of the war, who served in the Senate were Thomas Smaw, Allen Grist, and Frederic Grist. Those serving in the Lower House during that period included J. O. K. Williams, S. P. Allen, J. W. Williams, Frederic Grist, Thomas Smaw, W. W. Hayman, Jesse Stubbs, W. H. Tripp, Jehu Eborn, Samuel Windley, and W. T. Marsh.
The program of the Democratic party during these years had been merely to oppose the Whigs. They favored a negative economy and a “do nothing” program, holding the State should “tax little, spend little, and do little for the people beyond protecting their life, liberty, and property.”
The outstanding Democratic leader of Beaufort County during this era was William B. Rodman. Rodman was a native of the county, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and a grandson of John Gray Blount. He was a clear thinker, a fluent speaker, and one of the able jurists of his time. He served as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1868, and in the same year became an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
In 1844, James K. Polk was elected President on a platform
which called for the annexation of Texas, the purchase of New Mexico and California from Mexico, and adding disputed Oregon to the Union. Three days after Polk's inauguration, the Congress enacted a law admitting Texas to the Union. This initiated the Mexican War.
The predominantly Whig Legislature of North Carolina condemned Polk's actions, lamenting: “by action of the executive * * * the republic is involved in a foreign war.” Beaufort County's Whig representatives to this Legislature were Joshua Tayloe in the Senate, and Edward Stanley and Frederic Grist in the Lower House. In retrospect, the superior wisdom of Polk's policy in expanding the United States from coast to coast, and eliminating the possibility of a foreign nation gaining a foothold on the western coast, has long been acknowledged.
Polk's actions were more popular with the people of North Carolina than with the Whig Legislature. When the War Department called upon North Carolina to provide one regiment of ten companies for the war, thirty-two companies volunteered. After much argument over which companies would be chosen, and who would command the regiment, this regiment reached Mexico. It was assigned the duty of guarding the long American line of communications from Texas to the combat zone. Though it saw no combat duty, its casualties were high. Tropical diseases and contaminated water were more deadly than the Mexican bullets.
Two companies of North Carolina cavalry, recruited in and around Mecklenburg County, who called themselves the Mecklenburg Dragoons, became a part of the Third Regiment, U. S. Regular Army Dragoons, and saw much combat service.
Two companies of North Carolina infantry, recruited in the Wilmington, Washington, and Fayetteville areas, became a part of the Twelfth Regiment, U. S. Regular Army Infantry, and saw almost continuous combat service throughout the war. Lieutenant Edward Cantwell of Washington, was an officer in one of these companies. At the Battle of Natural Bridge, where Mexican artillery enfiladed the American line, Cantwell and twelve of his men distinguished themselves by storming the
enemy battery and capturing the Mexican cannon. The names of Dr. Thomas Brown, William A. Blount, and a Mr. Buckman are also recorded among those from Beaufort County who saw service in the Mexican War.
During the two decades prior to the Civil War, the North Carolina Legislature enacted many enlightened and progressive acts. Prior to 1848, the husband was literally, as well as figuratively, master of his domain. He could not only restrain his wife's personal liberties, but could, without her consent, dispose of whatever property was hers, whether she had gained possession of said property before or after her marriage.
The 1848 Legislature, in which Beaufort County was represented by Thomas Smaw in the Senate, and Edward Stanley and W. W. Hayman in the Lower House, corrected this. The new law provided a husband could not sell his wife's land without her full and free consent, and required that she also sign the deed for the land. This was the first law enacted in North Carolina to protect the rights of married women. It did not abrogate the old English common law which permitted a husband to chastise his wife, if in his opinion, not hers, her conduct was such as to deserve it.
Although it was not required by law, the practice of having the wife sign deeds for the sale of land had been practiced by the better element of Beaufort County for many years. Mary Bonner, wife of Colonel James Bonner, signed all the early deeds for the lots in Washington, though the land had belonged to her husband before their marriage. Before marrying Frances Clarke, widow of John Clarke of Bath Town, Robert West of Chowan made bond of “300 pounds Sterling money of Great Britain” to guarantee the estate left by Clarke would be kept intact until her two minor daughters were “eighteen years of age or married, whichever came first.”
As disclosed by their wills, most of the leading citizens of Beaufort County were more interested in providing for their widows than disposing of their wife's property. Almost invariably, the first provision of a planter's will was for the care of his widow during the remainder of her life.
Though still strong in Beaufort County, the Whigs were losing their grip on the government of North Carolina by 1853. In the former Whig stronghold of the Eighth Congressional District, Thomas Ruffin, the Democratic candidate, defeated Edward Stanley, the Whig incumbent. The Whig leaders of Beaufort County campaigned vigorously for Stanley, who carried the county. After his defeat, Stanley left Beaufort County, going to California. There he affiliated himself with the newly formed Republican party.
By 1860, with war clouds gathering over the Nation, the population of Beaufort County had reached 14,766, of whom 728 were “Free Colored,” and 5,878, or approximately forty per cent, slaves. The population of the town of Washington was 1,599. The percentage of slaves within the town was less than that of the county as a whole, but the percentage of free Negroes was greater.
The demand for slave labor in cotton and tobacco had increased the price of a good field hand to over a thousand dollars. The estimated average value of a slave was between five and six hundred dollars. Based upon this average, about $3 million of Beaufort County's wealth was invested in slaves. The value and productivity of the plantations of the county were also closely tied to a slave-holding economy.
Though disturbed by the election of Abraham Lincoln, the candidate of the new Republican party, North Carolina and Beaufort County remained strongly pro-Union. Secessionists in South Carolina and other Southern States decided the period between Lincoln's election and inauguration was the appropriate time to secede. The outgoing government would be reluctant to act, and the new government could not. South Carolina seceded from the Union in December, 1860, and was promptly followed by Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and the recently admitted new State of Texas.
North Carolina remained in the Union, and attempted reconciliation between the seceded States and the Union. This failed. When Lincoln called upon North Carolina for volunteers to help suppress the Southern revolt, a convention was
called to consider the question of secession. E. J. Warren and W. J. Ellison were elected to represent Beaufort County at this convention. Ellison died before the convention adjourned, and Richard Donnell was elected as his replacement. On 20 May, 1861, the convention voted in favor of secession and union with the Confederacy. Both of Beaufort County's delegates voted for secession.
CHAPTER XIIIRELIGION AND THE CHURCHES
ORGANIZED RELIGION MADE little headway in Beaufort County or in North Carolina during the Proprietary era. The Charter to the Lords Proprietors gave them full authority to grant “such indulgence * * * as the Proprietors shall, in their discretion, think fit,” to persons who could not, for conscience sake, conform to the liturgy and ceremonies of the Church of England.
For the first third of a century under Proprietary government, there was no effort made to establish the Church of England in the province, and little or no friction between the Church group and the dissenting sects. During the administration of the Quaker Proprietor and Governor, John Archdale (1694-1696), the Quakers grew in numbers and political strength. A Quaker leader, William Edmundson, is reputed to have held the first organized religious services in North Carolina. This was in 1672.
In 1699, Henderson Walker succeeded Thomas Harvey as President of the Council and Deputy Governor of “That part of the Province of Carolina that Lies North and East of the Cape Fear.” Walker, an ardent Anglican, was disturbed by the absence of a Church of England organization in the province, and more disturbed by the growing influence of the minority group of Quakers. In 1701, he prevailed upon the Assembly to enact the first Vestry Act of North Carolina. This act designated the Church of England as the established Church of the province, and granted it many concessions not granted the dissenting sects.
This act aroused indignation and protests among the Quakers and other dissenters. This act was disallowed by the Lords Proprietors. Under the guidance of the Landgrave Governor Robert Daniel, a second Vestry Act was passed in 1705. No copies of these acts are extant. They are believed to be quite similar to the Vestry Act of 1715, of which copies are available.
There is one difference: the 1715 Act, passed after the Cary Rebellion, provides for the Quaker affirmation, in lieu of an oath. As this point was the primary cause of the Cary Rebellion, it probably was not included in the first two acts. While the 1715 Act granted toleration of the dissenters, it did not give them equality with the Church of England.
A provision of this act was that marriages could only be performed by clergymen of the Church of England or justices of the peace. Opposition to this provision was prompt and active. Among the poorer classes, it was ignored. Men took unto themselves common law wives, or publicly acknowledged their marriage by the ancient custom of jumping over a broomstick. Ministers of the dissenting sects flatly disregarded it, and continued to perform marriage ceremonies for couples of their faith. This disregard led to the Act of 1766, which legalized all prior marriages by dissenting ministers.
St. Thomas Church in Bath Town is the oldest church in North Carolina extant. It was started in 1734, and completed at some time within the next decade. St. Thomas Parish was undoubtedly created by the first Vestry Act. Each volume of the Library sent over by Dr. Bray, and delivered in Bath Town in 1701, bore the gold inscription on its cover, “Belonging to ye Library of St. Thomas Parish in Pamplico.”
Though St. Thomas had a library and a Glebe of 300 acres of land “for the maintenance of a minister,” it had neither a minister nor a church building for nearly two decades after it was created. Services were held in the home of Christopher Gale, where sermons and prayers from those included in the library were read by lay readers. A few services were conducted by itinerant missionaries of the S. P. G.
St. Thomas acquired its first resident minister in the fall of 1719. The Rev. Ebenezer Taylor, an aging missionary of the S. P. G., came to Bath Town. His stay could not have been pleasant. He had no church, and no house in which to live. If he received from his vestry the treatment accorded his successors, he received little or no salary. In the winter of his first year at Bath Town, he “fell sick and Dyed” while traveling by
water from Bath Town to Core Sound. As nearly 300 pounds he was carrying on his person was missing, there were suspicions of “foule play.”
St. Thomas was without a resident minister for the next decade. In 1725 the vestry sought financial support from the S. P. G. for the Rev. Thomas Bailey. Fortunately for St. Thomas, the S. P. G. declined. Bailey turned out to be a drunkard and a disgrace to the ministry. He returned to Virginia, and was later forcibly returned to England.
The lack of qualified ministers was a continuing complaint of all Royal governors. Burrington protested, “there is not a settled Parson in the Country.” Tryon reported that “for lack of ministers, justices of the peace marry people and bury them,” and lamented that Governor Dobbs was “buried by a magistrate, since there was not a clergyman within a hundred miles.”
The Rev. James Garzia came to St. Thomas in 1733. He was promised much, but according to his reports, received little. The Glebe that was to provide his maintenance was not cleared, and had no house. A decade after his arrival, he protested his “small salary of £ 37;10s per annum” had not been paid in four years. Garzia blamed his troubles on “twelve vestrymen whose only endeavour is to hinder.” The real opposition probably stemmed from the fact Garzia was not an Englishman, and had very poor command of the English language.
St. Thomas Church was started in 1734, during Garzia's ministry. In that year the vestrymen wrote: “We are now building at our proper Cost a Small Church (being the only one in the whole province), but we fear our abilities will be far short of completing and adorning the same as becomes the temple of God.” Nearly three decades later, Alexander Stewart, who succeeded Garzia, wrote the Secretary of the S. P. G. “the Parishioners have not only finished their Church in the best manner they are able, but * * * .” Stewart, a detailed writer, who did not hesitate to mention his own achievements, did not report having had a hand in completing the church, therefore it seems reasonable to assume it was completed and in use when
he arrived. The parish possesses a pair of three-branch silver candelabra, said to have been presented by King George about 1740. It seems probable this was when the church was finished and consecrated.
The bell of St. Thomas was presented by Queen Anne, for whom it was named. It is eighteen years older than its more famous contemporary, the Liberty Bell. The old Church Bible was printed in London in 1704. The church also has a silver Chalice, presented to Garzia by the Bishop of London.
Lot 61 on the plan of Bath Town was designated as the lot for a church. St. Thomas Church was actually erected in the center of Craven Street, some fifty feet north of the designated place. If Garzia or Stewart knew of this, they failed to record the fact. More than a century later, the Commissioners of Bath Town sold the 60 feet of Craven Street from Church Street to Water Street, “on which the Church stands,” to the vestry of St. Thomas for twenty-five dollars.
Garzia was killed by a fall from his horse, while visiting the sick, in the fall of 1744. He left a wife and three children in dire distress. They were given some help by the S. P. G., but apparently none by his parish.
St. Thomas was without a resident minister for a decade after Garzia's death. The vestry petitioned the S. P. G. for a new minister, promising a salary of fifty pounds proclamation, a Glebe of 300 acres with a “dwelling house and Kitching in good repair,” and “twenty pounds Sterling Money” as a present when the new minister arrived. They failed to note the Glebe had not been cleared, nor the house and kitchen built.
The Rev. Alexander Stewart came to the Cape Fear in 1754, expecting to be the chaplain of Governor Dobbs. When he found that position filled, he accepted the ministry of St. Thomas. His salary was to be 100 pounds, half to be paid by the parish and half by the S. P. G. He soon discovered there was no house on the Glebe, and there is no record of him having received the “twenty pounds Sterling,” promised as a gift. Fortunately for Stewart, he had independent means.
A decade later Stewart wrote the S. P. G., explaining:
“upon the Vestry agreeing to build me a tolerable House, I obligated myself to clear and improve 25 acres, and to give £ 40 toward furnishing the home.” The Glebe House was completed, and on 6 November, 1763, Stewart wrote the Secretary of the S. P. G. from the “Glebe Near Bath, North Carolina * * * (where) I am now living in the 1st. Glebe House ever furnished in this Province.” Stewart lived in the Glebe House for two years, then purchased the plantation “Garrison,” on Durham Creek, which had been the home of his second wife.
Trinity Chapel at Chocowinity is the second oldest Episcopal Church in Beaufort County. This chapel was built by Giles Schute and John Harrington in 1773 under the auspices of the Rev. Nathaniel Blount. It was first called Blount's Chapel. Parson Blount, as he was known, was born in Beaufort County in 1748. He studied under Stewart at Bath Town, and later in England. He was ordained a priest in St. Paul's in London in 1773. He returned home immediately thereafter, for his life's work.
Trinity Chapel was built on the land of John B. O'Hagan, on the east side of the Chocowinity-Greenville road, just south of where Chapel Branch crosses the road. O'Hagan and his wife Rhoda gave this acre of land to Trinity Chapel in 1826, a half century after the chapel was built. In 1860, the Misses Apsley and Penelope Grist gave a tract of land on the opposite side of the road from the chapel, as a burying ground. This is the present Trinity Cemetery, where many of the early communicants of Trinity Chapel are buried. Because of its isolated condition, and difficulty in preventing vandalism, this chapel was moved to its present site in Chocowinity in 1939.
Though James Bonner and his wife Mary donated lot number 50 for a church and burying ground, no church was built in Washington for a number of years after the town was formed. When Parson Blount or other visiting ministers preached in Washington, they held their services in private homes, the schoolhouse on lot 21, or in the open. The first church built
on lot 50 was a “free” church, used by all denominations. This church faced on Main Street.
St. Peters in Washington is the third oldest Episcopal Church in Beaufort County. Motivated by Thomas Blount, eight men, James Ellison, Eli Hoyt, Thomas A. DeMille, J. W. Jackson, Abner Neal, James R. Buxton, James S. Blount, and Wm. R. Swift formed themselves into a congregation, and on 7 April, 1822, requested they be attached to the Protestant Episcopal Church.
The first St. Peters Church was built on lot 56, adjoining lot 50 to the east. The lot was purchased from Joseph Bonner, and the building faced Main Street. This church was completed and consecrated by Bishop John S. Ravenscroft on 30 January, 1824. This building survived the burning of Washington by the Union Army in April 1864, only to be destroyed on 9 May of the same year, when fire broke out in the old Lafayette Hotel. This fire destroyed most of the eastern end of the town, which had escaped the first fire. A tablet now marks the spot where the original church stood.
The present St. Peters Church was started in 1868, under the auspices of the Rev. N. Collin Hughes, and was completed in 1873. The Rev. Nathaniel Harding succeeded Dr. Hughes as Rector of St. Peters in September 1873, and served as Rector for forty-four years, until his death, 27 June, 1917.
Zion Chapel, on the Washington-Bath highway, is another of the older Episcopal Churches in Beaufort County. Zion was organized and admitted into the Diocese of North Carolina in 1825. Services were first held in the Old Zion Chapel (Beaver Dam Church), which at that time was used by all denominations. Old Zion Chapel was consecrated by Bishop Ravenscroft on 29 January, 1824. The names of the early communicants of Zion Chapel include those of Cutler, Harvey, Braddy, Tankard, Alligood, Willis, Pilly, Congleton, Williams, Ebon, Squires, Daniels, Sparrow, Colton, Gurganus, Baker, Hawkins, Joyner, Malone, and Fuller. Many of these names are still included among the communicants of present-day Zion.
In 1855, Henry S. Harvey gave the acre of land on which
the church now stands, to the vestry of Zion Parish. He also supervised the building of the chapel, which was consecrated by Bishop Thomas Atkinson on 14 November, 1856. A score of years after the Civil War, Harvey gave another acre of land to the vestry of Zion. This is the land on which the present Rectory stands.
St. John's Church, in the Bonnerton area, is another old and historic Episcopal Church in Beaufort County. The old St. John's Church was built on land donated by Thomas Ellison, about two and a half miles northeast of Bonnerton, and a half mile from Durham Creek. This church was consecrated by Bishop Ravenscroft on 26 April, 1826, though it had been used for services for nearly a year prior to that time.
Because of the inconvenience of the old site, a new church building was started in the Bonnerton community in 1897. This building was consecrated by Bishop Alfred A. Watson on 30 November, 1902. This building had been completed, and services held in it for nearly two years, by the Rev. F. B. Ticknor, before it was consecrated. After the new church was completed, the old church was demolished and burned, to prevent desecration. A few cedar trees and scattered tombstones is all that now marks the spot of the old church.
There have been Quakers and other religious dissenters in North Carolina since the beginning of the Proprietary government. After the first Vestry Act, these people became active in their resistance to acts in favor of the Anglican Church. They objected to paying a tax for the support of a church in which they did not worship. They resented the close relationship between the Anglican Church and the government, and the Church's control over education. They particularly resented the act prohibiting marriages by ministers of other faiths.
The Anglican Church was never popular with the majority of the population of North Carolina. Dr. Lefler says: “The forms and doctrines of the church, the ‘Anglican squat,’ the church's aristocratic outlook and apparent lack of interest in the common people, its lack of emphasis on preaching, and its lack of emotional appeal met with popular disfavor.”
Paradoxically, though Bath Town and Beaufort County had been the seat of the Cary Rebellion, Beaufort County was far less anti-Anglican than many of the other counties. Even so, there was sufficient strength among the dissenters to disturb Parson Stewart. In 1760, he wrote the Secretary of the S. P. G. “numerous sectuaries, of all denominations except Papists, having strollers (itinerant clergymen),” were making introads into his prospective congregation. He was particularly disturbed by the “antibaptists or dippers, there being so few qualified to give regular baptism.”
As some of his own flock seemed to prefer immersion, Stewart practiced this form of baptism to hold their loyalty to the Church. Again he wrote of visiting Currituck and Woodstock Chapels in Hyde County, where “to keep the people from falling off from our Church, I baptized a person (at Woodstock) by imersion, * * * it is conformable to our Rubric * * * others not mentioned by me have been baptized that way, * * * for of late this province is overrun with a people that at first called themselves antibaptists.”
Records indicate there were some Antibaptists or Baptists in North Carolina toward the end of the Seventeenth Century. They probably came to the Albemarle area from Virginia. When settlers began to filter down to the Pamlico, there were Baptists among them. The first organized Baptist congregation in North Carolina was the Chowan Baptist Church, near present Cisco, in Chowan County. This church was founded in 1727 by the Rev. Paul Palmer, the first recorded Baptist minister in the province. Palmer traveled extensively through eastern Carolina, holding services, preaching, and baptizing.
Probably the most active Baptist organization in early Eastern Carolina was the Kehukee Baptist Church in Halifax County. This church was organized by William Sojourner in 1742. The Kehukee Association was formed in 1769, from “churches which had been reformed to an orthodox standard,” and included at least one church in Beaufort County. By the time of the Revolution, the Kehukee Association included 61 churches and an estimated congregation of 5,000.
The earliest record of a Baptist Church in Beaufort County is 11 July, 1821. On that date Gray Judson, for $10.00, sold to “Jeremiah Mastin, Jonathan Havens, Thomas C. Mason, Henry C. Clark, and Jeremiah Leggett, * * * commissioners of the Baptist Society in the County of Beaufort * * * part of a lot in the old part of said town (Washington) known in the plan thereof by No. 51.” This was a 40 by 41 foot, rectangular section of Lot 51, which adjoined the “free church” lot. By agreement with the other congregations, who had erected their own churches, the “free church” building on lot 50 was moved to the new location. On 26 February, 1834, Elizabeth Fullerton sold to “a Committee appointed by the Regular Baptist Church in Washington, * * * the North East half of a lot in the old part of said town, known in the plan thereof by No. 22.” This lot was across Market Street from the present post-office parking lot. The “free church” building was again moved and reassembled on the new lot. This was the only church building in Washington to escape the two fires that followed the evacuation of the Union Army in April 1864. For some time after the Civil War, this congregation was so depleted they had no regular minister or services, and permitted the Presbyterian congregation to use their building. This building was remodeled in 1895, and rededicated the following year by the Rev. Dr. Carter of Raleigh.
There seems little doubt but that other Baptist churches or meeting houses were built in Beaufort County prior to the founding of the Washington church. Like Trinity Chapel, they were built on private property. In 1825, Ludowick Reddit of Beaufort County, gave to the Baptist Church on Blount's Creek, “one acre of Land where Blount's Creek Baptist Meeting House now stands.” In 1837, John Windley gave the Kehuka Baptist Church of the White Plain, “one acre of land including the White Plain Meeting House.” This was probably the church that was a member of the Kehukee Association many years before.
The first record of a Colored Baptist Church in Washington was in 1870, when Howard Winfield, Jr., sold to A. C. Latham
Adam Smith, Charles Myers, Wm. Spann, Robert Clark, and Radford Carter, trustees of the Baptist Church (Col.) “one half acre, more or less, and being in the town of Washington, on west side of Gladden Street.”
The Methodists were the last Protestant sect to appear in the Crown Colony of North Carolina. The first Methodist sermon of record was preached at Currituck Courthouse on 12 September, 1772, by the Rev. Joseph Pilmore. The first North Carolina circuit was organized in 1776. The first annual conference of the Methodist Church of North Carolina was held at Green Hills, near Louisburg, in 1785. Bishop Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke attended.
The Methodist Church, though a late comer to North Carolina, was the first religious body to form a permanent organization in Washington. Methodism was founded in Washington in 1784, by Bishop Asbury, in the home of Dempsey and Sarah Hinton. This home was located on the southeast corner of Market Street and Third. The first Methodist Church was built on this land, which came into the possession of Ralph Potts, and was known as Pott's Chapel. It was completed in 1803, and dedicated by Bishop Asbury. With the exception of the “free church” on lot 50, this was the first church built in the town of Washington.
Three years later, Ralph Potts, “for the love and esteem I beareth for the Worship of God,” gave this land to the church. The deed reads: “one fourth of a Lot (No. 29) * * * Beginning at Street at Barbara Keis’ corner (Third and Market) and running back (east on Third) one hundred and five feet (then) with back line fifty-two and a half feet, and thence to said Street (Market), where the Methodist Church doth now stand.”
This church served the Methodists for three decades. In 1831, plans were made for a new church. Local tradition credits Mrs. Sally Quinn with having donated “a lot on Second Street, near the A. C. L. Depot, upon which the present church stands.” The present church stands on lot 46 of Respess Town. The records in the Beaufort County Courthouse show that in
January 1832 John Tyler sold to the “Trustees of the Society or Congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Protestant Church in the United States of America,” a piece of land, Lot No. 46, “in that part of Washington known as Respess Town * * * (provided) they shall build or cause to be built thereon a house or place or worship for said congregation.” The selling price for this lot was $220.00. No record could be found in the courthouse confirming Mrs. Sally Quinn's donation. It is of course possible she donated the $220.00 that paid for the lot, which would not be shown in the deed.
The church built on this lot was destroyed by fire when the Union Army evacuated Washington. From 1864 to 1872, when the basement of a new church was completed, the Methodists worshiped in the old Masonic Lodge at the corner of Third and Bonner streets. The basement church was dedicated in 1872, by the Rev. Joseph Wheeler, Sr., a former pastor. The church proper was completed in 1878, and dedicated that year by the Rev. J. E. Mann, D.D. In 1898 the building was torn down and replaced by the present church.
Methodism abounded throughout Beaufort County as well as in the town of Washington. In 1804, James Williams and his wife Savannah, “for three pounds specie,” sold to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church an acre of land, “beginning where the road crosses the branch that comes out of the East side of Iron Mine branch, * * * (provided) they shall erect and build thereon a House or place of worship for the use of Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”
The first Methodist Church of record in Bath Town was built some time after January, 1826. At that time Nancy Cogdell, for the sum of $13.00, sold to the “Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America,” the back half (45 feet by 55 feet) of lot No. 39, provided they build thereon a place of worship for members of the Methodist Church. In 1841, William M. and Samuel B. Marsh gave the remainder of this lot to the church.
Among the Methodists we also have evidence of early churches in the county having been built on private property. In 1827,
Nellie Fleetwood and Wm. A. Orville gave “the Church on Core Point Road, near Yellow Bottom Branch,” the acre of ground on which it stood. William Gainer sold to the trustees of Mount Zion M. E. Church, on the Washington-Williamston Road, for $5.00, “the acre of land on which the Meeting House stands.” In 1859, Benjamin M. Selby, for $1.00, sold to the trustees of the Methodist Church, “one acre of land * * * near the forks of the Woodstock Road (to Bath) * * * where there now stands an old Church building.”
The harmony and spirit of cooperation that existed among the early Protestant churchmen of Beaufort County is evidenced by the fact the First Presbyterian Church of Washington was organized in the old Methodist “Pott's Chapel” at the corner of Third and Market streets. On 9 August, 1823, members of the Presbyterian faith met in this old Methodist chapel, and organized their own congregation. Wm. R. Swift, Abner Burbank, and Seth Thayer were elected as Ruling Elders. Swift and Burbank were appointed to appear before the Presbytery of Orange to present the application of the newly organized congregation for membership in the said Presbytery. The Washington congregation was received as a regularly organized church, at a meeting of the Orange Presbytery at Raleigh, on 4 November, 1824.
On 8 March, 1824, “a bell was sent around town,” notifying members of the congregation of a meeting to be held that day, in connection with the building of a church. At this meeting, a building committee was appointed consisting of Jonathan Havens, Thomas Trotter, Abner Burbank, Wm. R. Swift, and Thomas Telfair.
On 7 August, 1824, the cornerstone of the First Presbyterian Church of Washington was laid by the Rev. Lemuel D. Hatch of New Bern. The church was erected on the south half of lot number 30, in Respess Town, which belonged to Thomas Trotter. This church was completed in 1828. The Rev. James Weatherby was its first pastor.
In 1830, Trotter transferred this half lot to the building committee as “Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church * * * in lieu and payment of the two hundred dollars ($200.00)
which I have subscribed * * * towards defraying the expenses of erecting a church.” Three years later, Samuel R. Fowle, for $100.00, sold to the Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church “one half of a certain lot (No. 25) * * * it being the back half of said lot which is immediately in rear of the half lot on which the Presbyterian Church is erected.” The possession of these two half lots gave the Presbyterian Church a frontage of 106 feet on Gladden Street and a depth of 193 feet. The rear of their combined lot was used as a cemetery, which is still in existence.
This church was also destroyed by fire when the departing Union Army burned the town in 1864. After the war, as further evidence of the unity of the Protestant churches of Washington, this Presbyterian congregation, which was formed in a Methodist Church, worshiped in the old Baptist Church on Market Street until it was able to rebuild its own church.
The present First Presbyterian Church was started in May 1867, and completed some time prior to 24 February, 1871, when it was dedicated by the Rev. J. M. Sherwood, a former pastor. The building committee for this church was Thomas Sparrow, Howard Wiswall, Wm. A. Potts, and W. R. S. Burbank. This church was remodeled in the 1890's.
The Christian Church was the last of the larger churches to come to Beaufort County. In the earlier days it seemed to have found more favor in the rural sections. The first Christian Church of record in Beaufort County was organized in Pantego. In August, 1874, Major J. Whitley (Major was his Christian name, not a military title) and his wife, “for one cent in hand paid,” transferred to Pastor Angus Latham, Jr., “one half acre of land on the west bank of Pantego Creek, for the Christian Church of the White Disciples.”
The First Christian Church in Washington had its beginning in the Bible School, of which Walter Crumpler was the first superintendent. Crumpler was also one of the first elders of the new church. The First Church of Christ, or First Christian Church of Washington, was organized in his home in 1890. On 15 January, 1890, Daniel T. Swindell and his wife Emma,
sold the east half of lot 64, on the northwest corner of Second and Telfair streets, to the trustees of the Christian Church. In May of the same year the trustees acquired the front half of the western half of this lot, giving them a frontage of 105 feet on Second Street and 210 feet on Telfair Street.
The original First Christian Church of Washington, which stood on this lot on the corner of Second and Telfair streets, was begun in 1892, and completed and dedicated in 1893. This church served its congregation for about three decades. Its first pastor was the Rev. Dennis W. Davis. The present First Christian Church was started in 1921.
In 1882, James L. Winfield, an ordained minister of the Christian Church, and J. A. Burgess, moved the Watchtower, a publication of the Christian Church in eastern North Carolina, from New Bern to Washington.
Other Christian Churches built in Beaufort County before the turn of the century include the Disciple Church of North Creek. In September 1885, John Davis and his wife Clarissa, Caroline Burgess, and Mary Laughinghouse, “for $3.00 paid,” sold to Wm. I. Burbage, Geo. C. Respess, and O. F. Mason, trustees, “one acre of land in Bath Township, on the east side of St. Clair Creek and south side of main road from Bath to North Creek * * * ,” for the erection of a Christian Church.
In January 1887, Wm. Ross and Geo. W. Ross sold “for $1.00 an acre of land in Bath Township, on the north side of Woodstock road and south side of St. Clair Creek,” for the Christian Church of St. Clair Creek.
There were few Roman Catholics among the early settlers of Beaufort County or the town of Washington. In its first Constitution, North Carolina excluded Roman Catholics from holding public office. This did not encourage settlers of the Catholic faith to come to North Carolina. Writing from New Bern in 1760, the Rev. Mr. Reed of the Church of England said: “As for papists, I cannot learn there are above 9 or 10 in the whole County (Craven).”
The first recorded names of Roman Catholic settlers in Beaufort County were those of Dr. Dabsancourt, Leonard
Desseant, Peter Casso, Joseph Piquet, Walter Henrahan, and Lewis LeRoy. Casso and Piquet left the community, and the names of John Gallagher, William Gaston, and John Labarbe were added to the small group.
The first recorded visit of a Roman Catholic priest to Washington was in the year 1807. Father Michael Lacy of Norfolk visited Walter Henrahan, who was critically ill. On this visit Father Lacy celebrated Mass at the home of Lewis LeRoy. This visit is considered the beginning of the Roman Catholic mission in Beaufort County. Father Lacy returned in June of the following year. During this visit he celebrated Mass, administered Holy Communion, baptized thirteen children, “some of whom were six or seven years old.” On this occasion he preached in the courthouse, “and received some converts into the Church.” One of the converts was Helen LeRoy, 27-year-old wife of Lewis LeRoy, who had been a member of the Episcopal Church. Mrs. Helen LeRoy lived in Washington until past her seventy-seventh birthday, dying in 1858.
Until 1820, North Carolina was included in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baltimore, as were all the other colonies. On 12 July of that year, His Holiness Pope Pious VII, issued a bull creating the Diocese of Charleston. North Carolina was one of the States included in this Diocese. The Right Reverend John England, D.D., of the Diocese of Cork, in Ireland, was appointed the first Bishop of the new See.
Dr. England visited Washington first in June, 1821, and remained ten days. Each morning he said Mass in the courthouse, and each evening he preached there. In the absence of a clergyman, he appointed members of the congregation to read prayers and teach the children.
Dr. England visited Washington again in 1823. On this occasion Lewis LeRoy gave two lots on the southeast corner of Third and Van Norden streets to John Gallagher and William Gaston, wardens, for a Roman Catholic Church and a Catholic burying ground. Five years elapsed before the Church, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, was completed.
Bishop England returned to Washington in March 1829,
to bless and dedicate the new church and consecrate the cemetery. This was the first Roman Catholic Church built in North Carolina. It was destroyed by the fire started when the Union Army evacuated Washington in April 1864. From then until after the turn of the century, Catholic services held in Washington or Beaufort County were held in private homes, usually that of Dr. James M. Gallagher in Washington, and Mrs. F. H. Von Eberstein in Chocowinity.
CHAPTER XIVEDUCATION, SCHOOLS, AND THE PRESS
IN THE YEAR 1671, when North Carolina was still in swaddling bands, and none but the more venturesome trappers or traders had visited the area that was to become Beaufort County, the idea of education for the masses was unpopular with the ruling class. Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, and also one of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, said: “I thank God there are no free schools nor printing (in Carolina or Virginia), and I hope we shall not have these hundred years. * * * God keep us from both.” Later, Horace Mann wrote: “Every school boy and school girl who have arrived at the age of reflection, ought to know something about the history of the art of printing.”
Berkeley, mired deeply in the bog of aristocratic government, saw only danger in the education of the masses and in a free press. Mann, enlightened by the philosophy of freedom, saw in both the strength of the new nation. They agreed upon but one thing; the close relationship between education and a free press.
For the first three quarters of a century of her existence, North Carolina conformed to the philosophy of Berkeley. During these formative years there was neither a free school, as we now know it, nor a printing press in all North Carolina.
This does nor mean the early settlers of North Carolina did not appreciate the value of an education. The wills of the early settlers of Beaufort County are replete with provisions for the education of their children. Patrick Maule specified: “My children be carefully educated during their minority.” Lionel Reading sent his son Nathaniel to England to be educated. Edward Salter provided that his brigantine, the Happy Luke, and its cargo be sold in Boston. The money received was to be invested in young Negro slaves, who were to “be kept together on land left my son Edward * * * to support and educate my children.”
At a time when there was neither life insurance, government bonds, nor common stocks in which a man could invest his wealth for his children, land and slaves provided the safest investment. Joshua Porter provided his slaves were not to be sold or removed from his plantation, but “put to work under a good Overseer, until my sons and daughters are educated.” Wyriot Ormond wrote: “My principal desire is that of the education of my daughters, * * * and no expense be thought too great.” John Regney left property to Benjamin Slade with but one provision. Slade was to “cause my daughter to be teached to read the Bible distinctly, and put her in school.” In general, the children of the more prosperous planters and merchants were tutored at home, then sent abroad or to other colonies for their higher education.
The merchants and planters of early Beaufort County were not entirely lacking in interest for the education of children other than their own. On 15 December, 1722, Edward Moseley bought lots number 30 and 31 in Bath Town from John Porter, “with all houses, cellars, and appurtenances thereon.” Eight years later he presented them to St. Thomas Parish, “for the use of a public schoolmaster, or reader, or minister” appointed by the wardens and vestry of St. Thomas Parish. These lots adjoin lot 29, which is shown in a footnote on The Plan of Bath Town, copied in 1807 from a map made in 1766, as “Public School House Lott.” Further evidence of a public school in Bath Town during the first quarter of a century of its existence, is contained in a reference by John Woodward in 1734 to land he owned in Bath Town as “adjoining the school house.”
The Royal governors of North Carolina were more enlightened than Virginia's Berkeley. From Johnston to Tryon, each urged the Assembly to enact legislation providing for public education. Bills for the establishment of free schools were introduced into the Assembly in 1749 and again in 1752, but each was defeated.
This opposition to free schools was not based upon a lack of desire by the legislators for public education, but rather upon
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the type of education that would be provided. Under the existing laws, education was a function of the Anglican Church. Ministers, readers, and teachers of that Church were the only teachers approved by the law. Legislators who were members of other churches declined to tax members of their faith to provide funds for Anglican schools.
In 1754 this objection was finally overcome and an act was passed, “founding and endowing a Public School.” Six thousand pounds was appropriated for that purpose. The following year, upon the outbreak of the French and Indian War, this money was “borrowed and employed” for military purposes. There is no record of this money having been repaid, nor was a public school ever started under the Royal government.
Charles Griffin, a lay reader of the Anglican Church, is the first schoolteacher of record in North Carolina. He came to the Pasquotank area in 1705, and opened a school there. This was not a free school, but one for which the parents of the children paid for their education. According to the Rev. James Adams, a missionary of the S. P. G., Griffin “fell into the sin of fornication and joined the Quaker interests.” For one of these sins, probably the latter, Griffin lost his school, which was promptly taken over by Adams.
Orphans and illegitimate children of the poor were given some education and training through operation of the indenture servant and apprenticeship systems then in vogue. There were legal requirements that guardians, and those to whom minors were indentured or apprenticed, give their wards the “rudiments of learning and teach them a useful trade.” In 1707, Sarah Ming bound her son Nathaniel to Christopher Gale and his wife until Nathaniel was twenty-one years of age. The boy was eight at the time. Gale contracted to “learn sd apprentice to read and write and to understand the art of Navigation before the expiration of the limited time of his apprenticeship.”
There was also some interest in the education of the children of Negro and Indian slaves, as well as the children of Indians who remained in the area. Alexander Stewart, in addition to
his duties as Rector of St. Thomas Parish, was appointed Superintendent of Schools for Negroes and Indians in North Carolina. In 1763, he established a school near Lake Mattamuskeet, in Hyde County, for the Indians who lived on a reservation near there.
A school house was built on lot 21, in the town of Washington, many years before the courthouse was built there. When the seat of government for Beaufort County was moved from Bath Town to Washington, the justices of the peace were told to hold court in the school building pending erection of a courthouse. When the courthouse was started, the schoolhouse was moved to the center of Main Street, near present Harvey Street, which was then the eastern edge of town.
The North Carolina Constitution and Bill of Rights, adopted by the Provincial Congress which met at Halifax in November, 1776, provided “a school or schools shall be established by the Legislature for the convenient instructions of Youth * * * (and) one or more Universities.” No public schools were started under these provisions as later Assemblies interpreted the provisions of this act as authorizing the establishment of private schools or academies, not public schools to be financed by the State.
With the return of peace in 1783, there was a revival of interest in education throughout the new State. Between that time and the beginning of the Civil War, there were 321 academies erected in North Carolina. Six of these were in Beaufort County. The old Washington Academy, on the northwest corner of Second and Bridge streets, was the first of these, being incorporated in 1808.
The curricula of these academies emphasized the classics, mathematics, and formal English. Music, painting, and needlework, referred to as “ornamental subjects,” were also offered in the female department. Bookkeeping, natural philosophy, and astronomy were available to male students for an additional fee. The curricula of most of the academies were of high-school level, though some included subjects of junior college grade.
When first built, the old Washington Academy was at the extreme western edge of the town. Later, the first floor of the building was used to house the Ocean Wave volunteer fire company's engine. During the occupation of Washington by Union forces, the Academy building was used as a barracks for a company of Union artillery.
A Mr. Howard is recorded as the first teacher in the Washington Academy. He was followed by a Mr. Hitchcock. The Rev. Mr. Freeman, later Bishop Freeman, was among the early teachers, as were the Messrs, Hale, Bogart, Warren, Wiley, and Dr. Stokes. Leading citizens of the town were members of the Board of Directors of the Academy.
In 1816, Archibald D. Murphy of Hillsboro, made a report to the Legislature, stressing the deplorable state of education among the masses in North Carolina. This report, with Murphy's proposed system of grammar schools, academies, and improvements in the University is recognized as the base of North Carolina's present educational system. The Murphy plan proposed a system of public instruction from the primary grades through the University. For children of the poor, who were unable to pay, this education was to be made available without cost, even for food and clothing.
In 1852, Edward Laughinghouse, for “one dollar in hand paid,” gave the wardens and vestry of Trinity Chapel, in Chocowinity township, one and a half acres of land on the west side of the Chocowinity-Greenville road, and just north of present Trinity Cemetery and Chapel Branch, for the purpose of “building on same a good and suitable school house * * * for the benefit of the Congregation of said Trinity Chapel.” A one-room, frame schoolhouse, known as the “White School House” was built on this land. Miss Julia Harding of Chocowinity was one of the first teachers in this school. Before the Civil War, the Rev. Dr. N. C. Hughes used this building for his original “Trinity School.”
This old Trinity School, as later reorganized by the Rev. Dr. Nicholas Collin Hughes, was perhaps the best known private school in Beaufort County. Prior to the Civil War,
Dr. Hughes, then Rector of Trinity Chapel, and also serving several other missions in the neighborhood, founded the school. Prior to the war, he accepted a call to Pittsboro, and later to Hendersonville, where he remained until after the war.
About 1867, Dr. Hughes returned to Chocowinity as Rector of Trinity, St. Peters in Washington, and other missions in Beaufort and Pitt counties. Predominantly interested in education, Dr. Hughes again started a school. After his son, Nicholas Collin Hughes, Jr., completed his education, Dr. Hughes and his son reorganized the school and revived the old name of Trinity School.
Though coeducational, the male department of Trinity became a military school. Commandants of Trinity included Captain Kenneth Henry, father of Bishop George Henry of Western North Carolina, and Captains Shipp, Scott, and Blackford. Miss Betty Roberson, Miss Mattie Winfield, and Dr. W. S. “Billy” Bernard are numbered among Trinity's distinguished teachers.
Following the example of the school founder, a large number of Trinity graduates later became ministers. Among these were Hobart H. and Milton Barber, Francis and James Joyner, Thomas P. and A. C. D. Noe, W. F. Cox, Harry Harding, Isaac Hughes, I. Harding Hughes, John Hume, Lucian Malone, C. F. Smith, Joe Williams, Thomas Wingate, George Burgess, and George Frank Hill.
In addition to the Washington Academy, the educational facilities of Washington included Mrs. Dimmock's School for Girls and the Sans Souci Female Boarding School. In August of 1854, Mrs. Dimmock advertised in the North State Whig, Washington's weekly newspaper, that the third session of her school would commence on 1 October of that year. The term was for five months. Tuition rates for the term were: reading, writing, and arithmetic, $8.00; geography, grammar, and history, $10.00; natural philosophy and chemistry, $12.00; music (piano and guitar), $20.00. Sana Souci's rates were proportionately higher, as they included room and board.
The Constitutional Convention of 1835 paved the way for
a public school system in North Carolina. Two years later the Federal Government paid North Carolina approximately $1.5 million as the State's share of money received from the sale of public lands. This money, with another half million received by the State for the sale of State-owned swamp lands, was reserved as a “School Fund,” later called the “Literary Fund.” The proceeds from this fund were to be used for public education. Actually, the funds were used in the support of the State and quasi-State banks, which proved to be a poor investment. After many vicissitudes, and with the help of the Legislature, which replaced money lost in the support of the banks, this fund survived to aid in public education.
An act of the 1839 Legislature provided for the division of counties into public school districts. It was optional with each county whether or not they participated in the plan. A Board of County Superintendents established the school districts and appointed commissioners for each district. In those counties that participated in the plan, the court was authorized to levy a tax for the support of the program. The money raised by this tax was to be augmented with funds from the Literary Fund. Beaufort County was among the first to adopt the plan.
The first North Carolina public school to operate under this plan opened in 1740. Six years later every county in the State had one or more public schools, By 1850, more than one hundred thousand children were attending the 2,657 common schools of the State. At the beginning of the Civil War, the North Carolina school system was recognized as the best in the South.
During the first year of his administration, Governor Gabriel Johnston urged the Assembly to codify and print its laws. At that time, the Boston News Letter, the first regularly published newspaper in the United States, had been in publication for approximately three decades. Though Johnston continued this recommendation each year, a decade elapsed before the Assembly acted upon his recommendation.
In 1745, the Assembly appointed James Davis as North Carolina's first Public Printer. Davis established his press in
New Bern in June of that year. The first recorded publication in North Carolina was the 14-page Journal of the House of Burgess of the Province of North Carolina, printed by Davis at New Bern in the fall of 1749. Davis remained as North Carolina's Public Printer until 1782, when he retired and was succeeded by his son.
James Davis also published the first newspaper published in North Carolina. This was the weekly North Carolina Gazette. The oldest recorded copy of this paper is number 15, dated 15 November, 1751.
For the next half century the merchants and planters of Beaufort County were dependent upon New Bern, Raleigh, Hillsboro, and other towns for their newspapers, if and when they received one.
The first newspaper of record to be published in Beaufort County, was the Washington Gazette and Weekly Advertiser, a weekly paper published and edited in December, 1806, by Thomas Alderson. This paper was published for about two years. It was followed by the American Recorder, also a weekly, which was published from 21 April, 1815, until some time after 1820. It was published and edited first by I. M'Williams, and later by John M'Williams. In 1828 the Freeman's Echo and the Washington Herald were each published for a short while.
In September 1834, The Whig, edited by Henry D. Machen and published by Machen and a Mr. Price, was published in Washington. This was a weekly, carrying at its masthead the slogan: “Defiance to all Tyranny is Obediance to God.” The oldest copy of this paper apparently still of record, is dated 1 August, 1835. This copy is No. 52 of Vol. 1, which indicates the paper had been published for a year at that time. At some time prior to 1838, Machen purchased Price's interest, and changed the name to the Washington Whig. The following year he again changed the name to Washington Whig and Republican Gazette.
Henry Dimock acquired control of this paper in 1842. He continued to publish it under the same name until April of
the following year. At that time the name was changed to North State Whig. Dimock continued to edit and publish the North State Whig until some time after October, 1854.
Other newspapers published in Washington between 1834 and the beginning of the Civil War included the Statesman and Third Congressional District Advertiser (1834), edited and published by Joseph B. Hinton; the Republican, (1839), by George Houston; Rough and Ready (1848), by Charles H. Mastin, obviously a supporter of Andrew Jackson; and the Washington Dispatch (1857). The publication of local newspapers in Washington ceased when the Union Army occupied the town.
But Washington was not to be without a newspaper, however biased, during the occupation. During this period the New Era, edited by Lieutenant James H. Turner, was published. Later, this paper was followed by the Union Advance Picket.
The first newspaper to be published in Washington after the Civil War was the North Carolina Conservative, published in August, 1867. This was followed by the Echo, which was probably published about 1868.
In 1869 the Eastern Intelligencer began publication, proclaiming from its masthead: “Devoted to the Liberty, Educational, Commercial & Agricultural Interests of Eastern Carolina.” Samuel T. Wright was the publisher and John S. Long editor.
In 1877, C. M. Brown established the North State Press in Washington. Five years later the Press was sold to John H. Small, and its name changed to Washington Gazette. Heba A. Latham, who later became editor of the Asheville Gazette, became its editor. The Gazette was a weekly paper of four 8-column pages. It boasted a circulation of 1,400, which included residents of Beaufort, Hyde, Martin, Craven, Pitt, and Pamlico counties.
In 1882, J. L. Winfield and J. A. Burgess moved the Watchtower, a publication of the Christian Church in Eastern Carolina, from New Bern to Washington. Two years later, Winfield and Burgess bought the Gazette from Small. At that time J. A.
Arthur replaced Latham as editor. Arthur steered the course of the Gazette for about a dozen years, during which time it became Washington's first daily paper.
In 1894, Arthur severed relations with the Gazette, and began publishing his own paper, which he called the Evening Messenger. This was also a daily, whose name was later changed to Washington Messenger. After the turn of the century, the Gazette and Messenger were combined under the name of Gazette-Messenger, with Arthur as editor.
In 1886, W. K. Jacobson, both as editor and publisher, began publication of the Washington Progress. This paper began as a weekly, and about 1895 became a daily. Other editors who served through the more than half century of the Progress’ life included M. F. McEvoy, W. C. Waters, Fred Pendleton, and F. T. Phillips.
Washington's present newspaper, The Daily News, did not begin publication until after the turn of the century.
CHAPTER XVTRANSPORTATION, COMMERCE, AND INDUSTRY
TRANSPORTATION—For the early settlers of Beaufort County, water transportation was, for all practical purposes, their only means of travel. For this reason primarily, they settled along the Pamlico and its tributaries. The narrow inlets to the sound and the shifting, shallow channels of the sound and river limited passage to sloops, schooners, brigantines, and brigs of 150 gross tons, and a draft of six to eight feet.
The one-masted sloop, with fore and aft rig, was probably the most used vessel on the Pamlico. The first vessel of record to be built on the Pamlico was in this class. The two-masted fore and aft rigged schooners were faster sailers than the sloop, and carried larger cargoes. Brigantines were two-masted vessels, square rigged fore and aft, and brigs were a combination of the schooner and brigantine, being two-masted, with the forward mast square rigged and the aft mast schooner rigged.
Canoes, periaguas or piraguas, and flat bottom scows were required for navigation of many of the wide but shallow creeks that flow into the Pamlico, and for the deep but narrow Tar River. Canoes were usually made of hollowed cypress logs. Few trees of this dimension now remain in Beaufort County. The nearest exhibit of such trees as were used for this purpose may still be seen on the Collins Plantation in Pettigrew State Park, on Phelps Lake. Periaguas were wide-bottom canoes, usually made by splitting a canoe and adding a plank bottom of the desired width. Both the canoe and the periaguas could be paddled or sailed. When the cargo was heavy and the wind not right, the latter could be poled to its destination. The flat-bottom scows were the heavy cargo carriers of the Tar River and shallow creeks. Slaves were used to pole them.
The shifting channels of the sound and the poor marking of the channel of the Pamlico River were matters of great concern to the early Assemblies. Commenting on the “Badness of the channel leading to Bath, the insufficiency and Negligence of
the Pilots, and want of staking out said channel,” the Assembly appointed a commission for the Port of Bath. The commission, consisting of “the Honorable Robert Palmer, Esq., Thomas Respess, Wyriot Ormond, and Peter Blinn, Esqrs.,” were to take the necessary steps to clear and stake the channel and facilitate navigation. Other commissions were appointed and acts passed for the improvement of navigation on the Pamlico, but little was actually done during the first century the area was settled.
Shipping on the Pamlico increased greatly after Washington became a port. During the Revolution, with Savannah, Charles Town, and Wilmington under British control, and the Chesapeake blockaded by the British, Washington and the Pamlico became one of the principal sources of supply for the Continental Army. The former hazards of Pamlico Sound became a blessing in disguise. Fast sailing, light-draft schooners and brigs slipped through the narrow inlets almost unmolested by the heavy draft British men-of-war. They carried supplies to New England, and traded with the non-British West Indies. The schooner W. S. Wedmore, owned by Captain William Shaw, ventured as far south as the Windward Islands.
Thomas and John Gray Blount established warehouses on Shell Castle Island, off Ocracoke. From that point their brig Tully and other heavier draft vessels discharged their cargoes from Europe and took on naval stores, beef, pork, cotton, and corn for their return trip. A dozen or more brigs and schooners could be seen tied up to the wharves at Washington, or lying at anchor in the channel, taking on supplies from upriver plantations or discharging supplies for the Continental Army.
Steamers came to Washington in 1847. Clouds of black smoke, billowing from tall stacks, replaced the white sails on the Pamlico. The forests that had provided the masts for the sails now provided fuel for this new source of power. Regular lines were soon established plying between Washington, other eastern Carolina ports, and as far north as Norfolk and Baltimore.
In 1849, John Myers & Sons, one of Washington's leading
mercantile firms, built the steamer Amidas for river traffic between Washington, Greenville, and Tarboro. The Amidas proved such a profitable venture that it was followed by the Governor Morehead. Porte Crayon (D. H. Strother) traveled from Washington to Greenville as a passanger on the Morehead. In his Old South Illustrated, Strother describes the Morehead as “a small boat, of rather queer build, which navigates the Tar River to Greenville.” He did not find it of sufficient interest to sketch, so no picture of this historic little craft remains. When the Union Army occupied Washington during the Civil War, rather than have the Morehead fall into Union hands, it was taken to Tarboro and burned.
Other Myers steamboats that made Washington their home port included the Cotton Plant, Edgecombe, Beaufort and Tar River. The Edgecombe was still in operation in 1878. When her boiler gave out, her owners, Captain A. W. Styron and Lawrence Clark, bought a used locomotive boiler from the Jamesville and Washington Railroad as a replacement.
By the middle of the Nineteenth Century, Washington was handling more than half of the water borne commerce of the State. Toward the end of the century, the steamer Sophie Wood, Captain Bob Griffin, Master, plied regularly between Washington and Bath. The Old Dominion Steamship Line ran regularly scheduled steamers between Washington and Ocracoke. The old Pamlico Hotel, since destroyed by fire, was a popular summer vacation spot for residents of Washington and other towns of Eastern Carolina. The Clyde Line ran regularly scheduled ships between Washington and Norfolk, and maintained daily service between Washington and Elizabeth City, New Bern, Greenville, and Tarboro, and other inland ports.
Overland travel was always a serious problem for the early settlers. Forests, swamps, wide creeks, and broad, deep rivers made such travel slow and difficult, if not impossible. During the early days of Bath Town's existence, a traveler from the north had to cross Albemarle Sound by canoe or periaguas, make his way up the Roanoke River, then Welch Creek to near the vicinity of the present village of Hinson, a few miles
south of Plymouth. From that point he left his canoe and followed an old Indian trail that led south. The trail followed the creek to its source, then followed approximately the course of present N. C. 32 to the vicinity of the present village of Acre. From there it ran almost due south to Bath Town.
The first road built from the Albemarle to the Pamlico began at Bull's (Mackey's) Ferry, bore southwest to about the present site of Plymouth, then south along Welch Creek to the old Indian trail, which it followed to Bath Town. This road entered Bath Town at the north end of King Street. It was not much improvement over the Indian trail. These early roads were of necessity built by the people they were to serve. The small number of people available to build and maintain this road, limited its construction. Construction consisted of cutting out the trees and brush wide enough for a cart or coach to pass through. This permitted the sun to help keep the road reasonably dry. Maintenance consisted of cutting back new growth each summer, and filling up the worst chuck holes. In bad weather the road was next to impassable, except for a man on horseback.
One of Governor William Reed's most notable contributions to the welfare of Beaufort and Craven precincts, was the construction of a road from Core Point to New Bern. Reed's Assembly, meeting in Edenton on 2 October, 1722, approved this road. Every male tithable living south of the Pamlico River was required to either work on this road, or provide a suitable substitute. This provision permitted planters and merchants to send slaves or hire substitutes for the arduous task. Construction and maintenance of county roads was then, in part, a responsibility of the officers of the county militia. Major Robert Turner, Captain Richard Graves, Captain William Hancock, all officers of the militia, and Mr. John Tripp were appointed by the Assembly as commissioners to lay out and construct this road. Tripp was appointed “Overseer of the People” who worked on the road.
A ferry operated between Bath Town and Core Point. This carried the traveler and his horse across the Pamlico for a
fee of ten shillings. A tavern “near the waterside” provided a night's lodging, and permitted the traveler to get an early start for New Bern the next morning. From Core point the road ran south, then west, crossing Nevil Creek about two miles above its mouth. From there it angled south and west to the Slade plantation on the east bank of Blount's Creek. From Slade's the road continued south and west, avoiding the source of Bear (Bay) River, to Graves’ Ferry on the Neuse. This ferry was a short distance above where Swift Creek flows into the Neuse, and about four miles upstream from present Bridgeton. This road is shown on the Edward Moseley Map, prepared in 1733 for Governor Gabriel Johnston. It is probably the oldest road map of North Carolina extant. This old and interesting map also shows the location of the homes and plantations of many of the early settlers of the Pamlico region.
As the population of Beaufort County increased, spreading away from the Pamlico and its larger tributaries, the necessity for passable roads increased. Road commissioners were appointed from among the leading citizens of each locality to supervise the construction and maintenance of these roads. In April of 1745, while Pitt County was still a part of Beaufort, the Assembly divided Beaufort County into seven road districts, and appointed commissioners for each:
“1) Roads from Broad (Lower) Creek, below Bay River, to the Main Road, including each side of said (Bay) river, on the south side of the Pamlico River. Commissioners; Mr. James Thomas, Mr. William Phipps, and Mr. Josiah Jones.
“2) Roads from Goose Creek to Durham's Creek to the Boundary Line of Craven County. Commissioners; Mr. Abraham Prichard, Mr. John Tripp, and Mr. John Bond.
“3) Roads from Durham's Creek to Chocowinity and the Boundary Line of Craven County. Commissioners; Benjamin Peyton, Thomas Williams, Reading Blount, William Peyton, and William Dunbar.
“4) Road from Chocowinity to the Line of the County. Commissioners; Edward Salter, Thomas Tyson, and John Hardy.
“5) Roads from Hyde County, bounding on Price's Creek, to Bath Town. Commissioners; James Adams, Daniel Blenn, George Nixon, and James Brown.
“6) From Bath Town to Flat Swamp, bounding on Tyrrell County; also from Bath Town to Tranter's Bridge. Commissioners; John Barrow, Wm. Martin, Robert Boyd, Samuel Boatwell, and Simon Jones.
“7) Tranter's Creek to Edgecombe County. Commissioners; Seth Pilkington, George Moy, Sr., Wm. Mace, John Burney, and James Barrow.”
The designation of commissioners for a certain stretch of road provides an excellent lead to the general location of the plantations of the commissioners. In the first district, James Thomas lived in what is now Pamlico County. Phipps lived near present Bayboro, and Josiah Jones near present Vandemere. John Tripp lived on the east side of Durham's Creek, in the vicinity of present Bonnerton. John Bond lived on the east side of South Dividing Creek.
In April 1783, the Assembly initiated a bill to “encourage John and James Bonner, Jr., of Beaufort County, to make a road through the great swamp and marsh” on the south side of the Pamlico River. This road extended from a point opposite the town of Washington to Chocowinity.
The road the Bonners constructed was typical of the corduroy roads used by early roadbuilders of the province to pass through swamps or marshy areas. Logs were laid transversely across the road to form a firm base. Sand was packed into the space between the logs to give a smooth surface. The road was reasonably good during dry weather. When it rained, the sand washed out from between the logs, giving the effect of driving over a huge washboard.
The following year the Washington Toll Bridge Company built a privately-owned toll bridge across the Pamlico, connecting Bridge Street with the Bonner Road. The records do not show the owners of the stock of this company, but it seems reasonable to assume the Bonner brothers were among them. The toll on this bridge was $1.00 for a vehicle and driver.
A half century later it became necessary to repair and partially rebuild this bridge, probably because of damage by a hurricane. At that time James Avent of Washington, Bryan Grimes of Pitt County, and James Grist were the principal owners of the bridge company. To pay his share of the cost of rebuilding, Avent borrowed $1,000.00 from Bryan Grimes, posting his 239 shares of bridge stock as security. At the beginning of the Civil War, Grimes and Grist were the sole owners. When the Union Army evacuated Washington in 1864, the bridge was partially destroyed by fire. After the war the bridge was rebuilt, and Grimes and his wife Charlotte became the sole owners. In 1879 they sold the bridge to the Commissioners of Beaufort County. The Grimeses received $5,000 in county bonds for the bridge, and a guarantee that thereafter it would be a free bridge.
The Jamesville and Washington Railroad, facetiously known as the “Jolt and Wiggle,” was the first railroad to enter Washington. This company began buying rights-of-way in 1877, and completed their line about 1885. The following year it built its depot on the “fronts” of lots 61 and 56 of Van Norden Town. This was on the southeast corner of Washington and Main streets. These lots were purchased from James L. and Caroline Fowle for $850. The line ran between Washington, on the Pamlico, and Jamesville, on the Roanoke, a distance of about twenty miles. The “Jolt and Wiggle” made one round trip each day.
In 1892 the Atlantic Coast Line ran a spur from its main line at Parmele to Washington. This line operated two trains daily. The Norfolk and Southern and Washington and Vandemere did not come to Washington until after the turn of the Twentieth Century.
COMMERCE:—When writing of the early commerce on the Pamlico, John Lawson said: “For trade we lie so near Virginia that we have the Advantage of their Convoys * * * the great Number of Ships which come within those Capes, for Virginia and Maryland, take off our Provisions and give us Bills of Exchange for England, which is Sterling Money.
The Planters in Virginia and Maryland are forced to do the same, the great Quantities of Tobacco that are planted there making Provisions scarse; and Tobacco is a Commodity often times so low as to bring nothing, whereas Provisions and Naval Stores never fail for a Market.”
The initial wealth of Beaufort County was in its vast forests. Before the Revolution, naval stores, with masts and spars for ships, were the principal “money crop” of the county. Corn, beef, wheat, pork, cotton, and hides were the principal products of the plantations. After the Revolution the forest remained the principal source of wealth, but emphasis shifted to lumber, shingles, and barrel heads and staves. Tobacco and rice increased in importance as a product of the plantations.
The ownership of land and slaves was an indication of a man's wealth, and usually his social, as well as economic position. The first United States Census, taken in 1790, gave the total population of Beaufort County as 5,462. Of these, 1,632 were slaves. Over half of the taxpayers of the county owned two hundred or more acres of land. The percentage of those owning one thousand acres or more was 8.4. The county's largest land-owner had more than twenty thousand acres.
Only 287 of the free whites of the county owned one or more slaves. Ten wealthy men owned twenty-five per cent of the total number of slaves in the county. Thomas Respess owned 76; John Gray Blount 74; James Bonner, Sr., 51; William Armstead 33; John Anthony 32; John Kennedy 30; Alley Ellison 30; Frederic Grist 29; John Burns 29; and Cader Barnes 26.
Among the older and larger of the post-Revolutionary mercantile firms of Washington were Thomas and John Gray Blount, S. R. Fowle & Son, William H. Willard, and John Myers & Son. Each of these firms maintained their own fleet of schooners, brigs, and barges. Their trade extended from New England to the West Indies, with their larger vessels venturing to Europe.
The Blounts began operation in Washington practically with the founding of the town. In addition to his merchandising and political activities, John Gray Blount became one of the
Chart No. 4
SECTION OF MOSELEY MAP OF EASTERN CAROLINA, 1733
From “North Carolina Roads and their Builders” by Capus Waynick—
Edwards & Broughton Co., Raleigh.
larger, if not largest landowner and speculator in the State. One grant, made to him in 1796, included practically all of western North Carolina from the crest of the Blue Ridge to the valley of the French Broad River, and north of the Swannanoa River. He later acquired other holdings south of the Swannanoa and west of the French Broad. His inability to dispose of this vast area resulted in probably the largest tax sale of land ever held in North Carolina. In 1798, Sheriff James Hughey of Buncombe County, which then included all of western North Carolina west of the Blue Ridge, sold one million and seventy-four thousand (1,074,000) acres of Blount's land for taxes.
The firm of S. R. Fowle & Son was established about 1812, by the brothers Josiah and Luke Fowle. They were later joined by their younger brother, Samuel R. Fowle. After the death of the older brothers, the firm took the name of S. R. Fowle & Son.
William H. Willard and John Myers & Son both operated large fleets and conducted both a wholesale and retail mercantile business. Willard also became one of the founders of both the Bank of Washington and the Pamlico Bank.
E. S. Hoyt sold hardware, general merchandise, and was the local agent for the famous Kentucky wagon and the John Deere farm equipment. George A. Phillips and William Shaw were general merchants. Their stock covered many and various items, from naval stores to clothing, hats, and shoes. Seth Bridgeman, who came to Washington shortly after the Civil War, advertised as a “Dealer in Willow Ware and Cordage, Family Groceries, Drygoods, Hats, Caps, Boots, Shoes, and Notions.”
Then, as now, advertisements in the local paper were used to notify customers throughout the neighboring counties of the arrival of new stock. One merchant advertised: “Received by Schooner John Myers, a splendid assortment of new and fashionable Spring Goods and Various Fine and Rich Goods.” Another stated: “This day opened 16 cases of beautiful Silk and Beaver Hats.”
Other merchants of Washington specialized. D. N. Bogart
operated an Apothecary Shop; E. Peterson a wholesale and retail fish market, which shipped its produce as far north as New York. J. N. Bell operated a jewelry store. John B. Sparrow confined his merchandise to groceries. M. S. Moore made fine boots and shoes; and Gallagher's Apothecary became a Drug Store.
INDUSTRY:—Beaufort County's oldest and basic industry was the preparation of naval stores. The crude but effective steps of this procedure have been well described.
“During the winter, deep notches are chopped in the base of the trees, a few inches above the ground. Above this, the bark is removed from the tree for two or three feet, and the tree scarified. About the middle of March, resinous sap begins to flow from the scarified surface. This resinous substance, or brute turpentine, runs into the notches, or boxes, as they are called, at the base of the tree. Each box holds from a quart to a half gallon of resin. This resin is spooned out and put into a barrel. This resin commands the highest price on the market. The resin which solidifies on the scarified surface, is scraped off into a hod, and brings an inferior price.
“Each year the scarifying process goes two or three feet higher on the tree trunk, until it reaches about twelve or fifteen feet. The process is then repeated on the other side of the tree. The average yield of resin is about twenty-five barrels per tree. One man can tend, or dip, about ten thousand boxes. The barrels are transported to market on a drag or cart, that carries two barrels. This results in the barrels being placed in pairs throughout the forest.
“When the trees die, they are felled and cut into small sticks, and burned for tar. Dead trees are preferred for this purpose. When life ceases in the tree, the resin concentrates in the center of the tree. Tar kilns consisted of a small, circular mound of earth, sloping in to a cavity in the center, with a conduit leading to a circular trench which surrounds the mound. The split sticks were piled on this mound to a height of ten or twelve feet, and covered with earth. Fire was applied through
an opening in the top. This burned with a slow, smoldering heat, charring the wood and causing the tar to flow into the cavity, through the conduit, and into the ditch, where it was spooned out and barreled.”
With the exception of the naval stores industry, the first recorded industry in this essentially agricultural county, was the horse-power grist-mill established in Bath Town by John Lawson, Christopher Gale, and Dr. Lewellen, and Thomas Harding's shipyard. Both the operation of water-powered grist mills and the building of ships increased as the county increased in population.
On 1 March, 1730, a mining company was formed in Bath Town. John Woodard, a planter; William Brickel, a “physitian”; and Edward Broughton, an attorney, all of Bath Town, formed a partnership. Their purpose was “to discover and improve certain mines already discovered, or which hereafter may be discovered.” Each partner was to bear an equal share of the expense of “smelting, fluxing, or refining said mined minerals or metals,” and would share equally in the profits.
The distillation of rum and whiskey on the plantation, for home consumption, was common practice among the planters. Every plantation had its own vineyard, and made its own wine. In 1787, a plant for distilling rum on a wholesale basis was established in Washington. It is also alleged that many small farmers found it easier and more profitable to sell their corn by the gallon, rather than by the bushel.
During and after the Revolution, lumbering replaced naval stores as the county's principal industry. At one time there were more than two score sawmills operating throughout the county. Tannyhill and Lavender erected the first steam saw and planing mill in Washington. It was located on the waterfront, at the south end of Harvey Street. This mill was later sold to Benjamin F. Hanks. Hanks operated eight or ten lumber barges which made regular trips between Washington and Norfolk and Baltimore.
C. W. Kugler came to Washington from New Jersey about
1880. He operated a steam sawmill and planing mill in Washington, and another on Smith's Creek. W. N. Archbell also operated a large sawmill and planing mill in Washington.
Shipbuilding was one of Beaufort County's oldest and most important industries. Thomas Harding of Bath Town was the first shipbuilder of record in Beaufort County. William Powell, a contemporary of Harding's, who also lived in Bath Town, was also a shipbuilder. William Farrow and Abner Neal operated two of Washington's shipyards or ways. Hull Anderson, a free Negro, was a successful shipbuilder in Washington during the second quarter of the Nineteenth Century.
At some time prior to 1826, Hull Anderson was manumitted, either by purchase or gift, by John Anderson and his wife Sally, of Beaufort County. Hull Anderson then came to Washington and was employed in a local shipyard. In 1826, Hull Anderson bought lot number 23, in Respess Town, and apparently built his home there. In September of the same year he bought from Joseph B. Hinton, “a Negro woman named Esther, formerly the property of the late Mrs. Sally Anderson.” The following year he bought another Negro woman named Chaney, from Miss Ann Grimes. It seems probable one of these Negro women was the wife of Hull Anderson and the other his daughter.
In 1830, Bryan Grimes sold lot number 36, in Van Norden Town, to Hull Anderson. Anderson established his own shipyard on the waterfront of this lot. Lot 36, on the north side of Main Street, in Van Norden Town, is the site of the home of Justice Wm. B. Rodman, Jr. The front, on the south side of the street, was a vacant lot.
Hull Anderson apparently prospered during his stay in Washington. He disposed of his holdings in 1841, after the franchise had been taken away from the free Negro. They included at least a dozen lots in the town of Washington, in addition to the lot on which his shipyard was located.
Other Nineteenth Century industries of Beaufort County included a plant for the manufacture of buggies and wagons. This was started in 1856 by Edward Long. It had an output
of about sixty vehicles per year. The Washington Rice Mill, with a capacity of 750 bushels of rice per day, was operated by Norman Giles & Co. This was one of three rice mills in North Carolina.
The first banks chartered in North Carolina were the Cape Fear Bank and the Bank of New Bern. Both were quasi-State banks, enjoying the support of State funds. Records indicate the Bank of New Bern was making loans and taking mortgages in Beaufort County as early as 1809. The Cape Fear Bank opened a branch in Washington about 1839 or 1840. An early plan of Washington shows the location of this branch bank on the north side of Main Street, between Union Alley and Market Street, straddling the line between lots number 3 and 8 of Bonner's “Old Part.”
On 22 January, 1851, an act of the North Carolina General Assembly was ratified to incorporate the Bank of Washington, to be located in Washington, N. C., with a branch authorized for Greenville. Authorized capital stock was not to exceed $400,000, to be raised through the sale of stock at $100.00 per share, par value. The founders of the Bank of Washington were Jas. E. Hoyt, Frederic Grist, Benj. F. Hanks, Jacob Van Derveer, E. J. Warren, Isaiah Respess, R. S. Donnell, Allen Grist, S. P. Allen, George Houston, George H. Brown, H. A. Ellison, and Wm. H. Willard. The Greenville branch was to be under the “superintendence” of Thomas Hanrahan, Charles Green, Gould Hoyt, Edward H. Goelet, and Wm. K. Delaney.
Three years later, on 10 May, 1854, the Bank of Washington bought one third of lot number 19, Respess Town, from Mrs. Nancy G. Neale, widow of A. P. Neale of Washington. This one-third lot contained a brick office building, built by Neale. Two weeks later, a notice appeared in the Raleigh News and Observer. This notice, to “Architects and Contractors,” announced: “The Directors of the Bank of Washington wish to contract for the erection of a banking house, in the town of Washington, * * * . The house to be twenty-five feet front by fifty feet deep, and of proportionate height. The front gable to extend so
as to form a Portico supported by four columns. Walls of Brick, stuccoed to resemble stone, with fire proof roof &c.” The building erected as a result of this ad is still in use as a branch of the Bank of Washington.
On 1 March, 1855, Senate Document No. 18 of the 1854-1855 Assembly authorized establishing the Pamlico Bank, to be located in Washington, N. C. The founders of this bank were Howard Wiswell, Benj. F. Selby, Wm. Farrow, James L. Fowle, Sylvester T. Brown, Wm. Shaw, Jr., J. B. Lucas, Jas. G. Bryan, Wm. E. DeMill, Benj. F. Hanks, Wm. H. Willard, R. S. Donnell, and E. J. Warren. The last four were also among the founders of the Bank of Washington. The capital stock of the Pamlico Bank was also limited to $400,000, in $100.00 shares.
The Beaufort County Bank was not established until after the end of the Civil War. Charles M. Brown took the initiative in the establishment of this bank, which was located on Main Street, about where the Turnage Theater now stands. The law offices of Charles F. Warren were in this building, as were the offices of Baugham and Bragaw, predecessors of the present firm of Wm. Bragaw & Co. The Beaufort County Bank later became the First National Bank of Washington.
CHAPTER XVIWAR FOR SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE
THE BITTER PARTISAN DEBATES of the late 1850's leave the impression that slavery was the primary cause of the War Between the States. This was not the case. State's rights, and the survival of the sectional economies of the North and South, were the real causes. Slavery was the torch with which orators blinded the reason of their listeners to the real issues, and demagogic writers inflamed the emotions of the less stable.
More than a half century after the Civil War, an illiterate, though intelligent old woman, living in the back woods of Beaufort County, stated the situation as succinctly as one could. When asked what part her father took in the war, she replied: “Pa took his gun and went at the first call. It took him ni’ on to two year to find out it was a rich man's war and a po’ man's fight. Then he quit and laid out till the war was over.”
Before President Lincoln's call for volunteers to suppress the secessionists, Beaufort County was predominantly pro-Union. When called upon to furnish troops to fight their neighbors of the South, North Carolina and Beaufort County refused, and became bulwarks of the Confederacy. When Governor Ellis called for 20,000 volunteers, Beaufort County gave unsparingly of its young manhood. Though one of the less populous of North Carolina's sixty-five counties, Beaufort provided eleven companies between April 1861 and January 1862.
Five of these companies were artillery units. They included the Washington Grays, Kennedy's Artillery, the McMillan Artillery, Rodman's Battery, and Whitehurst's Battery. Five others were infantry; the Jeff Davis Rifles, Southern Guards, Pamlico Rifles, Confederate Guards, and Beaufort Ploughboys. One company, the Star Boys, was a cavalry unit.
The Washington Grays was organized in April, 1861. The lawyer, Thomas Sparrow, who had returned from Illinois,
was appointed Captain. Wm. Shaw, Jr., was First Lieutenant; J. J. Whitehurst, Second Lieutenant; and A. J. Thomas, Third Lieutenant. Initially the Grays were assigned as Company A, 7th North Carolina Regiment (Artillery). This regiment was commanded by Colonel W. T. Martin, and was given the duty of defending the hastily constructed forts along the outer banks.
The Grays was the first Beaufort County company to depart for the war. After an elaborate farewell, which included the presentation of a flag made by the ladies of Washington, they sailed for Portsmouth. When a Union fleet, under Commodore Stringlern, and Union Army forces under Major General Benjamin F. Butler attacked Fort Hatteras, Colonel Martin ordered the Grays to the relief of Hatteras. They landed under heavy fire from the Union fleet, after sunset on 28 August, 1861.
The Union fleet renewed the attack at dawn the next morning. By early afternoon all of the guns of the fort were silenced. Having no other recourse, Commodore Barron, who commanded the combined Confederate forces, surrendered the fort and its garrison. The Confederate troops numbered about 700. The Grays, with the other Confederate prisoners, were sent to various Union prisons. Some were sent to Fort Monroe, others to Castle Williams, on Governor's Island in New York Harbor, and still others to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.
A number of the Grays were wounded at Hatteras, but none were killed. Private Samuel Lanier died later at Fort Warren. His body was returned for burial near Bath. The next spring, the Grays were exchanged and returned home. When the Grays were reorganized, Captain Sparrow was promoted to Major, and Lieutenant Shaw was promoted to Captain and given command of the reorganized company. The Grays were assigned to the 2nd Regiment, North Carolina Artillery, and later transferred as Company K, 10th Regiment, North Carolina Artillery. Rosters of the original and reorganized Washington Grays are shown in Appendix B.
Kennedy's Artillery, later called Adams’ Battery, was also recruited
in April 1861. Charles P. Jones, a Methodist minister, was appointed Captain. Z. T. Adams was First Lieutenant; Wm. Rumley, Second Lieutenant; and J. B. Bryan, Third Lieutenant. This company's first station was about three miles north of Washington. A year later Captain Jones resigned and Lieutenant Adams was appointed Captain, and placed in command of the battery, which became Company D, 5th Battalion, North Carolina Light Artillery. Company D was ordered to Fort Fisher, on the Cape Fear, which became the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. It was present during both attacks by Union sea and land forces, and surrendered with the fort on 15 January, 1865.
The McMillan Artillery was recruited in the fall of 1861. It was named for a Colonel McMillan who commanded the 25th Georgia Infantry, which was on duty in Washington at that time. W. H. Tripp was appointed Captain; Macon Bonner, First Lieutenant; Selby Hardenburg, Second Lieutenant; and Wm. H. Harrison, Third Lieutenant. Most of the recruits for this battery were from south of the Pamlico. It received its early training at Chocowinity. As Company B, 40th Regiment, North Carolina Artillery, it was first stationed at Fort Hill, on the south side of the Pamlico, about six miles below Washington.
Rodman's Heavy Artillery, also called Bridges Artillery, was also recruited in the fall of 1861. Wm. B. Rodman was appointed Captain on 21 October, 1861. John E. Leggett was First Lieutenant; John G. Blount, Second Lieutenant; and Ashley Congleton, Third Lieutenant. This battery was first stationed at Swan Point, on the north bank of the Pamlico, opposite Fort Hill. When Rodman was promoted to Major, Lieutenant Leggett replaced him as Captain. This company became Company C, 40th Regiment, North Carolina Artillery.
Whitehurst's Artillery, also called Satterthwaite's Artillery, was recruited in the late fall of 1861. Chas. C. Whitehurst was appointed Captain on 23 January, 1862. Thomas Satterthwaite was First Lieutenent; and Seth Bridgeman, Second Lieutenant. This battery became Company I, 40th Regiment, North Carolina Artillery. It joined Tripp's Battery at Fort Hill for its first
assignment. When New Bern was attacked in March, 1862, Tripp, Rodman, and Whitehurst were directed to rush their batteries to the relief of that town. Being unable to cross the Neuse at New Bern, they were compelled to march by way of Kinston. Upon reaching Kinston, they were told New Bern had fallen, and the Confederate forces were in retreat toward Kinston. Whitehurst's Battery remained at Kinston, for the defense of that town, and Tripp and Rodman moved to Falling Creek, near the present site of La Grange, to cover the road to Goldsboro. In April, 1862, all three of these batteries joined their regiment on the Cape Fear. Whitehurst and Tripp were assigned to Fort Fisher, and Rodman's Battery, then under command of Captain Leggett, was ordered to Fort St. Phillips. Rodman became Brigade Quartermaster of Branch's Brigade, with the rank of Major, and accompanied that brigade to the Army of Northern Virginia. Later he was appointed Colonel by President Davis, and assigned as President of a Military Court.
The 40th Regiment, North Carolina Artillery was withdrawn from Fort Fisher and ordered to Georgia, to reinforce General Hardee. Companies B, C, and I accompanied the regiment. They participated in the engagements at Fort Anderson, Town Creek, Jackson's Mill, and the Battle of Bentonville, “the bloodiest battle ever fought on North Carolina soil.” They were with Johnston's Army when it was surrendered near Durham, on 26 April, 1865.
Paymaster Henry M. Rogers, of the Union gunboat Wilderness, who was present on Christmas Day, 1864, when the Union fleet and land forces were repulsed at Fort Fisher, paid tribute to the courage of the defenders, of which Adams’ Battery was a part. In a letter home, he wrote: “After today, I can believe anything of the courage and endurance of Americans, for none but Americans could stand such fire as has been poured into the Rebel fortifications this Christmas Day. * * * The air was filled with bursting shell. * * * Flesh and blood could not endure such fire.”
Flesh and blood did endure, and the attack was repulsed.
In his report on the defense of Fort Fisher on this Christmas Day, Colonel William Lamb, the fort commander, said: “Adams’ light battery not only skillfully handled their Napoleons (light cannon) under fire of sharpshooters in the evening, but in the day did effective service at the heavy guns.”
The Infantry Companies organized in Beaufort County gave an equally good account of themselves. The Jeff Davis Rifles were recruited in the spring of 1861. Its officers were commissioned on 16 May of that year. John R. Cramer was Captain; S. B. Waters, First Lieutenant; and Archabald Craig, Second Lieutenant. This company was assigned as Company I, 3rd Regiment, North Carolina Infantry. Colonel Gaston Mears commanded this regiment, which was part of Ripley's Brigade, Jackson's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. Captain Cramer resigned as commander of the Jeff Davis Rifles and Archabald Craig was promoted to Captain. This regiment suffered heavy casualties at Antietam, losing 253 men. It lost another 196 men at Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg the regiment, which was by then reduced to 312 men, suffered the greatest percentage loss of any Confederate regiment engaged, losing 156, or 50 per cent of its total strength.
The Southern Guards were also recruited in the spring of 1861, and its officers commissioned on 16 May of that year. D. M. Carter was appointed Captain; Tom Perry, First Lieutenant; Ed Redding, Second Lieutenant; and D. G. Latham, Third Lieutenant. It was assigned as Company E, 4th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry. The 4th Regiment was assigned to G. B. Anderson's Brigade of D. H. Hill's Division. The officers of the Southern Guards (Co. E) suffered an unusually high casualty rate. Captain Carter was critically wounded at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), and Lieutenant Tom Perry was killed. The regiment suffered 369 casualties, or about one third of its total strength. Third Lieutenant D. G. Latham was promoted to Captain, and command of the company. Three months later Latham was killed at Sharpsburg, and was replaced by T. M. Allen as Captain. After being twice wounded, Allen was replaced by J. H. Carter. Carter was later replaced
as Captain by C. K. Galligher, who had enlisted as a private in the Guards.
The Pamlico Rifles were also recruited in the spring of 1861, and their officers commissioned in May of that year. W. T. Marsh was Captain; Leonida Creekmur, First Lieutenant; Bryan Bonner, Second Lieutenant; and Noah Tuten, Third Lieutenant. The men and officers of this company came mainly from Richland Township. This company was assembled at a camp on South Creek. It was assigned as Company I, 4th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry. It participated in the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), and the Peninsular Campaign, sharing in the heavy casualties of the regiment. Captain Marsh was killed at Sharpsburg the following September.
The Confederate Guards enlisted for only twelve months. James H. Swindell was appointed Captain. Henry Harding was First Lieutenant; Fredrick Harding, Second Lieutenant; and C. E. Peterson, Third Lieutenant. This company was trained at Chocowinity. Its first assignment was the defense of the town of Beaufort. When that town was evacuated, the company was sent to Suffolk, Virginia. While there the enlistments of the men expired, and the company was disbanded.
Prior to this time, Henry Harding had left the company to return to Chocowinity to take command of the Beaufort Ploughboys. Fredrick Harding was promoted to Captain and assigned as commanding officer of Company K, 41st Regiment, North Carolina Cavalry. Twenty-one of the men of the Confederate Guard enlisted in Fredrick Harding's company. The 41st Cavalry was assigned to W. H. F. Lee's Division, Hampton's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. Most of the other men from the disbanded Confederate Guards reenlisted in other units.
The Beaufort Ploughboys was organized at Chocowinity in November, 1861. Henry Harding, having been promoted to Captain, was placed in command. Thomas H. Satterthwaite was First Lieutenant; Wm. M. Stevenson, Second Lieutenant; and Decatur W. Jarvis, Third Lieutenant. Following the example of the ladies of Washington, the ladies of Chocowinity made and
presented a flag to this company. The Ploughboys was assigned as Company B, 61st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, though they saw their first combat duty with Branch's Brigade at the defense of New Bern, the following March.
Their flag, though cut from its staff and packed in the knapsack of the color sergeant in an attempt to save it at the retreat from New Bern, was lost when the knapsack was left behind in the excitement. Henry Harding was promoted to Major in the 61st Infantry, and Lieutenant Stevenson was promoted to Captain to succeed him. The 61st Infantry saw service in South Carolina; was transferred to Virginia in 1864, then back to North Carolina, where it was assigned to Johnston's Army and participated in the Battle of Bentonville.
The Star Boys was the only cavalry unit recruited in Beaufort County. Louis E. Satterthwaite was commissioned its Captain in April, 1861. Samuel Whitehurst was First Lieutenant; W. S. Satterthwaite, Second Lieutenant; and W. M. Nelson, Third Lieutenant. The Star Boys was assigned as Company G, 19th Regiment, North Carolina Cavalry. This regiment was assigned to W. H. F. Lee's Brigade, Stuart's Division, Army of Northern Virginia.
A number of Beaufort County men who lived south of the Pamlico River, enlisted in Branch's Artillery, although that unit was recruited as a Craven County organization. It was named for Brigadier General L. O'B. Branch, to whose brigade it was assigned. A. C. Latham of Beaufort County was the first Captain of Branch's Artillery, which became better known as Latham's Battery, and later as Flanner's Battery. John R. Potts, also of Beaufort County, was appointed First Lieutenant of this battery. Its first engagement with the enemy was in the defense of New Bern. During the battle, all of the horses of Latham's Battery were killed or wounded. In the retreat that followed, this company was compelled to abandon its four 6-pounder brass cannon, as they had no way of moving them. This battery was later assigned to the 13th Battalion, North Carolina Artillery, and served in the Army of Northern Virginia. Potts succeeded Latham in command of the battery. After his death
at Spotsylvania, in May 1864, Captain Flanner succeeded to command of the battery.
Heavy casualties among Confederate officers and noncommissioned officers, from corporal to general, required a constant search for capable leaders to replace those lost. Three Major Generals and five Brigadier Generals from North Carolina were either killed in action or died from wounds received in battle. Brigadier General L. O'B. Branch, who commanded the defenses of New Bern, was among them, being killed in action at Sharpsburg in September 1862. This search for leaders resulted in rapid promotion for those who qualified. D. M. Carter and Wm. B. Rodman, who entered the service as Captains, were promoted to Colonel. Reading Blount rose from private to Major; Daniel G. Fowle from private to Lieutenant Colonel; and Charles K. Galligher from private to Captain, and commander of the company in which he enlisted. Several company officers of North Carolina units rose from Captain or Lieutenant to the grade of Brigadier General. Perhaps the most phenomenal of these was Wm. G. Lewis, who rose from the rank of Third Lieutenant to that of Brigadier General, from 1861 to 1864.
William Henry, Baron von Eberstein, a German nobleman, came to Washington a few years before the war. There he met and married Annis Harding, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Ann Harding of Chocowinity. At the beginning of the war, von Eberstein enlisted as Fifth Sergeant in the Washington Grays. Later he was transferred to the headquarters of the 61st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, and promoted to Sergeant Major. This was the highest noncommissioned grade in the regiment. He was thrice wounded; at Battery Wagner, Petersburg, and Drewry's Bluff, and recommended by General Beauregard for a commission.
Beaufort County men from all walks of life served in the Confederate Army. Doctors from the county included Dave Tayloe; Wm. A. Blount, Jr.; John McDonald; John Galligher; and S. S. Satchwell. Major Wm. A. Blount served as aide to General Branch. Major W. E. DeMille, John G. Bragaw, and
George H. Brown served in the Commissary Department. Other officers from Beaufort County included Captains Thomas Robinson, Flynn, John K. Hoyt, T. M. Allen, Howard Wiswell, and Lieutenants Wm. B. Windley, W. H. Patrick, Samuel Forbes, Bryant Windley, and S. F. Topping.
Two Washington boys, Nathaniel Harding and D. N. Bogart, enlisted when they were barely sixteen, and survived the war. Bogart later became Colonel of the First Regiment, North Carolina National Guard; and Harding became Rector of St. Peters Church, where he served for over four decades.
No record of Beaufort County during the war would be complete without mentioning Miss Elizabeth M. B. (Aunt Bet) Hoyt. When Washington was occupied, Miss Hoyt sought refuge with her brother-in-law, Major DeMille, in Greenville. There she volunteered for service as a clerk in the Commissary Department at Greenville, and was appointed. She had the distinction of being the first woman in North Carolina appointed to the Confederate forces. Major Wm. W. Morrison, Chief of the Commissary Department at Goldsboro, wrote Major DeMille: “As your application to appoint a lady clerk was the first ever made in my district, I concluded it was better to have it endorsed by Major Sloan. He concurs with me in the propriety of giving them appointments when they are willing to take them.”
Beaufort County was not without representation in the Confederate Navy, though only two names are recorded. J. J. Guthrie, a native of Washington, was a Lieutenant in the United States Navy when the war began. He resigned his commission, as did many other Southern men who were in the Union Navy, and cast his lot with his home State. Guthrie commanded one of the small ships of Commodore W. F. Lynch's “Mosquito Fleet,” which guarded Pamlico Sound prior to the fall of Roanoke Island. This fleet then rendezvoused at Elizabeth City. Those vessels not destroyed by the Union fleet were burned to prevent their falling into Union hands. After the “Mosquito Fleet” was destroyed, Guthrie was appointed Captain of the North Carolina blockade runner Advance.
Captain Joe Gaskill, another Washingtonian, served as Mate on this ship. On a return trip from Nassau, the Advance was captured. Guthrie, Gaskill, and the crew were imprisoned at Fort Lafayette. Four men from the Star Boys are recorded as having been transferred to the Confederate Navy. The records do not indicate the vessels to which they were assigned, or engagements they served in.
With their young men away at war, Washington and most of Beaufort County came under the heel of the Union Army. When New Bern fell on 14 March, 1862, the Georgia regiment, under Colonel McMillan, evacuated Washington. On 20 March, the U. S. Transport Guide, with a convoy of gunboats, left New Bern for Washington. The following morning the flotilla arrived off Hill Point, where they were stopped by a blockade of piling driven into the river bottom until the tops of the piles were just below the surface of the water. The gunboat Delaware, with two companies of the 24th Massachusetts Infantry, found the opening in the blockade and continued on to Washington. They found the town evacuated by its defenders and abandoned by about three quarters of its inhabitants. All who could possibly leave, and find refuge with friends and relatives further inland, had done so.
The two companies of Massachusetts infantry landed with the Regimental Band and marched to the courthouse. There they raised the American flag. Colonel Stevenson, their commanding officer, assembled the few people who remained in the town and addressed them. After parading his troops through the main streets of the town, he returned them to the Delaware The Delaware then returned to the waiting flotilla, and to New Bern.
A few days later a permanent occupation force returned. This force included units of the 24th Massachusetts Infantry; 3rd New York Artillery; 3rd New York Cavalry; and some Marine artillery. Gunboats anchored in the river, off the town. Union forces continued to occupy Washington from the end of March, 1862, until 20 April, 1864.
On 30 March, Captain Murrey, commander of the gunboat.
Commodore Hull, invited six of the older men who had remained in Washington, to dinner on his vessel. He is alleged to have gotten them drunk, then proposed a toast: “To the reconstruction of the Federal Union, a plantation in Georgia with a hundred niggers, and a summer residence in North Carolina.” It is recorded these men all drank with zest to this toast.
Rumors that Washington citizens were fraternizing with the enemy soon reached the Confederate lines. On the night of 3 April, a Confederate raiding party slipped into the town, seized Mayor Isaiah Respess, an old man well past combat age, and carried him back to the Confederate lines. Respess was sent to Richmond, where he was charged with fraternizing with the enemy. Tried before a military court, he was acquitted. Though acquitted, he was not permitted to return home. This disregard of Respess’ civil rights so aroused public indignation that Governor Clark called upon President Davis for Respess’ release. This was granted. After the war, the people of Beaufort County demonstrated their confidence in Respess by electing him as their representative in the State Senate.
Two months after the occupation of Washington, the Confederates made plans to recapture it. Colonel George B. Singeltary, commanding the 44th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, assembled his regiment in Pitt County, west of Tranter's Creek. Advised of the assembling Confederates, Colonel Potter, commanding the Union forces in Washington, called upon General Burnside, in New Bern, for reinforcements. Two gunboats and additional troops arrived in Washington on 2 June. The following morning, a force of eight companies from the 24th Massachusetts Infantry, one company of the 3rd New York Cavalry, and two pieces of Marine artillery were dispatched to engage the Confederates. Lieutenant Colonel F. A. Osborn commanded this force.
Singeltary's men were waiting for them at the bridge over Tranter's Creek, near Hardison's Mill. To prevent the crossing of Union cavalry, Singeltary had ordered the removal of the plank flooring of the bridge. When the Union forces attacked, Singeltary exposed himself unnecessarily, to encourage his
raw, inexperienced troops. In the short, but bitter engagement that followed, Singeltary was shot through the head and killed almost instantly.
The Union gunboat Picket accompanied the expedition, shelling the woods between the Tar River and the Greenville Road, though taking no part in the battle. With the loss of their commander, and fearing the Picket would land troops in their rear, the Confederates withdrew toward Greenville. Leaving a patrol at the bridge to be certain the Confederates did not return, Osborn returned to Washington.
Three months elapsed before North Carolina troops again attempted to liberate the town. On 6 September, a force consisting of units from the 17th and 55th Regiments, North Carolina Infantry, Kennedy's Artillery (Adams’ Battery), and two companies of cavalry, under command of Brigadier General James G. Martin, attempted to surprise the Union garrison. Attacking before dawn, the infantry deployed between the Tar River and the Greenville Road, entering the town through the Grist plantation at the western edge of the town. The cavalry and artillery came down the Greenville Road.
Overcoming the outposts, the Confederates reached Bridge Street, surprised and captured a Union battery which was using the old Academy building as barracks, and captured about fifteen men and four brass cannon. Though surprised, the remainder of the Union garrison was prepared. Fortunately for them, they were up and under arms, preparing for a march to Plymouth. Hearing the firing, four companies of cavalry, which were mounted and preparing to leave, wheeled and charged down Main, Second, and Third streets. Encountering the Confederate cavalry, they drove them back to Bridge Street, where they were stopped by Confederate infantry fire.
The gunboats Picket and Louisiana, anchored off the town, promptly opened fire, shelling the western end of the town. During the bombardment, the Picket blew up, killing its captain and nineteen of the crew. The heavy fighting lasted about three hours.
Their surprise having failed, and being unable to silence the
fire of the Louisiana or the remaining Union artillery, the Confederates withdrew. They carried their prisoners and most of their wounded with them; also the four captured cannon. These turned out to be the four cannon lost by Latham's Battery at New Bern. Those too severely wounded to be carried away, were hidden in the homes of residents, to be nursed by the women of the town until they were sufficiently recovered to slip out of town under cover of darkness.
After Martin's attack, the Union commander built a strong line of defensive breastworks and forts around the town. The construction of these defenses served a double purpose. First it eliminated the possibility of another surprise, should the Confederates return. Second, it provided employment for the hundreds of Negro slaves who had run away from their master's plantations, and sought refuge with the Union troops.
Fort McKibbens was erected at the east end of Main Street, just west of Jack's Creek, between the street and the river. From that point the defenses formed a half circle to the north of the town. Fort Ceres, located near the site of the recently razed Eureka Lumber Company Mill, at the west end of Main Street, formed the western anchor of the defenses. Fort Washington, located about where present Market and Tenth streets intersect, formed the center of the crescent. Fort Hamilton was between Fort McKibbens and Fort Washington, near where the Plymouth road entered the town. Fort Gourand was erected west of Fort Washington, between the Williamston and Greenville roads. Deep trenches, with blockhouses at strategic points, connected the forts. To permit artillery fire to cover the surrounding territory, trees were felled for a distance of several hundred yards in front of the defenses. Though much effort was put into the preparation of these defenses, a year passed before another attempt was made to liberate the town.
In May 1862, Edward Stanley, who had been one of Beaufort County's outstanding citizens, returned from California. Stanley had conceived the idea that his old friends in North Carolina could be persuaded to denounce the Confederacy and return to the Union. President Lincoln was receptive to Stanley's
plan, hopeful that if North Carolina and Tennessee could be persuaded to return to the Union, other States might follow.
Lincoln appointed Stanley Military Governor of North Carolina, with the rank of Brigadier General. Stanley returned to New Bern, where he attempted to convince General Burnside of the feasibility of his idea. Burnside would have no part in it. Stanley then tried writing Governor Vance and his old friends Warren, Donnell, and Carter, who at that time represented Beaufort County in the Legislature. They ignored his letters.
Snubbed by Burnside, who complained to his friends in the United States Senate that Stanley was interfering with the conduct of the war, and ignored by his former friends of the Confederacy, Stanley left New Bern and took up residence in Washington, where he was given an equally cool reception. After almost a year of disillusionment and thwarted efforts, during which time he accomplished nothing, Stanley resigned and returned to California.
During this period, conditions in Washington were growing steadily worse. Those who could leave the town before the Union forces arrived, had done so. Older men who were complelled to remain with their business, had sent their wives and families away. In the early days of the occupation, no attempt was made to prevent others from leaving, and taking their possessions with them. Later, this was stopped. Those leaving could take only the clothes they wore. Food was scarce. Though the freed Negroes who had collected in the town were given better food than the inhabitants could procure, bands of these Negroes roamed the streets at night, pillaging and stealing. Strong protests were made by the representatives of Eastern Carolina to President Davis, to return North Carolina troops from Virginia, to clear the Union forces from their homes.
On 30 March, 1863, after Washington had been in the hands of the Union forces for more than a year, the Confederates made a third attempt to regain control of the town. General Daniel Harvey Hill, who had commanded the 1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry at the Battle of Big Bethel Church, and won
the first engagement of the war for the Confederacy, laid siege to the town.
Hill's force of 9,000 men included the brigades of Generals Daniel, Pettigrew, and Garnett. They occupied the former Confederate earthworks on Hill Point and Swan Point, and established a blockade of the town. The brigades of Pettigrew and Daniel were on the south side of the river, and Garnett occupied Swan Point. A battery of Whitworth guns, the most powerful field guns of the Confederacy, were emplaced at Rodman's Quarter, the Rodman plantation across the river from the town. Pettigrew's Brigade covered the roads in the area of Chocowinity and Blount's Creek, protecting Fort Hill from an attack from the rear.
At the beginning of the siege, the Union garrison consisted of eight companies of the 27th Massachusetts Infantry; eight companies of the 44th Massachusetts Infantry; two companies of the 1st North Carolina (Union) Infantry; one company of the 3rd New York Cavalry; and one company of the 3rd New York Artillery. This totaled about 1,500 men. They were supported by the guns and Marines of the gunboats Eagle, Ceres, Louisiana, and Commodore Hull, anchored in the river. On the night of 13 April, the transport Escort ran the Confederate blockade, bringing the 5th Rhode Island Infantry, about 500 strong, and additional supplies and ammunition.
During the siege the Union forces strengthened their lines of fortifications around the town, and constructed a fort on Castle Island. More trees were felled to increase the clearing around their fortifications to a half mile, permitting free sweep of the approaches to their artillery.
Each day during the siege the guns of Fort Hill engaged gunboats on the river, below Hill Point, and the battery at Rodman's Quarter engaged in a duel with the gunboats in the harbor. In this duel, the waterfront of the town probably suffered greater damage from ricocheting shells than the gun boats did from direct hits.
A Union force of about 8,000 men, under General Spinola,
marched overland from New Bern, in an attempt to relieve the besieged garrison. This force was met by Pettigrew's Brigade, near Ruff's Mill, on Blount's Creek. After a sharp engagement, in which Spinola suffered heavy losses, he turned back, returning to New Bern.
Though the Confederate forces under Hill outnumbered the forces of the garrison by about three to one, no direct attack was made by the Confederates against the town. On 15 April, two weeks after the siege was begun, and before any decisive results had been achieved, Hill's three brigades were recalled to Virginia to take part in Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania. This ended the siege. Washington remained in the hands of the Union forces for another year.
A year later, on 20 April, 1864, General Robert F. Hoke, with the aid of the Confederate ironclad Albemarle, recaptured the town of Plymouth; drove the Union gunboats down the Roanoke; and captured some 3,000 prisoners. Under the threat of an advance by Hoke's Army, Brigadier General Harland, then commanding the Union forces in Washington, was ordered to evacuate the town and return to New Bern.
For three days prior to the evacuation, Washington was subjected to systematic plundering. Pillaging started with the Quartermaster depot of the 1st North Carolina (Union) companies, and soon became general. Sutler stores, government stores, private stores, and then private homes were broken into and looted. Gangs of rowdy soldiers prowled the streets, breaking into homes and destroying what they could not carry away.
Before the Union forces embarked on waiting gunboats and transports, they cut the hose of the volunteer fire companies and set fire to the town and the bridge over the Pamlico. Though the few men left in the town tried to combat the flames, their efforts were in vain. The fire raged from the river, north along Respess Street, to the north end of the town. There may have been some justification for burning the bridge, to prevent Hoke using it in his advance against New Bern, but the burning of Washington was an act of pure vandalism.
A Board of Investigation, presided over by Colonel James W. Savage, commander of the 12th New York Cavalry, denounced the plundering, saying: “There can be no pallation of the utterly lawless and wanton character of the plundering.” The board did not find fault with the useless burning of the helpless town. Nor did it suggest restitution for the homes and property destroyed, though partial restitution for some of the damage done was eventually made.
On 9 May, a little more than two weeks after the Union forces had evacuated the town, disaster again struck. A fire of accidental origin started in the old Lafayette Hotel, on the corner of Main and Market. With no equipment with which to fight the fire, the flames quickly spread to the north and east, destroying much of the town that had escaped the previous fire.
Burning the bridge over the Pamlico proved to be an equally useless act of vandalism. Before Hoke could move against New Bern, he was recalled to Virginia, to aid Lee's hard-pressed army. With Hoke's Army gone, Union forces returned to Plymouth, reoccupied the town, and sank the disabled ironclad Albemarle. With the Sound area again under Union control, they did not reoccupy Washington, though Union gunboats visited the Pamlico.
For the next year, Washington lay dormant, its agriculture stagnant for want of labor, and its commerce dead. Each week brought more news of disaster and defeat. Confederate armies, worn down by the sheer weight of superior manpower, and lacking in food, supplies, and ammunition, were in constant retreat. Sherman swept through Georgia. Fort Fisher and Wilmington fell. General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Johnston's tattered army could not survive alone. After a last glorious but futile stand at Bentonville, Johnston too surrendered. The long, bloody war, believed by many to have been hopless from the beginning, was over. Peace was not to return to Beaufort County or North Carolina for many trying years.
CHAPTER XVII
AFTERMATH OF DEFEAT
WHEN GENERAL LEE surrendered on 9 April, 1865, the Confederacy collapsed. Davis and his cabinet had already fled Richmond. Two weeks later General Johnston surrendered the last large body of Confederate troops. A few days later, Governor Vance was captured near Statesville, and all semblence of civil government in North Carolina vanished.
General John McA. Schofield took command of the captured State of North Carolina. His first actions were to restore law and order. Police forces, under the command of Union officers, were established in every county. Schofield issued a proclamation announcing the cessation of hostilities, and announced that under the Thirteenth Amendment, not yet ratified, all slaves were free.
Weary, defeated, and discouraged men in tattered gray began to straggle home. Those of the Star Boys who had survived the long and bloody strife, rode their own horses or mules. In the cavalry of the South the mule served as nobly as the horse. Men from Beaufort's artillery units cut flat-flanked, raw-boned horses or mules from the traces of cannon, caisson, or wagon, and headed for home, often riding double. Far more made the long, discouraging trip on foot. Some hobbled on crudely made wooden stumps, or a crutch cut from the fork of a sapling. Some wore an empty sleeve pinned to their weathered jackets, or a dirty bandage over a missing eye. Near twenty out of each hundred who had gone so bravely off to war, did not return. Their blood hallowed the soil of half a hundred battlefields from Georgia to Pennsylvania, and from Maryland to Texas.
Those who had left the gay, prosperous, and thriving town of Washington, with a population of over 1,600, came home to a shell-riddled, burned-out skeleton of a town, peopled by few more than 500 hard-eyed, grim-visaged men and women, and a scattering of hollow-eyed, hungry children. They also
came home to grinding poverty and back-breaking labor that few, if any, in Beaufort County had dreamed of before the war.
They also faced another, and even more grave problem. Could 500 defeated, discouraged, and poverty-stricken whites survive in a town whose Negro population had increased from 215, most of whom had been trained domestics, to over 1,100, most of whom were illiterate, half savages, who had abandoned the plantations to huddle in shacks on the fringe of the town, prowling, stealing, and scavenging for food.
Those who returned to plantation and farm found conditions but little better. For the small farmer, this was particularly true. Such cattle and stock as he had managed to accumulate was gone. His cribs and smokehouses were empty; his buildings and fences run down; and his land grown up in weeds.
The owners of large plantations, who had managed to hold their slaves until the surrender, had fared better. Paymaster Henry Rogers, whose Union gunboat, the Wilderness, dropped anchor off Washington in May, 1865, visited the plantation of “Mr. Latham,” and noted this. He was impressed with the size of Mr. Latham's plantations, one of two thousand acres, and another of three thousand. He commented on the excellence of the stock and cattle, and Latham's “eighty or ninety able-bodied male Negroes.” He noted the ease and grace with which Southern planters “had lived” on their vast, self-contained plantations; but his shrewd Yankee mind was not deceived as to the problems that lay ahead. That night, he wrote his father: “The Negro question is now a living question; no longer a theme for politicians to enlarge upon for political effect, * * * the Negroes are free * * * the able-bodied * * * decline to work for wages. Those who remain * * * are too old, too feeble, too young, or too something to work. They will not leave; the planter cannot feed them, for he has no provisions, * * * unless the able-bodied Negroes can be made to remain, an imminent danger threatens.”
Rogers was right. The troubles of Mr. Latham and the other planters of the South lay ahead. The “eighty or ninety able-bodied
male Negroes,” freed by Schofield's proclamation, represented a capital loss to Mr. Latham of eighty or ninety thousand dollars, for which the Union government made no attempt to reimburse him. It also meant that his 5,000 acres of land were now a burden, rather than an asset. Taxes continued to be levied against them. He had no funds with which to hire labor, if such labor had been available.
To these discouraged, disillusioned, and desperate men, President Johnson's plan for reconstruction offered a faint gleam of hope. Johnson's plan followed closely that of the late President Lincoln. He believed it essential to the Union and to the defeated States that a stable civil government be established at the earliest possible date. As there was no provision in the Constitution for the return of a State to the Union, Johnson believed that he, as commander-in-chief of the victorious army, could prescribe the conditions upon which military forces would be withdrawn, and a civil government restored.
On 29 May, 1865, a few days after Paymaster Rogers had visited the Latham plantation, President Johnson issued his North Carolina proclamation. All citizens of the State, except certain groups, including civil and military leaders of the Confederacy, and wealthy planters, would be permitted to renew their oath of allegiance to the Union. Those on the excepted list could make individual application to the President for a pardon. If pardoned, they could renew their oath.
On this same day, Johnson appointed Wm. W. Holden as provisional Governor of North Carolina. When ten per cent of the voting population of 1860 had taken the required oath, and a stable civil government had been organized, Holden was authorized to initiate action calling a convention to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, and the restoration of the State to the Union.
Holden made an immediate and conscientious effort to establish a stable civil government. He appointed over three thousand State and local officials, including many former leaders of the Confederacy. Edward J. Warren, who had represented Beaufort County in the Legislature during the war,
was appointed Judge of the Second Judicial District. Daniel G. Fowle, who had risen to the grade of Lieutenant Colonel in the Confederate Army, and been appointed Adjutant General of the State by Governor Vance, was appointed Judge of the Wake District. Holden also initiated action for a constitutional convention.
This convention met in Raleigh on 2 October, 1865. Edward J. Warren and Richard Donnell, both of whom had been members of the last (1864) Confederate Assembly, were elected to represent Beaufort County. Warren was a member of the committee that drafted the new Constitution. This convention promptly repealed the Ordinance of Secession; Peclared slavery abolished; and provided machinery for an election the following month of a governor, legislature, and representatives to the United States Congress.
In this election, Holden, whose lifetime ambition was to be elected Governor by the people of his State, ran for election, and was defeated by Jonathan Worth. J. R. Stubbs, formerly a resident of Beaufort County, but then living in Martin County, was elected to the Congress. Edward J. Warren was elected to the State Senate and Richard Donnell and William Stilley to the Lower House.
This Legislature ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, declared North Carolina loyal to the Union, and elected two Unionists, Wm. A. Graham and John Pool, to the United States Senate. It also elected Warren as Judge of the Second Judicial District, the post to which he had been appointed by Governor Holden.
Warren resigned from the Senate to accept the seat on the Superior Court bench, and was replaced in the Senate by Colonel D. M. Carter. On 29 November, General U. S. Grant visited the North Carolina Senate, and was introduced by Judge Warren. At that time Grant was in full accord with President Johnson's plan for reconstruction. He told the Senate that President Johnson was pleased with the action of the Legislature, and the State would soon be back in the Union.
Unfortunately for North Carolina and for the Union, President
Johnson's plan was not to be accomplished. The Congress, which had not been in session when Johnson's proclamation was issued, had other plans. Under the radical leadership of Charles Sumner in the Senate, and Thaddeus Stevens in the House, the Congress denied seats to the Senators and Congressmen elected by North Carolina; declared the South, including North Carolina, was not loyal to the Union or fair to the freedmen; and that the Southern States could not be readmitted to the Union until further changes were made in their governments.
The Congressional election of 1866, in which the Southern States were not permitted to participate, gave the radicals more than a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate. The 1866 North Carolina Legislature, in which Beaufort County was represented by former Mayor Isiah Respess of Washington, in the Senate, and Henry Harding and J. C. Gorham in the Lower House, further aroused the animosity of the radical Congress. They enacted North Carolina's “Black Code,” defining the legal rights of Negroes in the State. Though more liberal than the “Black Code” of other Southern States, this code did not give the Negroes suffrage, and discriminated against them in other ways.
The predominantly anti-Southern Congress of 1867, overriding the vetoes of President Johnson, who was almost helpess before the intolerant, radical majorities of the Congress, enacted its own Reconstruction Act. Under this act, the South, as conquered territory, not free States, was divided into five military districts. North and South Carolina lost their identity as States, and became the Second Military District. General Daniel E. Sickles was appointed commander of the district.
This Reconstruction Act was so drastic it shocked the South, President Johnson, and many leaders of the North, including General Sherman. It required a convention be held in each State to frame a new Constitution. To be acceptable, this Constitution must grant Negro suffrage. Negroes were to be permitted to register and vote for the delegates to this Convention. Approximately ten per cent of the white voters were
barred from the ballot for “political disabilities,” due to their having been military or civilian leaders of the Confederacy. Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment and a Civil Rights Bill, enacted by this radical Congress, were other hurdles the Southern States had to clear before returning to the Union.
General Sherman denounced the Congressional action granting Negro suffrage. “The slaves are free, but not yet voters * * * to force the enfranchised Negroes as ‘loyal’ voters on the South will produce new riots and war * * * . My army will not fight in that war.” Later, in a speech at Indianapolis, Sherman again denounced Negro suffrage and their “indiscriminate intercourse with whites.”
Oliver P. Morton, Republican strong man of Indiana, where 25,000 free Negroes, most of whom could read and write, were denied suffrage and the right to testify in court, attacked the Reconstruction Act. He declared it “impossible to conceive of instantly admitting this mass of ignorance to the ballot, * * * they would elect Negro senators, governors, and judges, * * * (and) colored State governments are not desirable * * * they will bring about a race war.”
General Grant, who little more than a year before had applauded the acts of the North Carolina Legislature, was not among this enlightened and tolerant group. During the intervening months he had been stung by the presidential bee. Betraying President Johnson and the tolerant group in government he had served so well as a General, he sold out, body and soul, to the radicals in Congress.
Under the leadership of Sumner, Stevens, George Julian, the Union League, and the Freedmen's Bureau, the radicals in Congress rode with whip and spur. The South, North Carolina, and Beaufort County again came under the heel of military dicatorship. Governor Worth was permitted to retain his title as Governor. General E. R. S. Canby, who had replaced Sickles as commander of the Second Military District, and the Union Army in North and South Carolina, became the only real government. Under his dictatorship Negro suffrage was enforced, and the Republican party organized in North Carolina.
Colonel William B. Rodman, formerly the lone Democrat among the leaders of Beaufort County, was the only one of these former leaders to endorse the new Republican party. Calling a meeting of his old friends, though political antagonists, Rodman presented his case. Two years had elapsed since the Confederacy had collapsed. North Carolina was not back in the Union. Each day the State was coming more and more under military rule. Mercenaries, carpetbaggers, camp followers and scalawags were taking over State government. Negro domination, already making itself manifest in South Carolina and other Southern States, was an immediate threat.
In the parlance of today, Rodman's solution was, “If you can't lick ’em, join ’em.” He knew the State could do nothing but submit to the radical acts of the Congress. He was equally certain the salvation of the State lay in submission to these demands until the State was back in the Union, and again in the hands of its old leaders.
Colonel Carter was at first sympathetic to Rodman's plan. He later repudiated it. Warren, Sparrow, Satterthwaite, and other former Whig leaders rejected the plan.
The Constitutional convention, demanded by the Congress, was called. The Union Army, now including many former slaves, supervised the election to see that Negroes were allowed to register and vote. Few of them could do more than make their mark. The election produced 107 Republican delegates to the convention. Among these were eighteen known carpetbaggers, fifteen Negroes, and many illiterate whites. Though their motives may have been the best, they were totally unqualified, through lack of education and experience, for the arduous task of writing a Constitution for North Carolina.
Of the 107 delegates, only thirteen were former able and experienced leaders. Beaufort County provided two of the thirteen—William Rodman and William Stilley, who had served in the Confederate Legislature and the 1865 postwar Legislature.
Because he had been a Confederate officer and a Democrat, Rodman was at first viewed with suspicion by his fellow delegates.
However, he soon won their respect and confidence, and dominated the convention. He wrote many sections of the new Constitution and steered them through the convention; was unanimously chosen as one of three commissioners to prepare a code of laws; and was chosen as one of two delegates selected to prepare an address to the people, urging ratification of the new Constitution.
The Constitution of 1868 was adopted by a large majority. Today it is the organic law of North Carolina. Beaufort County was among the counties that ratified the Constitution.
At this same election, Colonel Rodman was elected an Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
The election was a clean sweep for the Republican party. Holden was elected Governor, and every branch of the State government came under Republican control. John B. Respess was elected to the Senate from Beaufort County, and H. E. Stilley, a staunch supporter of Holden, was elected to the Lower House. Holden later appointed H. E. Stilley as Colonel of the Beaufort County militia.
For the years 1868 and 1869, the Republican party in North Carolina was not one to be pointed to with pride. About fifty per cent of its members were Negroes. The vast majority of these could neither read nor write, and were totally ignorant of the processes of government. Another large percentage were small farmers who deserted the Democratic party because they were tired of the rule of the so-called “planter aristocracy” of the east. These men were called scalawags by their detractors To these could be added the carpetbaggers; men from the north who came to the State carrying everything they owned in a carpetbag. These men came seeking personal financial gain, with no regard for the ultimate good of the State. There were a few strong and able Unionists, men who conscientiously welcomed return to the Union. Though disapproving the action of the Federal Congress, they believed it wiser to submit than to defy its edicts. No one knew the weakness of the Republican party better than its leaders. Albion W. Turgee, one of the State's leading carpetbaggers, admitted the chief characteristics of
the new party were “ignorance, poverty, and inexperience.”
The new Republican Legislature promptly ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, and met the other dictates of the Congress. It also elected two Republican United States Senators: John Pool, who had been elected by the preceding Legislature and Joseph C. Abbot. General Canby forced Governor Worth out of office on 1 July, 1868, and Holden took possession the following day. Canby turned over the powers of government to the newly-elected officials. On 20 July, North Carolina's senators and representatives were seated in the United States Congress, and North Carolina returned to the Union. It looked as though the actions of Rodman had been justified.
North Carolina's troubles, particularly those of Beaufort County and the other eastern counties, were far from over. Freeing Beaufort County's 5,878 slaves, with an estimated average value of $600, wiped out more than $3.5 million of the county's floating capital. The action of the Congress to repudiate all Confederate war debts left the holders of Confederate bonds with worthless paper in their hands. State bonds, though not repudiated by the Congress, fared little better.
Hardest hit of all was the “plantation economy” counties of the east, including Beaufort. They lost not only the millions of dollars they had invested in slaves, but they lost the profits from their land. Without labor to work it, their land became a burden.
Under a barrage of propaganda from the Union League, and poor council from carpetbag officials of the Freedmen's Bureau, the Negro was encouraged to believe freedom from slavery meant freedom from work. Thad Steven's plan was to confiscate every Southern estate valued at $10,000 or more, or containing 200 acres or more. He estimated this would produce 294 million acres for redistribution. He proposed giving 40 acres to each freed adult Negro. This dream of “forty acres and a mule,” played upon and exaggerated by carpetbaggers and unscrupulous politicians, drew all but the most loyal, and the physically unfit from plantations. Plantations
that had produced the basic foods of the county, and the corn, beef, pork, and other produce for commerce, stood idle, overgrown with weeds.
Governor Holden was unquestionably an able man, but his administration had no chance for success. The political spoil system was in full force. Carpetbaggers, scalawags, and Negroes who voted him into power, had to be rewarded. There was not enough ability or honesty in the Legislature or the Republican party to provide the capable leadership demanded by the critical times.
Holden appointed a few Negroes to minor public offices. Some of the whites he appointed, or who were elected by his Negro majority, were self-seeking politicians, having neither ability, education, sobriety, or integrity. Beaufort County had the misfortune to have a man of this caliber elected as judge of the County Superior Court. This was Edmund W. Jones of Washington County. Jones was better known as “Jay-Bird Jones,” the name given him by Josiah Turner, Jr., publisher of the Raleigh Sentinel.
In his first court, held in Washington in November, 1868, Jones so aroused the disgust of the decent citizens of the community that Captain J. J. Laughinghouse forcibly expressed his contempt for the court. He was fined $50.00 and sentenced to thirty days in jail unless he apologized. Laughinghouse served the term. His conduct was so admired by his friends and neighbors that his cell was kept filled with flowers and special foods during his time in jail.
Other attorneys expressed their contempt for the court, but none so forcibly as Colonel D. M. Carter. While defending an ex-slave, Carter told Jones: “the occupant of the chair has shown he is lacking in any knowledge of the law, and is devoid of any semblance of character or morals * * * it is painful for me as a lawyer, to address such a tribunal.”
The court room was crowded with friends of Colonel Carter, many of whom were armed. When Carter told Jones, “so far as apology is concerned, I will sink lower than the mudsills of hell before I will retract anything,” Jones decided discretion
was the better part of valor, and ignored the remark. The jury was also impressed. The accused Negro was acquitted. Later, while facing impeachment charges, Jones resigned.
The actions of the 1868 Legislature, the activities of the Union League and Freedman's Bureau, and the presence of Union forces, many of whom were former Negro slaves, aroused the dormant conservative Whigs and Democrats to action. The Ku Klux Klan, which had been initially formed in Tennessee as a social organization, became the most powerful weapon of the South during the reconstruction era. This organization was headed by former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest. In North Carolina its cause was espoused by former was Governor Zebulon Vance and Wm. L. Sanders, Though there are no records to confirm this, it seems reasonable to assume that when the Ku Klux came to Beaufort County, men of the stature of Bryan Grimes, D. M. Carter, F. B. Satterthwaite, J. J. Laughinghouse, Thomas Sparrow, and Henry Harding were well aware of the activities of the “Invisible Empire.”
The original Klan seldom found it necessary to resort to violence. Ghostly riders, hooded and astride shrouded horses, speaking in sepulchral tones of the graves they had quitted on some distant battlefield, was usually enough to cool the ardor of recalcitrant Negroes or overzealous carpetbaggers. Warnings, threats, and an occasional flogging, in the weird light of the Klansmen's torches, was sufficient. When the Klan had served its purpose, the same responsible men who had brought it into being, and who realized its potential for evil, brought it to an end.
By 1870, the extravagance, waste, graft, and inefficiency of the Republican administration had solidified the conservative Whigs and Democrats. Hope rose that able leaders could again be placed in control in the State. In Beaufort County, Edward J. Warren was selected as the Democratic nominee for the Senate and Thomas Sparrow for the Lower House. After a bitter campaign, during which night-riding Klansmen warned Negroes to stay away from the polls, and in
which disgusted Republicans joined with Democrats, Warren and Sparrow were elected.
A similar political upheaval took place in almost every county in the state. When the Legislature met, the Democrats could muster a two-thirds majority. This permitted them to start impeachment proceedings against Holden.
On 15 December, 1870, Major Tom Sparrow appeared before the Senate and made eight specific charges of impeachment against Holden. Found guilty of six of the charges, Holden was promptly removed from office. Lieutenant Governor T. R. Caldwell succeeded Holden as Governor. Warren, as Speaker Pro-Tem of the Senate, succeeded Caldwell as Lieutenant Governor. Commenting on the impeachment trial, former Governor Vance remarked: “It was the longest hunt after the poorest hide I ever saw.”
With the Democrats in power in the Legislature, North Carolina began its long, hard climb back to economic stability. Convinced at last they were not going to get the promised “forty acres and a mule,” and realizing that if they were to eat, they would have to work, Negroes began returning to the plantations, which offered them their only means of livelihood.
As the planter had little or no money with which to pay for labor, the system of “share-cropping” was developed. By straining his credit, the planter managed to carry his tenants through the winter and the growing season. After the harvest, a settlement was made. Share-cropping had been used for a number of decades in the turpentine industry, and to a limited extent in farming. Though never satisfactory either to the planter or the tenant, share-cropping was made to work. This system survives today on many farms. The tenant was continually in debt to the planter, and the planter usually in debt to the bank. Under this system the Negro soon discovered they had exchanged physical slavery, with security in sickness and old age, for economic slavery and no security.
With the disappearance of the Union soldiers and the carpetbaggers, life in Beaufort County began to return to normal.
Cotton, corn, and tobacco again flourished on the farms, and merchandising and politics thrived in the towns. The lumber industry was revived as the principal industry of the county, and freight and passenger steamers again appeared on the Pamlico.
New faces replaced those of the old stalwarts in Beaufort County. William B. Rodman, Jr., father of present Justice William B. Rodman, replaced Colonel Rodman. Charles F. Warren, father of former Comptroller General Lindsay Warren, replaced Edward J. Warren, and George Sparrow replaced Thomas Sparrow. New names were also making themselves heard. James E. Shepherd came to Washington from Virginia, and engaged in the practice of law. He rose to become Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. George H. Brown, John H. Small, and Enoch S. Simmons were among the young leaders of this era. Brown became an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and Small entered Congress at the turn of the century, and served for over two decades.
James E. Shepherd represented Beaufort County in the 1875 Constitutional Convention. This convention retained the 1868 Constitution, but added thirty amendments. Segregated schools were authorized. Legislative control of county goverments, replacing the popular vote, was authorized to assure white supremacy in these governments.
After 1874, Beaufort County was required to share its Senator with other counties. J. T. Respess of Beaufort represented the Senatorial District from 1879 to 1882. Charles F. Warren was Senator from 1887 to 1888; and J. S. Marsh served in 1893 and 1894. A Senator, chosen from another county in the district, represented Beaufort for the other years. During this period, Beaufort was served in the Lower House by thirteen men, including the aging Thomas Sparrow. Each served two years, and was then replaced.
Federal troops were withdrawn from the South in 1877. This marked the end of the tragic reconstruction era. When they were no longer supported by Federal troops and Carpetbaggers,
and being unwilling to arouse the displeasure of the white planters and merchants upon whom they were dependent for work and food, the Negroes abandoned the ballot. The Democratic party became the “white man's party,” and the Democratic “solid south” was developed. For the last two decades of the war-torn Nineteenth Century, except for national financial crises, which effected the economy of the county, Beaufort County prospered under “white supremacy.”
On 14 August, 1880, Washington and Eastern Carolina was shocked by the news of the murder of Major General Bryan Grimes. General Grimes, who lived on his plantation near present Grimesland, just over the Beaufort County line in Pitt County, maintained his office in Washington. Near dark on that afternoon, when General Grimes was returning from Washington to his home, he was ambushed at Bear Creek, a short distance north of old Trinity Chapel, and murdered with a blast from a shotgun.
Two brothers, W. B. and Howell Paramore, who operated a general store at nearby Nelson's Crossroads, and who had quarreled with General Grimes over land boundaries, were suspected. When the Sheriff reached Nelson's Crossroads, the Paramore brothers had fled.
Later, William Parker, who lived on a farm near Grime's plantation, came under suspicion because of the smallness of his feet. Parker's shoes fitted the footprints of the man who had waited in the marsh near Bear Creek for the arrival of General Grimes. Two witnesses swore they had seen Parker carrying a shotgun on the afternoon of 14 August.
Because of the illness of a member of the jury, Parker's first trial ended in a mistrial. High feelings in Beaufort County resulted in Parker's second trial being held in Martin County, in June 1881. Before this trial could be held, word was received that Howell Paramore had committed suicide in a hotel room in Cheraw, South Carolina. This suicide, with its accompanying assumptions of guilt, cast a doubt upon the guilt of Parker, who was acquitted.
Later, Parker came to Washington, and while drunk, boasted of having killed General Grimes and gotten away with it. Parker was locked up for his own protection. While Parker was still in the Washington jail, several masked men invaded the jail, forcibly removed Parker, and with an apparent sense of fitting punishment, hanged Parker from the bridge General Grimes had sold the Beaufort County Commissioners the year before.
By the turn of the century, Washington had become a thriving little city with a population of 4,842, of whom 2,292 were white and 2,550 were Negroes. The population of Beaufort County had increased to 26,404, of whom 7,336 were Negroes.
CHAPTER BIBLIOGRAPHIESCHAPTER I. RED MAN—WHITE MAN
Mook, Maurice A. Algonkian Ethnohistory of the Carolina Sounds. Journal of the Washington Academy of Science, Vol. XXXIV, Nos. 6 & 7, June & July 1944.
Right, Douglas L. The American Indian in North Carolina. p. 45, 259.
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Van Loon, Hendrik. America. p. 42.
CHAPTER II. CHARLES II PAYS A DEBTSaunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina. Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. I. p. xii, xiii, 19, 20, 42, 43.
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina. 1954. p. 16, 32, 36-40.
Sondley, F. A. History of Buncombe County. Vol. I.
Lawson, John. History of North Carolina. 1714, Edited by Frances Latham Harriss, 1937, p. 62, 81.
CHAPTER III. BATH COUNTY AND PRECINCTSLawson, John. History of North Carolina, 1714. Edited by Frances Latham Harriss, 1937, p. 60, 195.
Grimes, J. Bryan. North Carolina Wills and Inventories. p. 421, 422.
Deed Books. Office of the Secretary of the State North Carolina, Raleigh. Book 1, p. 72, 73.
Deed Books. Office of the Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, Washington, N. C. Book 1, p. 1, 2, 9, 26, 47, 52, 85, 87, 258. Book 3, p. 545.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh. 1886-1890. Vol. I. p. 472, 622, 629, Vol. III, p. 284, 453.
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Andrews, C. M. The Colonial Period of American History, Vol. III, p. 258, 259, 261.
Sondley, F. A. History of Buncombe County, Vol. I. p. 307, 308.
CHAPTER IV. THE PEOPLE OF THE PAMLICO
Lawson, John. History of North Carolina, 1714. Edited by Frances Latham Harriss, 1937, p. 84, 85, 177.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955, p. 5.
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 6, 10, 115.
Connor, R. D. W. History of North Carolina, I, p. 377-395.
Grimes, J. Bryan. North Carolina Wills and Inventories, referred to by name.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh. 1886-1890. Vol. I. p. 594, 595, 708-715. Vol. II, p. 584. Vol. IV. p. 680. Vol. VIII. p. 159.
———North Carolina. A Guide to the Old North State. Compiled and written by The Federal Writers Project of the Federal Works Agency, W. P. A. (hereafter N. C. Guide) p. 64, 65.
———Encyclopedia Brittanica, Ninth Edition, 1895. p. 251, 252.
Deed Books. Office of the Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, Washington, N. C. Book 1, p. 41.
Will Books. Office of the Secretary of State, N. C. Book 2, p. 98.
Johnston, F. B., Waterman, T. T. The Early Architecture of North Carolina, 1941. p. 3, 26, 27.
Van Loon, Hendrik. America. p. 141-145.
CHAPTER V. BATH TOWNDeed Books. Office of the Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, Washington, N. C. Book 1, p. 43, 49, 52 to 65, 84, 85, 87, 91, 151, 161, 185, 213 to 234, 273, 274, 325, 351. Book 5. p. 463, 464.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. I. p. 714, 715, 778, 867. Vol. II. p. ix, xvi, 236, 321, 322, 342, 429, 587, 608, 619. Vol. III. p. 284, 285. Vol. IV. p. 292, 293.
———State Records of North Carolina. Vol. XXIII. p. 115.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955, p. 7, 10, 37, 39, 40.
McCrady, Edward. South Carolina Under Proprietary Government, 1670-1719. p. 717, 718.
Grimes, J. Bryan. North Carolina Wills and Inventories. p. 280, 281.
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 52, 63, 64.
Hawks, F. L. History of North Carolina. p. 546.
CHAPTER VI. THE CARY REBELLIONAndrews, C. M. The Colonial Period of American History, Vol. III, p. 261, 262.
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954, p. 52, 54, 55, 58, 60, 126, 153.
Lefler, Hugh T. North Carolina, History, Geography, Government, 1959. p. 90, 91, 92, 93, 502.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955, p. 17, 18, 19.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. I, p. 697, 776, 785-788, 792, 795, 796, 802-804, 806, 818, 819. Vol. II, p. 8, 53.
CHAPTER VII. THE TUSCARORA WARLawson, John. History of North Carolina, 1714. Edited by Frances Latham Harriss, 1937. p. 256.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955. p. 19, 25, 28, 29.
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 56-60, 146.
Sondley, F. A. History of Buncombe County, 1930. p. 15, 24.
McCrady, Edward. South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1899. p. 350, 499, 526.
Ashe, S. A. History of North Carolina, 1908. p. 187, 190.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. I. p. 812, 821, 825, 826, 827, 841, 843, 852, 872, 933, 935, 943, 945.
CHAPTER VIII. CROWN COLONY—1729-1752Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 37, 67, 138, 140, 145.
Andrews, C. M. The Colonial Period of American History. Vol. III, p. 246.
Connor, R. D. W. History of North Carolina, I, p. 264, 265.
———North Carolina Guide, p. 468.
Sondley, F. A. History of Buncombe County, Vol. I, p. 306.
Bonner, R. T. Beaufort County. (Newspaper article).
Deed Books. Office Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, Washington, N. C. Book 1, p. 68; Book 2, p. 2, 263, 331, 332, 347; Book 2-3, p. 39; Book 3, p. 331; Book 4, p. 5, 48, 49, 348; Book 7, p. 262, 263; Book 9, p. 81; Book 16, p. 261, 262.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor). Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh,
1886-1890. Vol. II, p. 608, 619; Vol. III, p. iii, v, viii, xiii, xvi, 168, 285, 301, 612, 641, 642, 562; Vol. IV. p. x, 46, 352, 401, 485, 512, 558, 733-735, 783, 1052; Vol. V. p. xxxix; Vol. VI. p. 662, 734, 735.
———State Records of North Carolina, Vol. XXIII, p. 238.
CHAPTER IX. CROWN COLONY—1753-1775Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 157, 176, 177, 181, 184, 185, 187.
Hawks, F. L. History of North Carolina, Vol. II, p. 66.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955. p. 52, 53.
Rodman, L. T. History of Beaufort County, N. C. Typescript, Wilson Library, UNC, C-970, J28.
Cooper, F. H. Some Colonial History of Beaufort County, The James Sprunt Hist. Pub. N. C. Hist. Soc. Vol. 14, No. 2.
Olds, J. A. History of Beaufort County, Newspaper Article, Edmund Harding Files.
Gallagher, C. K. Marital Experiences of Alexander Stewart. Newspaper Article, Edmund Harding Files.
DeMond, R. O. Loyalists in North Carolina During the Revolution. p. 255-257.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. IV, p. 222; Vol. V, p. iii, iv, v, xxiii, xxxix, 144f, 144g, 161, 534, 561, 575, 603; Vol. VI, p. 454-511, 562, 1082; Vol. VIII, p. 574, 702; Vol. IX, p. 15, 152, 153, 1041-1049, 1178.
———State Records of North Carolina. Vol. XXII, p. 310; Vol. XXIII, p. 680, 681; Vol. XXIV. p. 1, 2.
Deed Books. Office of Register of Deeds, Beaufort County. Washington, N. C. Book 2, p. 36, 37.
———North Carolina Gazette, Wilmington, N. C. 27 November, 1765, 12 and 26 Feb. 1766.
CHAPTER X. WASHINGTONLefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 221.
Rodman, L. T. Historical Beaufort County. Newspaper Article, files of E. H. Harding.
Bonner, L. T. Historical Homes, Washington, N. C. Wilson Library, UNC, Cb 971.7 W 31 r.
Bonner, R. T. and L. H. Facts About Washington. Newspaper Article, files of E. H. Harding.
Beacham, Maybelle. History of Beaufort County, N. C. Training School Quarterly, Dec. 1920. V 8, No. 1
Strothers, D. H. The Old South Illustrated, UNC Press, 1959. Edited by Cecil D. Eby, Jr.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor) Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh 1886-1890. Vol. IX. p. 152, 153.
———State Records of North Carolina. Vol. XI, p. 825; Vol. XXII, p. 597, 598; Vol. XXIV. p. 458, 459, 764, 765.
Deed Books. Office of Register of Deeds, Beaufort County. Book 1, p. 523; Book 2, p. 21, 521; Book 3, p. 5, 155, 157, 158; Book 4, p. 253, 469; Book 5, p. 374; Book 7, p. 179; Book 25, p. 218.
CHAPTER XI. WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE.Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 194, 195, 196-198, 201, 202, 225, 228.
Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution, Edited by J. R. Alden. Vol. I, p. 365, 367, 371; Vol. II, p. 543, 596, 665, 695, 737, 845, 849.
DeMond, R. O. Loyalists in North Carolina During the Revolution. p. 177.
Warren, Lindsay. List of Office Holders from Beaufort County. Typescript.
Connor, R. D. W. History of North Carolina, Chapter V. p. 28-30.
Saunders, W. L. (Editor). Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. X. p. 94, 98, 165, 166, 206, 207.
———State Records of North Carolina. Vol. XI, p. 637; Vol. XIV, p. 210; Vol. XIII, p. 188, 198; Vol. XXIV. p. 1, 2.
CHAPTER XII. SOVEREIGN STATELefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 239-242, 261-269, 273, 275, 332-335, 414.
———North Carolina—A Guide to the Old North State. N. C. Dept. of Conservation and Development, 1939. p. 74, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83.
Warren, Lindsay C. Beaufort County's Contribution to a Notable Era of North Carolina History. G. P. O. 1930.
Warren, Lindsay C. List of Office Holders from Beaufort County. Typescript.
Hoffman, W. S. North Carolina in the Mexican War—1846-1848.
Rodman, L. T. History of Beaufort County, N. C. Typescript, Wilson Library, UNC, C-970, j28.
———United States Census, 1860.
CHAPTER XIII. RELIGION AND THE CHURCHESLefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 48, 49, 123-128.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955, p. 13, 49, 52.
Harding, E. H. St. Peter's Parish, Washington, North Carolina, 1822-1922. Booklet.
Bonner, John B. History of St. John's Episcopal Church, Bonnerton, North Carolina. Mimeograph.
Wiswall, Sadie. The Churches of Washington. Typescript.
Tankard, M. C. Washington Churches. Typescript.
———Memoirs of the Church and Congregation of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, Washington, Beaufort County, 1848. Mimeograph.
———Gospel Light, Eastern North Carolina's Christian Newspaper. Vol. 2, No. 5, Washington, N. C. November, 1941.
———The First Presbyterian Church, Washington North Carolina, 1823-1948. Booklet.
Deed Books. Office Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, N. C. Book 8, 177, 299; Book 13, 185; Book 14, p. 9; Book 15, 286; Book 16, 176; Book 17, 237, 286; Book 21, 161; Book 22, 181; Book 23, 300; Book 29, 95; Book 32, 476; Book 36, 29; Book 38, 377; Book 39, 339; Book 60, 162; Book 63, 274; Book 66, 518; Book 69, 175; Book 71, 52; Book 74, 568.
Saunders, W. L. Colonial Records of North Carolina, Raleigh, 1886-1890. Vol. I, 709, 710; Vol. II, 624; Vol. III, 187; Vol. VI, 316, 734, 976, 977, 995, 996; Vol. VII, 495.
CHAPTER XIV. EDUCATION, SCHOOLS, AND THE PRESSBeachman, Maybelle. Beaufort County, North Carolina History. Training School Quarterly, Dec. 1920, Vol. 8, No. 1.
Boyd, W. K. History of North Carolina—The Federal Period. Vol. II. p. 354, 355, 356.
Cooper, F. H. Some Colonial History of Beaufort County. The James Sprunt Historical Publications, N. C. Historical Society, Vol. 14, No. 2.
George, J. A. History of Education in Washington, N. C. Public School Annual Report.
Grimes, J. Bryan. North Carolina Wills and Inventories. As indexed by name.
———A Guide to the Old North State. p. 67, 78, 79.
Lefler, Hugh T. A History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 132-137, 139.
Paschal, H. R. A History of Colonial Bath, 1955. p. 5, 55.
Paschal, G. W. A History of Printing in North Carolina. p. 1.
Rodman, L. T. Beaufort County North Carolina History, A typescript, UNC Library.
———News and Observer, Raleigh, N. C. 17 Nov. 1907, The Washington, N. C. Edition.
———Historic Chocowinity. The Chieftain, Mimeograph, High School Year Book.
———Washington Daily News, 1936. Reunion of Old Trinity.
———North Carolina Room, Wilson Library, U. N. C. File copies of The Whig, North State Whig, Eastern Intelligencer, Washington Gazette, Evening Messenger.
Warren, Lindsey C.: Newspapers Published in Washington, N. C. Compiled from History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820, Bringham, Vol. II. Union List of Newspapers, 1821-1936, and Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals.
Deed Books. Office of the Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, Book 2, p. 58; Book 27, p. 41.
———North Carolina State Records. XXIV, p. 764, 765.
CHAPTER XV. TRANSPORTATION, COMMERCE, ANDINDUSTRY
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 89-93, 94-99.
Lawson, John. History of North Carolina, 1714, Edited by Frances Latham Harriss, 1937. p. 173, 174.
Strother, D. H. Old South Illustrated. Edited by C. B. Eby, Jr. p. 187-190.
Grimes, Bryan, Notes on Colonial North Carolina.
Sondley, F. A. History of Buncombe County, N. C. 1930. Vol. II. p. 750, 839-843.
Rodman, L. T. Newspaper Article. Edmund Harding Scrap Book.
Bonner, R. T. Newspaper Article. Edmund Harding Scrap Book.
Rumley, Mary P. Newspaper Article. Edmund Harding Scrap Book. (These articles were probably printed in the Washington Daily News, but name of paper and date not included in clipping.)
Waynick, Capus. North Carolina Roads and Their Builders, 1952. Moseley Map of 1733, p. 74, 75.
Deed Books. Office Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, N. C. Washington, N. C. Book 2, p. 56, 66; Book 21, p. 17, 80, 127; Book 23, p. 195; Book 44, p. 446.
———State Records of North Carolina. Vol. XIX, p. 143; Vol. XXIII, p. 98, 222, 667. Vol. XXVI, p. 254-267, U. S. Census, 1790.
———Eastern Intelligencer, Washington, N. C. File cpoies in Wilson Library, U.N.C.
CHAPTER XVI. THE WAR FOR SOUTHERN INDEPENDENCE
Lefler, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 426-436.
LaBree, Ben. (Editor). The Confederate Soldier in the Civil War, 1895. p. 67, 88, 89, 343-375; 377-379.
Rogers, H. M. Memories of Ninety Years, p. 99, 100.
Warren, Lindsay C. Beaufort County's Contribution to a Notable Era of North Carolina History. G. P. O. 1930.
———The Confederate Reveille, Memorial Edition, Washington, N. C. 10 May, 1898.
———The Chieftain, Historical Edition, 1952, Chocowinity High School.
Rodman, L. T. History of Beaufort County. Typescript.
———Battle of Washington, N. C. Putman, 1863, p. 608, 609.
———History of Washington, N. C. Confederate Occupancy of Plymouth and Washington, April, 1864. N. C. Collection, Wilson Library, UNC, Chapel Hill.
———North Carolina—A Guide to the Old North State. 1939. p. 45-47.
CHAPTER XVII. AFTERMATH OF DEFEATLefter, Hugh T. The History of a Southern State—North Carolina, 1954. p. 456, 459, 460, 463-473.
Warren, Lindsay C. Beaufort County's Contribution to a Notable Era of North Carolina History. G. P. O. 1930.
Rogers, H. M. Memories of Ninety Years. p. 130-134.
Bowers, Claude. The Tragic Era. p. 14, 18.
———United States Census Reports, 1860, 1870, 1900.
Rodman, L. T. History of Beaufort County. Typescript.
APPENDIX ASTATE OR FEDERAL OFFICIALS ELECTED OR APPOINTED
FROM, OR WHO AT ONE TIME LIVED IN PAMPTE-
COUGH PRECINCT OR BEAUFORT PRECINCT
OR COUNTY
1705 to 1899
I. GOVERNORS
Robert Daniel, Proprietary, 1704-1705
Thomas Cary, Proprietary, 1705-1706
Thomas Cary, Proprietary, 1708-1711
Charles Eden, Proprietary, 1714-1718*
Matthew Rowan, Royal, 1753-1754†
Daniel G. Fowle, State, 1889-1891‡
* Eden moved to Chowan County in 1718, where he lived until his death in 1722.† Matthew Rowan lived in Bath Town prior to his appointment as Governor.‡ Fowle was a native of Beaufort County.II. LIEUTENANT GOVERNORSEdward J. Warren, State, 1871-1872*
* As President Pro Tem of the Senate, Warren replaced Lt. Gov. Caldwell when Caldwell became Governor after the impeachment of Governor Holden.III. MEMBERS OF THE GOVERNOR'S COUNCIL| PROPRIETARY, ROYAL, OR COUNCIL OF STATE | |
| Christopher Gale, Proprietary | Thomas Bonner, State |
| Edward Moseley, Proprietary | Thomas Respess, State |
| Matthew Rowan, Royal | John Gray Blount, State |
| Robert Palmer, Royal | Joshua Tayloe, State |
Christopher Gale, Chief Justice for North Carolina, 1711-1718
Tobias Knight, Chief Justice of North Carolina, March 1718
Christopher Gale, Chief Justice of North Carolina, 1720-1729
James E. Shepherd, Chief Justice, N. C. Supreme Court, 1893-1895
Edwin G. Reade, Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1865-1878
William B. Rodman, Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1868-1879
James E. Shepherd, Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1889-1893
George H. Brown, Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1905-1921
Wm. B. Rodman, III, Associate Justice, Supreme Court, 1956-
V. SUPERIOR COURT| Edward J. Warren, 1865-1868 | George H. Brown, 1888-1904 |
| James E. Shepherd, 1883-1888 | Stephen C. Bragaw, 1911-1914 |
VI. ATTORNEY GENERAL
| Edward Stanley, 1846-1848 | Harry McMullen, 1938-1955 |
| Wm. B. Rodman, III, 1955-1956 |
| 1788 | Nathan Keais, John Gray Blount, Charles Crawford, James Bonner, and Thomas Alderson. |
| 1789 | John Gray Blount, William Brown, Richard Grist, Alderson Ellison, and Silas Arnett. |
| 1835 | Joshua Tayloe and Richard Bonner. |
| 1861 | Edward J. Warren, William J. Ellison, and Richard Donnell. |
| 1868 | William B. Rodman and William Stilley. |
| 1875 | James E. Shepherd. |
| William Kennedy, 1803-1805 | Edward Stanley, 1849-1852 |
| William Kennedy, 1809-1811 | W. A. B. Branch, 1891-1895 |
| William Kennedy, 1812-1815* | John H. Small, 1899-1921 |
| Edward Stanley, 1837-1843 | H. S. Ward, 1921-1923 |
| Henry S. Clark, 1845-1847 | Lindsay C. Warren, 1923-1940 |
| Richard Donnell, 1847-1849 | Herbert C. Bonner, 1940- |
IX. COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES
Lindsay C. Warren, 1940-1954
APPENDIX BMEMBERS OF THE LOWER HOUSE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
FOR BATH COUNTY, PAMPTECOUGH AND BEAUFORT
PRECINCTS, BATH TOWN, AND BEAUFORT COUNTY
1697-1775
| Year | |
| 1696 | Bath County Erected |
| 1697 | Capt. Richard Smith and Capt. Nicholas Daw, Reps. |
| 1705 | Pamptecough Precinct created |
| 1712 | Pamptecough Precinct changed to Beaufort Precinct, in honor of Henry, Duke of Beaufort, who was made Palatine of Carolina in that year. |
| 1722 | Edward Moseley, Speaker of House |
| 1723 | Edward Moseley, Speaker of the House |
| 1725 | Maurice Moore, Speaker of the House |
| 1726 | John B. Ashe and Joshua Porter (Ashe Speaker) |
| 1729 | Beaufort Precinct became Beaufort County |
| REPRESENTATIVES OF | ||
| Beaufort County | Bath Town | |
| 1731 | Edward Salter, Simon Alderson | Roger Kenyon |
| 1733 | Robert Turner, Dr. Patrick Maule | John Lahey |
| 1734 | Robert Turner, Edward Salter | Roger Kenyon |
| 1735 | Robert Turner, Dr. Patrick Maule | Roger Kenyon |
| 1736 | Robert Turner, Dr. Patrick Maule | Roger Kenyon |
| 1740 | Simon Alderson, Benjamin Peyton | Richard Rigby |
| 1742 | Simon Alderson, Benjamin Peyton | Robert Turner |
| 1744 | John Barrow, Benjamin Peyton | Michael Coutanch |
| 1745 | John Barrow, Benjamin Peyton | Michael Coutanch |
| 1746 | John Barrow, Benjamin Peyton | Wyriot Ormond |
| 1747 | John Barrow, Benjamin Peyton | Michael Coutanch |
| 1749 | John Barrow, Wyriot Ormond | Michael Coutanch |
| 1753 | John Barrow, Wyriot Ormond | Michael Coutanch |
| 1754 | John Harvey, Wm. Spier | Michael Coutanch |
| 1755 | John Harvey, Wm. Spier | Michael Coutanch |
| 1758 | John Harvey, Wm. Spier | Michael Coutanch |
| 1760 | John Barrow, John Simpson | Michael Coutanch |
| 1761 | John Barrow, Thomas Respess | Robert Palmer |
| 1762 | John Barrow, James Ellison | Wyriot Ormond |
| 1764 | John Barrow, Thomas Bonner | Wyriot Ormond |
| 1766 | John Barrow, Thomas Bonner | Patrick Gordon |
| 1767 | John Barrow, Thomas Bonner | Peter Bliss |
| 1769 | James Bonner, Moses Hare | Wyriot Ormond |
| 1717 | James Bonner, Wyriot Ormond | John Marle |
| 1773 | Thomas Respess, Roger Ormond | Wyriot Ormond |
| 1774 | Thomas Respess, Roger Ormond | Wm. Brown |
| 1775 | Thomas Respess, Roger Ormond | Wm. Brown |
| REPRESENTATIVES TO PROVINICAL CONGRESS FROM BEAUFORT COUNTY | ||
| 1774 | Thomas Respess, Roger Ormond, Wm. Salter | Wm. Brown |
| April | ||
| 1775 | Thomas Respess, Roger Ormond, Wm. Salter | Wm. Brown |
| August | ||
| 1775 | Thomas Respess, Roger Ormond, John Patton, John Cooper | Wm. Brown |
| 1776 | Thomas Respess, John Barrow, Francis Jones, Thomas Respess, Jr., Robert Tripp | Wm. Brown |
| MEMBERS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY FROM BEAUFORT COUNTY, 1777 to 1961 | ||
| Senate | Lower House | |
| 1777 | Thomas Respess | Nathan Keas, William Brown |
| 1778 | Thomas Respess | Alderson Ellison, William Brown* |
| 1779 | Thomas Respess | Robert Tripp, John Kennedy |
| 1780 | Thomas Respess | William Brown, Samuel Willis |
| 1781 | William Brown | Charles Crawford, Thos. A. Grist |
| 1782 | William Brown | Richard N. Stevens, John G. Blount |
| 1783 | William Brown | Thos. Anderson, John G. Blount |
| 1784 | John Smaw | Thos. Anderson, John G. Blount |
| 1785 | John Smaw | Thos. Anderson, John G. Blount |
| 1786 | John Bonner | John G. Blount, Henry Smaw |
| 1787 | John Bonner† | John G. Blount, Henry Smaw |
| 1788 | William Brown | John G. Blount, Henry Smaw |
| 1789 | William Brown | John G. Blount, Richard Grist |
| 1791 | John Kennedy | Richard Blackledge, John Lanier |
| 1792 | Richard Blackledge | John Lanier, James Bonner |
| 1793 | Richard Blackledge | Charles Crawford, Frederic Grist |
| 1795 | Richard Blackledge | Charles Crawford, Frederic Grist |
| 1796 | John G. Blount | John Kennedy, Jr., Thomas Ellison |
| 1797 | Hans Patton | Frederic Grist, Thomas Ellison |
| 1800 | Henry S. Bonner | John Kennedy, Jr., Frederic Grist |
| 1801 | Henry S. Bonner | John Kennedy, Jr., Frederic Grist |
| 1802 | Henry S. Bonner | Frederick Grist, Thomas Ellison |
| 1803 | Henry S. Bonner | Frederic Grist, Thomas Ellison |
| 1804 | N. W. Bonner | Frederic Grist, Thomas Ellison |
| 1805 | Thomas Smaw | Stephen Owens, Frederic Grist |
| 1806 | Thomas Smaw | Stephen Owens, Frederic Grist |
| 1807 | Thomas Smaw | James Williams, Frederic Grist |
| 1808 | Frederic Grist | James Williams, Jonathan Marsh |
| 1809 | Frederic Grist | James Williams, Thomas Boyd |
| 1810 | Frederic Grist | James Williams, Thomas Boyd |
| 1811 | Frederic Grist | James Latham, Everard Hall |
| 1812 | Thomas Bowen | James Latham, George Boyd |
| 1813 | Stephen Owens | William Worsley, Slade Pearce |
| 1814 | Reading Grist | J. O. K. Williams, George Boyd |
| Date | Senate | Lower House |
| 1815 | Reading Grist | J. O. K. Williams, Thomas Latham |
| 1816 | Reading Grist | J. O. K. Williams, William Vines |
| 1817 | Reading Grist | Thomas Latham, William Vines |
| 1818 | Reading Grist | Thomas Latham, Jesse Robeson |
| 1819 | Richard Hines | Jesse Robeson, John S. Smallwood |
| 1821 | Jesse Robeson | Thomas W. Blackledge, J. Adams |
| 1822 | J. O. K. Williams | Thomas W. Blackledge, Wm. Ormond |
| 1823 | J. O. K. Williams | Thomas W. Blackledge, Wm. Ormond |
| 1824 | J. O. K. Williams | Thomas W. Blackledge, James Satchwell |
| 1825 | J. O. K. Williams | William A. Blount, Thomas Ellison |
| 1826 | J. O. K. Williams | William A. Blount, Thomas Ellison |
| 1827 | J. O. K. Williams | William A. Blount, T. W. Blackledge |
| 1828 | J. O. K. Williams | T. W. Blackledge, Thomas Latham |
| 1829 | Jos. B. Hinton | S. Smallwood, J. W. Williams |
| 1830 | Jos. B. Hinton | S. Smallwood, J. W. Williams |
| 1831 | W. S. Rowland | Richard H. Bonner, David O. Freeman |
| 1832 | Jos. B. Hinton | Richard H. Bonner, Henry S. Clark |
| 1833 | Wm. E. Smaw | Wm. L. Kennedy, S. Smallwood |
| 1834 | J. McWilliams | Henry S. Clark, S. Smallwood |
| 1835 | J. O. K. Williams | Henry S. Clark, S. Smallwood |
| 1836 | J. O. K. Williams | S. Smallwood, F. C. Satterthwaite |
| 1838 | J. O. K. Williams | Wm. A. Blount, Jno. McWilliams |
| 1840 | William Selby | J. O. K. Williams, S. P. Allen |
| 1842 | W. B. Hodges | S. P. Allen, J. W. Williams |
| 1844 | Joshua Tayloe | Edward Stanley, Frederic Grist |
| 1846 | David Carter | Edward Stanley, Thomas D. Smaw |
| 1848 | Thomas D. Smaw | Edward Stanley, W. W. Hayman |
| 1850 | Allen Grist | Jesse Stubbs, Wm. H. Tripp |
| 1852 | Hyde County | Jesse Stubbs, Wm. H. Tripp |
| 1854 | Allen Grist | Jesse Stubbs, Wm. H. Tripp |
| 1856 | Allen Grist | Jesse Stubbs, Jehu Eborn |
| 1858 | Richard S. Donnell | Thos. Sparrow, Samuel Windley |
| 1860 | Frederic Grist | Richard S. Donnell, W. T. Marsh |
| 1862 | Edward J. Warren | Richard S. Donnell, W. M. Carter |
| 1864 | Edward J. Warren | Richard S. Donnell, W. M. Carter |
| 1865 | Edward J. Warren | Richard S. Donnell, Wm. Stilley |
| 1866 | Isiah Respess | Henry Harding, J. C. Gorham |
| 1868 | John H. Respess | H. E. Stilley |
| 1870 | Edward J. Warren | Thomas Sparrow |
| 1872 | John H. Respess | Samuel Corson |
| 1874 | Hyde County | W. H. Thompson |
| 1876 | Tyrrell County | D. W. Jarvis |
| 1879 | J. T. Respess | S. F. Osborne |
| 1881 | J. T. Respess | Thomas Sparrow |
| 1883 | Pamlico County | Enoch S. Simmons |
| 1885 | Martin & Hyde Cos. | W. H. Patrick |
| 1887 | Chas. F. Warren | B. W. Waters |
| Date | Senate | Lower House |
| 1889 | Martin & Hyde | J. S. Marsh |
| 1891 | Hyde & Wash. Cos. | J. R. Galloway |
| 1893 | J. S. Marsh | J. R. Lowe |
| 1895 | Hyde & Martin | F. B. Hooker |
| 1897 | Martin & Wash. | H. E. Hodges |
| 1899 | Pamlico & Wash. | B. B. Nicholson |
| 1901 | Pamlico & Wash. | B. B. Nicholson |
| 1903 | Hyde & Tyrrell | F. B. Hooker, B. P. Sugg |
| 1905 | Stephen C. Bragaw | J. H. Harris, W. A. B. Branch |
| 1907 | Dare & Martin | F. B. Hooker, W. K. Jacobson |
| 1909 | F. P. Latham | F. B. Hooker, J. F. Latham |
| 1911 | Hyde & Martin | W. A. Thompson, J. F. Latham |
| 1913 | George J. Studdert | W. C. Rodman |
| 1915 | Tyrrell & Martin | J. L. Mayo |
| 1917 | Lindsay C. Warren | W. M. Butt |
| 1919 | Lindsay C. Warren | W. M. Butt |
| 1921 | Tyrrell & Martin | W. M. Butt |
ROSTERS OF THE WASHINGTON GRAYS AND BEAUFORT
PLOUGHBOYS
I. ORIGINAL WASHINGTON GRAYS
| Sparrow, Thomas, Captain | Thomas, A. J., Third Lieut. |
| Shaw, Wm., Jr., First Lieut. | Cowell, Benjamin, Ensign |
| Whitehurst, J. J., Second Lieut. | McDonald, John M., Surgeon |
| Carmer, J. R. H., 1st Sgt. | Stevenson, W. M., 1st Corp. |
| Robbins, Thomas A., 2nd Sgt. | Hall, Harrison, 2nd Corp. |
| Potts, J. R., 3rd Sgt. | Mastin, C. M., 3rd Corp. |
| Gautier, D. A., 4th Sgt. | Cordon, W. W., 4th Corp. |
| Von Eberstein, W. H., 5th Sgt. |
| Blount, J. M. | Jenkins, W. H. | Respess, Henry |
| Bond, J. F. | Johnson, J. H. | Respess, J. J. |
| Bridgeman, S. | Labarbe, L. J. | Richardson, G. W. |
| Brown, J. L. | Lanier, Samuel | Rogers, Samuel |
| Buxtarf, F. | Latham, J. G. | Satterthwaite, L. E. |
| Clark, R. H. | Latham, T. J. | Satterthwaite, T. H. |
| Cornell, Ezra | Latham, W. W. | Satterthwaite, W. E. |
| Cornell, J. W. | Liddon, D. S. | Schenk, S. G. |
| Davis, J. M. | Lilley, W. B. | Shaw, E. B. |
| Doughtry, C. H. | Longman, J. | Shaw, R. B. |
| Eborn, N. O. | Mallison, Chas. | Stalling, J. E. |
| Ellison, J. E. | McCullough, J. A. | Stalling, S. R. |
| Ellison, T. H. | McLoughlin, M. | Swindell, F. M. |
| Fulford, Erwin | Mohrn, Chas. | Thomas, C. C. |
| Gallagher, C. K. | Mooring, W. B. | Thomas, J. A. |
| Goffin, Wm. | Morton, V. R. | Treadwell, A. |
| Grimmer, W. L. | Myers, W. B. | Voliva, J. P. |
| Grist, A., Jr. | Ott, Godfrey | Wallace, J. M. |
| Grist, S. L. | Parvin, W. H. | Waters, Asa. |
| Hancock, J. B. | Pate, Jos. | Waters, Bartemus |
| Hancock, W. H. | Patrick, W. H. | Waters, J. C. |
| Hanks, W. H. | Pedrick, W. J. | Whitecar, J. R. |
| Hardenberg, S. | Pugh, W. W. | Whitehead, J. S. |
| Hardenberg, T. A. | Quinn, L. C. | Williams, S. W. |
| Harrell, Samuel | Reany, H. S. | Willis, W. B. |
| Harrison, Thomas | Redditt, D. E. | Wilson, Chas. |
| Harvey, W. H. | Reid, L. H. | Woolard, H. K. |
| Hawkins, J. W. | Woolard, J. B. | |
| Jarvis, O. | Wooten, J. O. |
II. REORGANIZED WASHINGTON GRAYS
| COMPANY K, 10TH REGIMENT, NORTH CAROLINA, ARTILLERY | |
| Shaw, William, Jr., Captain | Blount, John M., 2nd Lieut. |
| Thomas, A. J., First Lieut. | Fulford, Irvin, 3rd Lieut. |
| Cordon, Wm. W., 1st Sgt. | Woolard, Henry R., 1st Corp. |
| Latham, Jesse, G., 2nd Sgt. | Norman, James S., 2nd Corp. |
| Brinson, Wm. G., 3rd Sgt. | Clark, Robert H., 3rd Corp. |
| Reany, John E., 4th Sgt. | Hobbs, George A., 4th Corp. |
| Woolard, Jacob B., 5th Sgt. | Clark, Henry S., Musician |
| Privates: | ||
| Atmore, Sitgreaves | Harrell, S. M. | Pugh, W. W. |
| Atkinson, W. E. | Hawkins, J. M. | Parvin, W. H. |
| Bond, John E. | Hardison, W. S. | Pedrick, W. J. |
| Bell, P. H. | Hardison, J. B. | Pate, James |
| Brimer, Anthony | Haroldson, Brice | Perry, L. H. |
| Battle, George C. | Hicks, E. F. | Quinn, L. C. |
| Brooks, Wm. A. | Holt, J. H. | Richardson, G. W. |
| Bordeaux, James | Hancock, Zimariah | Rayfield, E. J. |
| Buckhart, A. | Ireland, H. B. | Rawls, J. J. |
| Buxtarf, F. | Jones, D. S. | Reany, H. J. |
| Corbin, Ed. | Kennedy, L. B. | Respess, Henry |
| Cowell, Wm. B. | Kirby, Dixon | Roberson, Harrison |
| Cason, B. F. | King, J. A. | Stalling, J. E. |
| Cuthbertson, D. V. | Laughinghouse, Wyatt | Stalling, S. R. |
| Canoy, J. H. | Little, A. H. | Sanford, J. L. |
| Cooper, J. L. | Labarbe, L. J. | Sparrow, A. T. |
| Congleton, Owen | Liddon, D. S. | Stanley, T. H. |
| Chambers, J. G. | Leggett, U. S. | Stout, J. A. |
| Davis, J. M. | Lilly, W. B. | Stancil, G. A. |
| Dymott, R. E. | Liverman, Jesse | Secrest, L. A. |
| Dill, S. L. | Lamont, J. A. | Utley, Miraen |
| Earls, Daniel | Leach, Hugh | Voliva, J. P. |
| Ethridge, Roscoe | Mohn, Charles | Vaughn, J. W. |
| Ellis, C. T. | Mallison, W. C. | Vinson, Benjamin |
| English, R. L. | Mallison, D. B. | Waters, Bartemus |
| Frazer, Murdock | Maness, L. W. | Waters, Asa |
| Fun, J. B. | Maness, M. G. | Waters, J. C. |
| French, G. R. | Moore, W. E. | Williams, D. M. |
| Gaines, W. J. | Mooring, W. B. | Williams, S. M. |
| Gautier, E. A. | Melvin, Wm. | Willis, W. B. |
| Grant, S. E. | Murphy, Miles | Willis, C. J. |
| Gurganus, J. R. | McIntosh, Daniel | Whitaker, J. R. |
| Geer, Edwin | Murph, W. J. | Watson, W. J. |
| Goffin, Wm. | Nichols, Hazard | Wright, J. L. |
| Harvey, W. H. | Ott, Godfrey | Whitley, T. S. |
| COMPANY B, 61ST REGIMENT, NORTH CAROLINA INFANTRY | |
| Harding, Henry, Captain* | Jarvis, D. W., 3rd Lieut.‡ |
| Satterthwaite, Thomas, 1st Lieut | Patrick, W. H., 3rd Lieut.§ |
| Stevenson, W. H., 2nd Lieut.† | |
| Redditt, D. F., 1st Sgt. | Bell, Noah, 1st Corp. |
| Bridgeman, Seth, 2nd Sgt. | Pedrick, W. J., 2nd Corp. |
| Shavender, Thomas, 3rd Sgt. | Satterthwaite, Jas., 3rd Corp. |
| Respess, Jas. T., 4th Sgt. | Wilkinson, T. J., 4th Corp. |
| Richards, Wm., 5th Sgt. |
| Privates: | ||
| Archbald, Wm. | Ecklen, Thomas | Pate, Joseph |
| Allegood, Zachariah | Hamilton, John | Pierce, James |
| Angel, John | Harding, Joseph | Purvis, John |
| Bishop, S. C. | Harding, Wm. F. | Perkins, Thomas |
| Brimm, T. F. | Harrell, Elijah | Quidley, Richard |
| Bradley, Wm. F. | Hill, H. G. | Respess, John |
| Bates, John | Hill, H. H. | Ringgold, John |
| Beasley, Ashby | Hodges, Seth V. | Rue, Henry |
| Barefoot, John | Hussey, Joshua | Russ, Thomas |
| Cherry, John Q. | Jarvis, D. M. | Satterthwaite, H. D. |
| Cutler, Eli H. | Jones, Samuel | Satterthwaite, W. H. |
| Curry, David | Lanier, Sylvester | Searls, Marshal |
| Cersan, David | Latham, Jacob | Spears, Noah |
| Campbell, Wm. B. | McDavis, Peter | Snell, Samuel |
| Cozzens, Wm. | McWilliams, Peter | Staten, Redding |
| Demby, Wm. F. | Mallison, Charles | Stewart, Robert |
| Dunn, Bryan | Manning, Lorenzo | Styles, Trials |
| Daniel, Anson | Morris, John O. | Swindell, Ananias |
| Dunbar, Jas. | Mount, E. S. | Taylor, Richard |
| Edwards, John | Neal, Amos | Tetterton, Hosea |
| Edwards, Rial | Neal, Edward | Warner, Samuel |
| Edwards, David | Neal, John N. | Welch, Patrick |
| Edwards, Thomas | Neal, Wm. B. | Williamson, W. R. |
| Edwards, Emanuel | Owen, Stephen | Windley, Jacob |
APPENDIX D
PROVOST MARSHALS AND SHERIFFS
OF
BATH AND BEAUFORT COUNTIES
1696-1899
Prior to 1726, Robert Route of Albemarle, was Provost Marshal of the entire province, including Bath County. On 31 May, 1726, John Bonde of Bath Town was appointed Provost Marshal of Bath County, “as Mr. Route, Provost Marshal of the whole government could get no deputy to serve, and relinquished his interest in the county.”
From 1726 until 1729 the principal law officer of Bath County was the Provost Marshal. From 1729, when Beaufort Precinct became a county, and Bath County ceased to exist, until 1738, the principal law officer for Beaufort County was the Provost Marshal. Other early settlers who are known to have served as Provost Marshal of Bath or Beaufort Counties include Benjamin Peyton (1731) and Robert Tripp.
In 1738 the title of the principal law officer of Beaufort County was changed from Provost Marshal to Sheriff, or High Sheriff. “Pursuant to late law,” Wm. Ormond was appointed as the first Sheriff of Beaufort County.
Other sheriffs who followed Wm. Ormond, and the years in which they served, are listed below. These names and dates were obtained from the Deed Books in the Office of the Register of Deeds for Beaufort County, and are based upon land sold by the sheriff and recorded in these books. There may be some error as to dates, due to delay in recording sheriff sales.
| Year | Name | Year | Name |
| 1738-1739 | Wm. Ormond | 1794-1795 | John Smaw |
| 1739-1740 | John Barrow | 1795-1796 | John Kennedy |
| 1740-1754 | No Record | 1796-1797 | Lewis Blount |
| 1754-1755 | Thomas Williams | 1797-1798 | Isiah Woodard |
| 1755-1758 | James Ellison | 1798-1799 | Lewis Blount |
| 1758-1760 | Thomas Bonner | 1799-1801 | James Bonner |
| 1760-1762 | James Ellison | 1801-1806 | Stephen Owens |
| 1762-1764 | Thomas Respess | 1806-1807 | Wm. Smaw |
| 1764-1769 | Roger Ormond | 1807-1808 | Slade Pearce |
| 1769-1771 | Thomas Respess | 1808-1810 | Thomas Ellison |
| 1771-1780 | Alderson Ellison | 1810-1813 | Slade Pearce |
| 1780-1784 | No Record | 1813-1814 | Wm. Smaw |
| 1784-1785 | Richard Respess | 1814-1815 | Thomas Ellison |
| 1785-1786 | Alderson Ellison | 1815-1816 | Wm. Smaw |
| 1786-1787 | David Perkins | 1816-1817 | Slade Pearce |
| 1787-1788 | Edmond McKeel | 1817-1818 | Wm. Smaw |
| 1788-1791 | John Kennedy | 1818-1821 | Allen Grist |
| 1791-1792 | John Smaw | 1821-1822 | Stephen Owens |
| 1792-1793 | John Kennedy | 1822-1823 | Allen Grist |
| 1793-1794 | Isiah Woodard | 1823-1826 | Stephen Owens |
| Year | Name | Year | Name |
| 1826-1827 | Allen Grist | 1855-1860 | Jarvis B. Harding |
| 1827-1828 | Stephen Owens | 1860-1867 | No Record |
| 1828-1829 | Slade Pearce | 1867-1870 | S. T. Carrow |
| 1829-1830 | E. Clark | 1870-1871 | F. J. Satchwell |
| 1830-1831 | Allen Grist | 1871-1874 | W. B. Campbell |
| 1831-1832 | Stephen Owens | 1874-1876 | F. J. Satchwell |
| 1832-1838 | Allen Grist | 1876-1878 | S. T. Carrow |
| 1838-1839 | Wm. D. Roscoe | 1878-1881 | F. J. Satchwell |
| 1838-1845 | Allen Grist | 1881-1883 | S. T. Carrow |
| 1845-1855 | Henry A. Ellison | 1883-1899 | R. T. Hodges |
APPENDIX E
LIST OF FREEHOLDERS IN BEAUFORT AND HYDE PRECINCTS
1723
The 1723 General Assembly provided a list of Freeholders in Beaufort and Hyde Counties, who were eligible for jury duty. Unfortunately, this list does not state who lived in which county, as the seat of government for both was Bath Town, at that time. (N. C. State Records, Vol. XXV, p 189, 190.)
| 1. | Adams, John | 42. | Henderson, Thos. | 82. | Prichard, Abraham |
| 2. | Adams, John, Jr. | 43. | Hill, John | 83. | Porter, John |
| 3. | Alderson, Simon | 44. | Hill, Harmon | 84. | Pursel, John |
| 4. | Barras, Moses | 45. | Holt, Martin | 85. | Putnel, Wm. |
| 5. | Barley, Henry | 46. | Holmes, Lazarus | 86. | Reading, Lionel |
| 6. | Barrow, Wm. | 47. | Howell, Thomas | 87. | Rigney, John |
| 7. | Bayner, Phillip | 48. | Jackson, John | 88. | Salter, Edward |
| 8. | Bathurst, Jonathan | 49. | Jackson, Thomas | 89. | Sanderson, Benj. |
| 9. | Bathurst, Thomas | 50. | Jarvis, Fos. | 90. | Shingleton, Jas. |
| 10. | Blount, Thomas | 51. | Jasper, Samuel | 91. | Sigley, Wm. |
| 11. | Bond, John | 52. | Jones, Evan | 92. | Silvester, Richard |
| 12. | Bonner, Thomas | 53. | Jones, Walter | 93. | Slade, Benj. |
| 13. | Brice, Richard | 54. | Jones, Wm. | 94. | Slade, John |
| 14. | Bright, James | 55. | Kennion, Roger | 95. | Smith, Chas., Jr. |
| 15. | Bright, Henry | 56. | Lawson, John* | 96. | Smith, Henry |
| 16. | Bright, Simon | 57. | Lee, James | 97. | Smith, Oliver |
| 17. | Brock, John | 58. | Lee, James, Jr. | 98. | Smith, Thomas |
| 18. | Campain, Robert | 59. | Leith, John | 99. | Snoad, John |
| 19. | Carruthers, John | 60. | Lenare, Francis | 100. | Spring, Robert |
| 20. | Carruthers, Wm. | 61. | Lewis, Thomas | 101. | Stafford, Ed |
| 21. | Chester, John | 62. | Lewis, Wm. | 102. | Sulivant, John |
| 22. | Cooper, Samuel | 63. | Lewis, Wm., Jr. | 103. | Tart, Joseph |
| 23. | Cording, Wm. | 64. | Lillington, Elea. | 104. | Tice, Cor. |
| 24. | Cox, Daniel | 65. | Macheel, Anth. | 105. | Tooley, Thomas |
| 25. | Davis, John | 66. | Martin, John | 106. | Touchburg, James |
| 26. | Daw, Wm. | 67. | Martin, Wm. | 107. | Turner, Robert |
| 27. | Dudley, Chris. | 68. | Martin, Wm., Jr. | 108. | Tyee, Thomas |
| 28. | Dudley, Thomas | 69. | Mason, Roger | 109. | Wain, Thomas |
| 29. | Dupoise, David | 70. | May, Geo. (Moy) | 110. | Webster, Wm. |
| 30. | Duvain, Thomas | 71. | Morgan, Jos. | 111. | Weeks, Ezek. |
| 31. | Eburn, Henry | 72. | Mount, Thomas | 112. | Welch, James |
| 32. | Flanakin, Ed | 73. | Nixon, Richard | 113. | Wilkinson, Abra. |
| 33. | Flinn, Collurn | 74. | Odeen, Chas. | 114. | Williams, Wm. |
| 34. | Fourman, John | 75. | Odeen, John | 115. | Windey, Wm. |
| 35. | Giddeons, John | 76. | Pasfield, Thomas | 116. | Winn, Ed. |
| 36. | Giddeons, Thomas | 77. | Peirce, Ed. | 117. | Wood, Thomas |
| 37. | Gooding, Thomas | 78. | Perkins, David | 118. | Worsley, John |
| 38. | Hadley, Ed | 79. | Philip, Thomas | 119. | Worsley, Thomas |
| 39. | Hall, Jos. | 80. | Pitt, Richard | 120. | Worsley, Thos., Jr. |
| 40. | Harvey, John | 81. | Price, Peter | 121. | Wright, John |
| 41. | Harvey, Richard |
POPULATION OF BEAUFORT COUNTY AND THE TOWN OF
WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA
1723-1960
| Year | Beaufort County | Washington | ||||
| White | Negro | Total | White | Negro | Total | |
| 1723 | 1,200* | |||||
| 1755 | 2,800 | 1,200 | 4,000† | |||
| 1761 | 1,000 | 400 | 1,400‡ | |||
| 1790 | 3,701 | 1,761 | 5,462 | 470 | 80 | 550§ |
| 1860 | 8,160 | 6,606¶ | 14,766 | 1,384 | 215 | 1,599 |
| 1870 | 8,379 | 4,632 | 13,011 | 987 | 1,107 | 2,094 |
| 1880 | 17,474 | 2,462 | ||||
| 1900 | 19,068 | 7,336 | 26,404 | 2,292 | 2,550 | 4,842 |
| 1950 | 37,134 | 9,698 | ||||
| 1960 | 36,014 | 9,939 |
APPENDIX F
POPULATION OF THE TOWNS OF BEAUFORT COUNTY
| 1950 | 1960 | |
| North Carolina | 4,061,929 | 4,556,155 |
| Beaufort County | 37,134 | 36,014 |
| Washington | 9,698 | 9,939 |
| Belhaven | 2,528 | 2,386 |
| Aurora | 525 | 449 |
| Chocowinity | * | 580 |
| Washington Park | 421 | 574 |
| Bath | 381 | 346 |
| Pinetown | 301 | 215 |
| Blount's Creek | 300 | * |
| Pantego | 275 | 262 |
| Pike Road | 250 | * |
| Royal | 250 | * |
| Leechville | 200 | * |
| Pungo | 200 | * |
| Ransomville | 170 | * |
| Edward | 155 | 112 |
| South Creek | 108 | 82 |
| Bonnerton | 40 | * |
Based upon towns of 2,500 or more population as URBAN, the 1960 census shows the North Carolina State average as 39.5 per cent URBAN, and Beaufort County 27.6 per cent.
Other villages of Beaufort County whose population was included in the township total includes:
| Acre | Pamlico Beach |
| Bayview | Wilmar |
| Bunyan | Old Ford (Mineola) |
| Terra Ceia | |
| Yeatesville |
A
Abbot, Joseph C., U. S. Senator, 200
Academy Building, 112
Academy Curricula, 154
Act to Incorporate Town—1771, 98
Adams’ Battery, 176, 178, 179
Adams’ Creek, 27, 43, 47
Adams, James, SPG Missionary, 166
Adams, John, 89
Adams, Z. T., 1st Lieut., 177
Adjutant General, N. C. Militia, 94
Admiral of Queen's Forces, 63
Admiralty Court, 79
Advance, Blockade runner, 183, 184
Alabama, secedes, 133
Alamance, battle of, 97
Albemarle County, 12, 20, 22, 26, 28, 35, 44, 46, 51, 54, 58, 73, 142
Albemarle, Duke of, 10, 15
Albemarle, ironclad, 190, 191
Albemarle Sound, 1, 4, 12, 13, 66, 67, 81, 163
Alderson, John, Capt. Militia, 91
Alderson, Simon, 24, 43, 44, 81
Alderson, Simon, Jr., 63
Alderson, Symington, 79
Alderson, Thomas, 158
Aldridge, John, 104
Algonquin, Indians, 1
Allen, S. P., 129, 130
Allen, T. M., Capt., 179, 183
Amadas, Philip, Capt., 2, 3
America, 102, 110
American Colonies, 99
American grievances, 100
American Recorder, 158
American ships, stopped, 125
Amherst, Jeffrey, General, 7
Amidas, river steamer, 163
Anderson's Brigade, 179
Anderson, Hull, free Negro, 126, 172
Anderson, John, 172
Anderson, Sally, 172
Anglican Church, 57, 58, 141, 153
Anglican Missionaries, 64
Anglican Society (S.P.G.), 26
“Anglican Squat,” 141
Anne, Queen, 10, 27, 28, 59
Anson County, 86
Anthony, John, 168
Antibaptist, 142
Antietam, battle of, 179
Appomattox, surrender, 191
Aquascogok, 1, 3, 4
Archbell, John, 24
Archbell Point, 23, 27, 47, 49, 62
Archbell, W. N., 172
Archdale County, 22
Archdale, John, Governor, 7, 19, 22, 28, 57, 61, 135
Archdale Precinct, 73
Archives and History, State Dept. of, 53
Armstead, William, 168
Army of Northern Virginia, 178, 179, 180, 181
Arnette, Silas, 124
Arnold, Benedict, General, 118
Arnold, Thomas, 22, 24
Articles of Confederation, 122, 123, 124
Asbury, Francis, Bishop, 144
Ashe, John Baptiste, 56
Asheville Gazette, 159
Ashley River, 14
Asia, 1
Assembly, last Royal, 100
Atkinson, Thomas, Bishop, 141
Atlantic Coast Line, 167
Atlantic Ocean, 31
Attmore, William, 110
Attorney General for Crown, 78
Attorney General, North Carolina, 79, 116
Attorney General, U. S., 129
Augusta, Georgia, 108
Avent, 167
B
Back Creek, 64, 87
Bacon's Rebellion, 13
Baffin, England, 32
Bailey, Thomas, Rev., 137
Baltimore, Md., 162
Bank of New Bern, 173
Bank of Washington, 169, 173, 174
Baptist Church, 142, 143, 144, 147
Baptist Congregation, 142
Baptist Society, 143
Barbados, Island of, 14
Barber, Hobart H., Rev., 156
Barber, Milton, Rev., 156
Barlowe, Arthur, Capt,, 2, 4
Barnes, Cader, 168
Barnwell, John, Col., 70, 71, 72, 73
Barron, Commodore, 176
Barrow, James, 166
Barrow, John, Col., 81, 90, 91, 95
Barrow, John, 116, 166
Barrow, William, Capt., 21, 24, 33, 43, 44, 54, 62, 63, 78
Bath Creek, 4, 21, 22, 37, 46, 47, 49, 50, 53, 55, 62, 84, 87
Bath County, v, vi, 14, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28, 34, 35, 50, 51, 58, 59, 63, 64, 77
Bath Library, 63
Bath, Port of, 51
Bath Town, 4, 7, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 43 to 57, 62, 68, 69, 70, 73, 74, 78 to 88, 91 to 95, 98, 102, 103, 106, 108, 109, 114, 117, 132, 136, 137, 138, 142, 145, 161, 163, 164, 166, 171, 172, 176
Bath Town Commons, 53, 78
Bath Town Fence, 83
Bath Town, plan of, 152
Bath Township, 148
Batson, Abraham, 24
Battery Wagner, 182
Battle of Bentonville, 178, 181
Battle of Germantown, 118
Battle of Great Bridge, 117
Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, 117, 118, 119
Battle of Natural Bridge, 131
Battle of West Point, N. Y., 118
Batts’ House, 13
Batts, Nathaniel, Capt., 13
Baughm and Bragaw, 174
Bayboro, 166
Bay River, 165
Bayview, 20
Bear Creek, 205
Bear (Bay) River, 165
Beard, James, 45
Beaufort County, 1, 3, 9, 20, 21, 22, 25, 34, 38, 41, 43, 44, 53, 56, 61, 77 to 84, 86, 87, 89, 90, 91, 93 to 98, 102, 105, 109, 114 to 120, 123 to 126, 128 to 135, 140 to 147, 150, 151, 154, 156, 157, 158, 161, 167, 168, 172 to 175, 179 to 184, 188, 192, 193, 197 to 206, Education in, 151, Grants to Soldiers 123, Men in Confederacy 182, Newspapers 158, Occupied 184, Population 133, 168, 206, Public Schools 157, Religion 135, Slave value 200, Vets return, 192
Beaufort County Historical Society, vi, 85
Beaufort, Henry, Duke of, v, 72, 73, 110
Beaufort Ploughboys, 175, 180
Beaufort Precinct, 17, 28, 54, 59, 61, 73, 74, 77, 89, 164, erected 28, courthouse 54, name changed 73, becomes county 77
Beaufort, S. C., 14
Beaufort, steamboat, 163
Beaufort, town of, 180
Beauregard, Pierre G. T., General, 182
Beaver Dam Church, 140
Belhaven, 1, 3, 4
Bell, J. N., 170
Bell, Liberty, 138
Bell, Queen Anne's, 138
Bell, William, 51
Bentonville, last battle, 191
Bering Strait, 1
Berkeley, Lord John, 10
Berkeley, Sir William, Gov. Va., 10, 11, 12, 13, 151, 152
Bernard, John, 24
Bernard, W. S. “Dr. Billy,” 156
Bertie County, 86
Bible, St. Thomas Church, 138
Bible School, Christian Church, 147
Big Bethel, battle of, 188
Bills of Exchange, 167
Birkenhead, George, 45, 63
Bishop of London, 138
Blackbeard, 49
Black Code in N. C., 196
Blackford, Capt., 156
Blackledge, Richard, 105, 109, 110, 112
Bladen County, 80
Blair, John, Rev., 28
Blangoe, Thomas, 33
Blenn, Daniel, 166
Blinn, Peter, 162
Blount, James S., 140
Blount, John Gray, 53, 105 to 108, 112, 113, 117, 123, 124, 130, 162, 168
Blount, John G., 2nd Lieut., 177
Blount, Joseph, 105
Blount, Mary, 33
Blount, Nathaniel, Rev., 139
Blount, Reading, Major, 118, 165, 182
Blount, Samuel, 33
Blount, Thomas, Capt., 22, 24
Blount, Thomas, 107, 140, 162, 168
Blount, Wm. A., Major, 129, 132, 182
Blount, Wm. A., Jr., Dr., 182
Blount's Bay, 21
Blount's Creek, 21, 143, 165, 190
Blount's Creek Meeting House, 143
Blue Ridge Mountains, 123, 169
Blunt, Tom, Tuscarora King, 67, 70
Board County School, 157
Board of Trade, British, 80, 91, 107
Boatwell, Samuel, 63, 166
Bogart, D. N., Col., 169, 183
Bond, John, 165, 166
Bonner, Bryan, 2nd Lieut., 180
Bonner House, 87
Bonner, James, Col., 98, 102 to 106, 109, 110, 115, 117, 120, 121, 124, 132, 139, 168
Bonner, James, Jr., 166
Bonner, John, 105, 123, 166
Bonner, Joseph, 140
Bonner, Macon, 1st Lieut., 177
Bonner, Mary, 132
Bonner, Nancy, 87
Bonner, Sarah, 87
Bonner, Thomas, Capt., 82, 95, 103, 104, 117, 121
Bonner, Thomas, Jr., Col., 93, 104, 111, 115
Bonner's Farm, 93
Bonner's Field, 53, 55
Bonner's New Port, 111
Bonner's Old Part, 108, 111, 113
Bonnerton, town of, 141
Boston, 85, 99, 151
Boston Committee of Correspondence, 99
Boston News Letter, 157
Boston Tea Party, 99
Boundary Line Comm., 77
Bounty on Naval Stores, 106
Boyd, John, Lt. Col., 91, 105
Boyd, Robert, 166
Boyd, William, 86, 99
Bragaw, John G., 182
Bragaw, William & Co., 174
Branch, L. O'B., General, 181, 182
Branch's Artillery, 181
Branch's Brigade, 181
Bray, Thomas, Rev. Dr., 26, 45
Brett, Daniel, Rev., 26
Brice, William, Capt., 24, 61, 66, 68, 70
Brickel, William, 171
Brickell, James, 85
Brickell, John, 39
Bridgeman, Seth, 169
Bridgeman, Seth, 2nd Lieut., 177
Bridge's Artillery, 177
Bridgeton, town of, 165
Brig, 161
Brigade Quartermaster, 178
Brigantine, 161
British Army, 116, 119
British Blockade, 125
British Constitution, 100
British Fleet, 107, 108
British Government, 94, 96, 99, 102, 106, 107, 121
British Man-of-War, 102, 107
British Marines, 62
British Museum, London, 3
British Navy, 100, 106
British Parliament, 76, 96
British Ports, 125
British Ships, 101
British Sympathizers, 119
British Troops, 115, 119
British West Indies, 100
Broad Creek, 24, 49
Broad (Lower) Creek, 165
Broughton, Edward, 171
Brown, Charles M., 159, 174
Brown, George H., Justice, 173, 183, 204
Brown, James, 166
Brown, Sylvester T., 174
Brown, Thomas, Dr., 132
Brown, William, Major, 99, 100, 114, 115, 117, 124
Brunswick, 80, 81
Brunswick County, 115
Bryan, J. B., 3rd Lieut., 176
Bryan, J. G., 174
Bryan, Wm., Lt. Col., 97
Buck, Isaac, Capt. Militia, 91
Buckingham Palace, 10
Buckman, Mr., 132
Bull's (Mackey's) Ferry, 164
Buncombe County, 169
Buncombe, Robert, Col., 118
Buntin, Ellis, 23
Buntin, John, 23, 24
Burbage, Wm. I., 148
Burbank, Abner, 146
Burbank, W. R. S., 147
Burgess, Caroline, 148
Burgess, George, Rev., 156
Burgess, J. A., 148, 159
Burney, John, 166
Burns, John, 168
Burnsides, Ambrose E., General, 188
Burrington, Geo., Gov., 8, 55, 56, 76, 78, 79, 80, 81, 89, 137
Burrington's Council, 89
Butcher, Wm., 22, 24
Butler, Benj. F., General, 176
Buxton, James R., 140
Buzzard's Hotel, 84
Byrd, William, 40
C
Caciques, 15, 34
Caila, Peter, 86
Caldwell, T. R., Gov., 203
California, 131, 133
Cambreling, Churchill C., 129
Campen, Robert, 83
Canby, E. R. S., General, 197, 200
Cantwell, Edw., Lieut., 131
Cape Fear Bank, 173
Cape Fear River, 12, 14, 16, 20, 29, 35, 80, 95, 101, 108, 114, 138, 178
Carolina Planter, 32
Carpetbaggers, 97, 198, 199, 201, 203, 204
Carrow, Jacob, 24
Cartagena, 83
Carter, David M., Col., 130, 179, 182, 188, 195, 198, 201, 202
Carter, J. H., Capt., 179
Carter, Radford, 144
Carter, Rev. Dr., Baptist Minister, 143
Carteret, Sir George, 10
Carteret, Lord John, 76
Cary, John, 43
Cary Rebellion, 27, 31, 57, 64, 65, 136, 142
Cary, Thomas, Gov., 21, 23, 28, 43 to 48, 57 to 62, 64, 78
Casso, Peter, 149
Castle Island, fort on, 189
Castle Williams, prison, 176
Caswell, Richard, Gov., 100, 115, 117, 120
Caswell's Council of State, 117
Caswell's Partisan Rangers, 118
Catawba Indians, 8
Catechna Town, 65, 68, 71
Ceres, Gunboat, 189
Chalice, silver, 138
Chapel Branch, 155
Chancellorsville, battle of, 179
Charles I, King, 9, 10
Charles II, King, 9, 10
Charleston (Charles Town), S. C., 14, 19, 20, 25, 27, 28, 30, 33, 43, 71, 72, 73, 108, 119, 162
Charter, Carolina, religious freedom, 135
Cheraw, S. C., 205
Cherokee Indians (Nation), 8, 71, 119, 123
Cherry, John, 37
Chesapeake Bay, 4, 108
Chester, John, 51
Chief Justice of North Carolina, 17, 79
Chocowinity Bay, 68, 162
Chocowinity, town of, 150, 155, 156, 165, 166, 180
Chowan Baptist Church, 142
Chowan County, 49, 54, 57, 73, 142
Chowan Precinct, 16, 20, 22, 28, 58
Chowan River, 12, 13, 60, 62
Christian Church, 147, 148
Church of Christ, 147
Church of England, 25, 135, 136
Church Party, 58, 60
Civil War, 57, 112, 128, 132, 141, 155, 157, 159, 174, 715
Clarendon County, 12, 14, 20
Clarendon, Earl of (Edw. Hyde), 10, 19, 20, 59
Clark, Henry C., 143
Clark, Henry T., Gov., 185
Clark, Lawrence, 163
Clarke, Frances, 132
Clarke, John, 53, 132
Clarke, Mary, 53
Clarke, Robert, 144
Cockburn, Admiral, 125
Cogdell, Nancy, 145
Coke, Thomas, 144
Colleton, Sir John, 11, 14
Collins Plantation, 161
Collins, William, 24
Colored Baptist Church, 143
Commissioners of Bath, 138
Commissioners of “Intended Town,” 105
Committee of Correspondence, 99
Commodore Hull, gunboat, 185, 189
Concessions and Agreements, 16
Concord, Mass., 100
Confederate Army, 129, 130, 182
Confederate forces, 176, 178, 186
Confederate Guards, 175, 180
Confederate Navy, 183
Confederacy, 122, 134, 175
Congleton, Ashley, 3rd Lieut., 177
Congleton, Wm., 104
Congress, United States, 122, 124, 129, 196, 198
Connor, R. D. W., Dr., 31
Conrow, Jacob, 44
Constitution, North Carolina, 198, 199
Constitution, United States, 124, 194
Constitutional Convention, 127, 130, 156, 198
Constitutional Freedom, 122
Contentnea Creek, 65, 71
Continental Army, 106, 107, 162
Continental Congress, 99, 100, 106, 115
Continental Line, 115, 117, 118, 119, 121
Cooper, Anthony Ashley, 10
Coree, Indians, 66, 67, 74
Core Point, 21, 80, 164, 165
Core Sound, 67, 73, 137
Cornwallis, Lord Charles, 105, 108
Cotan, Pomouik Town, 3, 43
Cotton, Mary, 36
Cotton Plant, steamboat, 163
Council as court, 16
Council of State, 99, 116
County Down, Ireland, 89
Courthouse, Bath, 53, 54, 55, 93, 95
Coutanch House, 86, 94
Coutanch, Michael, Capt, 38, 81, 84, 85, 92
Coutanch, Sarah, Widow, 86, 92
Cowtown, 72
Cowper, John, 114
Cox, W. F., Rev., 156
Coxe, Daniel, Dr., 29
Craig, Archabald, 2nd Lieut., 179
Cramer, John R., Capt., 179
Craven County, N. C., 14, 86, 94, 120, 165, 181
Craven County, S. C., 12, 14
Craven, Gov. S. C., 47
Craven Precinct, 54, 61, 73, 74, 164
Craven, Wm., Earl of, 10
Crawford, Charles, 117, 124
Creek Indians, 8
Creekmor, Leonida, 1st Lieut., 180
Cromwell, Oliver, 58
Crown Colony, 17, 76, 78, 79, 87, 94, 144
Cruizer, British Man-of-War, 101
Crumpler, Walter, 147
Currituck County, 35, 54, 142
Currituck Inlet, 77
Currituck Precinct, 16, 58
D
Dabsancourt, Dr., 148
Daily News, The, 160
Daniel, John, 47
Daniel, Martha, 47
Daniel, Martha Wainwright, Widow, 47, 49
Daniel, Robert, Landgrove and Gov., 23, 27, 28, 30, 43, 47, 48, 49, 57, 62, 135
Daniel, Sarah, 47
Daniels’ Brigade, 189
Dartmouth College, 130
Daughters of Am. Rev., 118
Davis, Benj., Rev., 26
Davis, Clarissa, 148
Davis, Dennis W., Rev., 148
Davis, James, Pub. Printer, 157, 158
Davis, Jefferson, Pres. of Confederacy, 64, 178, 185, 188, 192
Davis, John, 148
Daw, Nicholas, Capt., 22, 24, 43, 45
Deadham, Jacob, Dr., 37
Declarations and Proposals, 14
Delaney, Wm. K., 173
Delaware, gunboat, 184
DeMille, Thomas A., 140
DeMille, Wm. E., Major, 174, 182, 183
Democratic Party, 123, 130, 202, 203, 205
Dennis, Benj., Rev., 61, 62
Depot, Atlantic Coast Line, 144
Desseant, Leonard, 149
Dewham, Thomas, Gent., 37
Dimock, Henry, 158, 159
Dimock, Mrs., School for Girls, 156
Dinwiddie, Gov. Va., 90
Diocese of Baltimore, 149
Diocese of Charleston, 149
Diocese of Cork, Ireland, 149
Diocese of North Carolina, 140
Disciples Church of North Creek, 148
Dobbs, Arthur, Gov., 8, 48, 90 to 95, 137, 138
Donnell, Richard S., 129, 134, 173, 174 188, 195
Doyle, Wm., 36
Drake, Sir Francis, 4, 52
Drewry's Bluff, 182
Drummond, Wm., Gov. Albemarle, 13
Dublin, City of, 89
Duck Creek, 20
Dudley, Christopher, 103
Dudley, Edward, Gov., 128
Dunbar, William, 165
Duncan, Abraham, 84
Duncan's Tavern, 84
Duncomb, Samuel, 37
Dunsmore, Lord, Gov. Va., 120
Dunsmore's Ethiopians, 120
Dupree, David, 24
Durant, George, 13
Durant's Neck, 13
Durham, Bishop of, 10, 11
Durham, County Palatine of, 9
Durham Creek, 23, 82, 92, 139, 141, 165, 166
Durham, John, 23, 24
Durham, Richard, 23, 24
Durham, Thomas, 24, 32
Dutch slave ship, 32
Dutch West Indies, 107
E
Eagle, gunboat, 189
East Branch, Old Town Creek, 47, 54
Eastern Intelligencer, 159
Eborn, Jehu, 100
Echo, The, 159
Eden, Charles, Gov., 23, 30, 37, 38, 47 to 52, 54, 75
Edenton, 22, 56, 80, 81, 91, 98, 164
Edgecombe County, 104, 166
Edgecombe, River steamer, 163
Edmundson, Wm., Quaker, 135
Education, among masses, 155
Edward Moseley Map, 165
Eighth Congressional Dist., 133
Elizabeth City, 183
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 10
Elizabeth, Queen of England, 2, 9, 52
Ellison, Alderson, 124
Ellison, Alley, 168
Ellison, Andrew, 117
Ellison, H. A., 173
Ellison, James Sheriff, 85, 140
Ellison, Sarah Bonner, 87
Ellison, Thomas, 141
Ellison, W. J., 134
Elmwood, 112
Emancipation of Slaves, 126
Embargo Act, 125
Engelhard, town of, 1, 3
England, 31, 39, 45, 52, 56, 63, 64, 76, 83, 86, 92, 94, 95
England, John, D.D., Bishop, 149
English settlers, 69
Episcopal Church, 139, 140
Equipment, Soldiers of Rev., 115, 116
Erwin, Henry, 105
Essex, England, 56
Eureka Lumber Co., Mill, 187
Europe, ports of, 107
Evening Messenger, daily, 160
Everard, Sir Richard, Gov., 30, 56, 76, 77, 89
Everard, Sir Richard, Jr., 83
Executive Branch, 116, 117
F
Falling Creek, 178
Fanning, Edmund, 96, 97
Farrow, William, 172, 174
Fayetteville, 131, Convention, 124
Federal Constitution, 123, 124
Federal Government, 157
Federal Union, toast to, 185
Federalist party, 126
First Methodist Church, 144
First National Bank, 174
First Presbyterian Church, 146
Flanner, Capt., 182
Flanner's Battery, 181
Flat Swamp, 166
Fleetwood, Nellie, 146
Florida secedes, 133
Flynn, Capt., 183
Forbes, Samuel, Lieut., 183
Forest, Nathan B., General, 202
Fort Anderson, 178
Fort Barnwell, 73
Fort Ceres, 187
Fort Fisher, 177, 178, 179, 191
Fort Gourand, 187
Fort Hamilton, 187
Fort Hancock, 71, 72, 74
Fort Hatteras, 176
Fort Hill, 177, 189
Fort Hyde, 72
Fort Johnston, 100, 101
Fort McKibbens, 187
Fort Monroe, 176
Fort Neoheroka, 74
Fort Raleigh, 4
Fort Reading, 72
Fort St. Phillips, 178
Fort Warren, 176
Fort Washington, 187
“Forty Acres and a Mule,” 200
Foster, Frank, 51
Fourteenth Amendment, 197, 200
Fowle, Caroline, 167
Fowle, Daniel G., Gov., 182, 195
Fowle, James L., 167, 174
Fowle, Joshua, 169
Fowle, Luke, 169
Fowle, Samuel R., 147, 169
Fowle, S. R. and Son, 168, 169
Fox, Rhoda Maech, 89
France, 83
“Free Church,” Washington, 140, 143
Free Negroes, 126, 127, 133
Free Schools, 151, 152
“Free Trade and Sailor's Rights,” 125
Freedmen's Bureau, 197, 200, 202
Freeman, Bishop, 155
Freeman's Echo, paper, 158
Franch, 90
French Broad River, 169
French and Indian war, 153
French Privateers, 46
French Revolution, 110
French Settlers, 29
French West Indies, 107
“Fronts” on Water St., Bath, 53, 103
Fullerton, Elizabeth, 143
Fullerton, William, 95
Fundamental Constitutions, 15, 20, 27, 34
G
Gainer, William, 146
Gale, Christopher, Chief Justice, 17, 26, 27, 30, 43, 45 to 48, 52, 56, 59, 77, 80, 136, 153, 171
Gale, Edmund, 48
Gale, Elizabeth, 48
Gale, Miles, Rector of Kighley, 47
Gale, Sarah, 48
Gale, Thomas, Dean of York, 47
Gallagher's Apothecary, 170
Gallagher, Chas. K., Capt., 180, 182
Gallagher, James, 150
Gallagher, John, 92, 149
Garganus, Francis, 24
Garnett's Brigade, 189
“Garrison,” The, 23, 38, 82, 92, 139
Garzia, James, Rev., 137, 138
Gaskell, Joe, Capt., 184
Gaston, William, 149
Gazette-Messenger, 160
General Assembly, 22, 28, 44, 53 to 61, 69, 78 to 81, 83, 85, 86, 89, 90, 92, 93, 95, 98, 99, 100, 102, 105, 106, 109, 152, 161, 173
General Washington, brig., 105, 107
George I, King of England, 49, 138
Georgia, 133, secedes, 192
Germaine, Lord George, 107
German Colony of N. C., 66
German Palatines, 46
German Settlers, 66, 67, 69, 70
Gettysburg, Battle of, 179
Gibbs, Robert, Gov. S. C., 70
“Gibraltar of the Confederacy,” 177
Gladden, John, 109, 110
Gladden Town, 109, 110
Glebe House, 139
Glebe, St. Thomas, 136, 137, 138
Glover, William, Gov., 22, 57, 58, 59, 60
Goelet, Edward H., 173
Golden Hind, 52
Goldsboro, 178
Goodridge, Jeremiah, Capt., 24
Goose Creek, 165
Gordon, William, Rev., 24, 41, 45
Gorham, J. C., 196
Gormson, William, 33, 34
Governor of Albemarle, 16
Governor, Capt. General of N. C., 72
Governor of Carolina, 29
Governor Morehead, ship, 163
Governor of North Carolina, 102, 116, 117
Governor of South Carolina, 68, 70
Governor of Virginia, 70
Governor's Council, 16, 51, 55, 77, 79, 81, 94
Governor's Island, N. Y., 176
Governor's Mansion, 96, 97
Graffenried, Von Christoph, Baron, 30, 60, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70
Graham, William A., Gov., 128, 195
Grant, Alexander, 36
Grant, U. S., General, 195, 197
Granville District, 76, 84, 90, 96
Granville, John, Earl of, 11, 22, 76, 84, 97
Graves’ Ferry, 165
Graves, Richard, Capt., 164
Great Alamance Creek, 97
Great Britain, 96, 100, 122
Great Deed of Grant, 17, 19
Green, Charles, 173
Green, Farnefould, 24
Green Hill, 144
Greenville, 85, 163, 186
Grenville, Sir Richard, 2, 3, 4
Griffin, Bob, Capt., 163
Griffin, Charles, 153
Grifton, town of, 72
Grimes, Ann, 172
Grimes, Bryan, General, 167, 202, 205, 206
Grimes, Charlotte, 167
Grimes, John, 24
Grimesland, 85
Grist, Allen, 112, 173
Grist, Apsley, 139
Grist, Frederic, 129, 130, 131, 168, 173
Grist, James, 167
Grist, Penelope, 139
Grist Plantation, 112, 186
Grist, Richard, 124
Grist, Thomas, 117
Groves, William, 105
Guide, U. S. Transport, 184
Guthrie, J. J., Capt. Conf. Navy, 183, 184
H
Halifax Congress, 116
Halifax County, 142
Halifax, Military District, 117
Halifax, Minutemen, 117
Halifax, town of, 117, 154
Hall, Nathaniel, 24
Hamilton, Alexander, 125
Hampton's Corps, 180
Hancock, King, Tuscaroras, 65, 67, 69, 72
Hancock, William, Capt. Militia, 23, 24, 164
Handy, John, Capt. Militia, 91
Hanks, Benj. F., 171, 173, 174
Hanrahan, Thomas, 173
Happy Luke, brigantine, 151
Hardenburg, Selby, 2nd Lieut., 177
Harding, Annis, 182
Harding, Edmund H., vi
Harding, Elizabeth Ann, 182
Harding, Frederic, 2nd Lieut., 180
Harding, Harry, Rev., 156
Harding, Henry, Major, 180, 181, 196, 202
Harding, Julia, 155
Harding, Nathaniel, Rev., 140, 182, 183
Harding, Thomas, 171, 172
Hardison's Mill, 185
Hardy, John, 165
Harford, Capt., 71
Harland, Brig, Gen., USA, 190
Harrington, John, 139
Harris, William, 82
Harrison, William H., 3rd Lieut., 177
Harvey Creek, 20
Harvey, Henry S., 140, 141
Harvey, John, Speaker of House, 99, 100
Harvey, Thomas, Deputy Gov., N. C., 22, 25, 135
Hassel, James (Hasell), 98
Hatch, Lemuel D., Rev., 146
Hatteras, Cape, 107
Hatteras, Indiantown, 7
Haven, Jonathan, 143, 146
Haw River, 85, 90
Hawk, privateer, 125
Hayman, W. W., 130, 132
Heath, Grant, 12, 29
Heath, Sir Robert, 9
Hecklefield, John, 44
Hendersonville, 156
Henrahan, Walter, 149
Henry, George, Bishop WNC, 156
Henry, Kenneth, Dr., 156
Henry, Lord Maltravers, 9, 12
Herriot, Thomas, 3, 4, 5, 6
Hertford, town of, 38
Hertfordshire, England, 32
Hewes, Joseph, delegate Cont. Congress, 100
Hickory Point, 2
Hill, Daniel Harvey, General, 188, 190
Hill, George Frank, 156
Hill, Point, 189
Hillsboro, 102, 114, 155, 158
Hillsboro Congress, 116
Hillsboro, Seat of Regulators, 97
Hill's (D.H.) Division, 179
Hinson, village of, 163
Hinton, Dempsey, 144
Hinton, Joseph B., Editor, 159, 172
Hinton, Sarah, 144
Historic Bath Commission, 85, 87
Hitchcock (Mr.), 155
Hobbs (Miss), 128
Hoell, Elias, Ensign, 121
Hogg, James, 24
Hogun, John, Brig. General, 118, 119
Hoke, Robert F., General, 190
Holden, William W., Gov., 130, 194, 195, 199, 200, 201, 203
Hooper, William, delegate Cont. Congress, 100
Horn, George, 105
Horn's Tavern, 110
House of Commons, British, 16
House of Commons, N. C., 16, 116
Houston, George, publisher, 159, 173
Howe, Robert, Maj. Gen., 117, 118, 119
Hoyt, Eli, 106, 140
Hoyt, Elizabeth M. B. (Aunt Bet), 183
Hoyt, E. S., 169
Hoyt, Gould, 173
Hoyt, James E., 173
Hoyt, John K., 183
Hudson, William, 37
Hughes, Isaac, Rev., 156
Hughes, I. Harding, Rev., 156
Hughes, N. Collin, Rev. Dr., 155, 156
Hughes, N. Collin, Jr., Rev., 140, 156
Hughey, James, Sheriff, 169
Hume, John, Rev., 156
Hurricane, 41, 56
Hycoote River, 77
Hyde, Anne, daughter of Edw., 10, 27
Hyde, Catha, widow of Gov., 73
Hyde County, 1, 74, 82, 86, 130, 142, 154, 166
Hyde Courthouse, 77
Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, 10
Hyde, Edward, Gov., 16, 26, 48, 59 to 64, 69, 72, 73, 74
Hyde Precinct, 54
I
Illionois, 129
Indian Island, 7, 83
Indiana, free Negroes in, 197
Inflation, 122
Inn-Keeper regulations, 84
“Intended township,” 105
“Invisible Empire,” 202
Ireland, 89
Irish Goods, 89
Iron Mine Branch, 145
Iroquoian, linguistic stock, 1
Irwin, Lt. Col., 118
J
Jack's Creek, 103, 187
Jackson, Andrew, Pres. U.S., 129
Jackson Democrats, 128
Jackson, J. W., 140
Jackson's Corps, 179
Jackson's Mill, 178
Jacobson, W. K., 160
James I, King of England, 9
James II, King of England, 27
James River, 29, 46
James Town Colony, 9, 13, 33
Jamesville, town of, 167
Jamesville & Washington R. R., 163, 167
Jarvis, Decatur W., 3rd Lieut., 180
Jeff Davis Rifles, 175, 179
Jefferson, Thomas, Pres., 125
Jeffersonian Republicans, 126
Jersey, Isle of, 10
John Black's Neck, 25
John Myers, schooner, 169
Johnson, Andrew, Pres. U. S., 194, 196, 197
Johnson, Tory instigator, 120, 121
Johnston, County, 94
Johnston, Gabriel, Gov., 48, 80, 81, 84, 85, 88, 89, 92, 152, 157, 165
Johnston, Joseph E., General, 191, 192
Johnston, Nathaniel, 28
Johnston, Samuel, 100
Johnston's Army, 178, 181
Jones, Chas. P., Capt., 177
Jones, Edmund W. (Jay-Bird), 201, 202
Jones, Francis, 116
Jones, Fred, 51
Jones, Josiah, Capt. Militia, 24, 91, 165, 166
Jones, Nicholas Thomas, Capt., 23, 24, 27, 33
Jones, Richard, 85
Jones, Simon, Capt. Militia, 91, 166
Jones, Willie, Political leader, 124
Journal of the Council of Safety, 105
Journal of the House of Burgess, 158
Joyner, Francis, Rev., 156
Joyner, James, Rev., 156
Judson, Gray, 143
Juell (Jewell), Thomas, 54
Julian, George, 197
Justice of the Peace, Beaufort Co., 79, 109, 136
Justice of the Supreme Court, 61
K
Keais, Nathan, 105, 108, 109, 117, 125
Kehuka Baptist Church, 143
Kehukee Association, Baptist, 142, 143
Keis, Barbara, 144
Kennedy, John, 117, 168
Kennedy, Wm., Mariner, 108
Kennedy's Artillery, 175, 176, 186
Kentucky rifle, 116
Kenyon, Roger, 36, 56, 79, 81, 83
Kewell, Ann Maria, 92
Kewell, John, 92
Kilcocanen, King, 13
King of England, 99, 110
King George's War, 83
King's Mountain, 119
King's Privy Council, 12, 92
Kinston, 92, 178
Kirby, Chas., Mariner, 110
Kirby Grange, 27, 48
Knight, Tobias, 23, 47, 49, 50, 51
Knott, Marcia Myers, 112
Kugler, C. W., 171
Ku Klux Klan, 202
L
Labarbe, John, 149
Lacy, Father Michael, 149
Lafayette Hotel, 110, 140, 191
Lafayette, Marquis de, 110
Lake Mattamuskeet, 74, 154
Lamb, Wm., Col., 179
Land values, 1815, 125
Lane, Ralph, 2, 3, 4, 6
Lanier, Samuel, 176
Latham, A. C., 143
Latham, Angus, Jr., 147
Latham, D. G., 3rd Lieut., 179
Latham, Heba A., 159
Latham, James, 106
Latham's Battery, 181, 187
Laughinghouse, Edw., 155
Laughinghouse, J. J., Capt., 201, 202
Laughinghouse, Mary, 148
Lawson, Isabella, vi, 35, 87
Lawson, John, vi, 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 29, 34, 35, 37, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 59, 67, 68, 73, 83, 87, 167, 171
Lee, Robert E., General, 64, 190, 191, 192
Lee's (W.H.F.) Division, 180, 181
Leeds, Thomas, 24
Lefler, Hugh T., Dr., v, vi, 13, 141
Leggett, Jeremiah, 143
Leggett, John E., Capt., 177, 178
Legislature, North Carolina, 116, 117, 122, 123, 127, 132, 153, 157, 195, 196, 201, 202
Lehay, John, 79, 81
Leigh, James, 47
Lepper, Thomas, 24
LeRoy, C. N., 111
LeRoy, Helen, 87, 149
LeRoy, Lewis, 86, 87, 106, 149
Lewellen, Dr., 171
Lewis, Wm. G., Brig. General, 182
Lexington, Mass., 100
Liberia, Negro Republic, 126
Library, Bath, 26, 27, 136
Lillington, John, 24, 49, 69
Lincoln, Abraham, President U. S., 133, 175, 187, 194
Lincoln, Benjamin, General, 119
Little, William, 77
Locke, John, 15
Lockhart, James, 86
Lockhart, Lillington, 86
Loghouse, 40
Long, Colonel, 117
Long, Edward, 172
Long, John S., 159
Lords’ Land, 19
Lords Proprietors, 34, 37, 46, 52, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 70, 76, 77, 87, 103, 110, 135, 151
Louisiana secedes, 133
Louisiana, Union gunboat, 186, 187
Louisburg, 144
Low, Edmund, 62, 63, 64
Low, Nevil, 63
Lower House, N. C. Assembly, 19, 35, 77, 79, 81, 94, 99, 102, 127, 129, 131, 132
Loyalists, 86
Lucas, J. B., 174
Ludwell, Philip, Gov., 19, 35
Luellyn, Maurice, 45, 46
Lumley, George, 63, 64
Lynch, W. F., Commodore, 183
M
Mace, William, 166
Machapungo Indians, 7, 74, 75
Madison, James, Pres. U. S., 125
Mallard Creek, 22
Malone, Lucian, Rev., 156
Maltravers, Henry, Duke of Norfolk, 11
Mann, Horace, 151
Mann, J. E., D.D. 145
Mannakin Town, Va., 29
Manor (Plantation), 34, 37
Manors, Lords of, 34
Manteo, Indian, 2, 3
Map of Washington, 1851, 112
Maramaskeet, Indian town, 7
Market House and Armory, 112
Marsh, Daniel G., 87, 106, 113
Marsh, David W., 87
Marsh House, 84
Marsh, Jonathan, 87, 106, 113
Marsh, J. S., 204
Marsh, Nancy Bonner, 87
Marsh, Samuel B., 145
Marsh, William M., 145
Marsh, William T., Capt., 130, 180
Martha, schooner, 47
Martin, Alexander, Gov., 122
Martin County, 195, 205
Martin, James G., Brig. Gen., 186, 187
Martin, Joel, 43, 44, 45, 61
Martin, Josiah, Royal Gov., 98 to 102, 114, 115, 120
Martin, William T., Colonel, 176
Martin, William, Road Commissioner, 166
Mary, Queen of England, 10
Maryland, 38, 167, 192
Mason, Thomas C., 143
Mason, O. F., 148
Mastin, Chas. H., 159
Mastin, Jeremiah, 143
Mattamuskeet Lake, 3
Matthews, Daniel, 45
Mattson, John, 33
Maule, John, 33, 98
Maule, Moses, 33
Maule, Patrick, Dr., 24, 33, 68, 79, 80, 151
Maynard, Robert, Lt. Royal Navy, 51, 52
McCulloh, Henry Eustace, 97
McDonald, John, Dr., 182
McEvoy, M. F., 160
McMillan, Col., Ga. Regt., 177, 184
McMillan Artillery, 175
McWilliams, John, 129
Mears, Gaston, Colonel, 179
Mecklenburg County, 131
Mecklenburg Dragoons, 131
Mellyne, Robert, 24, 46
Mercy Act of George I, 49
Merrick, slave, 120
Methodist Church, 44, 45, 46, 47
Mexico, 131
Mexican War, 131, 132
Militia, Beaufort Co., 97, 99, 106, 119, 121
Ming, Nathaniel, 153
Ming, Sarah, 153
Mining Company, 171
Minutemen, Beaufort Company, 115
Minutemen, New Bern District, 115
Missionaries of S. P. G., 136
Mississippi secedes, 133
Moline's Creek, 28
Monk, George, Duke of Albemarle, 10, 15
Monroe, James, President U. S., 110
Montagne, Roger, 24
Moore, James, Colonel, 115
Moore, Maurice, Colonel, 48, 50, 73, 74, 75
Moore, M. S., 170
Morotoc River, 61
Morrison, Wm. W., Major, 183
Morton, Oliver P., 197
Moseley, Edward, 28, 35, 50, 51, 58, 60, 61, 77, 79, 80, 87, 152
Mosquito Fleet, 183
Moy, Sir George, 166
Mt. Zion M. E. Church, 146
Mulberry Tavern, 108
Mulloney, John, 108
Mungumery, Elizabeth, 26
Mungumery, George, 36
Murrey, Capt. Union gunboat, 184
Murphy, Archibald D., 155
Murphy, town of, 119
Myers, Charles, 144
Myers House, 112
Myers, John & Son, 162, 168, 169
N
Napoleons, Light Cannon, 179
Nash, Brigadier General, 118
Nassau, 184
National Museum, Washington, D. C., 3
Neal, Abner, 140, 172
Neal, A. P., 173
Neal, Nancy, 173
Negroes, 111, 120, 121, 151, 172, 187, 193, 197, 198, 201, 205
Nelson's Crossroads, 205
Nelson, W. M., 3rd Lieut., 181
Neptune Engine Co., 111
Neuman, Thomas, 24
Neuse River, 1, 2, 22, 28, 29, 61, 65, 67 to 72, 165, 178
Neusiok Indians, 1, 66, 67
Neville, James, Capt., 24
Neville's Creek (Nevils), 165
New Bern, 54, 60, 66, 68, 69, 70, 73, 81, 85, 86, 90, 91, 93, 96, 98, 99, 100, 129, 146, 158, 159, 164, 165, 178, 181, 182, 184, 185, 188, 190
New Bern Military District, 115, 117, 118
New England, 33, 107, 168
New Era, 159
New Hanover County, 115
New Jersey, 171
New Mexico, purchase, 131
New York, 74, 98, 100, 124, 129
News and Observer, 173
Nicholson, Colonel, agent, 64
Nicolo, Thomas, 22
Nixon, George, 166
Noe, Alex. C. D., Rev., 156
Noe, Thomas P., Rev., 156
Norfolk, Duke of, 12
Norfolk, Va., 107, 108, 116, 120, 162, 163, 173
Norfolk and Southern R.R., 167
North Carolina (State of) (Not indexed)
North Carolina Collection, University of N. C. Library, vi
North Dividing Creek, 1
North State Press, 159
North State Whig, 159
Norwich University, 129
O
Oakdale Cemetery, 111
Oath to Crown, 98
Ocracoke Bar, 105
Ocracoke Island, 3, 51, 83, 107, 125, 162, 163
Ocean Wave Engine Co., 111, 112, 155
Oden, Richard, 24
Oden, Richard, Jr., 45
Office Secretary of State, Raleigh, 21
O'Hagan, John B. (Hagan), 139
O'Hagan, Rhoda (Hagan), 139
Ohio Valley, 90
Old Dominion Steamship Line, 163
Old South Illustrated, 163
Old Town Creek, 3, 4, 21, 23, 25, 43, 44, 85, 106
Orange County, 96
Ordinance of Secession, repealed, 195
Organic Law of N. C., 199
Ormond, Roger, 99, 100, 114
Ormond, Wyriot, 81, 95, 98, 152, 162
Orville, William A., 145
Osborn, F. A., Lt. Col., 185
P
Pacific Ocean, 9
Palatine of Carolina, v, 15, 22, 73
Palatine Court, 15, 16, 22, 64
Palatine and Lords Proprietors, Authority of, 78
Palmer, Euphan Alston, 86
Palmer, Helen, 94
Palmer, Joseph, 109
Palmer, Margaret, 94
Palmer-Marsh House, 84, 85
Palmer, Paul, Rev., 142
Palmer, Robert, Colonel, 38, 86, 94, 95, 97, 99, 119, 162
Palmer, William, Colonel, 86, 99, 106, 115
Pamlico Bank, 174
Pamlico Bridge, burned, 191
Pamlico County, 25
Pamlico Hotel, 163
Pamlico Rifles, 175, 180
Pamlico River, vi, 1, 2, 7, 20 to 29, 33, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 54, 56, 61 to 68, 71, 73, 82, 83, 93, 98, 102, 103, 104, 112, 142, 161, 162, 164, 166, 167, 169, 204
Pamlico Sound, 106
Pamptecough Indians, 7, 66, 83
Pamptecough Precinct, v, 22, 28, 73
Pamptecough (Pamteco) River, 22, 25, 28
Pamptecough (Pamtico's) Town, 3, 43
Pantego Creek, 147
Pantego, town of, 147
Paper money, 69, 122
Paquique, Lake, 3
Paramore, Howell, 205, 206
Paramore, W. B., 205
Parker, Sir Peter, Admiral, 116
Parker, William, 205, 206
Parliament, British, 10, 99, 100, 114
Parmele, town of, 167
Parson Blount, 139
Pasquotank Precinct, 16, 58
Patrick, W. H., Lieut., 183
Patten, John, Colonel, 97, 114, 118
Pay of Army, 116
Pendleton, Fred, 160
Penelope, sloop, 99
Peninsular Campaign, 180
Pennsylvania, 116, 192
Periaguas (Piraguas), 161
Perkins, David, 21, 24, 43, 44
Permanent Seat of Government, 81, 92
Perquimans County, 13, 38, 47
Perquimans Precinct 16, 20, 58
Perry, Tom, 1st Lieut., 179
Petersburg, Battle of, 182
Peterson, C. E., 3rd Lieut., 180
Peterson, E., 170
Peterson, Thomas, 45
Pettigrew's Bridgade, 189, 190
Pettigrew, State Park, 161
Peyton, Benjamin, 23, 38, 81, 82, 92, 165
Peyton, Elenor, 82
Peyton, Elizabeth, 82
Peyton, Grace, 82
Peyton, Sarah, 82
Peyton, William, Captain, 91, 165
Phelps Lake, 161
Phelps, William, 104, 105
Philadelphia, 110
Phillips, F. T., 160
Phillips, George A., 169
Phipps, William, 165
Phoenix Engine Company, 112
Piamacum, King of Pomouiks, 2
Picket, Union gunboat, 186
Pierce, Edmund, 47
Pilkington, Seth, 166
Pink Adventure, ship, 24
Piquet, Joseph, 149
Pitt County, vi, 25, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95, 156, 165, 167, 185, 205
Pittsboro, 156
Place of holding County Court (alter), 109
Plantation of Major James Bonner, 98
Planter Aristocracy, 199
Plum Point, 50
Plymouth, England, 2
Plymouth, town of, 164, 186, 190
Polk, James K. President U. S., 130, 131
Pollock, Thomas, Governor, 46, 47, 51, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 70, 73, 74, 75
Pomeioc, Indian town, 1, 3
Pomouik Indians, 1, 2, 4, 7, 43, 83
Pool, John, U.S. Senator, 195, 200
Pope Pious VII, 149
Port of Bath, 78, 162
Port of Boston, 99
Port Royal, S.C., 14
Porte Crayon, 112
Porter, Edmund, 64
Porter, Elizabeth, 92
Porter, John, 24, 45, 57, 60, 63, 64, 68, 152
Porter, John Peyton, 82, 92
Porter, Joshua, 56, 152
Portsmouth, town of, 176
Potter, Col. Union Army, 185
Potts Chapel, 144, 146
Potts, John R., Captain, 181
Potts, Joseph, 106
Potts, Ralph, 144
Potts, William A., 147
Powder Money, 78
Powell, Wm., shipwright, 46, 172
Powell, Wm. S., Dr., vi
President of Council, 16, 52, 54, 57, 59, 60, 70, 73, 89, 105
Presbyterian Church, 112, 143, 146, 147
Presbytery of Orange, 146
Price's Creek, 166
Prichard, Abraham, 165
Pritchet, Philip, Captain, 91
“Proposed Town,” 104
Proprietary Charter, 9
Proprietary Era, religion, 135
Protestant Churchmen, 146
Provincial Congress, 99, 100, 102, 114, 115, 116, 154
Provincial Government, 114
Public Burying Ground, 111
Public Education, 157
Public Printer, 157
Public School, 153
Public School Districts, 157
Public School “Lotte,” 53, 152
Pungo River, vi, 1, 4, 22, 74, 82, 111
Pungo Town, 111
Q
Quakers, 25, 26, 27, 52, 57, 69, 135, 136, 141
Queen of England, 65
Queen's Colony, 65
Queen's Subjects, 70
Quinn, Sally (Mrs.), 144, 145
R
Rabour, Matthew, 37
Ragged Point, 22
Raleigh, city of, 158
Raleigh Sentinel 201
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 2, 9, 13, 20
Rated Commodities, 79
Ravenscroft, John S., Bishop, 140, 141
Reading, Lionel, 24, 38, 45, 59, 60, 61, 68, 72, 82, 151
Reading, Nathaniel, 151
Reconstruction Act, 1867, 196
Redding, Ed., 2nd Lieut., 179
Reddit, Ludwick, 143
Reed, Elizabeth, 35
Reed, Col., William, Governor, 51, 54, 55, 164
Reed's Point, 54
Regiments of Continental Line, 115
Register of Deeds, Beaufort County, 109
Regney, John, 152
Regular Baptist Church in Washington, 143
Regulators, 31, 96, 97, 98, 102, 114
Regulators, leaders hanged, 98
Republican-Democrats, 123
Republican Legislature, 200
Republican Party, 123, 124, 133, 197
Republican, The, 159
Reserve, British Man-of-War, 63
Respess, George C., 148
Respess, Isiah, Mayor, 173, 185, 196
Respess, John B., 199
Respess, J. T., 204
Respess, Thomas, 95, 99, 100, 104, 105, 108, 116, 117, 120, 162, 168
Respess, Thomas, Jr., 114, 116
Respess Town, 104, 105, 109, 110, 144, 145, 172, 173
Revolutionary War, 76, 82, 86, 92, 97, 102, 108, 127, 168
Rhodes, Arnold, 86
Rhodes, Euphan Palmer, 86
Rice, Nathaniel, 80, 89
Richland township, 180
Richmond, Va., 180
Rigby, Richard, 81
Riley, Philip, 113
Ripley's Brigade, 179
Rixbourg, de, M. Philip, 29
Roach, Captain, 61, 63
Road Districts, 165
Roanoke Island, 2, 4, 9
Roanoke River, 13, 163, 167
Roberson, Miss Betty, 156
Robinson, Thomas, Captain, 183
Rodman, Wm. B. (1), Justice, 130, 177, 178, 182, 198, 199, 204
Rodman, Wm. B., Jr. (2), 204
Rodman, Wm. B., Jr. (3) Justice, 172, 204
Rodman's Heavy Artillery (Battery), 175, 177, 178
Rodman's Quarter, 189
Rogers, Henry Paymaster, U.S. Navy, 178, 193, 194
Roman Catholic Church, 148, 149, 150
Ross, George W., 148
Ross, William, 148
Rough and Ready, 159
Route, Robert, Provost Marshal, 56
Rowan, John, Rev., 89
Rowan, Margaret, 89
Rowan, Matthew, Governor, 48, 79, 80, 82, 85, 89, 90
Rowan's Kitchen, 85
Rowland Creek, 20
Royal Colony, 77
Royal Government, 77, 78, 90, 91, 101, 114, 152
Royal Marines, 63
Ruffin, Thomas, 133
Ruff's Mill, 190
Rumley, William, 2nd Lieut., 177
Rutherford, Griffith, General, 119
Russel, Otho, 45
S
Safety Committees, 114, 115, 120
St. Clair Creek, 148
St. John's Church, 141
St. Mathias River, 14
St. Paul's, London, 139
St. Peter's Church, Washington, 140, 156
St. Thomas Church, Bath, 55, 94, 136, 137, 138
St. Thomas Glebe, 86
St. Thomas Parish, 25, 26, 59, 63, 78, 89, 91, 94, 136, 152
Salem, Mass., 99
Salmon Creek, 13
Salt Factory, 107
Salter, Edward, 33, 79, 103, 151, 165
Salter, Edward, Jr., 151
Salter, Robert, 105
Salter, William, 114
Sanderson, Richard, 51
Sans Souci Female Boarding School, 156
Satchwell, S. S., Dr., 182
Satterthwaite, Fenner B., 128, 198, 202
Satterthwaite, Louis E., Captain, 181
Satterthwaite, Thomas H., 1st Lieut., 177, 180
Satterthwaite, W. S., 2nd Lieut., 181
Satterthwaite's Artillery, 177
Sauthier Map of Bath Town, 53, 55, 95, 202
Savage, James W., Col. Union Army, 191
Savannah, Georgia, 118, 162
Saved Lot, 53, 55
Sawmills, 80
Scalawags, 199, 201
Scarborough, MacRora, Judge, 35
Schofield, John McA., General, 192, 194
School Fund, 157
School House, Lot 21, Washington, 109
Schute (Shute), 24, 45, 139
Scotch Highlanders, 114, 118
Scotch merchants of Norfolk, 117
Scott, Captain, 156
Scovellites—S. C. Tories, 119
Second Military District 197
Secotan Indians 1, 2, 7, 66, 67
Secotan (Sequotan) Town, 1, 2
Secotaoc Town, 1
Segregated Schools, 1825, 204
Selby, Benj. F., 174
Selby, Benj. M., 146
Selby, William, 128
Senate, N. C. Legislature, 116, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132
Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Battle of, 179, 180
Sharpe, Gov. Maryland, 90
Sharpsburg, Battle of, 179, 180
Shaw, William, Jr., Capt., 162, 169, 174, 176
Shell Castle Island, 107, 162
Shepherd, James E., Chief Justice, 204
Sherman, William T., General, 182, 191, 197
Sherwood, J. M., Rev., 147
Shipp, Captain, 156
Sickles, General Union Army, 197
Sigley, William, 89
Simmons, Enoch S., 204
Simpson, Colonel, Pitt Co., 120
Sinclair, Samuel, 82
Singeltary, George B., Colonel, 185, 186
Slade, Samuel, 33
Slave values, 1815, 125
Small, John H., U.S. Congress, 159, 204
Smallwood, S., 128
Smaw, Henry, 123
Smaw, Thomas, 130, 132
Smith, Adam, 144
Smith, C. F., Rev., 156
Smith, Hannah (Mrs.), 35, 45, 73
Smith, John (Woodstock), 82
Smith, Oscar F. Memorial Foundation, 87
Smith, Richard, Captain, 22, 23, 24, 25
Smith, William, Chief Justice, 79, 80
Smith's Creek, 172
Smith's Neck, 23, 25
Smithfield, town of, 97
Smithsonian Institution, vi, 3
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (S.P.G.), 29, 45, 48, 61, 93
Sojourner, William, Rev., 142
Sophie Wood, steamboat, 163
Sothel, Seth, Proprietor and Governor, 18, 20, 21, 22
South Carolina, 8, 16, 26, 27, 29, 47, 57, 62, 70, 72, 73, 75, 133, 181
South Creek, 2, 7, 54, 83, 166, 180
South Seas, 9
Southern Department, 119
Southern Guards, 175, 179, 180
Spaight, Richard Dobbs, Governor, 128, 129
Spain, 52, 83
Spann, William, 144
Sparrow, George, 204
Sparrow, John B., 170
Sparrow, Thomas, Major, 45, 63, 129, 147, 175, 176, 198, 202, 203, 204, 205
Speaker, Lower House, 56, 60, 87, 129
Spier, William, Captain, 91
Spinola, General, Union Army, 189
Spotsylvania, Battle of, 182
Spottswood, Alexander, Gov. of Va., 51, 59, 62, 63, 64, 70, 72
Sprourl, Andrew, 119
Stamp Act, 96
Stanley, Edward, 129, 131, 132, 133, 187, 188
Star Boys, 175, 181, 184, 192
State Banks, 157
State Dept. of Archives and History, vi, 112, 118
Statesman and Third Cong. Dist. Advertiser, 159
Statesville, city of, 192
Stephens, Elizabeth, 35
Stephens, Dame Frances, 35
Stephens, Samuel, Governor, 12, 13, 17, 35
Stephenson, Colonel, 184
Stevens, Richard, 117
Stevens, Thaddeus, U.S. Congress, 64, 196, 197, 200
Stevenson, Wm. M., Captain, 180, 181
Stewart, Alexander, Rev., 41, 82, 86, 91, 92, 93, 95, 137, 138, 139, 142, 153
Stewart, Alexander, Jr., 91
Stewart, Charles, 91
Stewart, Elizabeth Porter, 92
Stewart, Rose, 92
Stewart, Sarah Coutanch, 92
Stilley, H. E., Colonel, 199
Stilley, William, 195, 198
Stone, Captain, 63
Stoney Point, 118
Stringlern, Commodore, U. S. Navy, 176
Strother, David H., writer-artist, 112, 163, 181
Stubbs, Jesse, 130
Stubbs, J. R., U.S. Congress, 195
Styron, A. W., Captain, 163
Suffolk, Virginia, 180
Sugg, Aquila, 104, 106
Sumner, Charles, U.S. Senate, 64, 196, 197
Superintendent of Schools for Negroes and Indians, 154
Surveyor General of N. C., 60, 61, 65, 87, 89, 90, 94
Swan Point, 177, 189
Swanson, John R., 7
Swetman, Stephen, 32
Swift Creek, 165
Swift, William R., 140, 146
Swindell, Daniel T., 147
Swindell, Emma, 147
Swindell, James H., Captain, 180
Swiss Settlers, 69
T
Tarboro, 163
Tar River, vi, 28, 93, 104, 161, 163
Tannyhill and Lavender, 171
Tayloe, Dave, Dr., 182
Tayloe, Joshua, Colonel, 112, 128, 131
Taylor, Ebenezer, Rev., 136
Tea Act, 1773, 99
Teach, Edward (Blackbeard), 49, 50, 51, 52
Telfair House, 112, 113
Telfair, Thomas, 146
Tennessee, 188
Texas, annexation, 131
Texas, secedes, 133
Thayer, Seth, 146
Thirteenth Amendment, 192
Thomas, A. J., 3rd Lieutenant, 176
Thomas, James, 165, 166
Thurston, Captain of Cherokees, 71
Ticknor, F. B., Rev., 141
Topping, S. F., Lieutenant, 183
Tories in Beaufort County, 94, 116, 118, 119, 123
Tower Hill, 92
Town at the Forks of the Tar River, 102
Town Creek, engagement, 178
Town Hall, 112
Tranter's Creek, 1, 93, 185
Tranters Creek Bridge, 166
Trent River, 67, 68, 69, 70, 93
Tribune, New York, 64
Trinity Cemetery, Chocowinity, 139, 155
Trinity Chapel, Chocowinity, 139, 143, 155, 205
Trinity School, 156
Tripp, John, 82, 164, 165, 166
Tripp, Robert, 116, 117
Tripp, W. H., Captain, 130, 177, 178
Tripp, William, 82
Tripp's Battery, 177
Trotter, Thomas, 146
Truewhite, Levi, Clerk of Court, vi, 24, 45, 63, 64
Tryon, William, Governor, 86, 95, 96, 97, 98, 102, 137, 152
Tully, brig, 162
Turgee, Albion W., Carpetbagger, 199
Turner, Josiah, Jr., 201
Turner, Robert, Major, 79, 80, 164
Tuscarora Indians, 1, 2, 8, 27, 60, 65, 66, 67, 71, 73, 75, 120
Tuscarora War, 8, 38, 54, 65, 74
Tuten, Noah, 3rd Lieut., 180
Tyler, John, 145
Tynte, Gov. of Carolina, 59
Tyrrell County, 166
Tyson, Thomas, 165
U
Union Advance Picket, 159
Union Army, 140, 143, 145, 147, 159, 167, 184, 198, 203
Union Fleet, 176, 183
Union League, 197, 200, 202
United States, Independence of, 122
United States Census, 1790, 168
United States Senate, 188
University of North Carolina, 129, 130, 154, 155
Urmston, John, Rev., 48, 49
V
Vail, Jeremiah, 50
Valley Forge, 118
Van Buren, Martin, President U.S., 129
Vance, Zebulon B., Governor, 188, 192, 202, 203
Vandemere, town of, 166
VanDerveer, Jacob, 173
VanNorden, Hadrianus, 110
VanNorden Town, 110, 167, 172
Vermont, 130
Vestry Acts, 25, 26, 27, 52, 57, 135, 136
Vice-Admiralty Court, 49
Virginia, 12, 17, 29, 33, 46, 50, 51, 59, 63, 65, 70, 77, 84, 117, 142, 167
Von Eberstein, William H., Baron, Sgt. Major, 182
Von Eberstein, Mrs. F. H., 150
W
Wainwright, Martha, 47
Walker, Ann Lillington, 35
Walker, Henderson, Governor, 25, 26, 27, 35, 135
Wallace, William, 87
Wanchese, Indian, 2, 3
War Department, U.S., 131
War for Independence, 105, 114
War of 1812, 125
Ward, Collingswood, 21, 24, 45, 63, 64
Ward, Edward, 104
Ward, Elizabeth, 104
Wardroper, Thomas, Jr., 89
Warren, Charles F., State Senator, 204
Warren, Edward J., Lieut. Governor, 130, 134, 173, 174, 188, 194, 195, 198, 203, 204
Warren, Henry, 48, 63
Warren, Lindsay C., Comptroller General, U.S., vi, 204
Washington (D.C.) Academy of Science, vi
Washington, N. C., city of, 85, 86, 92, 93, 102 to 210, 112, 113, 124, 125, 129, 130, 131, 132, 139, 140, 145, 160, 163, 166, 167, 172, 173, 174, 176, 185, 188, 190, 192, 201, 206, incorporated 105, port of, 106, 162, oldest homes 112, first school house 154, newspapers 159, occupied 184, burned 190, first record of name 105
Washington Academy, 130, 154, 155, 156
Washington Dispatch, 159
Washington Gazette, 159, 160
Washington Gazette-Messenger, 112
Washington Gazette and Weekly Advertiser, 159
Washington Grays, 175, 182
Washington Herald, 158
Washington Hotel, 108
Washington Packet, sloop, 110
Washington Messenger, 160
Washington Progress, 160
Washington Rice Mill, 173
Washington Toll Bridge Co., 166
Washington Whig, 158
Washington Whig and Republican Gazette, 158
Washington & Vandemere R. R., 167
Washington, George, President, U. S., 102, 124
Watchtower, 148, 159
Waters, S. B., 1st Lieut., 179
Waters, W. C., 160
Watson, Alfred A., Bishop, 141
Wayne County, 86
Weatherby, James, Rev., 146
Webster, William, 82
W. S. Wedmore, schooner, 162
Welch Creek, 163
West Indies, 14, 33, 45, 92, 107, 111, 168
Wheeler, Joseph, Rev., 145
Whig, The, newspaper, 158
Whig leaders, 198
Whig legislature, 131
Whig party, political in N. C., 116, 122, 123, 128, 130, 133, 202
Whitaker, Mrs. Hattie Reed, DAR State Regent, 118
White, George, 24
White House, near Hertford, 38
White, John, Artist, vi, 3, 9
White, John, Captain, 24
White School House, 155
Whitehurst, Chas. C., Captain, 177, 178
Whitehurst, J. J., 2nd Lieut., 176
Whitehurst, Samuel, 1st Lieut., 181
Whitehurst's Artillery (Battery), 175, 177, 178
Whitney, Eli, inventor, 126
Whitworth guns, 189
Wickham Precinct, 20, 73
Wilderness, Union gunboat, 178, 193
Willard, Wm. H., merchant, 168, 169, 173, 174
Williams, James, 145
Williams, J. O. K., 128, 130
Williams, J. W., 129
Williams, Joe, Rev., 156
Williams, Savannah, 145
Williams, Thomas, 165
Williamsburg, Va., 120
Willie, Samuel, 117
Willson, Ann, 24
Willson, William, 24
Wilmington, city of, 81, 91, 107, 108, 131
Wilson, Elizabeth, 87
Wilson, Seth, 87
Windley, Bryant, Lieut., 183
Windley, John, 143
Windley, Samuel, 130
Windley, Wm. B., Lieut, 183
Windward Islands, 162
Winfield, Howard, Jr., 143
Winfield, James L., 148, 159
Winfield, Miss Mattie, 156
Wingandacoa, Indian Nation, 2
Wingate, Thomas, Rev., 156
Wingina, King, Indian, 2
Winn, Wm., 24
Winsteadville Community, 82
Wiswell Hotel, 108
Wiswell, Howard, 110, 147, 174, 183
Wright, Samuel T., 159
Wocoken (Ocracoke) Island, 3
Woodard, John, 171
Woodstock, town of, 82, 83, 142
Worden, John, 108
Worsley (Worley), John, 45, 103
Worth, Jonathan, Governor, 195, 197
Wyersdale, Nathaniel, 24, 44, 45
Y
Yale University, 129
Yamassee Indians, 8, 71, 75
Yeamans, Sir John, 14
Yeamans’ Colony, 29
Yellow Bottom Branch, 146
Yeopin Indians, 13
York, Dean of, 27, 48
Yorktown, Virginia, 105
Z
Zion Chapel, 140
Zion, Parish, 141
BEAUFORT COUNTY
Map of Beaufort County, North Carolina
