It was around 1709 when the town located on the
site of the former Coree Indian village, Cwarioc, meaning
"fish town" was established. Early owners of the small
town at the west end of the land surrounded by the Core Sound,
known today as Taylors Creek and the Newport River, included
Farnival Green (1707-1713), Robert Turner (1713-1720), Richard
Rustull (1720-1725), and Nathan Taylor (1725-1733).
Following the end of the Tuscarora War in March 1713, Farnival
Green, on July 18, assigned his earlier patent to Robert Turner, a
merchant from Craven County, who had Richard Graves, the deputy
surveyor, lay out the town that was to be called Beaufort. A map
was drawn and streets were named. Anne and Queen Streets were named
for the queen. Moore Street was named after the colonel who had
come from South Carolina to end the war. Orange Street was named
for William the Third who had occupied the throne prior to Queen
Anne. The only road into town was called Turner Street after Robert
Turner, the new owner of the town. Pollock Street was named for
Thomas Pollock, who was governor, and Craven Street was named for
William Lord Craven, one of the lords proprietors. There was no
street along the water until the 1800s; it eventually became known
as Front Street.
On April 4, 1722, Beaufort was appointed a port for the unloading
and discharging of vessels by the lords proprietors deputies. The
first commissioners of the town were Christopher Gale, John Nelson,
Joseph Bell, Richard Bell, and Richard Rustell. Incorporation took
place on November 23, 1723, and five lots were sold, all of which
lapsed for non-payment or for not having a building erected on
them. The law stated that when a person purchased a lot, a house or
building of at least 15 feet by 20 feet must be built within two
years or the property would revert back to the town or the previous
owner. Five years later in 1728, a new section of town was added
and deeds began distinquishing Old Town from New Town. Pollock
Street was the dividing point, thus everything west of Pollock
Street to Gallants Channel was Old Town while New Town went from
Pollock east to Gordon Street. Each section had lots along the
waterfront that measured 66 feet across and 330 feet deep. The
remaining lots in both sections were set aside as 110 feet on the
street side and 198 feet running east and west. The only exception
to this was in the block bounded by Moore, Broad, Orange, and Cedar
Streets where the lots were the entire width of the block east and
west (396 feet) and only 55 feet wide on Moore and Orange
Streets.
Between 1728 and 1732 deeds were recorded for 21 new lots, 16 of
which were lapsed and 5 of which transferred ownership. In 1728,
the governor commented that Beaufort had "but little success
and scare any inhabitants." Nine years later John Brickell, in
his Natural History of North Carolina, described Beaufort as
"small and thinly inhabited." In 1748, there were only
320 taxables listed for the county.
Charles Paul states in a 1963 paper that one of the most vivid
accounts of Beaufort was given by a French traveler who visited the
town 200 years earlier. He described it as a "small village
not above 12 houses, the inhabitants seem miserable, they are very
lazy and indolent, they live mostly on fish and oisters, which they
have in great plenty." Between 1765 and 1770, 37 lots changed
hands and 9 had substantial buildings on them, primarily at the
west end of Front Street. This is apparent from Claude Joseph
Sauthiers map from the 1770s, which shows houses mostly along the
waterfront with a few other buildings spread throughout the
village. The majority of the houses built at this period are still
standing today, with many featured on the Historical Associations
annual Old Homes Tour.
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In the late 1600s the ruse of tying a lantern
about a horses neck and walking along the shore with it was used to
lure ships at sea on to the banks, where they could be scuttled and
robbed. Presumably the victims believed the lanterns were the stern
lights of another ship, which they would follow for safety. The
name Nags Head, from the horses or "nags," is supposed to
have derived from just such a practice.
Pirates had been roaming the Atlantic coast for years with bases in
the Bahamas. Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was one of
the more infamous. Stede Bonnett, a gentleman by birth and well
educated, was one of Blackbeards lieutenants and they had friends
everywhere in Virginia and in North and South Carolina.
Occasionally pirates would come into the Pamlico Sound to visit and
resupply. Some people were indignant that these pirates were
allowed to roam so freely and were tolerated by government
officials.
Although quite unbecoming in looks with his long black braided
hair, Teach apparently could be extremely charming and yet
excessively brutal. Along with others who took advantage of the
inlet and bight of Cape Lookout, he periodically used the area,
including the Beaufort harbor, as a place of rest, rejuvenation,
and refilling of supplies for his ship.
It is said that Blackbeard was a frequent visitor to Core Sound,
perhaps residing at the Hammock House when in the neighborhood. He
would, according to legend, merely anchor his ship in the creek,
row to the house, and tie up on the porch post. There are other
stories about his association with the Hammock House as well,
including the burial of treasure in the yard, although none has
been found.
After 1718, when Blackbeard and others had been driven away from
the Bahamas by the English, he began making his headquarters near
Bath. Records say that Blackbeard and Bonnett visited the Core
Sound area in 1718 and commented that Beaufort was a "poor
little village at the upper end of the harbor."
In June, when Blackbeard put his and Bonnetts ships into the Old
Topsail Inlet, he tricked Bonnett into going on to Bath. Blackbeard
then sank both ships, leaving the crews to fend for themselves. He
took off in the only ship left and carried his booty away. It is
possible that some of the stranded seamen settled in the area
rather than take a chance on being hanged as pirates. According to
Maurice Davis, one was said to have made his way back to New
England, but later returned to Carteret Precinct and became a man
of some importance.
When the king offered a pardon for any pirate who would turn
himself in and turn his life around, Blackbeard took advantage of
the offer, but his new life only lasted about a month before he was
back on the high seas. One excursion brought a cargo of oranges and
other fruit, with sugar and spices that he had removed from a
French vessel captured in August near Bermuda and later burned
along the Carolina coast. Apparently, Blackbeard stored some of his
booty in a barn belonging to Tobias Knight, the secretary of the
colony as well as chief justice while Christopher Gale was
absent.
The governor of Virginia, determined to capture and rid the ocean
of pirates, sent two sloops into North Carolina waters where they
discovered Blackbeards ship the Adventure near Ocracoke. Following
an intense battle, the British crew managed to kill Blackbeard
along with eight of his men. They took the other nine back to
Virginia for trial where they were convicted of piracy.
Following this conviction, the governor proceeded to send a member
of the British Navy to the Pamlico area to recover the stolen
goods, some of which were still in Tobias Knights barn. Governor
Eden and Colonel Thomas Pollock stood by Knight and remonstrated
the governor of Virginia for invading North Carolina, even if it
was to capture pirates.
At this time, although the records were public and were to be
available for scrutiny, they were kept in private homes due to lack
of public buildings. Thus when Maurice Moore and Edward Moseley
desired to conduct a search of the records to determine exactly who
was involved with Blackbeard, they had to break into a home. The
governor was furious and issued a warrant for their arrest for
breaking and entering and trespass. This led Moseley to make the
statement that "the governor could find men enough to arrest
peaceable citizens but none to arrest thieves and robbers,"
intimating that the governor was shielding the pirates.
At the Virginia trial, evidence was presented showing Knight to be
associated with Teach. Knight, however, issued an explanation. He
said that he had not concealed the fact that the sugar was stored
in his barn, but that he had allowed Teach to store it there until
the governor could find a more convenient place where the entire
cargo could be stored. This implicated the governor.
The council declared Knight not guilty, but the circumstances
surrounding his association with Teach were inconsistent with that
innocence. At first Knight denied he had hidden any of the goods
for Teach in his barn, but when told of a memo found on one of the
dead pirates, he admitted the concealment. Not only was he accused
of being a close associate of Blackbeard, his own correspondence
with Teach, which began "my friend," and proceeded to
give him advice, proved they were more than acquaintances. Thus
nothing the governor or council could say helped Knight and he
resigned his chief justice position and died before summers
end.
Recently, almost 300 years after the incident, the wreckage of what
is believed to be Blackbeards ship the Queen Annes Revenge was
discovered by divers in the present Beaufort inlet between
Shackelford Banks and Bogue Banks. Artifacts are being brought to
the surface, cleaned, preserved, and displayed at the North
Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort.
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Beaufort continued to grow. The town changed
slowly, ploddingly, skeptically, and carefully. There were lulls in
which not much happened, but there were also spurts of building and
great influxes of people moving to the area. This was no different
than the previous centuries. Nothing has changed to this day. In
the early 1900s a few things happened that were very important in
the town. St. Pauls Episcopal Church School came to life once
again, following a more than 30-year lapse in teaching. In 1906,
the railroad came across the causeway and began regular visits to
Beaufort. In 1907, the railroad station on Broad Street was built
and a new, large brick courthouse was erected on courthouse square.
The old one was auctioned off and torn down.
The First World War affected many here in Beaufort, with young men
going off to fight in Europe, many leaving the town and county for
the first time. Commercial fishing was doing well, with the advent
of the menhaden fisheries in both Beaufort and Morehead City. The
menhaden is a small, bony, and inedible fish. Known locally as
shad, it does make good fertilizer and fish meal food for pigs and
chickens. The oil of the fish is used in the manufacture of paint
and linoleum.
Also in the twentieth century, the streets of Beaufort slowly began
to be fixed up, first with oyster shells crushed by rollers, and
eventually with pavement.
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Beauforts streets, waterfront, and surrounding
areas have not changed drastically since the 1700s. Houses that
were built in the eighteenth century on Front Street, particularly
in the first and second block, are still standing today, occupied
by families whose ancestors helped develop the town. Although Front
Street is now paved, early on it was merely a path along the
shore.
The government buildings are no longer in the middle of the first
block as they were when Sauthier sailed along Taylors Creek in 1770
and made his map of the town. Part of this block is occupied today
by the North Carolina Maritime Museum.
The original buildings along the waterfront in the fourth and fifth
blocks have been replaced with modern parking lots, restaurants,
and gift shops. On the land side of Front Street in these two
blocks are some of the nineteenth-century office buildings mixed
with some newer structures. Only two of the several houses that
occupied pace on the land side remain, the others having been torn
down or moved to other locations.
One of the 1820s brick buildings on Turner Street remains, with
another now located on the historic site of the Beaufort Historic
Association. The original school and family lodging house of one of
Beauforts early teachers still stands majestically in the second
block of Turner Street, just a few steps away from the brick
edifice of the Odd Fellows Lodge.
The Methodist church begun at the time of the Revolution at the
corner of Craven and Broad Streets and completed in the early
nineteenth century is used today for services by the AME Zion
Church.
The "new" Methodist church on Ann Street, built on the
corner south of the first one shortly before the onset of the War
between the States, as well as the Episcopal church in the second
block of Ann Street built at the same period, are still serving
their congregants.
The cemetery called the Old Burying Ground, located in the fourth
block of Ann Street and surrounded by three churches, is no longer
available for burial except for members of tose families who have
ancestors there and space remaining. It has been preserved,
restored, and protected by the town and the Beaufort Historic
Association over the past many years. A place of quiet, tranquil
beauty, the grounds are covered with live oaks and vines that have
graced the spot for centuries.
The families who came, built, lived, and died in Beaufort continue
today through their many descendents. Although many newcomers have
moved to the area in the past 25 years, Beaufort is still a very
unique and blessed place to live.
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