Richard Graves and the Lay of the Land

First Map - NC Archives and History

In 1713, Robert Turner had Deputy Surveyor Richard Graves draw up the plan for the town of Beaufort.

Richard Graves was born about 1673 in Old Rappahannock County, Virginia, to Francis Graves and Jane ____Davenport Maguffey. Somewhere between 1708 and 1714, Richard left Virginia and trekked south to Carolina. He and Francis Shackleford, who had also come from Essex County, Virginia, bought a sloop—probably speculating on engaging in coastal trade. In September of 1714, the Essex County, Virginia, Order Book noted that Richard Graves’ brother, Francis Graves, testified that, since leaving Essex County, Richard had sent him a small Indian boy in payment for a debt.

According to Charles Paul, in Colonial Beaufort, “Sometime prior to the fall of 1713, permission had been obtained from the Lords Proprietors to lay out a town by the name of Beaufort at this site, and on October 2, 1713, Robert Turner had Richard Graves, Deputy Surveyor, lay out the town. A plat was made of the town by Graves and recorded in the office of the secretary of the colony. Streets were named; allotments were provided for a church, a town-house, and a market place; and lots were offered for sale.

Though minor alterations were made throughout the Colonial period, the main characteristics of the plan of the town never changed. The name Beaufort came from Henry Somerset, the 2nd Duke of Beaufort, one of the Lords Proprietors, who in 1713 was Palatine of Carolina, the chief position among the Proprietors. Turner Street obtained its name from Robert Turner, the father of the town. Moore Street was probably named for Colonel James Moore, who seven months before had brought an end to the Indian war. Pollock Street was named for Thomas Pollock, acting Governor of the colony from 1712 to 1714. Both Queen and Ann Streets were named in honor of the then reigning monarch of England, while Orange Street honored the memory of William III of Orange who had preceded Queen Anne on the English throne. Craven Street was named in honor of William Lord Craven, another of the Lords Proprietors. Though the town of Beaufort was laid out in 1713 with the permission of the Lords Proprietors, it was not officially incorporated by the Colonial government until ten years later.”

Hannah Kent Smithwick Green married Richard Graves in 1715. Hannah was the widow of Farnifold Green, who had sold his “Newport Town” patent in 1713 to Robert Turner and who had been massacred in 1714 during a Tuscarora Indian raid on his Green’s Creek plantation.

Graves family, and Essex County, Virginia records show Richard Graves as a person of recognized ability, taking a prominent part in the affairs of Craven Precinct. In the Colonial Records of North Carolina, Richard Graves is noted in 1726 as representing Craven Precinct in the Lower House of the Assembly of North Carolina.

Richard Graves made out is will on April 30, 1730. After his death, that same year, his wife Hannah ran the ferry across a tributary of the Neuse River not far from Turkey Quarter on the Old Washington Post Road in what is now Craven County.

According to the North Carolina Historical Review Volume 22, 1945 ...."For a brief time, this ferry was kept by a woman, the doughty Hannah Graves, who had survived the Indian masscares as the wife of the slain Farnifold Green and who outlived three other husbands included besides him!" Hannah’s fourth and last husband was George Linnington; they had no children. Hannah is thought to have died about 1742.

The above information was gathered from many sources, including Graves’ family history.