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[image: Blackbeard. Edward Teach, or Blackbeard, was one of the most feared and notorious pirates in the annals of that profession. Acquiring a reputation for cruelty and treachery in the West Indies, he came to Bath about 1718, where he received the king's pardon. While pretending to have abandoned his old career, he continued his piratical ways with several assists from Governor Charles Eden of North Carolina and the Secretary of the Colony, Tobias Knight. On November 22, 1718, after a savage battle, he was killed in Pamlico Sound by Lieutenant Ricard Maynard of the Royal Navy.]

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This act provided for a new group of town commissioners or trustees--John Porter, Joel Martin, Thomas Harding and John Drinkwater. Only Martin remained of the original three commissioners, Lawson having been killed and Daw having removed to Hyde precinct. Henceforth, any vacancy in the ranks of the commissioners was to be filled by vote of any of the remaining commissioners and the justices of the peace of Beaufort precinct.

While the original act of 1705 had specified that all lots were to be a half acre in size, those sold had actually contained a half acre and four poles and hence the act of 1715 called for a resurvey of the town and the reduction of all lots to a half acre size. (This resurvey was made soon after the passage of this act and forms the basic plan of the town of Bath today.)

The commissioners were authorized to sell lots to anyone desiring to be an inhabitant of the town at the price of thirty shillings per lot. A further stipulation was made that if there was any lot on which "a good substantial, habitable house" had not been erected within one year following its conveyance that the sale of the lot was to be void and of no effect, and the lot was to be free and clear for any other person to take up or purchase. In the years which immediately followed the passage of this act, this provision appears to have been carefully followed, and the commissioners ruled that any house fifteen feet square or of proportionate area was "a good, substantial, habitable house." From this provision grew the term "a saved lot" meaning one upon which such a house had been erected, and hence, saved from reverting back to the ownership of the town.

The front lots, or those facing Bath Creek, had been conveyed by the first commissioners to the owners in such language as to give them possession of the land which lay between the street bordering their lots and the creek. This was in direct violation of the act of 1705, and the 1715 act declared the conveyance of this property null and void and required an additional payment of ten shillings per lot by the owners of these front lots if they were to retain possession of this property. In the years immediately following the passage of this act, most of the holders of front lots purchased this waterfront property, invaluable as it was for wharves. Nevertheless, the act provided no building could be erected on this land except cellars or vaults in order "that the prospect of such as build in the said town may not be incommoded or hindered."

This provision was not the only one designed to protect the natural beauty of Bath, for the act required lot owners to clear their lots of all underbrush within one month after the act's passage and to keep them clean in the future. If this was not done, William Sidley was authorized to clean the lots and present a reasonable bill to their owners. After April 1, 1716, the act forbade any lot owner to allow any hogs or shoats to run at large in the town "under the penalty of forfeiting the said hog or shoat." If any person felt under the necessity of fencing his lot, the law required that the fencing be done with paling or posts and rails and not with "a common stake fence." Where any nuisances existed within the town the commissioners were impowered to remove them without the limits of the town of Bath.

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Bath, as finally laid out, consisted of seventy-one lots. There were three streets running north and south--Bay Street, which paralleled Bath Creek, (later Water Street) ran from Back Creek to the town limits and was one hundred feet wide; Church Street sixty-six feet in width, which lay behind Bay Street and ran from the town's northern limits about two-thirds the length of the town where it terminated in a cross street; and King Street, also sixty-six feet in width which ran the length of the town and formed its eastern boundary. Three streets ran east and west from Bath Creek to the town's eastern limits--Front Street, which faced on Back Creek; Craven Street which lay nine lots to the north and was sixty-six feet in width; and Beaufort Street (later Carteret Street) which lay twelve lots north of Craven Street and was fifty-two feet wide. Bath's act of incorporation also provided that land be laid out and preserved for a church, a town house, and a market place. In response to this provision lots No. 61 and 62 were set aside for a church and a courthouse respectively.

The 1715 act establishing Bath provided for the erection of a courthouse for Hyde and Beaufort precincts in the town of Bath. (At this time and until 1729 the precinct governments of Beaufort and Hyde were combined and one set of courts and public officials served both.) The justices of the peace were authorized to leavy a poll on the inhabitants of the two precincts so long as the total amount collected did not exceed £100. This represents, according to one authority, the earliest extant law in which the Assembly empowered a precinct court to levy a tax. The act provided that the levy did not have to be made until the two precincts had recovered from the effects of the Indian War. It is unknown when the levy was made, and the courthouse erected, although it had definitely been constructed by late 1723 and perhaps by 1720. It is possible that this courthouse was erected sometime in late 1722 or early 1723 as the result of an act of the General Assembly of 1722 which ordered the justices of the peace in each precinct within six months after the passage of the act to build a courthouse not less than twenty-four feet long and sixteen feet wide. It, however, seems likely that the courthouse was constructed prior to the passage of this act as extant records show that it was built under the terms and conditions of the Act of 1715. In all probability it was the second courthouse built in the province, only the courthouse on Queen Ann's Creek in Chowan precinct, constructed in 1718, being older. In 1723, the General Assembly instructed the justices of the peace of Beaufort and Hyde precincts to lay a poll tax on the inhabitants of Bath County by June, 1724, for the purpose of erecting a prison to serve the entire county of Bath. The law also provided for the levying of an annual poll tax, when necessary, to repair the prison. The type of building constructed, its size, and builder are unknown.

To aid the growth of Bath and to make the public offices more convenient to the people, the General Assembly, in 1722, passed an act requiring the collector's office, the clerk's office, and the impost office for Beaufort and Hyde precincts to be established and kept in the town of Bath. Even before the Tuscarora War the Proprietors had made Bath one of the two centers

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in North Carolina for the payment of purchase money for patented lands as well as for the collection of the annual quit rents.

The most important court held in Bath was that conducted by the justices of the peace of Hyde and Beaufort precincts, known as the precinct or county court and more formally as the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions which met four times a year at Bath. Another Court was held at Bath from time to time, as occasion required, known as the Court of Vice-Admiralty which was presided over by a Judge or Deputy-Judge of Vice-Admiralty who heard cases involving the customs and other maritime problems.

Many of the more important cases were appealed to the General Court of the province and Bath citizens often found themselves haled before that august body. Mary Cotton of Bath was found guilty in 1724 of stealing several articles and £8 from Roger Kenyon at Bath, and the Court ordered that she be tied to the whipping post and given thirty-one lashes on her bare back, after which she was to post a £100 bond for her good behaviour for twelve months and a day. A white servant, William Doyle, was found guilty of stealing from his master and sentenced to be "tyed to the tayle of a Cart & be whipt on the bare back with thirty nine stripes through Edenton this day of which the Provost Marshall of Albemarle is required to see Execution done and that next fryday he be whipt in like manner through Bath Towne of which ye Provost Marshall of the County of Bath is hereby required to see Execution done." After the public whipping at Bath the unfortunate Doyle was to be returned to his master.

In 1725, the grand jury returned a true bill against ex-governor Burrington charged with assaulting the ex-privateersman and merchant, Roger Kenyon, at Bath and attempting to burn down his house. He was further charged with making an assault at the same time on Robert Route, Provost Marshal, and "him the said Robert then in the Execution of his Office being called upon & attempting to keep and preserve the Kings peace he the sayed George did disturb and obstruct & him did then and there beat batter bruise & wound & evilly intreat and did threaten his life & Sent to him a private Challenge by a Messenger to fight him. . . ." By the time the grand jury had heard this case the pugnacious ex-governor had departed the colony and was not seen there again until he returned the first royal governor of North Carolina in 1731.

While court days were exciting times in Bath, they could no more than equal election days when the town was thronged with the precinct's free-holders. The only polling place in the precinct of Beaufort (and until 1729 the precinct of Hyde) was located at Bath and here gathered the politicians quite willing to trade a drink of rum for a vote. Here, too, gathered the free-holders of the town of Bath who by an act of 1722 were granted the right to elect a representative to the General Assembly. The act of 1715 incorporating Bath had promised the town a representative when it had obtained sixty families. This promise had not been reached by 1722, but the Assembly nevertheless decided that the time had arrived for it to have representation, In 1723, the Assembly clarified the election procedure and ruled that the vote in Bath

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should belong to (1) the owner of a saved lot who resided thereon, (2) the owner of a rented saved lot tenanted by a person legally unable to vote, (3) the renter of a saved lot who had paid the preceding year's levy or poll tax, (4) the owner of a saved lot although the house thereon be vacant. To qualify for election as a representative from Bath, the law specified that one must have been a freeholder or owner of a saved lot in Bath, on which there was located a habitable house in good repair and have resided in the province of North Carolina and in the town of Bath for eighteen months prior to the election.

The representative of Bath in the Assemblies of 1727 and 1729 is unknown. The first representative of Bath known to have served in the General Assembly was Roger Kenyon who was elected to the General Assembly of April, 1731. When the Assembly met at Bath the election of Keynon was disputed by a certain Mr. Patrick. This was to prove but the first of many disputed elections for a Bath representative in the years to come. Indeed, fraud and disputes plagued elections in North Carolina's borough towns (as those towns entitled to elect a representative were called) throughout the colonial period. Although Kenyon was allowed to keep his seat others were not so fortunate. In the Assembly of February, 1738/9, Richard Rigby protested the return of Roger Kenyon as Bath's duly elected representative. On this occasion the Assembly found Turner "not duly elected" and declared the petitioner, Richard Rigby, to be the duly elected representative. On one occasion the entire election process at Bath was found to be in error through the misunderstanding of the election laws, and a new election had to be held. The election of Wyriot Ormond was challenged in 1762 and in 1770, but on both occasions he was allowed to keep his seat.

While courts, politics, and disputed elections may have added excitement and interest to the routine of life at Bath, it was trade which gave the town its chief industry. From the beginning, Bath had been a merchant's town, founded to foster trade and serve as a center of commerce. Many of its leading citizens were, and had been, merchants. Their roster read like a Bath Who's Who. Into the beautiful harbor at Bath came goods from the mother country and from every British colony in the New World. Out from Bath went the products of the plantations--pork, tobacco, lumber, tar, pitch, turpentine, hides, cattle, peas, corn, and other provisions. No ships were seen more often than those of the ubiquitous New Englanders whose small ships of shallow draft proved ideal in the sand-choked Carolina sounds. The Bath merchants generally received goods from the shippers in return for the agricultural and forest products which they had received from the surrounding area in payment for purchases made. In the entire process little money was actually exchanged, nearly all of the transactions being carried on in rated commodities. Few of Bath's merchants operated ships of their own although a small number of sloops and schooners called Bath their home port. These were almost exclusively engaged in the intercolonial and West Indian trade.

In 1715 the Lords Proprietors had been pleased to make Bath the first

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[image: George Whitefield. Whitefield, a famous revivalist and minister and a leader in the Great Awakening in eighteenth century America, visited Bath in 1739, 1747-8, 1764, and 1765. On one of these visits, legend says, Whitefield, having been mistreated by the citizens of Bath, shook the dust of the town from his feet on leaving, thereby placing a curse upon the town which has doomed it forever to the life of a small village. Actually, Whitefield appears to have liked Bath and its citizens, and in 1847-8, he made Bath his headquarters while preaching in the "unpopulated wilds of North Carolina."]

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port town of the province. Port Bath, as it became known, included not only the town but Pamlico Sound and the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers which flowed into the sound. As a result, the collectors of customs and naval officers were henceforth located at Bath. Until 1730, when it was transferred to the jurisdiction of Port Beaufort, New Bern was a part of Port Bath and the masters of vessels which loaded entirely in the Neuse River would travel by land from New Bern to Bath to enter or clear with the collector, although it was possible, as some did, to sail from the Neuse to Bath.

The loss of records makes it impossible to determine the extent of trade carried on by Bath in the decades following its founding. One of the earliest shippers who made Bath a regular port of call was Captain Matthew Rowan of Ireland, who traded between Ireland and Bath where he found a ready sale for his "Irish goods" and "caryed to Ireland above one hundred Pounds silver money in a voyage." Rowan, who later settled in Bath and eventually became acting governor of the colony may well have been an exceptional trader, yet a lively trade most certainly was carried on from Port Bath in the first half of the eighteenth century. Still Bath was never able to equal the trade of the Albemarle Sound region and with the rise of the Cape Fear section, whose trade soon dwarfed all of the earlier ports, it sank to about fourth in importance among North Carolina's five ports of entry. In the seven year period from Christmas, 1746, to Christmas, 1754, an average of twenty-eight ships entered Port Bath each year which represented an average tonnage of about 1,744 tons. In 1754 nineteen Negro slaves were imported, which probably represents a normal year's importation. In 1763 the average number of ships entering Port Bath over a period "of many years" was officially estimated at thirty with a similar tonnage. In the quarter year from January to April, 1770, only eight vessels are reported to have entered Port Bath and in the quarter from January to April, 1770, seven vessels entered. Some of these vessels and their masters entering Bath in 1770 and 1771 included: The schooner Bushiba, Samuel Adams, master; the schooner Dolphin, Samuel Harding, master; the sloop Juno, Paul White, master; the schooner Barbadoes, John Barry, master; the schooner Surry, James Ghorham, master; and the schooner Young Sally, Thorndick Proctor, master.

Nature had made certain that Bath would never become a great port by creating the sand bars, shoals, treacherous inlets, and shallow waters of the Carolina coast. The entrance to Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds lay at Ocracoke Inlet, known among sea-faring men for its shifting sands and shallow bar. So shallow was the inlet that heavily laden ships were forced to unload part of their cargo into lighters before attempting to enter the sounds. Once inside the bar, the ships had to navigate broad but shallow sounds and rivers before reaching harbor. The entire process was dangerous to cargo and ship, and many merchants preferred not to risk their ships amidst these perils. As early as 1723, Maurice Moore, John Porter, John Baptista Ashe, Thomas Boyd and Patrick Maule were appointed Commissioners for the Port of Bath with the right to spend all the powder money (a provincial customs duty collected from all ships entering North Carolina)

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collected in Bath County for one year in hiring and directing undertakers for the task of buoying and beaconing out the channels leading from Ocracoke Inlet to the Port of Bath. The problem of navigating the shallow sounds continued to plague North Carolina, and despite act after act passed by the Assembly to facilitate navigation to Bath and the other ports, no satisfactory solution was ever reached.

By the 1730's efforts were being made to establish a customhouse and town on either Ocracoke or Portsmouth islands to serve as the great North Carolina port of entry. Though a town and a port were established on Portsmouth Island in the 1740's and 1750's, it never managed to supplant Bath or the other North Carolina ports.

Not all of the problems of shipping at Bath were confined to home waters. Those skippers and seamen whose home port was Bath faced other hazards. While nature claimed the most victims, war brought new perils when vessels bound for England and the West Indies often fell victim to the enemy privateersmen and war ships. In 1760, during the French and Indian War, the voyage of the sloop Elizabeth and Ann, Samuel Crow, master, well illustrates both these hazards. On March 10, 1760, the sloop weighed anchor at its home port of Bath bound for the island of Turtola (Tortuga) in the West Indies. Driven by hard gales and strong west currents the Elizabeth and Ann made the east end of the island of Hispaniola on March 23. On the next day they were chased by a French schooner which obliged her to run considerably to the westward. Managing to get clear of the pursuing vessel, the crew of the Elizabeth and Ann hauled their wind to the eastward, but after plying for two days and finding they got further to the westward, and being scant of fresh water, they were forced on March 25, to bear away for Jamaica. Two days later they were chased by a small French schooner which soon came up with them and carried them to Cape Francis, where the Elizabeth and Ann, together with her cargo, was condemned as a lawful prize of war. Her crew eventually made their way to the Bahamas from where they could find passage home. Similar to the voyage of the Elizabeth and Ann was that of another Bath schooner, the John and Elizabeth, Ebenezer Fuller, master, which sailed over Ocracoke bar on August 6, 1769, bound for Barbadoes. By repeated misfortune it fell to the leeward and finally reached Jamaica from which it sailed with a Jamaica cargo for Port Bath on October 23, 1769. By December, the ship had been unable to beat its way through the Gulf of Florida, and with her provisions and water gone, it was forced to seek a port and was able only to touch Vera Cruz, Mexico. Here the ship was seized and her crew imprisoned by the Spanish authorities for entering a colonial port of Spain. As late as December 1771 the master and crew was still being held prisoners.

While the sea lanes furnished Bath with her main routes of commerce and the inland waterways of Carolina her best means of internal transportation, land routes also influenced her growth and well being. Some time before 1706 there was a "Pamlico road" connecting the settlements on Albemarle Sound with those on the Pamlico River. One seeking to follow the road from

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[image: Plan Of Bath In 1769. This map was one of a large number executed by C. J. Sauthier showing the chief town in each of the American colonies. One should note the house and grounds of Colonel Robert Palmer, Bath's]

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[image (continued): leading citizen in this period. The Adams Creek of the map is present-day Hack Creek, and "Pamplickoe Sound" should be Bath Creek. In the days when Bath was enclosed by a fence, the town gate was located at the point where the road from Edenton enters the town limits.]

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Albemarle County in the first decade of the eighteenth century would first proceed in a canoe or boat several miles up the Roanoke River and then up Welch's Creek where he would land and proceed along a marked trail, skirting the swamp and lowlands that lay to the east, until he entered the Pamlico settlements at Bath. Here, if he wished to proceed further to the Neuse settlements, he must first hire someone to carry him across the river and up Durham's Creek to the plantation of Thomas Sparrow at the forks of the creek where he would find a trail that led to Wilkinson's Point on the lower Neuse River. Here if our traveler wished to go further he would have to blaze his own trail or else follow the old Indian trading path down the coast.

In the third decade of the eighteenth century changes began to be made in this main north-south route, the road was improved and many new roads were opened up. The road from Albemarle Sound, now generally crossed the Sound at Edenton to Bull's ferry (later Makay's ferry) from whence it proceeded north and west until it struck the old "Pamlico road" a short distance above Welch's Creek. It then followed the old route as it crossed Flat Swamp at the Tyrrell-Beaufort line and led on into Bath. A ferry then carried the traveler to Core Point where he followed the road constructed by order of the General Assembly as it ran in almost a straight line to the Neuse. There were several ferrys on the Neuse; one was located below New Bern, one lay directly across from the town, and one or two others crossed the river above the town.

This route was but a link in the great north-south post road which ran from Portland, Maine,, to Savannah, Georgia. Along this road flowed a never ceasing stream of settlers, farmers on the way to market, gamblers, strolling players, tinkers, peddlers, Indians, colonial officials, ministers, and the whole ever-changing panorama of eighteenth-century America. Some of these travelers have left accounts of their journey along the Bath portion of this high road and whether it was the minister who traveled this route in 1739, the French secret agent in 1765, the colonial patriot in 1773, or the farmer and agricultural reformer in 1777, all are agreed that the roads were terrible and above all lonely, the accommodations for travelers poor, and the wide ferrys a necessary but great inconvenience.

Let us follow a minister and a companion as they leave Edenton and resume their journey on the great road in December, 1739:

Friday, Dec. 21-- . . . at three o'clock they went in a pettiogua (a large canoe) over the Sound, and were near seven hours in their passage. It was about twelve miles over. They were favoured with a calm and pleasant night; and praised God as they went over by singing hymns, and met with a convenient ordinary or inn when they came on the other side.

On Saturday, Dec. 22d, they set out by break of day, and came by eight at night to Bath Town, near fifty miles from Bell's [Bull's] Ferry. It is by far the longest stage, and the worst roads they had since they

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began their journey. The ground, most part of the way, was wet and swampy, the country uninhabited, and not a very sensible alteration was descernible in the climate.

It was as hot as generally it is at midsummer in England; but they had a sweet breeze of wind intermixed, which made their riding through the woods in the daytime exceeding pleasant. About mid-way they met with an ordinary where they refreshed themselves and beasts. They observed a variety of birds, and in the evening heard the wolves on one side of them howling like a kennel of hounds.

On Sunday, December 23d, he preached about noon to near one hundred people, which, as he found was an extraordinary congregation, there being seldom more than twenty at church.--After sermon, one poor woman came with a full heart, desiring his prayers; he asked her whether she had been converted by the sermon, or whether she knew CHRIST; she answered, she had been seeking him for some time, but wanted to find a minister who had understanding in divine things.

On Monday, December 24th, he crossed Pamplico river, about five miles wide. Lay at an ordinary near the water-side. Set out by break of day; crossed New River about four in the afternoon, and reached Newborn Town, thirty-two miles from Bath Town, by six at night.

The minister's name, of course, was George Whitefield, he whose curse is supposed to have condemned Bath forever to the size of a small village. This was but the first of four visits Whitefield made to Bath in his long and and varied ministry. Late in 1747, Whitefield, in accord with plans previously made, went to spend the winter in North Carolina, planning to make Bath his headquarters. His health, however, was such that his journey to Bath was long and slow. Yet, he pushed on to the little town, hoping, he wrote, that the conversion of "North Carolina sinners would be glad news in heaven." Here his letters indicate he hoped for an extensive revival although the vigor of his preaching was impeded by his illness. On one occasion he wrote, "I am here, hunting in the woods, these ungospelized wilds, for sinners. It is pleasant work, though my body is weak and crazy." And again, he declared, "The Lord seems to have given me the affections of the people, and I am determined in his strength to do what can be done amongst them. . . ." Despite these great hopes "his expectations were not fully realized," and crushed by ill health he was forced to cut short his ministry at Bath and by March, 1748, he was in Bermuda.

In 1764, and a few months later in 1765, Whitefield passed through Bath, but the records seem to show that he failed to preach there on either occasion. Whitefield's visits must have been a long remembered event in the lives of Bath's citizens. Combining the fire and zeal of any dozen of the world's great revivalists with a never equaled speaking ability, this Englishman became the personification of the Great Awakening in colonial America on his seven visits to the colonies. Legend to the contrary, Bath was honored and probably helped, certainly never hurt, by his visits.

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The visits of Whitefield were but fleeting moments in the long story of the religious life of Bath's people. Soon after the creation of Bath County, the parish of St. Thomas was established. The parish antedates the founding of Bath in 1705 and the first vestry act of 1700 which made the Church of England North Carolina's official church. (Here the author realizes he is treading on dangerous ground. Yet, by December 2, 1700 "A Catalogue of Books sent Dec. 2d 1700 with Mr. Brett Towards founding a Parochial Library at St. Thomas Parish in Pamplico, North Carolina" had been prepared and on each book was stamped in gold, "Belonging to St. Thomas Parish."

The vestry act of 1700 was not passed until some time in November, 1700, too late for news of its passage to affect any inscription on the books. Indeed other evidence shows that plans for the library and Brett's mission had been made as early as July, 1699.) As has been noted, St. Thomas parish acquired the first glebe in the colony in 1706, and informal services were being held in parishioner's homes conducted by lay readers in 1711, supplemented from time to time by some minister who might chance to be journeying through the parish.

The vestry act of 1715, which made provision for the Establishment, contains a list of the first known vestry of St. Thomas parish which at this time and, until 1761, included all of present day Beaufort and Pitt counties. These vestrymen, many of whom lived in Bath, were Governor Charles Eden, Chief Justice Christopher Gale, Tobias Knight, John Porter, Daniel Richardson, Thomas Worsley, John Drinkwater, John Clark, John Adams, Patrick Maule, Thomas Harding and John Lillington.

During these early years, Bath was without minister or church. In 1716, the vestry of St. Thomas wrote that "as yet we have not been so happy [as] to have one Missionary resident in all the country and of all those who have come to North Carolina, it has been very rare that they have so much as visited these parts. . . ."

It remained for the foreign mission society of the Anglican Church, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, or more familiarly the S. P. G., to supply Bath with its first minister. In the autumn of 1719, Ebenezer Taylor, aged missionary of the S. P. G. who had served for many years in South Carolina, came to Bath where it was reported he was "much wanted." That winter, while traveling in an open boat from Bath to Core Sound, Taylor fell sick and died. Nothing is known of his short ministry, although one contemporary leaves the feeling that the unfortunate minister was forced to endure much and was actually leaving Bath permanently at the time of his death.

In 1726, the St. Thomas Vestry sent a request to the S. P. G. to give its financial support to the Reverend Thomas Bailey who they stated had served the parish admirably for the past three years. This three years of service must have been rendered by Bailey on a part-time basis, for during most of this period, he was serving a parish in Virginia. The S. P. G. failed to offer their help and thereby rendered Bath and St. Thomas parish a great service, for Bailey was among the most depraved and dissolute characters ever to wear

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the minister's garb. He had been literally run out of Philadelphia and had then gone to Virginia where his utter lack of character and decency astounded the most worldly wise. His occasional appearances in North Carolina bore out his evil reputation. When unable to get the support of the S. P. G. to serve St. Thomas parish, he returned to Virginia from which colony the wretch appears to have been forcibly transported to England in 1729.

During the colonial period, the colonial parishes often served as the last refuge for the very dregs of the Anglican ministry, who became in the words of Thomas Bray, "Vagrant Priests who pass from one Province to another, being never Suffered to make a Settlement long in Either." With the exception of this one brush with Bailey, however, the parish of St. Thomas was fortunate in being ministered to by men whose sacrifice and suffering in the name of Him they served stands without blemish.

In January, 1733, the parish was able to attract the services of the Reverend John Garzia who, since 1724, had been serving the Elizabeth River parish in Virginia. Garzia appears to have been promised a great deal to come to Bath, although none of these promises were ever fulfilled. In 1734, the vestry of St. Thomas petitioned the S. P. G. for aid in supporting their minister, but not until 1739 was Garzia entered on the rolls of the S. P. G. as a missionary. By all accounts, Garzia was miserably treated by his parishioners. In 1737, Commissary Garden of South Carolina reported that Garzia was "in great poverty," and in 1742 Garzia reported that his small salary of £37:10s. per annum had not been paid in four years and that his only recourse was to the law. Garzia believed his troubles stemmed from "the oppression of an inveterate and obstinate Parish, governed by twelve Vestry men, whose only endeavour is to hinder & obstruct the service of God, being performed, they themselves never coming to hear the word of God, and dissuading as much as possible others from it and who in a particular manner exercise their malice daily against me by depriving me of my quietness of mind and the enjoyment of the small Salary . . . allow'd by law. . . ."

To add to the plight of the poor minister he soon found that when he preached "upon any prevalent and predominant Sin" he must "be prepared to stand the persecution of those who are guilty of it, especially in my resident Parish, where adultery, Incest, Blasphemy and all kinds of profaneness has got such deep root."

Much of Garzia's trouble undoubtedly stemmed from the fact that he was not an Englishman and according to Whitefield and others could "scarce speak English." Yet he was in every sense a worthy servant of God and deserving of better treatment than he obviously received at the hands of his vestry and parishioners. In one year he baptized 635 persons in his parish and mission.

While Garzia possessed one tract of 1,280 acres on the east side of South Dividing Creek, he appears to have been plagued by poverty throughout his career. When in November, 1744, he was killed by a fall from his horse while on his way to visit the sick of his parish, he left a widow and three children in dire circumstances. Efforts to obtain his much overdue salary

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[image: Rare Volume. Here is shown the title page of the Reverend Alexander Stewart's defense of the Anglican practice of infant baptism. Stewart, minister of St. Thomas Church from 1753 to 1771, distibuted over 400 copies of this work throughout North Carolina. It represented an attempt to combat the growing Baptist Church in North Carolina whose theologians attacked the Anglican practice of infant baptism with telling effect. Only one copy of the rare work, published at New Bern in 1758, is known to exist today. It is now in the library of Harvard University.]

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through legal process had exhausted him financially, and soon after his death, his creditors "sold all both Lands & Houses." Fortunately, his family eventually received some aid from the society he had served so well.

It was during Garzia's ministry that the construction of St. Thomas Church was begun. On October 10, 1734, the wardens and vestrymen of St. Thomas parish wrote: "We are now building at our own proper Costs a Small Church (being the only one in the whole province), but, we fear, that our abilities will be far short of compleating & adorning the same as becomes the temple of God." While these fears proved groundless, it was not until 1762, or some twenty-eight years later, that Alexander Stewart, then minister of the Parish, could report "the Parishioners have . . . finished their Church in the best manner they are able." It is probable and indeed quite likely that services were conducted regularly in the church many years prior to its completion.

Little or nothing is known of the construction of the church. Who its builders were, where its materials came from, the manner in which it was financed, the source of its furnishings are all unanswered problems. Local tradition and legend have attempted to answer many of these questions and until better data are uncovered may be considered as good a guess as any.

When completed, St. Thomas Church stood as a model of simplicity in design. The church is a rectangular, brick building whose severely plain exterior is relieved only by a few simple brick decorations. Its measurements are: nave length 51 feet; nave width, 31 feet; nave heighth, sides, 14 feet; thickness of brick 3 by 4½ by 9 inches; thickness of walls, 2 feet. The floor of the church is covered by eight inch square, red tile, which originally contained various designs. The passage of the years has eliminated all but traces of the flowers, dragons, and other similar designs which once adorned this tile.

The church boasts a bell cast in 1732 which has been termed " Queen Ann's Bell." The church also owns a large silver chalice presented to the Reverend John Garzia by the Bishop of London, who appears to have held Garzia in particular esteem. The silver candelabra on the altar are reputed to have been given by King George II, about 1740, although the accuracy of this assertion has been challenged. Today the church stands on a grassy knoll in Bath, remarkably well preserved despite neglect now happily at an end. It is Bath's most authentic and beloved link with her eighteenth century past.

When the Reverend John Garzia was killed in 1744, Bath and St. Thomas parish was once more without a minister. Soon after his death the vestry requested the help of Governor Gabriel Johnston in obtaining a new minister, but the Governor's appeal to the Bishop of London for a minister proved unproductive. In 1748, the parish churchwardens, Daniel Blin and Abraham Duncan, appealed to the S. P. G. for a missionary whom they offered "Fifty pound proclamation money as by Law of this Province Established, & a good Glebe contained 300 acres of good land, a dwelling house & Kitching

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in good repair, on the said Glebe and Twenty pound Sterling Money as a present when arrived at the Parish Church of St. Thomas ."

What they failed to mention was that the house had not been built, that the glebe land had not been cleared, and that the last minister had had to resort to the courts to collect his pitiful salary. Mention was made of the fact, however, that the £20 sterling to be paid the minister on his arrival had not yet been raised. Perhaps mindful of Garzia's letters which had disclosed the conditions in St. Thomas parish, the S. P. G. ignored the petition of the vestry.

In the summer of 1753, however, fortune smiled on Bath, for there arrived in the province the Reverend Alexander Stewart, chaplain to the household of the new governor, Authur Dobbs. It had been Stewart's idea to locate in New Bern, but on his arrival he found that post already filled. Looking elsewhere for a vacant parish, Stewart decided to accept the proffered position of minister in St. Thomas parish where he began his duties on October 1, 1753. In 1754, he was entered on the rolls of the S. P. G. as a missionary to St. Thomas parish with a salary of £50 per annum to commence from Michaelmas, 1753.

Bath and St. Thomas were fortunate beyond all expectations in obtaining the services of this distinguished minister. A member of the royal Stuart clan of Scotland, he had been born at Lisburn in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1723. He obtained his B.A. degree from the University of Dublin in 1744, and his M.A. degree from the same institution shortly thereafter. After studying for the ministry and being duly ordained, he served in the Irish parishes until he agreed to accompany Governor Dobbs to North Carolina in 1753.

Possessed of some small wealth of his own, he was not subjected to the grinding poverty which had been Garzia's lot. Under his ministry St. Thomas Church was completed to his satisfaction, the glebe land cleared, and a neat glebe house with other outhouses erected. Relations between the minister and his parishioners and vestry appear to have been cordial, although in his first years of his service Stewart appears to have experienced some of Garzia's difficulties in collecting his salary.

The glebe house, the first ever erected in North Carolina, was near Bath on the 300 acres of glebe land which lay on the very outskirts of the town. The glebe house was finished probably by Easter, 1763, at the expense of the parish, although Stewart gave £40 to furnish the house and agreed to clear twenty-five acres of glebe land himself. Stewart lived in the house only two years when he acquired a plantation of his own on the south side of the Pamlico River across from Bath. He then occupied the glebe house only on Saturdays when he was to preach at the church on the following morning.

In addition to his other tasks, Stewart was appointed superintendent of schools for Indians and Negroes in North Carolina by Dr. Bray's Associates, an English benevolent society interested in the welfare of these two races, and in 1763, established a school in the Lake Mattamuskeet area of Hyde County to teach the remains of several Indian tribes located there.

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Throughout his ministry Stewart was plagued by bad health. His letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel are filled with descriptions of his ailments, which he believed came from exposure in crossing and recrossing the wide river which divided his parish. It was his practice to preach one Sunday each month on the south shore and the remaining Sundays at Bath. In the great hurricane of 1769 Stewart received an injury to his legs from which he never completely recovered and which eventually led to his death in the spring of 1771. He left a widow and four children. His affairs were in much confusion at the time of his death, the hurricane itself having damaged his property to the value of £600.

Stewart was the last representative of the Anglican Church to minister to Bath and St. Thomas parish. Before a new minister could be obtained, the Revolution ended forever the role of the Anglican Church in North Carolina.

Earlier, in 1769,Peter Blinn,, one-time representative of the town of Bath in the General Assembly, had gone to England to seek ordination. While the records indicate that he was subsequently ordained, there is no evidence that he returned to Bath. On the eve of the Revolution, in 1773, Nathaniel Blount of St. Thomas parish was ordained in England and returned to the Pamlico area where during and after the Revolution he ministered to the people. At the time of his death in the nineteenth century, he was the last surviving member of the colonial Clergy.

Other faiths than that of the Church of England flourished in and about Bath in the eighteenth century. From the first days of settlement, Bath County had had a number of dissenters from the Anglican faith. In the earliest days most of these were Quakers, but as the eighteenth century progressed, many other faiths and sects appeared. Many of these were the so-called New Lights, products of the Great Awakening. These eventually became members of the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches. In the 1750's the Baptist faith began attracting great numbers of North Carolinians and many of the citizens of Bath and the surrounding area were attracted to this church.

So strong had this group become by 1758 that the Reverend Alexander Stewart felt called upon to write and publish a defense of infant baptism which was bitterly and apparently effectively attacked by the Baptists. This work, The Validity of Infant Baptism, was published at the press of James Davis in New Bern and over 400 copies were distributed through the province. Yet, Stewart admitted, ". . .such a spirit of rash judging & censoriousness, such a notion of Inspirations, impulses, visions & of their sect being the peculiar elect of God, is gone out among them that till time convinces them to the contrary it is impossible that any abstracted reasons will. . . ."

Nevertheless, the Church of England remained at least the nominal faith of the great majority of Bath's citizens throughout the colonial periods, and it was around the little brick church at Bath that the religious life of the Pamlico area centered.

It would be too much to say, however, that, in general, life in Bath centered about its little brick church. Times were changing too rapidly, and too many

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other interests crowded into the life of its citizenry. At the time construction began on St. Thomas , Bath was the second largest town in the province, being surpassed only by Edenton, although Governor Burrington could still write in 1731 that Bath was "a Town where little improvements have been made." Within the next thirty years, it had been surpassed in size and indeed in importance by five or six other towns. Yet, North Carolina's oldest town did not surrender its position without a struggle. In the period from 1730 to 1760, she had her moments of glory. During this period, the General Assembly met twice in Bath in the session of February, 1743/4, and again in the session of April, 1752. Here, too, the Governor and his Council met on several occasions during the 1730's and 1740's.

On June 26, 1746, Bath reached what may well be considered the climactic moment of its history. On that date the Lower House of the General Assembly read and passed for the third time a bill to make Bath the capital of North Carolina. Bath was Albemarle County's compromise choice in the struggle with Governor Johnston over a seat of government and the prevailing system of representation. Only the approval by the Upper House of the bill on its third reading was necessary to enact it into law. On June 27, 1746, the Upper House dispatched a message to the Burgesses which informed them that the vote on the bill to establish Bath as the colony's capital had been lost. New Bern, and only New Bern, would satisfy that body. With this message went Bath's greatest opportunity to become the province's capital. Never again would it be seriously considered for the role of North Carolina's capital.

While Bath flirted with destiny, life went quietly on. The town itself changed little. Bay Street (or Water Street) remained the town's principal street. As early as 1723, permission had been given persons owning front lots to erect wharfs on their property "into the water so far as to the edge of the channel" as the old restriction against such construction had been found "very prejudiciall to trade." In 1745 further provision was made for the building and erecting of warehouses, stores, or other buildings on these lots. At the same time the General Assembly provided for the erection of "a good and sufficient fence with one large gate fit for carts to pass through, and one lesser gate fit for men and horses to pass through" to encircle the town in the belief that this would be "not only commodious to the inhabitants, but convenient to travellers passing that way." A resurvey of the town and the common was also provided under the act of 1745. To pay for these improvements, a levy was made on the town's inhabitants, and a new group of town commissioners was appointed to carry these out. This third group of commissioners named by the General Assembly in the town's forty year history was composed of Capt. Michael Coutanch, Col. Benjamin Peyton, Mr. John Rieusselt, Mr. Robert Boyd, and Mr. Daniel Blinn. On the death or removal of any of these commissioners it was provided that the majority of the remaining commissioners might choose another.

Earlier, in 1740, the General Assembly had passed an act "to oblige the inhabitants of Bath Town to clear and keep clean the streets" and to remove any nuisances within the town. In return for keeping their streets in proper

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condition, Bath's citizens were exempted from working on any of the public roads of the colony.

While Bath's streets may have caused the traveler to shudder, there must have been one bright spot in his visit to Bath during this period. This was the inn of Andrew Duncan, located a short distance from Bath's town gate on the great road to Edenton. Here the Governor and his council met in the inn's long room, and here gathered the gentlemen of the town and country-side to smoke and drink or perhaps wait on some visiting dignitary forced by impassible roads to pause a few days in his travels. Abraham Duncan kept Bath's most famous inn but not the only one. The inn or ordinary at the ferry at Core Point was often the goal of travelers, and inns and taverns could be found about half-way between both Bath and Edenton and Bath and New Bern.

Nothing appears more evident to the student of colonial Bath's history than the fact that, from its beginning, Bath's inns and taverns were far more numerous than its schools. The people of Bath and its immediate vicinity were never without an appreciation of the value of education. Joel Martin, one of the founders of Bath, provided for the education of his grandson and namesake, and John Regney of Beaufort precinct left property to Benjamin Slade on the condition that he "cause my daughter to be teached to read the Bible distinctly and putt her in school." This is one of our earliest indications of a school in this area. In 1734 John Woodard owned land "adjoining the school house." When the first school came to Bath is unknown, but "old field schools" of a sort most certainly were held in Bath from time to time. When one of Bath's most prominent citizens, Wyriot Ormond, died in the early 1720's his will declared, "My principal desire is that of the education of my daughters . . . and that no expense be thought too great." Where such sentiments prevailed, among a towns prominent citizens schools must have at least existed. Where resources made it possible sons were sent out of the colony to receive an education as in the case of the sons of the Reverend Alexander Stewart and the son of Robert Palmer, Bath's "great man" in the two decades preceding the Revolution.

In 1755 a great misfortune befell Bath when one of its chief industries, county government, was removed from the town by act of the General Assembly. At this time Beaufort County included present day Pitt County, and it was extremely difficult and inconvenient for the inhabitants of its western regions to attend courts, general musters, and other public functions at Bath which lay within six miles of the eastern boundary of the county. Five commissioners were appointed by the act to build and erect "a suitable court-house, pillory and stocks, . . . on the land of Thomas Bonner, Junr., on the North Side of Pamplico River. . . ." Thus, twenty years before the founding of the town of Washington, the land upon which it now stands became the seat of the county's government. By 1756, the buildings had been constructed, but the county officials refused to adjourn their sessions to the new location or pay the commissioners the cost of building the new structures. This is almost positive evidence that this move was extremely

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unpopular among a large segment of the county's population and represented solely the desires of the western end of Beaufort County.

The obdurateness of the Beaufort County officials availed them little, however, for in 1756, a boiling mad General Assembly noted that they had "contemptreously refused . . . to adjourn the Court . . . from Bath Town . . . as . . . they are required" and ordered them to move to the new site immediately. In addition, the General Assembly levied a poll tax of three shillings on each taxable person in the county. As result of this act, the court was moved to the Bonner land and for four years continued to meet there. In 1760, Pitt County was cut from the western half of Beaufort by the General Assembly which at the same time ordered the Beaufort Court and county officials to return to Bath and the old courthouse there. Thus, at the cost of half the county, Bath had the county government restored to her once more. Six years later Robert Palmer, Thomas Respiss, John Barrow, Wyriot Ormond, and Thomas Bonner were named commissioners by the Assembly to build a new courthouse, prison, pillory, and stocks in Bath. They were empowered to sell the old courthouse and lot and to place a special levy of 3 shillings on every taxable. The Assembly felt this to be necessary because the courthouse and prison were "in great decay and in so ruinous a condition that the Courts cannot be held therein nor prisoners detained" and the courthouse lot was considered "very low, sunken and inconvenient." When C. J. Southier drew his plan of the town in May, 1769, he located the courthouse on the waterfront at the foot of Craven Street. His maps hows the jail slightly closer to Bath Creek and just north of the courthouse. The courthouse and St. Thomas Church face each other across what appears to be a small common or open way.

The only house shown on Southier's map which is designated by the name of its owner is the home of Colonel Robert Palmer. During the 1760's and early 1770's, Palmer was Bath's leading citizen. Palmer, a native of Scotland, had come to North Carolina and Bath in 1753 with a warrant from the king appointing him Surveyor-General of North Carolina and a commission naming him Collector in the Port of Bath. In 1764, he became a member of the Royal Council in North Carolina. He was on intimate terms with Governor William Tryon who considered him "a gentleman of worth and character." He took part in the Cherokee survey of 1767 and was adjutant-general on Tryon's staff with the rank of lieutenant general during the Regulator's War. His home on Water Street had large formal gardens in the rear and was the showplace of Bath. His wife, Margaret, died in 1765, and to her memory he erected a slate tablet in St. Thomas Church which is still preserved.

Travelers of any distinction passing through Bath always made a point of visiting the Palmer home to partake of its splendid hospitality. A French traveler, passing through Bath in 1765, wrote: "I went to weat [wait] on Colonel Pamer [Palmer] after Dinner, who is Colonel in the militia, Colector and surveyor general for this part of the province, he invited me to spend

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the even'g with him, which I complyed with, he is very agreable scots gentleman. Dureing three Days that made here we spent most of the time together."

This same French traveler noted an ominous fact. He reported that Bath had "litle or no trade" and explained this by writing that "vessels Can go 20 or 30 miles above the town." His observation was a correct one and offers an explanation of Bath's decline as the eighteenth century progressed. The town was being bypassed by trade and commerce as ships pushed up the river beyond Bath. Such a condition led in 1776 to the founding of the town of Washington whose rise was to end Bath's importance in the Pamlico area.

Meanwhile, strife between England and her colonies came closer as resistance to the Stamp Act led to stiffer opposition to the Townshend Acts and England's commercial laws. North Carolina's opposition to the Stamp Act led Governor Tryon to urge the English government to keep two tenders manned with 30 or 35 men each on constant patrol in the sounds and rivers leading to Edenton, New Bern, and Bath. Politics must have grown more bitter at election days in Bath. Colonel Robert Palmer, Bath's most distinguished citizen, stood four-square for King George, but others gradually drifted into the Patriot camp and by 1775, a committee of safety in Bath supported the Continental Association and the Provincial and Continental Congresses.

The long arguments and bitter wranglings ended on May 6, 1775, when an express rider came galloping down the post road from Edenton, past the iron stakes marking the Earl of Granville's line, past the fork where the river road branched off, past the town gate, and on into Water Street. This hurrying rider and his foam-flecked horse had news--important news--the battles of Lexington and Concord had been fought. William Brown and Roger Ormond, members of the Committee of Safety, glanced at the message, scribbled a note, and within minutes a new express rider was on his way to New Bern. The American Revolution had come to Bath.

The next few years were exciting ones and important ones to Bath and her citizens. Militia drilled more often now; recruiters for the North Carolina Continental Line did a rush business; new officials replaced the old royal officers; privateers and blockade-running merchantmen came and went; the weapons of war paused momentarily in Bath's warehouses before being rushed to the struggling army of Washington; everywhere there was change. Old faces were gone too--some to the North and Washington's army and some across the sea into exile, determined never to forsake the royal standard. Among the latter was Bath's first citizen, Robert Palmer, ever loyal to his king in whose service he had spent his life. Behind him he left his great estates, his friends, his home, and the tomb of his beloved wife.

As the colonial period ended so ended Bath's days of importance. The founding of Washington in 1776 all but destroyed her trade; the change of the post road route left her by-passed; and the removal of the county government to Washingtonin 1785 ended her role as the center of Beaufort County politics and government forever.

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Yet Bath lived on--a beautiful village nestled on the banks of the little bay which bears its name. Important when many of her sister Carolina towns were but untracked wilderness, she stands today proud of her heritage and confident of her future--an enduring and living monument to the men and women of eighteenth century Carolina.

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Luther H. Hodges
GOVERNOR

TO THE PEOPLE OF BATH:

As the "elder statesman" among North Carolina municipalities, Bath is observing its 250th birthday. It is a happy privilege on this occasion to bring greetings to the People of Bath and sincere best wishes for many more centuries of well-being.

Bath may be described fittingly as the birthplace of our State, because it was here on this point -- between Back Creek and Bath Creek -- that the first government was set up and the first laws administered in the Colony.

The community of Bath is distinctive in that it has retained the dignity and charm, and many of the landmarks, of its early days.

Bath and Beaufort County have produced a long line of outstanding leaders, particularly in the fields of statecraft and jurisprudence. They have also produced leaders in the field of entertainment, among them Edmund Harding, North Carolina's official "Ambassador", and a chairman of the Bath 250-Year Celebration Commission. I congratulate him and the hundreds of citizens of Bath, Beaufort County, and from the whole State, who have contributed to the success of this significant anniversary.

Sincerely,
[signature]

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[image: City of Raleigh seal]
OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

CITY OF Raleigh
North Carolina

August 31, 1955

To the People of the City of Bath, North Carolina:

It is my privilege as Mayor of Raleigh, capital city of North Carolina, to extend to you official and individual greetings on this, the occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of your City.

We in Raleigh and all of North Carolina glory in our history, of which your City has been so great a part. It is indeed fitting that your anniversary should be celebrated, and we take great pleasure in sending congratulations and best wishes for continued happiness and prosperity to you all.

[signature]
Fred B. Wheeler, Mayor
City of Raleigh, North Carolina

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BATH Welcomes You!

From October first through the fourth, 1955, the Town of Bath will celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding in the year, 1705. Among the events marking the observance will be the pageant, Queen Anne's Bell," which will star His Excellency, Luther Hodges, governor of North Carolina who will play the part of Charles Eden, the colonial governor from 1714 to 1723. Many other prominent North Carolinians from all walks of life will take part.

Bath is the oldest town in the State and was the first capital of the colony. Here in 1700 was established the first public library in all America. Still in use is St. Thomas Church built in 1734 with brick brought from England. It is the oldest church building in North Carolina and is but some ten years younger than the famous North Church of Boston. Bath was the center of resistance in the great war of 1711 with the Indian Confederacy led by the Tuscarora Tribe; and its successful defense saved the young Colony. A few years later the most famous of the pirates of the Spanish Main, Edward Teach, better known as Black Beard, made Bath his headquarters and it was into Bath that his severed head was brought on the bowsprit of the vessel of Lt. Richard Maynard of the Royal Navy.

So come with us for a few days in October and live again the glamorous time when the painted Indian and the swaggering buccaneer strode our streets in the days of the Lords Proprietors.

THE TOWN OF BATH
B. A. Brooks, Mayor

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Congratulations, BATH!

Your quarter of a millennium of history not only makes you the oldest town of our state, it makes you one of the pioneer settlements of the great Land of America. May your birthday party be worthy of the many rich and colorful years that it marks.

Across the Pamlico River from Bath to the South lies Aurora. Founded and named in 1860 by the Rev. W. Henry Cunningham, a methodist minister, Aurora has been a great black land farming center for many years. It owes its name to the fact that its founders felt that its land was so fertile and full of promise that he gave it the name which means dawn of a new light in the East, or Aurora.

Fishing and hunting are unexcelled here and the opportunities for agriculture are unsurpassed.

THE TOWN OF AURORA

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Beaufort County

formed in 1712 from Bath County is proud that the historical and beautiful town of Bath is situated within its borders. For many years the history of Bath was the history of Beaufort County and today the descendants of the brave pioneers who settled the town form an important part of the citizenship of the county.

The county is happy that all its citizens are helping Bath celebrate its Two Hundred and Fiftieth Birthday. Not Bath alone but all the county has a long and honorable record in the lists of American progress. Beaufort County is proud of its past but confident of its people and its natural resources. It looks to a future bright with the promise of ever greater achievement.

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
A. D. Swindell, Chairman
L. Carmer Alligood
James A. Hackney
William McGee
Alton Cayton

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BELHAVEN

Established in 1899

THE NEWEST OF BEAUFORT COUNTY's TOWNS, SALUTES HISTORIC BATH, FOUNDED IN 1705, ON ITS TWO HUNDRED FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY.

By all means visit Bath during its birthday party in October, 1955, and see the pageant, " Queen Anne's Bell."

While in the Bath area, come to see Belhaven, a center of agriculture, industry and recreation on the beautiful Pungo River. Our Community Center, shown above is but one of the things that make our town a wonderful place to live.

THE TOWN OF BELHAVEN
Dr. W. T. Ralph, Mayor

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The COLONIAL BOOK CLUB of Bath

Joins the Town of Bath in welcoming those who come to help us celebrate the Semiquincentennial of Bath. Our town is deeply appreciative of the interest, enthusiasm and help from outside that is making this wonderful dream of our people come true.

The Colonial Book Club was organized in 1933 and has constantly endeavored to foster and renew the heritage of the early days when our town was the cultural center as well as the political capitol of the colony. And in 1954 the Colonial Book Club received the Woman's Home Companion's Honor Award for Distinguished Community Service.

We recommend a "History of Colonial Bath" as a valuable contribution to the knowledge of our Section and State. It should be widely read and is a must for those who would like to know more about early North Carolina.

We hope you will enjoy being with us for our celebration as much as we will enjoy having you.

The Colonial BOOK CLUB

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WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA is the original Washington. Named in 1775 for General George Washington, it is the first city in America to be called after the Father of Our Country.

But it is only the second oldest town in Beaufort County and it is honored to be permitted to help its senior sister, Bath, celebrate its Two Hundred and Fiftieth Birthday. Our congratulations to the oldest town in North Carolina, the first capitol of our state, the scene of many a thrilling deed in days of yore and the home of the founders of the Colony of North Carolina.

WE WISH YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BATH!

THE TOWN OF WASHINGTON
Gateway to the Pamlico

J. M. Silverthorne, Mayor
John P. Proctor
Dr. Z. L. Edwards
Thomas A. Stewart
T. H. Patterson

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Pantego . . .

For more than a century the friendly rival of Bath in sports and public endeavor, is pleased beyond measure to congratulate its famous neighbor on its Semiquincentennial.

We are proud that our friends in historic Bath, North Carolina's first capital, have graciously permitted us to join in their celebration and to aid it in any way that we can.

Pantego is the home of the oldest rural public school in northeastern North Carolina. Shown below is the original building of the Pantego Academy, founded in 1874.

This year Pantego High School, the successor of the Academy, has been chosen from among all the High Schools of America to receive the Frances Bellamy Award for 1956.

Pantego joins the people of Beaufort County in saying, Happy Birthday, Bath!

THE TOWN OF PANTEGO
John L. Ratcliff, Mayor

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CONGRATULATIONS TO BATH, North Carolina

On Your 250th Anniversary
From North Carolina's 2nd Oldest City,
New Bern!

Founded in 1710, New Bern is the
"HISTORIC CENTER OF North Carolina
IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTING WATERS"

New Bern is in the Central Coastal Region of North Carolina where Agriculture, Industry and Tourist are Welcome.

Guided Historic Tours the Year Around

City of New Bern, North Carolina

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EDENTON CRADLE OF THE COLONY
Congratulates Bath on its 250th Anniversary

Much of Edenton's early history is closely entwined with that of Bath and it is delighted to send birthday greetings.

Best Wishes for a Big Birthday Party
TOWN OF EDENTON