French Huguenots

...how some made their way to Beaufort.

This etching shows how French Huguenots fled from Brittany and Normandy in small boats across the English Channel to England. (Image from www.betheafamily.org)

When Louis XIV began a policy of une foi, un loi, un roi - one faith, one law, one king - and revoked the Edict of Nantes on 22 October 1685, the large scale persecution of the Huguenots resumed. At least 250,000 French Huguenots fled to countries such as Switzerland, Germany, England, America, the Netherlands, Poland and South Africa, where they could enjoy religious freedom. Between 1618 and 1725, some 5000 to 7000 Huguenots reached the shores of America.

Besides those who settled in Florida in 1564 and South Carolina in 1679, about 1705 small French Huguenot colonies settled on the Pamlico River and on the Trent River, where Baron DeGraffenried’s colony found them in 1710 when he founded New Bern. 

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Though it has been written, French Huguenots were not the first settlers of Beaufort. Carteret County and Beaufort settlers with roots in France, included Piver, Paquinet, Noe, Manney, Delamar, Midyette and Geffroy—all likely descendants of French Huguenots:

Piver: Though not documented, Peter Piver circa 1690-1758 may have been the first Piver to come to the Core Sound area. Over the generations, he, son Peter and grandson Peter acquired various plots of land including acreage west of what is now Moore Street. Peter Piver, Jr. (1717-1795) served under the command of Colonel Thomas Lovick during the 1747 Spanish attacks. Peter III was born about 1740. In 1795, Carteret County court minutes note that Peter Piver and wife Lydia sold half of Piver’s Island (seven acres) to Elijah Bell. Peter Piver and his descendants built many houses in Beaufort.

Paquinet: Michael Paquinet (1690-1772) was born in Paris, and died in Carteret County. Married in Carteret County about 1740, Michael and Mary Powell became parents of Mary, James, John, Charity, Isaiah, Jacob, Margaret, Elizabeth, and Rebecca  Paquinet. The 1772 Will of Michael Paquinet left his sons James, John and Isaiah his plantation, 100 acres on Cane Creek and 200 acres on Broad Creek. The Paquinet House circa 1769 (plaque), 221 Front Street, was likely built the first quarter of the 19th century (Early Domestic Architecture in Beaufort, NC, Summer Field Study 2011.)

Noe: In the early 1800s there were two Noe families - James Noe and Peter Noe, sons of Mary Cocks and James Noe, born in North Carolina about 1777. James G. Noe (1807-1868) married Mary "Polly" Paquinet in 1829; they were parents of Sarah H. Rachael James, John West, and Thomas D. Noe. 
In 1825, Peter (c.1800-c.1850) married Mary Dennis; they were parents of Mary Margaret, Isaac H., Peter, Isaiah Benjamin, and Charity Jane Noe. The James Noe House circa 1828 is located on 112 Moore Street; the first recorded deed for this lot sold at public auction, conveying the home to "James Noe, deceased."

Manney: Jean Magny left France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. He first settled in Rhode Island in 1686. About 1691 most of the Huguenots were forced to leave. Jean Magny settled briefly in Oxford, Mass, but soon moved to New York City. Magny, Manee, and Maney evolved to Manney. James Manney came to Beaufort from Poughkeepsie, NY. The Dr. James Manney House circa 1812 is located at the corner of Craven and Ann Streets. In 1848, Dr. Manney's son, Dr. James Lente Manney, married William Fulford's daughter, Julia Ann.

Delamar: 1663 Francois De Lamar, or De la Mar, born in Vignoc, Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne, France, immigrated about 1690, died in 1713 in Pasquotank County, NC. Some of his descendants came to Beaufort from New Bern. Thomas Delamar (1794-1863) married Hannah Longest; their son Christopher Francis Delamar was born in Beaufort in 1823. The Gibble-Delamar House, circa 1866, at 217 Turner Street, built by Jacob Lyon Gibble, was inherited by daughter Helen Hughes Gibble, who married William Thomas Delamar in 1901. (W.T. Delamar was the son of Selden Dawson Delamar and Cora Nelson Dickenson.)

Midyett: Midyett families, originally from Normandy, France, were early inhabitants of Bodie Island and the Outer Banks in the late 1600s. "Many Midyett girls married sailors off Black Beard's three ships. The name was spelled different ways: Midyett, Midyette, Midgett, Midgette, but no matter how you spell it, they all came from Matthew Midyett who landed at Bodie Island, NC around 1600. He was a ship captain and was shipwrecked off the coast of the outer banks."--Donald Midyett. Midyetts helped start the US Coast Guard by establishing life-saving stations on the Outer Banks. Some of the family found their way to Beaufort by 1850.

Geffroy: Malachi R. Geffroy, husband of Nannie Pasteur Davis, had roots back to France then Canada. The M.R. Geffroy House circa 1885 is located in the third block of Ann Street. 
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Beaufort resident David DuBuisson* wrote: 
"The Huguenots in the U.S. quickly dispersed and assimilated. Many of them had already assimilated in English or Dutch or German societies before crossing the Atlantic. As a religious denomination, the Huguenot church essentially disappeared under the relentless persecution of Rome. So, with a few exceptions, by the time they reached America Huguenots were generally affiliated with the Dutch Reformed (NY), Presbyterian or Anglican (VA, SC) churches. As they spread out through the colonies, they did not do so as a coherent group, but rather as individual families colonizing mainly with the English. This would explain why there would be no recognizable 'Huguenot colonies' in, say, North Carolina, though there would be individual families."

*David DuBuisson is an indirect descendant of brothers Henry Martyn Baird and Charles Washington Baird - both Huguenot historians. In 1885 Charles W. Baird, D.D. (1828-1887), Presbyterian minister and historian, wrote the History of the Huguenot Emigration to America. The Baird brothers contributed perhaps two-thirds of the Huguenot scholarship in English that exist today. Their mother was Fermine Amaryllis Ophelia DuBuisson Baird. Fermine was David DuBuisson's great-great aunt, the older sister of his great-great grandfather, George Washington DuBuisson.

Piver Family

Piver's Island across from the west end of Beaufort - Late 1800s

This is the earliest known Beaufort photograph in existence showing the point at Duncan's Green looking westward. The image was scanned from Beaufort, An Album of Memories by Jack Dudley.

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Transcribed from an article written by:

Edward Lee Piver, Heritage of Carteret County 1982

The Pivers are descendants of 16th and 17th centuries French Huguenots. Their civil rights in France were guaranteed to them by the Edict of Nantes. This official decree of religious tolerance was signed by King Henry IV of France on April 13, 1598.

In 1685, the intolerant King Louis XIV revoked this edict and issued a new one which withdrew all their civil and religious liberties. The Huguenots were faced with danger to both person and property, and thousands of them fled to new homes in England, Brandenburg and the Low Countries. From these European countries they then migrated to America and settled in the Carolinas, Virginia and New York. The Huguenots that did remain in France did not receive their religious and political freedom until the time of the French Revolution.

Peter Piver, Sr.* came from England to Carteret County, North Carolina in 1708/1709 and first settled on the North River. Later, it is said he was given a land grant by Lords Proprietors which gave him title to many acres of land in Beaufort Township.

Jelly Rolls and a Model-T 
Edward Warren Piver

Edward Warren Piver, born October 30, 1869, married Martha Duncan Longest. Edward Warren Piver’s jobs of life varied with the seasons of the year. During the spring and summer months he farmed and bought clams from clammers for 30 cents per bushel to re-bed in North River’s sandy reef opposite where he lived. Later, in the fall and winter months, the clams were removed, packaged 250 per grass bag and shipped by railroad freight and then in the late twenties by over-the-road highway truck to sell on the Fulton Fish Market in New York City. From 1910 and until the late 1920s, the clams were transported from North River by motor boat to freight depot in Beaufort for shipment.

On some of the boat trips Edward W. took his son, Edward Lee, with him. When a load of clams was placed in the freight car and he started back home, he would stop at the business section of Beaufort, go to Clawson’s Bakery, buy several dozen of different kinds of warm mid-afternoon baked goods to eat on the way home and also take some to the rest of the family. The warm jelly rolls were delicious.

He also enjoyed an after-supper smoke outside the house. His corncob pipe was so strong with nicotine, he agreed to leave it at a given place on the back porch. It and the can of Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco were always there for his use and enjoyment. Another luxury he enjoyed was a short nap after the midday meal. For this rest period, a couch was place in the dining room for his use.

The farming operation was performed with a pair of mules. It provided food for family and for livestock. In addition to using the two mules for the farm operation, they were often hitched to the wagon or buggy and driven on a 5 to 8 mile journey rather than walk the muddy or sandy road.

After a devastating hurricane in the 1930s, Edward W. experimented with the fast-growing loblolly pine trees to re-forest his wood lots. The project was successful and he was invited to North Carolina State College to share his know-how with students in the Forestry Department. He was unable to accept the invitation.

After 1910, to provide a better education for his children than the one-room-one-teacher school, a 1914 Motel-T Ford was purchased in 1916 for his two daughters and one son to drive eight miles per day to attend St. Paul’s School in Beaufort—and later [to attend] the public school. The car was capable of traveling the hub-deep mud road which is currently Highway 70 East.

Throughout his life Edward W. Piver manifested his love and concern for his family.

*HISTORY NOTE: Peter Piver served under the command of Colonel Thomas Lovick during the 1747 Spanish attacks. Peter and Lydia Piver’s son, Jesse, married Elizabeth Paquinet June 19, 1817. It is believed that Jesse was the Piver who purchased, from the state of NC, what was then known as Still Island just opposite the western “Town’s End.” After dredging improvements to deepen the channel, the island became known as Piver’s Island. Peter Piver and his descendants built many houses in Beaufort. Several Piver families and descendants still call Beaufort home.

A Spanish Visitor - 1783

Francisco de Miranda

Self Portrait

On 13 July 1783 Beaufort was host to a most unusual visitor from Spain. Francisco de Miranda, then thirty-three years old and a fugitive from Spanish justice, had set sail from Havana, Cuba on the first day of June bound for Charleston, South Carolina. Throughout the year Miranda was to record his travels and observations of this new country.

Instead of putting in at Charleston the Captain of his vessel sailed to North Carolina waters and passed through Ocracoke Inlet on the eighth of June. Proceeding through the sound and up the Neuse River, Miranda arrived in New Bern. His description of that city is a contrast to what he has to say later about Beaufort. “The population of this city is composed of five hundred families of all classes. The houses are middling and small as a rule, but comfortable and clean; almost all are made of wood. The church and the assembly house are of brick and are suitable to the town. The finest building of all and one which really deserves the attention of an educated traveler is the so-called ‘Palace.'"

Remaining in New Bern until the twelfth, Miranda then departs, crossing the Trent River on a ferry and takes the road to Beaufort. He arrives at the Allways Inn at two o'clock in the afternoon. The diary states that this inn was twenty-five miles from New Bern. He describes his stay at the Allways as being refreshing in the following manner, "...a moderate and clean meal and the company of Comfort and Constance, daughters of the innkeeper, fifteen and eighteen years old and very good looking, soon made me forget the excursion. That evening there was a good supper and better conversation with the girls; after all had retired for the night, one had no embarrassment in coming at my request to continue the conversation in my bed."

The next morning Miranda continued his journey 
and... “having gone twenty-one miles on roads similar to the one of the day before and crossed a swamp which must be more than a mile wide and had millions of mosquitoes. I arrived four hours later at Beaufort. I took lodging at the home of Mrs. Cheney, who treated me and took care of me grandly. Her gracious company mitigated to some extent the aridity and unsociableness of the town.”

In this section of the diary, Miranda describes his meeting with some French businessmen who had been shipwrecked on the shores of Cape Lookout, and goes on to tell of natives having, “...picked up whatever objects were floating about. (They even salvaged the copper sheathing and brought it to Beaufort.)”

As to Beaufort, the diary reports: “Beaufort is located on a sandy beach that, except for some sandbanks, which act as a barrier against the sea and form the sound, is quite unsheltered. It has about eighty inhabitants, and the houses are very miserable. Despite the fact that its location is much more advantageous than that of New Bern (even frigates can enter the sound), there is no commerce and, as a result, the inhabitants are poor. Mr. Parret and Mr. Dennis are the educated persons of the town and favored me with their company while I was here, waiting for a ship to take me to Charleston. The first is a surveyor general and gave me a good map of the state.”

The Miranda diary ends its tale of the Beaufort visit with this bit about the author’s excursion into the country-side: “I made an excursion for a distance of twelve miles into the region, going up the little Newport River to the homes of two Quakers: one was rich and ignorant and the other, Mr. Williams, poor, educated and generous...Never before have I suffered similar discomfort from heat, bedbugs and mosquitoes to that which I went through in these two days of Quaker study. The agriculture one sees around here amounts to very little (mostly corn and potatoes), the earth being sandy and very poor. On the shores there are many windmills of very good construction and design. They are of wood and nevertheless last between twelve and twenty years. There are others on the creeks which fall into the rivers; by means of a causeway and locks they collect water and generally form two mills; one to saw wood and the other to grind grain. Of this type there are an infinity in this region, as lumber is one of the principal branches of commerce.”

On the twenty-second of June, Miranda took a ship for Charleston. So ends the tale of the Spanish visitor to Carteret County and Beaufort! - Charles O. Pitts, Jr., as transcribed from Heritage of Carteret of Carteret County,1984.

HISTORY NOTE:
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez (1750 - 1816) commonly known as Francisco de Miranda, was a Venezuelan revolutionary. Although his own plans for the independence of the Spanish American colonies failed, he is regarded as a forerunner of Simón Bolívar, who during the Hispanic American wars of independence successfully liberated a vast portion of South America. Miranda led a romantic and adventurous life. An idealist, he developed a visionary plan to liberate and unify all of Spanish America but his own military initiatives on behalf of an independent Spanish America failed in 1812. He was handed over to his enemies and four years later, in 1816, died in a Spanish prison. (Above image is a painting showing Miranda in prison.) Within fourteen years of his death most of Spanish America was independent.

Green Family and Farnifold Green's 1707 Grant

Part of 1676 Map - "A New Description of Carolina"
shows Farnifold Green's grandfather Roger Green's land.

     In 1653, over fifty years before Farnifold Green’s 1707 land grant in Core Sound, his grandfather, Reverend Roger Green, was granted his 1000-acre choice of 10,000 acres on the south side of the Chowan River. The above 1676 “Description of Carolina” map notes land between the Pamlico and the Neuse Rivers as “Green’s Land.”

     Roger Green was born about 1611 in Norfolk, England. In 1635, at the age of 24, he sailed to the new world aboard Abraham. Roger Green died about 1671 in Charles City, VA.

      According to the "Green Page," Roger Green enrolled at St. Catherine's, Cambridge, Easter of 1631. He received his B.A. 1634--35 and his M.A. 1638 and was ordained a priest 9 March 1638-39. He is next noted in Nansemond County, VA ministering to the inhabitants there. He is credited with founding North Carolina's first settlement in July 1653 on the bank of the Roanoke River and on the south side of the Chowan and tributary streams. The grant reads as follows: 

     Upon the petition of Roger Green, Clerk, on behalf of himself and the Inhabitants of Nansemond River, it is ordered by the present Grand Assembly, that 10,000 acres of land be granted unto 100 such persons who shall first seat on the Moratuck or Roanoke Rivers and the branches thereof—provided that such seaters settle advantageously for security... that there be granted the said Roger Green the rights of 1,000 acres of land. (Hening I, p.380) 
     Reverend Roger Green returned to England where, on 2 September 1661, he presented a pamphlet to the Lord and Bishop of London, entitled "Virginia's Cure", in order to show the unhappy state of the church in Virginia and the remedy of it. He was also one who examined into the competency of all ministers of the colony. He officiated at Jamestown, and was still living in 1671 (Colonial Church in Virginia, p.246).

     Roger Green's grandson, Farnifold Green, was born in 1674 in St. Stephens Parish, Northumberland, Virginia, the oldest of Timothy Green and Anne Farnifold's four sons. About 1697, Farnifold Green moved to Perquimans Precinct, where he married Hannah Kent Smithwick; they became parents of Farnifold, Elizabeth, Thomas, John, Jane, and James Green.  
     Early in 1707, Green was granted 1700 acres between Green's Creek and Smith Creek,  (near present-day Oriental). The acreage became known as Green's Neck plantation. Green became a member of the Provincial Assembly, captain in the militia, and also raised cattle on the Outer Banks.
     On December 20, 1707, Farnifold Green received the first land patent in the Core Sound area—780 acres, confirmed by payment of £7.16 sterling. Though Green never developed the land, part of it would later become Beaufort.   
     With the onset of the Tuscarora War in September 1711, Green wrote Virginia Governor Spotswood concerning the initial Indian massacre in the area west of Bath and New Bern.  
     On October 26, 1711 Green prepared his will.
  
     On July 18, 1713, Green endorsed the undeveloped 780-acre Core Sound patent to Robert Turner who gained permission from the Lords Proprietors to name and lay out the township of Beaufort - October 2, 1713. 
    In 1714, Green's Neck plantation was attacked, pillaged, and burned by Indians, resulting in the massacre of 40-year-old Green, son Thomas, a white servant and two Negroes. Another son was shot but escaped.

Queen's Anne's Revenge

In 1718, the notorious pirate Blackbeard lost his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, when it ran aground in Beaufort Inlet. For more than 270 years, it was hidden by water and sand – a mystery to archeologists around the world.

On November 21, 1996, a search team from the private research firm Intersal, Inc., operating under a permit from the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources (NCDCR) found a cluster of cannon and anchors on the seabed near historic Beaufort Inlet. 

Several diagnostic artifacts were recovered from the site, designated North Carolina shipwreck site 31CR314, including a bronze bell dated 1705, a sounding weight, an English blunderbuss barrel, a lead cannon apron, and two cannonballs. These early 18th century artifacts, nine cannon tubes, and two large anchors led the discoverers to conclude that this was the wreckage of the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR). MORE...
 
The bronze bell reveals the letters IHS MARIA and the date 1709. 

QAR images courtesy Jim Goodwin and Queen Anne's Revenge.

Turner Sold to Rustull in 1720

Portion of 1737 Moseley Map

In his October 1970 account in The North Carolina Historical Review, Charles L. Paul documented Robert Turner’s encouraging but false start in lot sales. In the first three months of 1713, after the town was laid out by Richard Graves, 28 lots were sold to 14 different investors. Nineteen of these were waterfront lots—about half of those then available with water view and access.

Realizing that few, if any, of these investors lived in the immediate area, in 1714, Turner added a provision in his sales contracts—a house of not less than 20 feet by 15 feet had to be constructed within one year of the sale. Only five lots were sold that year—all lapsed due to unfulfilled building stipulations.

In 1720, during the reign of King George I, a discouraged Turner sold his 780 acres to Richard Rustull for 150 pounds sterling and moved to the Pamlico River area.

As noted by Charles Johnson (Daniel Defoe) in his History of the Pirates - some of Edward Teach's (Blackbeard's) crew, which he had abandoned on a small barrier island after Queen Anne's Revenge was grounded off Beaufort Inlet in 1718, spoke of a “poor little village at the upper end of the harbor…”

Though Richard Rustull owned the town of Beaufort for only five years, he played an important role in the development of the early town. He increased the size of the town from its original 100 acres to 200 acres. The lots were sold for 30 shillings each—20 shillings paid to Rustull, and the other 10 shillings went to purchasing guns to help protect the town. He helped established a church to be known as St. John’s Parish, gave land to be used for the courthouse, served as Justice of the Peace and was one of the first town commissioners.

In 1722, when Carteret Precinct was carved out of Craven Precinct, Beaufort was chosen to be the site of the area courthouse. That same year the Governor confirmed an order from the Lords Proprietors that appointed Beaufort as an official port. 

Incorporated in 1723

Whaling License issued to Samuel Chadwick 
1726 image from 
Seasoned by Salt by Rodney Barfield

To Samuel Chadwick you are hereby permitted with three boats to fish for whale or Other Royall fish on ye Seay Coast of this Government and whatsoever you shall catch to convert to your own use paying to ye Hon, ye Governor one tenth parte of ye Oyls and bone Made by Vertue of this License. By ye Hon. y Govern. Ord.
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On November 23, 1723 Beaufort was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly. Contracts for lots sold were to keep the building provision established by Robert Turner in 1713, but increased the time limit to two years. Money received from the resale of lots was to be used for the building of a church and other uses decided upon by the church wardens and the vestry.

Guidelines also stipulated that all lots were to be cleared and all streets measure at least 66 feet wide. There would be no make-shift fences. Those fences built were required to be “paled in”—constructed with post and rails. Disturbing the peace would warrant a fine of ten shillings, 24 hours in jail, or two hours in a stockade. At the same time, liquor made in the precinct could be sold by anyone without a license.

In 1725, according to historian Charles L. Paul, two roads connected Beaufort with the surrounding area. One extended northeast to the west side of North River. The other ran north to Core Creek. The two roads merged in town at the courthouse. At that time a ferry became available across Core Creek and a bridge road was planned from the west side of the Newport River to the White Oak River area.

The growth of the town of Beaufort proceeded at a snail’s pace. In 1723, only five lot sales were recorded—all lapsed because the owners did not build on them. In December, 1725, Richard Rustull saved his investment by selling the Beaufort land to Nathaniel Taylor, a resident of Carteret Precinct, for 160 pounds sterling.

Nathaniel Taylor

Old Burying Grounds photo circa 1898
Image scanned from Rodney Barfield's Seasoned by Salt

Nathaniel Taylor once lived in the "White House," first shown of Moseley's 1733 map. Since Taylor was justice of the peace, court was held at his house until a courthouse was built.

According to Charles Paul, 1728 marked a high point in lot sales, perhaps due to more awareness and better promotion of the town. Between 1728 and 1732, twenty-one new lots were sold, plus 16 were resold by the town due to a lapse in building requirement. Most lots were purchased by speculators of the time and neither built houses or lived in the new town.

During his ownership of the town ((1725-1733), Taylor extended the town limits to include the "White House," and deeded land to the town which expanded the existing cemetery—The Old Burying Ground. In 1731, Governor Burrington described the town as one of “...little success and scarce any inhabitants.” In 1733, even though there had been a marked increase in settlers and sales, Nathaniel Taylor sold his interest in the town to Thomas Martin. The Beaufort waterfront “creek,” then at the eastern end of the settlement between Carrot Island and the mainland, was named for Taylor. (After Town Marsh began to grow, the water in front of the downtown waterfront, first known as Carrot Island Channel, was dredged; at that time, the portion across from "downtown" also became known as Taylor's Creek.)

As years passed, lots in Beaufort were transferred back and forth from one owner to another, but the town had little overall growth.

Revolutionary War Times

During the Revolutionary War, ships were in and out of the harbor transporting needed supplies. Patriots built salt works to supply themselves, and others, with the salt that had previously been imported. Some helped form an artillery battery to help defend the town.

Below are brief biographies of a few Beaufort citizens who were part of that time period.

ROBERT WILLIAMS circa 1723-1790 purchased 75 acres along Taylor’s Creek from James Winwright including the Hammock House. Williams built a salt works facility on the east end of town. He had a grist mill and built the first brick house in Carteret County using bricks and ballast stone from England. In 1776, Williams was appointed by the Provincial Congress to produce salt – he purchased Galland's Point for that purpose. (Galland's Point and Galland's Channel were named for John Galland, clerk of court in Carteret County in the 1720s. The named evolved to Gallants.)
 
RICHARD COGDELL circa 1724-1787, grandson of John the immigrant, was born in Beaufort to George and Margaret Bell Cogdell. Richard married Lydia Duncan. Cogdell was an ensign during the 1747 Spanish invasion, Aide de Camp to Governor William Tryon, justice of the court, sheriff of Craven County in 1762, representative from Carteret County in the legislature of 1766, member of the Provincial Congress of 1774 and 1775, and Chairman of the Committee of Safety. During the Revolutionary War, he was Judge of the Admiralty Court for Port Beaufort in 1776. He was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army and led troops that drove the last British Governor out of New Bern. It is said that he entertained George Washington when he visited New Bern.
 
WILLIAM BORDEN JR. circa 1731-1799 was a landowner, shipwright, and delegate to the Fifth Provincial Congress in 1776 when the Bill of Rights was adopted. His father, William Borden, Sr., was a ship builder from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who arrived in North Carolina in 1732 aboard his schooner.
 
WILLIAM THOMPSON circa 1732-1802 was a naval deputy for the port of Beaufort and delegate to the Provincial Congress. As a colonel during the Revolution, he was the highest ranking officer from Beaufort. In 1776 he was commissioned to establish a salt works, and was justice as well as county treasurer – serving the town and county for thirty years. His Last Will and Testament provided land to an orphan and money for the schooling of four of the town’s poorest boys.
 
JOHN MARSHALL circa 1744-1807, born in London, served in the Revolutionary War, moved to Beaufort and purchased 100 acres. He was appointed by the General Assembly of North Carolina as commissioner of the town of Beaufort.

CAPTAIN CHARLES BIDDLE circa 1745-1821 designed and helped build the town's artillery battery after realizing the vulnerability of Beaufort to British attack. Biddle was not in Beaufort for long, but was elected to the General Assembly of North Carolina. For a short time, he owned the Gibble House on Marsh Street. until returning to Philadelphia in 1780. He and wife Hannah Shepard of Beaufort, had many children including Nicolas Biddle--child prodigy and famous American financier.
 
NATHAN FULLER circa 1750-1800, father of Belcher Fuller, was a Revolutionary War ensign in the Carteret County Militia. He was a navigator and ship owner who sailed from Beaufort to England and the West Indies, bringing supplies into Beaufort harbor prior to the Revolution.
 
COLONEL JOHN EASTON circa 1750-1805 was a man of great influence in Carteret County. He settled in Beaufort about 1770. He served during the Revolutionary War, was a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775, Congress of 1776—which framed the state constitution, and was on the Committee of Safety in the New Bern district. Easton purchased a lot on the southwest corner of Front and Orange streets in 1771. He sold part of the lot to Jacob Henry in 1794; Jacob Henry built a house on the lot about 1800.

After the Revolution, Beaufort experienced a real period of growth. Most of the citizens made their living as carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths, mariners, coopers, shipwrights and fishermen. They also manufactured salt, processed forest by-products and shipped these products to other areas. There were also ministers, attorneys and a school master. More investors actually lived in, and took an active part in the building of the town. Ordinary citizens also became town leaders, some going on to represent the town in the North Carolina Legislature. Mail delivery was improving. Though still by horseback from New Bern, it was being delivered every two weeks.