Forrest, I pulled out my copy of The History of a Southern State - North Carolina, by Hugh Talmage Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome. Here is some of what I found about early North Carolina ports of entry: p. 55 "About 1704, on a bluff overlooking the Pamlico River, a town was formally laid off by John Lawson, surveyor general of the province, who with Joel Martin and Simon Alderson, was its founder. On March 8, 1706, the legislature incorporated Bath, the first town in North Carolina. Bath grew very slowly and never became very prosperous, but it was a place of considerable political and commercial importance for a number of decades. Several sessions of the legislature met in the little town, and in 1715 Port Bath was created - the first official port of entry in the province." In 1709 Wiliam Gordon, an Anglican missionary wrote about Bath: " ...in all probability it will be the centre of trade, as having the advantage of a better inlet for shipping, and surrounded with pleasant savannas, very useful for stocks of cattle." p. 68 "Although Bath had been made a port of entry, it failed to develop as a great commercial center. ... Beaufort was begun about 1713 and in 1722 was made a port of entry. Within a few years Roanoke (Edenton), Currituck, and Brunswick were also made ports." p. 72 "...the Lower Cape Fear settlement may be said to have begun with the founding of the town of Brunswick, laid off by Maurice Moore about 1725, some fourteen miles above the mouth of the river. About 1733 the town of Wilmington was begun, sixteen miles farther up the river. These two towns became the shipping points of the Lower Cape fear, and both were included in the official Port of Brunswick." pp 78-79 "In the 1730's... Brunswick, which had been founded about 1725, was one of the best ports in the province; and Wilmington, destined to outrank all other ports, was begun about a decade later. Both towns were included in the Port of Brunswick, for a colonial port was an area rather than a specific town. As early as 1732 forty-two vessels cleared from Brunswick ..." p. 102 "...it should be remembered that most ships trading with the colonies were less than three hundred gross tons, that many of them were less than one hundred tons burden, and that ships as small as this could anchor at most of the North Carolina ports." "... Both people and goods traveled by water. It was cheaper and usually faster than land transportation... Most of the sailing craft carried passengers as well as freight, although conditions on such small craft were most uncomfortable..." p. 103 "Though North Carolina had a few good outlets for ocean commerce, it had an excellent system of inland waterways - sounds, rivers, and creeks. These waterways were adapted to small craft and became the chief arteries of trade and travel. Most of the large plantations and many of the small farms were located on or near navigable waters; all the important towns in the Coastal Plain were situated on watercourses; and along some of the rivers, especially the Roanoake and the Cape Fear, travellers reported that there were - many warehouses and stores. The emphasis placed on waterways was clearly revealed in the numerous road laws, like the one of 1745, which provided that roads be built - to the nearest landing." - Trish >From: Vafdking@aol.com >Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 17:39:43 EST >Subject: Thanks for your comments >To: turniproots@coastalnet.com >MIME-Version: 1.0 > >Trish, > >Thank you for your input. I do not know about water ways and how easy they >are to access. I have been along a good portion of the coast line site >seeing but I did not pay attention to how easy it is to get a ship there. I >am not prepared to comment on that. I do know for some reason that >absolutely baffles me that there was very little intermarriage between the >Bath/Pasquotank, etc. are and Chowan/Bertie. They seem to be two separate >communities for the most part........ > >Forrest King >