Towns

FACTORS IN THE ECONOMY OF COLONIAL BEAUFORT

BY CHARLES L. PAUL^*

[Vol. 44 (1967), 111-134]

The town of Beaufort was laid out and named on October 2, 1713, on land owned by Robert Turner, a local settler.¹ Though laid out by permission of the Lords Proprietors, the town was not incorporated by the Colonial government until 1723.² In the meantime, it had been established as a port of entry for the colony³ and had been designated as the site of the courthouse for Carteret Precinct, which was established in 1722.⁴ Moreover, at least thirty-nine town lots had been sold before the time of its incorporation.⁵

These early indications of Beaufort’s growth and development, however, were more apparent than real, for few, if any, of the first purchasers of lots made their homes in the town.⁶ The history of Beaufort throughout the Colonial period was one of very limited growth. In 1737 John Brickell described Beaufort as “small and thinly inhabited,”⁷ and as late as 1765 a visitor in the town reported that it did not have more than twelve houses.⁸ Though settlement became more substantial after 1765,⁹ the town’s number of taxables did not exceed one hundred during the Colonial period.¹⁰

Economic factors played a decisive role in determining Beaufort’s smallness as a Colonial town. The nature of Beaufort’s economy, in turn, was largely determined by the physical features and the natural resources of the surrounding area. An examination of these matters is essential to an understanding of the town’s slow development.

Colonial Beaufort was a seaport located on the North Carolina mainland about midway between the present states of Virginia and South Carolina. It was separated from the open sea by the waters of Core and Bogue sounds, which lay between the mainland and the islands of the Outer Banks.¹¹ Piercing the Outer Banks just two miles south of Beaufort, Topsail Inlet provided this port with access to the open sea.¹² Topsail Inlet was the most navigable of any of the inlets along the North Carolina coast,¹³ having a low-water depth of twelve feet with approximately four additional feet on high tide.¹⁴ Between the inlet and the town lay the body of water which provided Beaufort with “a safe and Commodious Harbor....”¹⁵ The depth of the water in this harbor ranged from five to seven fathoms.¹⁶

Beaufort was situated on a small peninsula formed by the North and Newport rivers, both of which were shallow and short, averaging less than five feet in depth and extending less than fifteen miles into the interior.¹⁷ Core and Bogue sounds were also shallow but were longer, extending when considered together some sixty miles along the coast from a northeasterly to a southwesterly direction. As a passageway Core Sound was the most important inland waterway to the life of Colonial Beaufort in that it provided a water connection with Pamlico Sound and, hence, with the towns of New Bern, Bath, and Edenton. Nevertheless, Core Sound was a shallow and inconvenient passageway,¹⁸ and one of the most significant features of Beaufort’s network of inland waterways was that none of them provided a convenient connection with the more productive interior.

The terrain of the area surrounding Beaufort¹⁹ was almost completely flat, the elevation ranging from sea level to thirty feet above sea level. Such flat terrain provided poor natural drainage, except near the rivers, sounds, and creeks which facilitated it. This was especially true for the less sandy soils which were dominant in the area. Those soils which were sandy enough to allow internal drainage were in many cases poor in fertility. The result of these conditions was that most of the land, except for small areas of high, loamy soil located near the waterways, was poorly suited for cultivation. Though comparatively small in total acreage, there were numerous tracts of land along the edges of the waterways which were well suited for the production of a variety of crops.²⁰

The early settlers in the Beaufort area found two main types of natural vegetation. On the tidal marsh, which was especially prevalent along the edges of North River, Newport River, Core Sound, and the Sound side of the Outer Banks, and which constituted at least 20 percent of the area under consideration,²¹ coarse marsh grasses and rushes were virtually the only type of vegetation. On the rest of the soils different types of pine trees were dominant—on the more sandy soils west of Beaufort longleaf pines were the most numerous, while loblolly pines dominated the less sandy soils.²²

Another geographical feature which affected the life of Colonial Beaufort was the presence of a very fine harbor at Cape Lookout located nine miles southeast of the town. It was unique among North Carolina harbors in that it was situated on the ocean side of the beach, and one did not have to navigate a treacherous bar in order to enter it. In 1756 Governor Arthur Dobbs reported that he had surveyed this harbor and that it had “27 [feet?] to 3 fathom water steep to the bank....” He rather enthusiastically described this harbor as “the best and safest from Boston to the Capes of Florida, where a large squadron may lie as safe as in a mill pond....”²³

The economic activities of Colonial Beaufort were largely based upon the exploitation of the natural resources which were present in the area surrounding the town. One of these natural resources was the marine life which inhabited the waters of the Beaufort area. As early as 1585 the great abundance of fish in the Core Sound area was noted,²⁴ and in 1709 John Lawson listed forty-one types of fish and eighteen types of shellfish found along the coast of North Carolina. Most of those which Lawson listed were described as being useful either because of their value as food or because of some by-product derived from them.²⁵

The production of seafood for commercial purposes became an item in the economy of the Beaufort area very soon after the first settlers arrived.²⁶ Before 1709 red drum, a fish which Lawson described as being found in “greater Number ... than any other sort,” were being caught, salted, and exported to other colonies.²⁷ That the Core Sound area was a center of this drum fishing activity is indicated by the fact that by 1709 an inlet in that area was named Drum Inlet.²⁸ It was while fishing at this inlet sometime before 1711 that John Fulford, who lived near the Straits of Core Sound,²⁹ and two companions were deprived of their provisions and equipment by two Indians.³⁰

Types of seafood other than red drum were exported from the Beaufort area at a very early date. For instance, in 1710 Christoph Von Graffenried inscribed on his map of the Swiss and German settlement, which he had planted at the present site of New Bern, that “fish, oysters, crabs, clams, and many other things” were brought to his colony from the Core Sound area.³¹

Though extensive records are lacking, it is evident that the exportation of seafood remained an important factor in the economy of Beaufort throughout the Colonial period. In 1765 it was reported that the Beaufort area had “fish and oisters ... in great plenty,...”³² and in 1771 Governor Josiah Martin described Beaufort as “a small fishing Town....”³³ The value which some of the inhabitants of the area placed upon this natural resource is seen in the fact that in 1771 Jacob Shepard, one of Carteret County’s representatives in the Assembly,³⁴ presented to that body a petition “from sundry of the Inhabitants of Carteret County therein praying a stop may be put to the hauling of seins in the said County.”³⁵ The result of this petition was the enactment of a law “to prevent the untimely Destruction of Fish in Core Sound, Bogue Sound, and the Straights in Carteret County.”³⁶ Some indication of the importance of fishing during the Colonial period can perhaps be inferred from a record dated January 1, 1789, which shows that no less than 212 barrels of fish were exported from the town of Beaufort in the preceding six months.³⁷

Though they were not used for food, whales were plentiful along the coast near Beaufort and were an important economic factor in that area during the Colonial period. As early as 1681 the Lords Proprietors were informed that “there are many Whales upon the Coast of Carolina,”³⁸ and in 1709 John Lawson commented that “Whales are very numerous on the Coast of North Carolina....”³⁹ According to the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina issued in 1669, these mammals were the property of the Lords Proprietors.⁴⁰ On July 13, 1681, the Lords Proprietors granted the inhabitants of Carolina “free lease for the space of seven years ... to take what whales they can and convert them to their owne use...”⁴¹ That this lease was renewed in succeeding years and that some of the inhabitants of Carolina made use of this opportunity is shown by the record of a case brought before the general court of Albemarle County in 1694. This case involved Timothy Pead, Charles Thomas, and Mathias Towler; and its purpose was to determine which party should have legal possession of a whale.⁴²

In 1709 whaling on the North Carolina coast was restricted to “a few People who live on the Sand-Banks” of the coast;⁴³ but in 1715 the Lords Proprietors opened the waters to “any New England men or others to catch Whales, Stergeon or any other Royal Fish....”⁴⁴ This brought whalers from other colonies to North Carolina.⁴⁵ The only fee required for this whaling privilege was the annual payment of two deerskins to the Lords Proprietors. As years passed, however, this fee was increased to one tenth of the oil and whalebone produced from all whales caught.⁴⁶ Finally, in 1730, just after North Carolina became a royal colony, this fee was completely abolished for the sake of encouraging the whaling industry.⁴⁷

At first whaling activities on the North Carolina coast were confined to the processing of those whales “being found dead on the shore....”⁴⁸ After 1715, when whalers started entering the colony from other areas, this situation gradually changed. By 1726 boats were being used in the local whaling industry, and a license granted to Samuel Chadwick in that year gave him permission to use three boats in his whaling activities.⁴⁹ Apparently the whales were spotted from lookout stations on the beach, after which the crews manned the boats, encountered and killed the whales, and towed them back to the beach where the whalebone was saved and the blubber was used for oil. Cape Lookout, with its safe harbor on the ocean side of the beach, was an ideal location for such whaling activities.

Even before its incorporation as a town in 1723, Beaufort had become an important center of the whaling operations off the North Carolina coast. As early as 1714 a certain Captain John Records was fishing in the waters of the area, but the precise location of his activities at that time is unknown.⁵⁰ By 1722, however, “Capt John Records & others” were definitely “whaling on the Sea Coast of port Beaufort,” and the extent of their success at that time can be determined from the fact that the tenth part of their catch, which was due to the Lords Proprietors, amounted to “Sixty Barrels of Brain oyl and Eight hundred wt. of Bone....”⁵¹

As years passed whaling activities in the Beaufort area increased. By 1726 Samuel Chadwick, Ephraim Chadwick, Ebenezer Chadwick, and John Burnap had moved from New England to Carteret Precinct and were whaling in the waters of that area.⁵² In 1728 the Lords Proprietors estimated that their tenth of the income from North Carolina’s whaling industry during the four years prior to 1728 amounted to £800 sterling.⁵³ Evidence that the Beaufort area had by this time become the center of the Carolina whaling industry is seen in the fact that in 1728 William Little, Receiver General for North Carolina, deputized Ebenezer Harker “of Port Beaufort to receive the Tenth of all whale oyl and Bone Catched on the Sea Coast of this province.”⁵⁴ Two years later Little maintained that in the interim Harker should have received 67 barrels of oil and enough whalebone to be valued at £360 in North Carolina currency.⁵⁵

After the abolition of the tax on whaling in 1730, the officials of the colony kept few records concerning the industry. Nevertheless, whaling continued to be an important economic activity in the Beaufort area. In 1755 Governor Dobbs in a description of Cape Lookout commented that it was a place “where the whale fishers from the Northward have a considerable fishery from Christmas to April, when the whales return to the northwd....”⁵⁶ John Shackleford, who owned the beach between Topsail Inlet and Cape Lookout, sold two tracts of that beach in 1757 to men connected with the whaling industry, Joseph Morse and Edward Fuller. Their deeds also gave them “privileges to Point Lookout Bay that is to have liberty to fish and whale in said Bay and also to have a landing at the said Point Lookout Bay.”⁵⁷ That whaling continued in the Beaufort area throughout the rest of the Colonial period is shown by the activities of a certain David Wade, who during the Revolutionary War deserted Captain Enoch Ward’s Core Sound company of militia and “entered with Capt. Pinkum to go a whaling....”⁵⁸

Forest industries were probably as important to the economy of Colonial Beaufort as was the fishing or the whaling industry. The Beaufort area was richly endowed with an extensive pine forest, and before the Colonial period ended this forest was being sawed into lumber and also was being used for the production of tar and crude turpentine, from which rosin, pitch, and spirits of turpentine were made. The extensive character of this pine forest was vividly described by a Frenchman who traveled from Beaufort to New Bern in the spring of 1765. His journey, he said, was “through a continual forest of pine trees.” He spent the first night after leaving Beaufort at the home of a “good Quaker” who lived twelve miles from the town; and his only description of this Quaker other than “good” was, “He makes spirits of turpentine and rosin.” The next day he continued his journey, which he described as “still the same thing today as yesterday, pine trees....” He even commented that the road was “very Dangerous in stormy weather by the falling of the great dead trees.”⁵⁹

The forest industries of the Beaufort area were of three distinct types, one of which was the production of lumber. Before the Colonial period came to an end, there were at least two sawmills in the Beaufort area. One of these was located on Gales Creek, which flowed into Bogue Sound;⁶⁰ the other was on Black Creek, which flowed into Newport River.⁶¹ These sawmills were run by waterpower produced through the utilization of dams, tide gates, and waterwheels. Logs were floated to the sawmills, which were located at the dams.⁶² Boards, scantlings, heavy timbers, and shingles were produced at these sawmills. Export records which apply specifically to the Beaufort area are not available for the Colonial period, but they do exist for a short period just after the end of the Revolutionary War. These records show that during a period of ten months in the years 1788 and 1789, 327,000 shingles and 161,500 feet of lumber of different types were exported from the town of Beaufort.⁶³

Another forest industry of the Beaufort area was concerned with the production of crude turpentine and its related products, rosin and spirits of turpentine. Although these products were being produced in the colony as early as 1709,⁶⁴ they were not mentioned in the records of the Beaufort area until 1743. In that year Josiah Jones of Carteret County purchased a seven-acre tract of land on the northeast side of White Oak River and paid for it with twenty barrels of turpentine.⁶⁵ Two years later, in 1745, Samuel Chadwick, who had moved to Carteret County as a whaler, sold two tracts of land in that county but reserved the pine trees growing on these tracts of land for his own use. The deeds which he granted for these tracts stipulated that he was to have the “liberty to tend or work or make any better use of them [the pine trees] and bare of [f] or Carry of [f] from ye. sd. land any turpentine made of the sd. pines or any timber or rales got or made on the sd. lands....” The price paid for one of these tracts of land was one hundred barrels of “good merchantable ... turpentine....”⁶⁶ There can be no doubt that by the 1740’s the production of turpentine had become a factor in the economy of the Beaufort area.

Crude turpentine was the oleoresin of longleaf pines obtained as an exudate from small incisions made in the trunks of the trees. Although the turpentine could be obtained during all seasons of the year, the peak of activity came during the spring and summer months when the oleoresin flowed most freely.⁶⁷ As the crude turpentine oozed from the tree, it drained down into a deep hole called a cup which had been placed near the base of the tree. Every three or four weeks the fluid was collected into barrels, which held 31½ gallons and which weighed, when filled, 320 pounds. One man could tend approximately 3,000 trees, which in the course of one season would produce about 100 barrels of crude turpentine. This was usually sold in its natural form, the price of which in 1765 was eight shillings current money per barrel.⁶⁸ On occasions, however, it was distilled into spirits of turpentine.⁶⁹ One barrel of crude turpentine would produce about three gallons of spirits of turpentine. The chief by-product of this distilling process was rosin which, among other things, was used in the production of varnish.⁷⁰ An indication of the extent of this industry in the Beaufort area during the Colonial period can be attained from the export records mentioned above. During a period of ten months duration in the years 1788 and 1789, 293 barrels of crude turpentine, 192 barrels of rosin, and 22 barrels of spirits of turpentine were exported from the town of Beaufort.⁷¹

The production of tar and pitch was also a forest industry in the Beaufort area during the Colonial period. In fact the Frenchman who journeyed from Beaufort to New Bern in 1765 commented that “there is...great quantities of tarr and pitch raised in this part of the country; indeed more than in any other part of America.”⁷² To be sure, this comment was intended to apply to all of the eastern part of the colony, but the fact that it was made in connection with a description of the Beaufort area is significant.

The manufacture of tar was more complex than the production of turpentine and its related products. It was extracted from the wood of pine trees, “generally of old fallen pines and of the branches and knotty parts,” by heating this wood in a kiln designed for that purpose. The base of such a kiln was made of clay, was circular in shape, and sloped downward toward the center. The pine wood was laid on the base in a pile reaching a height of from ten to twelve feet and was arranged so that each piece extended outward and slightly upward from the center of the pile. The whole pile was then covered with an earthen wall, except for a small opening at the top where a fire was kindled. Small holes were punched through the sides of the kiln as needed for ventilation and the opening at the top was partly covered so as to confine the fire and to leave only enough heat to force the tar downward in the wood and eventually to the base of the kiln. A wooden pipe sloping downward from a small hole in the center of the base of the kiln carried the tar to a point approximately ten feet outside of the circumference of the kiln. A pit was dug at the outward end of this pipe, in which a barrel was placed to catch the tar as it drained from the kiln. The barrels used for tar held and weighed the same amount when filled as did the barrels used for turpentine.⁷³

The production of pitch was much less complicated than the production of tar. It was made simply “by boiling it [tar] in an Iron ketle or making a hole in the Ground in which the tar is put and set on fire and burns itself into pitch.”⁷⁴

Export records for the years 1788 and 1789 show that 319 barrels of tar were shipped from the town of Beaufort within a period of ten months.⁷⁵

Another economic activity of the area around Colonial Beaufort which was made possible, at least in part, by the trees of that area was shipbuilding. The tall, straight pines provided not only lumber for shipbuilding but were also ideal for masts; and the chief products of these pines—tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin—were recognized as essential naval stores. Though pines dominated the landscape in the area, the “Sandy Islands and Sea Coasts on the Main” supported an abundant growth of cedars and live oaks which, as Governor Dobbs pointed out in 1761, were “excellent for Ship Timber being all crooked and very lasting....”⁷⁶ Thus the Beaufort area was well supplied with the natural resources necessary for a shipbuilding industry.

Evidence indicates that the residents of the Beaufort area made use of these natural resources at a very early date. As early as 1713 George Bell contracted to instruct two servant boys, Charles Cogdell and George Cogdell, “in ye building of Vessells.”⁷⁷ In 1732 William Borden moved from Rhode Island to the Beaufort area and entered the shipbuilding business,⁷⁸ and in 1752 there was a “ship yard” at Harkers Island, an island located a few miles east of Beaufort.⁷⁹ The occupations of “shipwright” and “ship carpenter” were used quite frequently to describe the trades of those who purchased property in the Beaufort area.⁸⁰ Though records are lacking which reveal the extent of this activity in the Beaufort area, Governor Tryon reported in 1767 that shipbuilding in North Carolina as a whole was “not considerable, the largest built vessel not exceeding two hundred tons burden.”⁸¹ The average size of the vessels built at Beaufort was very likely represented by one advertised in the May 15, 1778, issue of the North-Carolina Gazette:

The subscriber [Abiel Chaney] has for sale at the town of Beaufort, Carteret County, a new vessel on the stocsts, well calculated for a fast sailer, and will be completely finished by the 15th of May next. Her demensions are 55 feet keel strait rabber, 11 feet rake forward, 18 and a half feet beam, and 7 feet and half hold.⁸²

The status which shipbuilding attained in the economy of the Beaufort area in the years immediately after the Revolutionary War is revealed by the following statement made in 1810:

The principal trade carried on here [in Beaufort] is Ship building in which they have acquired a very considerable reputation both on account of the solidity of the materials & the Judgment and Skill of their workmen as well in modelling as in compleating their Vessels. Live oak and Cedar are the timbers principally used but the stock is by no means so abundant as it has been. Some of the swiftest sailers & best built Vessels in the United States have been launch’d here, particularly the Ship Minerva a well known Packet between Charleston & Newyork. There are at present five Vessels on the Stocks two of which are ready to be launch’d.⁸³

The fact that Beaufort had won such a reputation by 1810, as well as the fact that its supply of cedar and oak was “by no means so abundant” as it had been, indicates that shipbuilding had been an established industry in the Beaufort area for a long time.

A relatively large percentage of the Beaufort area consisted of tidal marsh. As noted earlier, this marsh land was especially prevalent along the edges of Newport River, North River, Core Sound, and the Sound side of the Outer Banks; and it supported a natural growth of different kinds of grasses and shrubs suitable as pasture for livestock. During the Colonial period cattle, sheep, and hogs were permitted to use these areas as an open range. To be sure, many of these animals were raised for home consumption; but some of them at least were sold either at local or distant markets. Thus, the production of livestock was a factor in the economy of Colonial Beaufort.

The existing records reveal little as to the number of livestock that subsisted in the Beaufort area at any given time during the Colonial period. In 1713 John Shackleford purchased a piece of land near the site where the town of Beaufort was soon to be laid out for “Three Gentle good Cows and Calves ...”;⁸⁴ and before 1730 he had herds of livestock on the section of the Outer Banks east of Topsail Inlet, which he had obtained in 1723.⁸⁵ In 1745 Ephraim Chadwick sold “ten likely cows and calves, [and] two four year old steers” to John Clitherall.⁸⁶ There were cattle at Cape Lookout in 1747 when the Spanish attacked the town of Beaufort, and one of the arguments which Governor Dobbs used during the French and Indian War for the erection of a strong fort at Cape Lookout was that a fort would prevent the enemy from obtaining provisions by simply “shooting the Cattle on the Banks.”⁸⁷ Dobbs estimated in 1764 that nearly seven eighths of the cattle of North Carolina had died because of a distemper brought from South Carolina,⁸⁸ but by the end of the Colonial period the number of cattle seems to have increased considerably. In 1776 Robert Williams, a resident of the Beaufort area, was concerned lest “the Numerous herds of Cattle on the Sea Coast...” fall into the hands of the British;⁸⁹ and in 1777 Captain John Nelson of the Craven County militia was sent to Core Banks to repel the enemy if possible “and by all means to remove the Stocks of Cattle & Sheep so as at every event to prevent their falling in the enemies hands.”⁹⁰ The only indication available as to how many of the cattle of the Beaufort area were used for commercial purposes is derived from the export records for the town of Beaufort for the years 1788 and 1789. In a period of ten months during these years four vessels left Beaufort carrying livestock to St. Barthelemy, Guadeloupe, and Hispaniola.⁹¹

Largely because of the scarcity of arable lands, the cultivation of crops in the Beaufort area was not an important economic activity during the Colonial period. Many of the early settlers spoke of their homesites as plantations, but this designation seems to have been used in the loose manner common to the period.

The first record of cultivated crops in the Beaufort area dates from the year 1713, when in the midst of the Tuscarora War a garrison stationed at a certain Shackleford’s plantation requested and received “Liberty to plant Corne on ye said plantation.”⁹² This corn, however, was grown for home consumption, a pattern of farming which seems to have been dominant throughout the Colonial period. The Frenchman who traveled from Beaufort to New Bern in the spring of 1765 commented that “there was here and there a small vilage and some little farms Dispersd up and Down where they rais nothing but Indian Corn (of which they make their bread) and peas.”⁹³ Some of these peas were grown for export as is shown by the fact that one of the vessels which left Beaufort in the fall of 1788 bound for Martinique carried among other things 480 bushels of peas. This, however, was the only shipment of peas made in a period of ten months; one other product of cultivation which was shipped from Beaufort during that period was 200 bushels of potatoes, which were carried to New York.⁹⁴ The only other crop mentioned in the records of the area around Colonial Beaufort was rice. In 1776 Robert Williams described his business as that of rice planting.⁹⁵

The town of Beaufort was made “a port for the unloading and discharging Vessells” by an order of the Lords Proprietors on April 4, 1722.⁹⁶ This town, its harbor, and Topsail Inlet, which connected the harbor with the ocean, served as a port of entry throughout the rest of the Colonial period.

The order of the Lords Proprietors which made Beaufort a port affected only that area which could be served through Topsail Inlet. Since the inland waterways which led to this inlet did not extend into the interior or make convenient connections with rivers that did, the services of Port Beaufort were restricted to a small area lying along the south and east sides of Carteret Precinct. This area constituted the Port Beaufort customs district, and the offices of the customs officials for this district were established at the town of Beaufort.⁹⁷

The size of the Port Beaufort customs district was greatly enlarged in 1730. In that year the Neuse River estuary, on which the town of New Bern was located and which until 1730 had been a part of the Port Bath customs district, was placed under the jurisdiction of the customs officials of Port Beaufort.⁹⁸ Since vessels bound for the Neuse River and New Bern entered North Carolina’s inland waterways through Ocracoke Inlet, located approximately fifty miles northeast of Topsail Inlet, and at no point in their journey entered waterways leading to Topsail Inlet, the change made in 1730 added a second port of entry to the Port Beaufort customs district. Before 1739 this district was again expanded by the inclusion of the area served by vessels entering Bogue and Bear inlets.⁹⁹

For fifteen years after the Neuse River estuary was included in the Port Beaufort customs district the customs officials for the district continued to maintain headquarters at the town of Beaufort. As Governor Burrington pointed out in 1736, this arrangement caused quite a bit of inconvenience for masters of vessels trading at Neuse River. Writing to the commissioners of the customs in London in 1736, Burrington asserted that the masters of such vessels had, since 1730, “been forced to ride forty miles [on horseback] to enter and clear at Beaufort thro a low watery and uninhabited Country which after great Rains is not passable in many Days.” He contended that the town of Beaufort was the most convenient place for the collection of customs duties for vessels entering Topsail Inlet but that in his opinion Neuse River should not be a part of the Port Beaufort customs district.¹⁰⁰ Burrington’s suggestion to exclude Neuse River from the Port Beaufort customs district was not heeded, but in 1746 an alternate solution to this problem of having two distinct ports of entry in one customs district was provided by the appointment of an additional collector for the Port Beaufort district. Thomas Lovick, who had served as collector of customs for Port Beaufort since before 1734,¹⁰¹ was to continue “to reside at Core Sound, to receive the ... Duty on the ... Liquors and Rice, imported in such Vessel or Vessels which shall lade or unlade in Core Sound, or Bogue Inlet,...” while James Macklewean was to receive the same duties for “Vessels which shall lade or unlade in Neus River.”¹⁰² This arrangement was continued until the death of Thomas Lovick in about 1759.¹⁰³ By that time the volume of oceanborne trade handled at New Bern on Neuse River had become much greater than that handled at Beaufort, and from then until the end of the Colonial period New Bern was the headquarters for the Port Beaufort customs district.¹⁰⁴

The few customs records available for the Port Beaufort customs district during the Colonial period do not reveal the percentage of the trade of that district that entered through Topsail Inlet and was handled at the town of Beaufort.¹⁰⁵ Customs reports are available, however, for a period of five years just after the end of the Revolutionary War which pertain exclusively to the port at the town of Beaufort.¹⁰⁶ These reports, along with reports for the rest of the Port Beaufort customs district, reveal that between July, 1785, and March, 1790, less than 10 percent of the oceanborne commerce of the Port Beaufort customs district was handled at the town of Beaufort.¹⁰⁷ Proceeding on the assumption that this percentage had not radically changed since the closing decades of the Colonial period, it must be concluded that the volume of commerce handled at the town of Beaufort was quite small indeed. For instance, during the year ending October 1, 1764, only 127 vessels entered the Port Beaufort customs district, the great majority of which were sloops and schooners rather than the larger ships, snows, and brigs.¹⁰⁸ Furthermore, during the 28 months that ended January 5, 1770, a total of 282 vessels with a tonnage of 9,909 entered, while 283 vessels with a tonnage of 9,931 cleared the customs at Port Beaufort.¹⁰⁹ On the basis of these figures an average of only ten vessels each month entered the Port Beaufort customs district during the last decades of the Colonial period, and these ten vessels had an average tonnage of about 35 tons each. The town of Beaufort, with less than 10 percent of this trade, was quite insignificant as far as its contribution to North Carolina’s oceanborne commerce was concerned.¹¹⁰

The few vessels that traded at the town of Beaufort during the Colonial period came from a variety of ports. Before 1719 a certain Captain Stone rented Craney Island, later named Harkers Island, from Thomas Pollock for “100 weight of Cocoa....”¹¹¹ Stone’s possession of this commodity indicates some trade at that time between the Beaufort area and the West Indies. Before 1731 three New England vessels were seized by the customs officials at Beaufort because of improper registration;¹¹² in 1734 the sloop “Middleborough,” which had loaded at Boston, and the brig “George,” which had loaded at Dublin, Ireland, brought cargoes to the town of Beaufort.¹¹³ In 1747, in the midst of King George’s War, a sloop from Rhode Island, the “King George,” entered Beaufort harbor with a Spanish prize, the “Elizabeth and Annah,” which had been captured at St. Thomas Island in the West Indies;¹¹⁴ and in 1759 a vessel named “St. Andrew” arrived at Beaufort with a cargo from London.¹¹⁵ Other ports, both on the North American continent and in the West Indies, were also represented.¹¹⁶

The items which these vessels brought to Beaufort were also varied but consisted mainly of those necessities that could not be produced from the natural resources of the Beaufort area. For instance, the cargo which was brought to Beaufort from London in the “St. Andrew” in 1759 and which was advertised for sale for “Cash, or Tar, Deer Skins, or Furr, Etc.” consisted of the following items:

London Cordage, Tinklingburghs, Irish Prizes, fine brown Cloth, Sail Twine, Worsted Stocking Breeches Patterns, red and black; ready made Cotton and Check Shirts; strip’d double breasted Flannel Jackets; Flannel and Check Drawers; long and short Trowsers and Frocks; white cup and Saucers,... Bowls, Mugs, Plates and Dishes,... Tortoise Shell Cups and Saucers, Teapots.... Glasses of all Sorts, Loaf Sugar, [and] Powder [sugar]....¹¹⁷

Molasses, sugar, rum, and wine were especially important imported commodities.¹¹⁸ Salt, used for seasoning food and for the preservation of fish and meat, was also an important import.¹¹⁹

The items exported from Beaufort consisted mainly of the products of the area, fish, naval stores, livestock, and some vegetables. Most of the vessels carrying exports went either to the West Indies or to English Colonial ports on the North American continent.¹²⁰

During the early years of Beaufort’s history, a few observers of Colonial conditions looked upon the town with its relatively safe and accessible harbor as having the potential for becoming a commercial center. For example, in 1737 John Brickell considered Beaufort to have a pleasant prospect,¹²¹ while six years earlier another observer had predicted that it would become the colony’s “principal port.”¹²² As has been demonstrated above, however, Beaufort’s anticipated commercial supremacy failed to become a reality. The Frenchman who visited the town in 1765 was not impressed by its economic achievements,¹²³ and in 1773 Governor Martin commented that “there are no persons of condition or substance in it....”¹²⁴

Undoubtedly, there were many factors involved in Beaufort’s failure to become an important commercial center. North Carolina’s other ports were to a certain degree isolated from the ocean,¹²⁵ but the port at the town of Beaufort was isolated from the interior. No large river flowed down to it bringing the produce of a large section of the Coastal Plain and Piedmont, as was the case with Wilmington, Brunswick, New Bern, Bath, and Edenton. Furthermore, since it was located on a peninsula, the edges of which were dissected by many creeks and bays and the center of which was dominated by swampland,¹²⁶ land transportation of bulky commodities between Beaufort and the interior was almost impossible; and since other ports were more accessible to the interior, such transportation was most improbable. In this situation, the only area which Beaufort could effectively serve as a port was that lying along the edges of the short rivers and sounds which led to the town. With its services restricted to this small area of limited natural resources, Beaufort never had a large quantity of commodities for export nor a large market for which it could import.

The limitation imposed upon the town of Beaufort by its isolation from the interior was clearly seen by Governor Dobbs soon after his arrival in the colony. On January 4, 1755, in a report to the Board of Trade in London on the “Wants & Defects of the Province,” he commented that while Topsail Inlet was “a very safe Harbour with deep Water and no Bar ...” it had “no navigable River” leading to it, and therefore “no considerable Trade ... [could] be carried from thence....”¹²⁷

As late as 1764 Governor Dobbs had nothing new to report to the Board of Trade concerning Beaufort’s commercial capacity,¹²⁸ but in 1766 efforts were initiated which, if they had been carried to completion, would have given Colonial Beaufort a waterway connecting it with the interior. On November 13, 1766, Richard Cogdell, one of Carteret County’s representatives in the Assembly,¹²⁹ introduced a bill for the construction of a canal connecting the head of Harlowe Creek, which flowed into the north side of Newport River approximately five miles above Beaufort, with the head of Clubfoot Creek, which flowed into the south side of Neuse River approximately twenty miles below New Bern.¹³⁰ The distance between the heads of these two creeks was less than ten miles, and an overland passageway between them was already in use.¹³¹ A canal connecting these two creeks would not only have given Beaufort access to Neuse River and the interior, it would also have made Beaufort the port of entry for cargoes bound for New Bern, then the capital of the colony. Furthermore, it would have cut in half the distance by water from New Bern to the ocean. This canal, however, never became a reality during the Colonial period. The bill initiated by Cogdell was enacted into law in 1766, but instead of providing that the canal be financed out of public funds, it was to be financed by “many Public Spirited Gentlemen [who] being willing to further a Work of such an interesting Nature to a Commercial Country, have offered to contribute to the same, by either paying in Sums of Money, or sending their Slaves to Work in cutting the said Canal....¹³² Although the commissioners who were appointed to oversee the construction of this canal were instructed to “immediately employ Hands to work on the said Canal” as soon as they had “received any Subscriptions of Monies to carry on the same,”¹³³ there is no indication that work ever began under the provisions of this act.¹³⁴ Thus, Beaufort was compelled to remain commercially isolated from the rest of the colony, a port of only local significance throughout the Colonial period. This factor, more than any other, explains its lack of growth as a Colonial town.

Footnotes