H I S T O R I C   B A T H   T R I C E N T E N N I A L

Timeline

BATH , NORTH CAROLINA

1705 – The Founding of Bath

The town of Bath was incorporated 300 years ago, making it North Carolina’s first incorporated town. Its settlers included French Protestants (Huguenots) from Virginia fleeing Europe’s poverty and tyranny for the New World. They discovered a fertile land that had been home to native people for hundreds of years.

1708 – First town of Carolina commerce

Bath’s location offered easy access to both the Pamlico River and the Atlantic Ocean. Its early residents included explorer John Lawson, the author of the colony’s first history (1709) and its surveyor general, Carolina’s first Chief Justice Christopher Gale and, according to legend, the infamous pirate Edward Teach or “Blackbeard”. By 1708, Bath had 12 houses and about 50 people.

Bath was the colony’s first port. Merchants traded furs, tobacco and such commodities as naval stores (pitch, tar, and turpentine), which were used in building wooden sailing ships. St. Thomas, the state’s oldest standing church, was established in Bath, as was its first library, shipyard and grist mill.

1708-1711 – Cary’s Rebellion

The fight during these early years to establish and hold political power raged in the colony between Quakers and Anglicans ( England’s branch of the modern day Episcopal Church). Cary’s Rebellion, pitted Thomas Cary, a prominent Bath resident favoring the Quakers, against Edward Hyde, an Anglican supporter. The prize was the colonial governorship and Hyde eventually prevailed. Because m any Bath citizens had served as Cary's chief lieutenants and, because it was Cary’s stronghold, the region underwent constant turmoil. From 1708 until the rebellion’s collapse in July 1711, the town courts and government did not function and destruction of private property was rampant.

The Bath colonists dealt with a drought and a yellow fever epidemic and the weakened settlers who survived were facing a full-out Indian assault, the Tuscarora War.

1711 – Tuscarora War

From the beginning, the Tuscarora and smaller tribes in the Pamlico and Neuse Rivers region feared and resented the settlers. The colonists overran favorite hunting grounds and occupied choice village sites to turn them into colonial towns. But most of all, the Indians loathed the local settlers for kidnapping and enslaving their people.

During the first decade of the 18 th century, rumors of Indian trouble ran wild through Bath County. In 1703, Lionel Reading wrote that an Indian had told one settler that several villages had "fully resolved to make trail (trial) of it for to see which is the ardiest." The next year word spread that the Tuscarora were inciting the Bear River Indians to attack the whites. After the Machapunga Indians began to annoy and harass them through threats, stealing and even actual assault, the settlers beseeched the colonial government for help.

By the summer of 1711, the Tuscaroras had decided they had to either destroy the colonists or face being overrun. The recent famine and fever epidemic that had weakened the colonists gave them the perfect opportunity.

Their chief leader was King Hancock, a Tuscarora chief who persuaded the Bay River, Machapunga, Neusiok, Coree Woccon and Pampticough tribes to join him. Boasting a force of 500 warriors, the conspirators decided on a surprise attack at daybreak. On Saturday, September 22, 1711, painted, befeathered and heavily armed warriors struck simultaneously along the Neuse and Pamlico rivers. For three terrifying days, the Indians terrorized Bath County. Finally, loaded with plunder and prisoners, they withdrew.

More than 130 settlers were killed, many more wounded and 20-30 prisoners were taken to serve as slaves. The town of Bath itself managed to escape being over-run during the conflict, and many settlers gathered in a fort inside the town for protection . Meanwhile, John Lawson, the so-called “father of Bath” fell victim to the conflict between the Indians and the colonists. In mid-September, on an exploration of the Neuse River area, Lawson and Christopher Von Graffenried, leader of the New Bern colonists, were seized by the Tuscaroras. A few nights later, the Indians executed Lawson.

1715-1718 – The Legend of Blackbeard

Over the next four years, the Tuscarora War raged across the entire region. Finally, on February 11, 1715, a peace treaty was signed with the North Carolina government and the war ended.

The work of rebuilding began right away and, immediately following the conflict, the town of Bath actually experienced a minor boom. Lots were purchased and resold again and again. New businesses opened and prominent colonial citizens moved to the town. The infamous pirate, Edward Teach, more commonly known as “Blackbeard”, became the talk of Bath in the months before his death in 1718.

Legend says that Blackbeard actually lived on Plum Point near Bath. Other accounts assert that he used some of his pirate loot to get colonial Governor Charles Eden to pardon him for his crimes and that local planters invited the him into their homes. Some say the sea robber even married a local girl. As historian Robert Lee noted, Blackbeard lived in a time and place when unpardoned acts of piracy were "condoned, if not sanctioned, by the law [and] it was not beneath persons of family and respectability to take part in such acts."

In November, 1718, Edward Teach was killed in battle at Ocracoke Inlet by seamen of the Royal Navy.

1718-1776 – Bath’s continued rise

During the ensuing years, Bath became a more peaceful, civilized place to live. The first Beaufort County courthouse was built in 1723 and St. Thomas Church, the state’s oldest existing church, was built in 1734. Ferry service was established across Bath Creek and a road linked Bath to New Bern and Edenton. In 1751, Capt. Michael Coutanch, a merchant, legislator and commissioner for Bath and Portsmouth, built what became known as the Palmer-Marsh House, Bath’s largest residence.

In 1743, 1744 and 1752, the colony’s General Assembly met in Bath and in 1746, Bath was considered as a location for the capital of the colony. Colonial governors Robert Daniel, Thomas Cary, Charles Eden and Matthew Rowan all lived in the town.

1776-19 th century – Washington replaces Bath

In 1776 a new town, Washington, was formed 15 miles up the Pamlico River and when Beaufort County government moved there in 1785, Bath lost most of its importance and trade.

In the early 19 th century, the town could still count prominent merchants and shippers among its citizens, including the Marsh and Bonner families and Jacob Van Der Veer. During the Civil War, Bath was spared the Union occupation that much of coastal North Carolina experienced.

Modern Day Bath – 300 years of history

By the early 20 th century, Bath had improved roads and several large sawmills operated nearby on the water. In the 1920s, novelist Edna Ferber came there and was inspired by a vessel that plied the Pamlico River near Bath. The result was the blockbuster novel “Show Boat”, which was later turned into an award winning Broadway musical and film.

To this day, Bath remains a small village with a population of 275. Restoration efforts saved St. Thomas Church, the Palmer-Marsh House, Van Der Veer House (ca. 1790), and the Bonner House (ca. 1830). The original town limits are the boundaries for a National Register Historic District. The 1751 Palmer-Marsh House is furnished in the style of a wealthy colonial official in the late 18 th-century and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Exhibits covering three centuries of the town's history fill the Van Der Veer House. The Federal period of American history lives on at the 1830 Bonner House. Travelers can begin a guided tour of Bath at the visitors’ center

For more information on the history of Bath, call 252-923-3971, e-mail Bath@ncmail.net or check out the Historic Bath State Historic Site website at http://www.bath.nchistoricsites.org. For more information on Bath’s tricentennial celebration, a detailed schedule of events for the tricentennial kick off, call 800/999-3857 or 252/923-3971, e-mail info@historicbathnc.com or go to http://www.historicbathnc.com. This same information is also available at http://www.ncdcr.gov/, along with a downloadable photo of the Carolina Charter.

Return to News Page