USA > North Carolina > Beaufort County > Some colonial history of Beaufort County, North Carolina Vol. 14 No. 2 > Part 3
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These three men, namely, Messrs. Blair, Gordon, and Adams, were much better ministers than Brett or than Urmstone, who followed Adams. Urmstone, though not sent out by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, was, like so many Englishmen both before him and after him, merely a rector in order to make a living; in other words he was preaching merely for the living there was in it.28 He was, as Dr. Hawks says, unamiable in dis- position and covetous also. He was, judging from the letters written to the Secretary of the S. P. G., one of the most chronic complainers that ever struck these colonies. And yet he remained here, drew his salary, was waited on by his own slaves, and ate the best his parishoners could give him for sixteen years!
It was during Urmstone's stay here as missionary that Pampti-
"History of the Baptists in North Carolina, p. 6.
"This is Dr. Hawks' opinion of him. History of North Carolina, v. 1.
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cough Parish was made into St. Thomas Parish, Hyde Parish, and Craven Parish. This was done by an act29 passed by the General Assembly bearing the date 1715, which reads in part as follows: "It is hereby enacted that this province of North Caro- lina be divided into parishes according to the Divisions and pre- cincts hereinafter mentioned, that is to say * *
* Perqui- mans, Currituck and Hyde, to be parishes & bounded by the limits of the several precincts: the Remaining part of Pamlico river, and the branches thereof, commonly called Beaufort pre- cinct, to be one parish by the name of St. Thomas parish." Here we see the name first lawfully recognized, by which the same parish is known today. Vestrymen were appointed for the various parishes. Those named for St. Thomas parish being
The Honorable Chas. Eden, Esq., Capt. Jno. Drinkwater,
Tobias Knight, Esq.,
Capt. Jno. Clark,
Col. Christopher Gale, Mr. John Adams,
Mr. John Porter,
Mr. Patrick Maule,
Daniel Richardson, Esq., Mr. Thos. Harding,
Mr. Thomas Worsley,
Mr. Jno. Lillington.
Bath was the common meeting place for the religious gather- ings in the parish. It was the only town in the parish, and it was easily accessible by water for all those who had any desire to attend. No church was as yet built, though provision had been made in the act incorporating Bath Town for a suitable lot on which to build a church. Some twenty years later, however, a church was finished, externally at least, for, in 1734, the present old St. Thomas Church, of which Bath is so proud, was com- pleted. It was built of small, well-made brick brought from England, and the floor was likewise made of tiles. The same floor remains today. It was arranged inside as most of the churches in that day were arranged-two rows of pews with the aisles lead- ing down each side and the middle of the church. It is very neatly furnished now, and with its old inscriptions of the faithful few whose bones lie buried under the chancel, it is one of the curiosities of the quaint old town of Bath.
The Act of 1701, and the select vestries appointed by it, though
"S. R., XXIII, 6.
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1
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it did not materially concern the scattered settlers along the Pam- lico, continued in effect until the act of March 12, 1710-11, which appointed new vestries in all the parishes. The Act of 1711 was not radically different from the Act of 1701, though it was fully as intolerant toward the Quakers and the few Baptists then found here. The Act of 1715 supplanted the Act of 1711, and continued in effect until it was repealed by the vestry act of 1741. This act30 was the most extensive act yet passed in reference to the Church. It gave the Church almost as much power over the peo- ple as the Colonial Government had. It gave the Church the power to levy poll taxes as large as it saw fit; it gave the wardens and vestry complete control over all church moneys; and it also gave these men the power to assess or levy any taxes they deemed necessary "for building a church, chappel, or chappels; to pur- chase lands for a Glebe, to erect convenient buildings thereon, and to keep the aforesaid Edifices in repair."31 The wardens and vestry could also have taxed the people for the purchase of books, ornaments for the church or necessities of public worship, and have been justified by this law in so doing.
The people of Beaufort County must have been of a different type, generally speaking, from the majority of people who settled other Eastern North Carolina counties. We do know they did not come to escape religious persecution; we know further that they were of English origin, and that the majority of them must have been warmly attached to the principles of the Church of England. We make these statements because we are able to find no registered complaints from the people of Beaufort against the excessive taxes for the support of the Church. Their general interest in matters of religion is further attested to by the fact that the people of St. Thomas parish in Beaufort County were the only people who ever owned their three hundred acres of glebe land, or a glebe house. These were acquired in the ministry of Rev. Mr. Garzia, who became the minister of St. Thomas parish about 1735. He was a zealot, and was well beloved by the people. He died Novem- ber 29, 1744, as a result of a fall from his horse while he was returning from visiting a sick parishioner.
"S. R., XXIII, 187-191. #Ibid.
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The next really great man who was connected with St. Thomas Church in the capacity of its minister was the Reverend Alex- ander Stewart, who came from England in 1753 as the special agent of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, as well as being the minister of St. Thomas Church. Until the spring of 1771, nearly as far as we are concerned, he worked faithfully among the people of Beaufort, Hyde, and Pitt counties, serving thirteen chapels besides his parish church.32 He helped in the education of the youth of Beaufort County, and he often supplied school children with necessary books. The church at Bath received its finishing touches in 1762, not having been quite completed in 1734. He suffered much on account of sickness during the later part of his life, though he was never the complainer that many of his predecessors sent out by the S. P. G. were. His letters to the Society were sane, sincere, and accurate. He influenced two men to become candidates for Holy Orders. These were Mr. Peter Blinn and Mr. Nathaniel Blount, who both rendered a good service to the people a little later.
For a very few more years after Mr. Stewart's death the Estab- lished Church continued to be supported by all the tithables, whether church members or not. Mr. Stewart gave in 1767 the number of taxable persons in St. Thomas parish as 110.33 Thus we see that the numbers in St. Thomas parish had grown im- mensely from the time when, in 1711, there were about a dozen houses in the town of Bath. And yet, the church as an establish- ment of the State ceased to exist forever upon the outbreak of the War of the Revolution. In many places the church was a menace to great numbers, but in Beaufort County the church was a blessing.
There were probably a few persons in the county who were Quakers. These people were to be found pretty generally through the eastern part of the State. There were also a few Baptists in all probability, for the Baptists, at a later date, were unusually active immediately to the north and west of us. But, as a whole, we may say that the colonial inhabitants of Beaufort County were staunch adherents to the principles advocated and taught them by the Established Church.
"De Rossett, Church History of North Carolina, p. 73. "C. R., VII, 145.
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COMMERCE IN THE COUNTY.
It would seem that when a colony is planted in a foreign and uncultivated country, that commerce and intercourse with the mother country and other foreign countries would be extensive and prosperous. But such is not always the case even today; and in the latter quarter of the seventeenth century, when the first settlements were made along Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, it was even less true than it is now. When many of the settlers landed in the forests of Carolina their relations with the mother country and the outside world practically ceased. They always came well supplied with tools and implements and household uten- sils, and, owing to the abundance of the game afforded by the forests and rivers, together with the results of their thrifty hus- bandry, it was very easy to get along without too much depend- ence being placed upon the products of the mother country. Of course, even in the earliest days, powder and arms and new tools and some other articles of absolute necessity to life, such as salt and medicines, had to be imported.
Owing to the fact that some of the settlers of our part of the State came both from Virginia and the New England colonies, the earliest commercial relations established were between the new settlers of the Albemarle and Bath counties and the two sections mentioned above. Most of the necessary articles were got through the Virginia merchants, or through the New England traders. These merchants bartered their wares in exchange for the products of the colonists, money being almost unknown. The price of any article was stated to be so and so many pounds of tobacco, or indigo, or so and so many bushels of corn or wheat. The salt meat of the colony, both beef and pork, was very excellent, and this was largely exported, through the agency of the thrifty New England shipmen, to the West India Islands, where it was ex- changed for sugar, cocoa, and molasses.
In 1707, Robert Holden, who had been Collector of Customs in Albemarle as far back as 1679, writing to the Lords Proprietors about North Carolina, says: "It has barred Inlets into It; which spoyles the trade of it and none but small vessels from New Eng-
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SOME COLONIAL HISTORY OF BEAUFORT COUNTY
land and Bermudas trades there. The soil is more lusty than South Carolina. It produceth Tobacco; Indian Corne; English Wheat in abundance; Beef, Pork, hides, Tarr, and so consequently pitch, and furs as Beaver: Otter: Fox and Wild Cat skins, deare skins; Tanned Lether, Tallow," etc.34 This list is protracted still further, but this is enough to give us a general idea of the articles in which our commerce consisted, even as early as the first decade of the eighteenth century. Thus we see that despite the fact that the colonists could get along with but little outside aid, they, not- withstanding, very soon began to export their products to outside markets.
.
Beaufort County was not behind the other counties in beginning commercial relations with other colonies and other countries. Bath was incorporated in 1705, because it was then one of the most flourishing towns in the State, and its growth was due to its com- merce, which in turn was traceable to the comparatively good harbor of the town. An early chronicler35 describes Bath as being "not the unpleasantest part of the country,-nay in all prob- ability it will become the centre of trade, as having the advantages of a better inlet for shipping and surrounded with most pleasant savannas, very useful for stocks of cattle. In this, as in all other parts of the province, there is no money; everyone buys and pays with their commodities, the difference of their money being as one to three." 36 The harbor of Bath is not very deep, but con- sidering the fact that the vessels of those times did not draw much water, it was sufficiently good for Bath to be a thriving town as the result of its commerce, especially between the years 1755-1775. We know that no great amount of commerce was shipped from or received at Bath prior to 1715, for in this year the town was made a port of entry, and that a collector of customs was not appointed for the town until a few years afterward.
Lawson, in his geographical history of North Carolina, writing about 1709 (he was cruelly put to death by the Indians in 1711), says, having just remarked upon the great plenty in the province: "Thus our merchants are not many, nor have those few there be
"O. R., II, xiv.
"William Gordon, ex-missionary to Carolina.
"O. R., I, 715.
.
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applied themselves to the European trade. The planter sits con- tentedly at home, whilst his oxen thrive and grow fat, and his stocks daily increase: the fatted porkets and poultry are easily raised to his table, and his orchard affords him liquor, so that he eats and drinks away the cares of the world, and desires no greater happiness than that which he daily enjoys. Whereas, not only the European, but also the Indian trade, might be carried on to a great profit, because we lie as fairly for the body of Indians as any set- tlement in English America; and for the small trade that has been carried on in that way, the dealers therein have throve as fast as any men, and the soonest raised themselves of any people I have known in Carolina." 37 Not a bad estimate of the possibili- ties of intra-colonial trade, though not so favorable an estimate of early colonial plantation life! For various reasons, some of which being the poorness of harbors, the shoals, the dangers to commerce from pirates, the bad proprietary government, and the general plenty that prevailed, early commerce was a rather neglected enterprise.
Lawson also says: "Our produce for exportation to Europe and the islands in America are beef, pork, tallow, hides, deer skins, furs, pitch, tar, wheat, Indian corn, peas, masts, staves, heading, boards and all sorts of timber and lumber for Madera and the West Indies, rosin, turpentine and several sorts of gums and tars, with some medicinal drugs, are here produced; besides rice and several other foreign grains, which thrive well." Most of these articles mentioned by Lawson continued to be exported, for in 1765, in the Memorial of the Merchants, Traders and Planters, we find mentioned pitch, tar, turpentine, masts, yards and bowsprits, which the colonists prayed to be allowed to ship to Ireland, Spain and Portugal, and to the Streights. The peti- tion further says that "Beef, pork, rice, indigo, naval stores, corn, lumber and hides could be sold to advantage outside Britain." 38
As the county increased in population and wealth, several of the merchants and larger planters of the county built ships and found that commerce between Bath and other Eastern Carolina ports was profitable, for the tax of one pound of powder and four
37Lawson, History of North Carolina, pp. 146, 147. "O. R., V, 322.
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SOME COLONIAL HISTORY OF BEAUFORT COUNTY
pounds of swan shot for "every three tons measure" of the vessel by the Statute of 1715 (Chapter XXXV),39 and of one quarter pound of powder and one pound of shot or lead for each ton, according to the Statute of 1754 (Chapter VI),40 was not levied on vessels owned or built by any resident person of the colony. The favor granted to home-built and home-owned ships was evi- dently granted in order to aid the building up of a more pros- perous foreign trade. These laws and acts had a wholesome effect, for they, together with the excellent facilities which the forests and the waterways of our section of the State then and now offer to shipbuilding, caused the colonists of Beaufort and other counties to have a pretty fair sized colonial merchant marine at the time of the outbreak of the Revolution. This is proved by the attention paid to the importance of not shipping any necessities out of the province, either in home or foreign bot- toms, during the Revolution.
The colonial commerce of Beaufort County, then, considering the fact that it is situated on a broad, navigable river, and that it contains the town of Bath, one of the earliest ports of entry, was, despite the fact that all commerce in the colony was very small until about the middle of the eighteenth century, a rather important industry in the county. It was the sole means of the people's exchanging their products for money. It was the way in which the people kept in touch with the outside world. It was the method used to obtain the few luxuries of life that were used in the county in pre-Revolutionary times. Altogether, it was an important influence in the life of colonial Beaufort County; it was one of the greatest influences for good in the county, and it was the means of making the fortunes and names of several fam- ilies whose descendants now live among us.
"S. R., XXIII, 45-46.
"Ibid., p. 401.
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PIRACY IN THE COUNTY.
In any discussion of Colonial Beaufort County, when we have touched upon the commerce and trade of pre-Revolutionary times, we cannot pass the subject of piracy silently by. The commerce of the colony, together with the geographical features of the eastern part of North Carolina, and our nearness to the Bermudas and the West Indies as a whole, made the ports on the sounds and on the Cape Fear, Neuse, and Pamlico rivers, particularly, very inviting to that nest of pirates which infested the West India Islands during the latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries.
When we speak of pirates and piracy in this modern age it is as if we were transported into a second age of semi-barbarous lawlessness and adventure, so marvelous and far off does this sea highway robbery seem. But, nevertheless, about the time the early settlers around Bath and other places along the Pamlico were struggling to found their homes, there was a government of pirates among the coral islands off the southeast coast of the United States which had already reached its "golden age," and which was about to be disbanded. The breaking up of this "govern- ment" was due to both troubles among themselves and trouble as a result of the effective energy of the King's fleets. With Henry Morgan, Captain Kidd, Hornigold, or Vane, real kings of des- peradoes, we will not concern ourselves, for these never made any depredations on the sounds of the Eastern Carolina coast of which we have record, but Edward Teach, or "Black Beard," as he is commonly known in the legends which we still hear concerning his bold and lawless deeds in and near Bath, and Major Steed Bonnett are of particular interest to us who are lovers of colonial history.
Edward Thack or Thatch or Teach, as his surname is vari- ously spelled, was a disciple of the noted Hornigold, and though he made his headquarters at New Providence in the Bahamas, during the earlier part of his career, he it was who a little later so completely held the people of Bath and the surrounding settle- ments along the banks of the Pamlico at his mercy. He made his
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headquarters in the latter part of his career almost entirely on the waters of Pamlico and Albemarle sounds.
Teach was composed of the stuff necessary to make a success- ful pirate. He was a large, dark man physically; his will was as strong as his physique. He was passionate to the extreme; he caroused and ate and drank as hard and as heartily as the famous robber barons of medieval Europe. He was fond of luxuries, and despite his fierce mien, due to a superabundance of long black whiskers, from which he derived his nickname, Black Beard, he was amiable to women generally.41 In keeping with his nature, he had some eight or more wives, a state of matrimony only equaled in modern times by wealthy Mohammedans and by excep- tional cases among the Mormons. Teach's unlawful method of gaining a living was thus in perfect accord with his general tem- perament.
The depredations of the pirates of the Bahamas became such frequent and serious affairs that it was necessary for something to be done to suppress their general lawlessness. The commerce of the Bath, Albemarle, Archdale, and Clarendon counties with Vir- ginia and with the New England colonies was a growing one. The cargoes which these colonial merchantmen carried were often very valuable, and were consequently the coveted objects of many a piratical eye, since not only French and Spanish ships were mo- lested, but also the merchantmen of the colonies or the mother country itself. So troublesome had these pirates made themselves, and so risky had commerce become, that it became necessary for the King to issue a general pardon to all those who had been engaged in piratical depredations, and who would, within one year, surrender themselves and take an oath not to engage in this unlawful enterprise again. Many of these pirates acceded to the terms of the pardon, gave up this illegal method of living, and became planters and good citizens in several of the colonies.42
Teach also pretended to agree to the generous terms of the proclamation of Charles II., and he accordingly settled at Bath. His resolutions (if he ever made any) were soon broken; the thrilling sensations of a chase, a few broadsides, a hand-to-hand
"Ashe, Our Own Pirates. "Booklet," v. 2. "Ibid.
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struggle,-and then the grim satisfaction of having his unfortu- nate enemies walk the plank proved too much for his wild and bloody nature. In November of the same year he set sail from Bath and began all his freebooting anew. He sailed the seas, armed both ship and crew, and his name became a terror to every mariner. His ship was of the kind which had clean heels, and he could chase, strike, plunder, and sink or burn a ship and slip away again before he could be taken. The commerce of the Caro- lina colonies almost ceased to exist, and Charles, in desperation, sent some of the most skillful English officers to put an end to a part of the buccaneering of the Bermuda outlaws. These loyal seamen of Charles II. succeeded in capturing some of the robbers, but not Teach nor Major Bonnett, who had become Black Beard's running mate, since these two bold buccaneers were off on a cruise at the time their headquarters were taken.
Exulting in his having escaped, and conscious of his own strength and the fleetness of his ships, Teach, together with Bon- nett, sailed the seas, becoming more of a terror than ever. He established anew the old order of the buccaneers, and, because of his bravery and daring, he became their leader. The commerce of our colony, though it was necessarily small, was paralyzed, and the trade of South Carolina with other colonies or with the mother country was also broken up. The King sent Sir Woods Rogers to drive these pirates off the seas. He captured all of those he found at Providence with the exception of Vane, Bonnett, and Black Beard, who were away on a cruise, and thus escaped cap- ture. But luck was not always with Teach, for, upon repairing to the coast of North Carolina, two of his ships, his flagship and another sloop, were wrecked at Topsail Inlet in June, 1717.
As a result of this misfortune some of his crew deserted him, going to the middle colonies, settling, and becoming good citizens. This gave Teach another opportunity to take advantage of a second pardon, which he was to have received from the King upon his surrendering at Bath. Teach, however, was only pretending to reform, for he again took to piracy after a short rest. On his outward voyage he captured two French merchantmen loaded with the products of semi-tropical countries, part of which con-
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sisted of chocolate, sweetmeats, loaf sugar, and other commodi- ties. 43 These ships he took, and on the night of the 13th or 14th44 of September he entered Ocracoke Inlet and proceeded to place his booty in as safe a place as possible, leaving a part of it at the plantation of Tobias Knight at Bath. Whether these goods were known by Knight or Governor Eden to have been taken through piracy or not is not certain,45 though the people evidently sus- pected Teach. He had robbed a perianger of William Bell, a merchant of Pasquotank, in the Pamlico River on the night of the 14th of September, and had taken over seventy-five pounds in money and goods.
It is the common people-the populace at large-who suffer most when any outrage is committed, and it is they who finally rise up in their might and either personally or through their agents make their own restitution. The people sent a complaint to the Governor of Virginia, Spotswood, and a petition for aid sufficient to rid the colony of this pest of a pirate. Spotswood acted with great secrecy, and, securing two officers, Lieutenant Maynard and Captain Brand, from His Majesty's ships the "Lyme" and the "Pearl," which were then lying in Chesapeake Bay, he gave them command over two well-armed and equipped sloops of war. They sailed for Ocracoke on the 17th of November, coming into Ocracoke Inlet on the evening of the 21st. They found Black Beard on the inside of the bar, and, anchoring, they prepared to pass the night, having the treacherous Teach bottled up in Pam- lico Sound.46
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