AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EXETER SITE IN PENDER COUNTY by This 1983 report was revised into an article in June 1993 by Wilson Angley for the North Carolina Maritime History Council Journal Tributaries. It was published in the October 199~ issue of that journal . A copy of the June 1993 article submitted has been inserted at the back of the 1983 herein report, as well ~s a copy of the letter about the submission from Angley to Tributaries' editor Mr . Mike Alford. • • • AN HIS'IORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE EXETER SITE IN PENDER CCAJNI'Y • by Wilson Angley September 8, 1982 • From the early stages of European exploration and settlement of North • Caroli na, the lands along the Northeast Cape Fear River and its t ributaries were recognized as a prime area for agricultural development and the produc- tion of lLUnber and naval stores. In August of 1662 the New Englander, William Hilton, set sail from Massachusetts Bay aboard the ship Adventure, bound for the Cape Fear region. After several failures to reach his appointed destination, he entered the mouth of the Cape Fear on the morning of CCtober 4, 1662 . For more than three weeks Hilton and his associates explored the stream. Taking the Adventure as far as present-day Wilmington, he then proceeded by small boat up the Northeast branch, which he took to be a continuation of the main river. Hilton is thought to have reached a point approximately sixty miles upstream from the ocean bar.1 According to historian E. Lawrence Lee ' s reading of Hilton' s own account: He and his associates were pleased with the fertile and • abundant land, with the flourishing vegetation and plentiful game , and with the climate that was ' ye most temperate of ye temperate zone.' They were also impressed by the meadows and upland fields along the river. 2 During this initial voyage, Hilton and his men encountered only about 100 Indians along the Northeast Cape Fear.3 In October of 1663 Hilton returned aboard the Adventure to conduct a more extensive exploration of the Cape Fear region. Again he and his men ascended the Northeast Cape Fear in a small boat; and on this second expedi tion names were given to landmarks and areas far upstream, including "Turkie-Quarters," "Rocky-Point," and "Stag Park"--the vast area later claimed by Governor George Burrington only a short distance upriver from the future site of Exeter. Once more the expeditionary party was favorably impressed by the region: "As good tracts of land, dry, well wooded, • pleasant and delightful as we have seen any where in the world."4 2 Although therewere several abortive attempts to establish settlements • along the looe.r Cape Fear during the years just follooing the Hilton expedi­ tions, permanent settlement did not finally begin until the mid- 1720s with the coming of Maurice Moore and the laying out of Brunswick 'I'<::Mn . Between 1726 and 1731 same 115,000 acres of Cape Fear land were acquired by a closely associated group of about three dozen men. Lands were taken up not only along the lower reaches of the stream but also along both the Northwest and North­ east branches. The resulting concentration of large landholdings among a relatively few wealthy and influential men went far toward establishing the plantation pattern which remained dominant in the area until the Civil War. 5 During the half century preceding the American Revolution, vast planta­ tions were laid off on the Northeast Cape Fear, extending far upstream from the fledgling settlement of Wilmington {formerly New Town or Newton) . More­ over, t:.he"early landowners on the Northeast Cape Fear included some of the • most prominent and influential men in colonial North Carolina. Landowners in the irranediate vicinity of Exeter included Samuel Swann, John and Alexander Lillington, John Ashe, Thomas Merrick, John Porter, Edward Moseley, and John Rutherfurd. 6 The land which would soon become the site of Exeter {originally New Exeter) was acquired in September of 1750 by David Williams and Henry Skibbow {or Sc iboe) , the latter being an obscure planter and surveyor who had been a resident of New Hanover County since at least as early as 1738, at which 7 time he purchased property on Tbpsail Sound. Prior to his purchase of the Exeter tract, Skibbow's principal place of residence was situated in the forks of Holly Shelter Creek , on a plantation formally acquired from David Williams in November of 1750, but which was occupied by Skibbow prior to • his actual purchase.8 3 The 100 acre Exeter tract was situated on the east side of the North- • east Cape Fear River a short distance below Sand Hill Cove and on both sides of Jumping Run Branch. Skibbow and Williams received the grant with a standard provision that they clear and cultivate at least three acres of land within three years. 9 Less than three years later, in April of 1753 , a grant for 100 acres of land, adjoining and just above the Exeter tract, was issued to Lewis Skibbow, presl.Bllably the son or brother of Henry •10 Lewis Skibbow' s grant also contained considerable frontage along the east bank of the Northeast Cape Fear. Its upper boundary extended fran the river bank northeastward beyond the present Holly Shelter Road , and lay along part of the line which marked the lcmer boundary of a grant originally issued to Edward Moseley in June of 1740 . This t-t:>seley land had passed to Sampson Moseley at the death of hi s father in 1749, and would, in 1772, be purchased by the transplanted 11 • Scotsman, John Rutherfarct. It was on the 1750 grant to David Williams and Henry Skibbow that the tcmn of Exeter (or New Exeter) was formally incorporated by the colonial assembly in 1754, apparently with the support of certain residents of New Hanover , Onslcm, and Duplin counties, who conceived an expectation that the settlement would achieve a measure of success as a riverport and center of local trade. The assembly stipulated that forty acres should be set aside for the town "on the plantation of Henry Skibbow on the east side of the north east branch of Cape Fear river, in New Hanover county, at a place called the 12 Sand Hill. " The act of incorporation named as town comnissioners Alexander Lillington, Samuel Ashe, Thanas Merrick, John Gardner, and Henry Skibbow him­ self. It further authorized these commissioners to lay off the tcmn tract • into one-half acre lots, "with convenient streets and squares, for a church, 4 13 church yard, and market place. " The lots were to be sold for 40 s procla- • mation nnney with the proceeds to go to Skibl::x:M. John Gardner was designated to act as treasurer. Each purchaser of a lot was required, within two years, to build a good substantial habitable framed or brick house, of not less dimensions than twenty feet in length, and six­ teen feet wide, besides sheds and leantoes, or make preparation for so doing, as the commissioners, or a majority of them , shall think reasonable.l4 The incorporating legislation further provided, that no person inhabitant of the said tam, or holding a lot or lots therein, shall inclose the same, or keep the same inclosed, under a common stake fence, but every lot therein shall be paled, or inclosed with posts and rails set up.l5 I.Dt CMners were also directed, within two years, to clear their lots of 16 "all manner of wood , underwood, brush, and grubs. " No mention was made , in the act of incorporation, of waterfront property, a warehouse, or docking facilities.17 • Despite the sanguine hopes of its pranoters, Exeter seems to have stumbled in the very threshold of development. An examination of the New Hanover County deeds of this period (though they are sometimes illegible because of faint microfilm copy) fails to reveal a single transaction from any of the town camdssioners which can be identified as conveying a tCMn lot. Unfortunately, too, the court minutes for New Han011er County do not survive fran the period 1742- 1758, so that this potentially valuable source of information sheds no light on the years during whi ch development activities at Exeter might have been at their height. Despite the lack of documentary evidence for the sale of town lots, Exeter was, nevertheless, designated as an official customs inspection point in 1755, only one year after its incorporation. The "Act for the Inspection • of Pork , Beef, Rice, Indigo, Tar , Pitch, Turpentine, Staves, Headings, 5 Shingles, and Lumber" named the new tCMn along with Brunswick, Wilmington, • and New TOpsail Sound as the places of inspection in New Hanover County.18 Henry Skibbow himself appears to have moved away from the Exeter area withi n a few years of the town' s incorporation. In 1759 he sold his planta- tion in the forks of Holly Shelter Creek to Joshua James for a recited con- sideration of LBO proclamation money; and, at the time of this sale, Skibbaw was already residing in OnslCM County •19 He later died intestate in OnslCM County, at which time Lewis Skibbaw acted as administrator of his modest 20 estate. Despite its apparent lack of development, Exeter was again designated in 1758 as an inspection point for customs in New Hanover County, along with 21 Brunswick , Wilmington, and New 'Ibpsail Sound. In 1761 the county court appointed John Gardner, original treasurer of the town commissioners, to act as customs 1nspector. there. 22 • In 1764, however , certain members of the upper house of the colonial assembly raised objections to Exeter's continuing designation as a place of inspection, on the basis of its carnnercial insignificance: We are of Opinion, that New Exeter being a place of no Note or Business, is improper for a place of Inspection that the insertion of it /by the lower house/, cannot answer, any publick Good , though it may the Opposite interests of Individuals and that therefore it should be dele/te/ d.