Chowan County was named for the Chowanoke Indians, which inhabited the Albemarle Sound area around 1586.
The mouth of the Chowan River was settled in approximately 1663. King Charles initially granted authority to eight proprietors. Within a year, a governor and a six-man advisory council were appointed “for Albemarle River” by the proprietors. The province of Carolina was born.
In 1694 John Archdale, the governor appointed by the proprietors, brought a semblance of order to the area. Settlers were less turbulent and freedom-loving colonists from the north began to move in to the Chowan Area.
In early 1700’s there were several large plantations from Edenton Bay to Sandy Point.
John Lawson, who traveled much of the colony, writes of the people: The young men were bashful and hard to get to know; their fathers were rough pioneers; the women were remarkable and made cloth from their own cotton and flax. Many were handy with canoes in this watery country.
Supplies were brought in on small coasting sloops from the Colonies to the north. Ships from the West Indies sometimes brought in salt and rum, which was of great value for trading with the Indians for animal skins.
1715 Charles Forts became the first owner of the first lot sold in “ye towne on Queen Anne’s Creek.” By 1718 a frame courthouse had been built. Shortly after Governor Charles Eden’s death in 1722, the town was named in his honor.
The notorious pirate Blackbeard is said to have visited Edenton Bay. Governor Eden, the first Governor of North Carolina appointed directly by the Crown, was suspected of giving aid to Blackbeard, Edward Teach. In 1718 Governor Spottswood of Virginia sent out a force that caught and executed the famous pirate and most of his crew.
North Carolina was taken over directly by the crown in 1729 and the Proprietor Granville insisted on keeping his property rights in Edenton. Francis Corbin, his agent, acquired the Cupola House, built in 1758, and drew money and influence into Edenton. Many large impressive homes were built in this Granville era. St Paul’s Church was built in 1736 and the Court House in 1767. It is one of the oldest in continuous use in our country. By mid-1700 about fifty houses had been built.
The growing fame and prosperity of Edenton in the late 1700’s attracted men like Samuel Johnston (represented NC at the Continental Congress, served in the US Senate, and as the 6th elected Governor of the state), Joseph Hewes (also represented NC at the Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independence, on the Committee of Correspondence and as the godfather of the first Navy), James Iredell (a strong proponent of independence, organized the court system of NC and at age 38 was appointed by President George Washington to the first US Supreme Court), Hugh Williamson (a medical doctor, Surgeon General NC 1779-1872, represented NC at the 1787 Constitutional Convention and signed the document and argued forcefully for ratification in NC after the Bill of Rights had been added by Congress) and courageous leaders like Penelope Barker (On October 25, 1774, fifty-one of the leading women of Albemarle gathered and drew up a resolution to discontinue their use of “East India Tea” as a token of their devotion to the cause of liberty. It was the earliest instance of political activity on the part of women in the American Colonies.)
Between 1771 and 1776 Edenton’s port records show 827 ships cleared Edenton for American and foreign ports. Thousands of bushels of corn, barrels of tar and barrels of fish among many other export items went out during this five-year period.