The Cape Fear River is located in central and southeastern North Carolina. The statement listed belongs to an early statement of its first assessment by explorers.
*“The particular Description of Cape-Feare. Amid this fertile province, at a Latitude of 34 degrees, there is a Colony of English seated, who Landed there on the 29th of May, Anno 1664. and are in all about 800 persons, who have overcome all the difficulties that attend the first attempts, and have cleared the way for those that come after, who will find good houses to be in whilst their own are in the building; good forts to secure them from their enemies; and many things brought from other parts there, increasing to their no small advantage. The entrance into the River, now called Cape-Feare River, the situation of the Cape, and the trending of the Land are laid down to the eye in the Map annexed. The River is barred at the entrance, but there is a Channel close aboard the Cape that will convey in safety a ship of 300 Tons, and as soon as a ship is over the Bar, the River is 5 or 6 fathom deep for a 100 miles from the Sea; this Bar is a great security to the Colony against a foreign Invasion, the channel being hard to find by those that have not experience of it, and yet safe enough to those that know it.”
**Another source claims a considerable settlement in Albemarle before 1663, in which the lands were held, in some cases, by purchase from the Indians and in others under grants from Virginia. This settlement is not definite, presumably because it came to naught.
Raleigh’s Roanoke Island Colonies and the New England settlement on the Cape Fear River in 1660 did not result in a permanent settlement. Historians believe that the colonists, suffering from starvation, resided with local Indians.
A letter dated August 12, 1663, mentioned two Barbados settlements on the Cape Fear River as having “several gentlemen and persons of good quality.” This group broke up in the summer or early fall of 1667, presumably to the Albemarle settlement and Nansemond County in Virginia.
Thus, the Albemarle settlement is the parent settlement of North Carolina! The old maps reveal that emigration went from it to southward, from the Chowan to the rivers of Roanoke, Maratock, or Noratoke, thence to the Pamplico, where, in 1690, a colony of Frenchmen, an offshoot of the James River French settlement in Virginia, made a lodgment.
Settlers reached the Neuse River in 1706, which was passed. In 1707, there was another secession from the same James River settlement and another lodgment of Frenchmen in North Carolina—this time between the Nense and the Trent Rivers.
In January 1710, DeGraffenried and Michel shipped several German Palatines to the Neuse River. In June of the same year, DeGraffenried followed them in person with his Switzers. Still creeping along southward, settlers began to find their way once more toward the Cape Fear country.
In 1711, the settlers traveled as far south as the White Oak River and, in 1713, as far as the New River in the county of Onslow.
In 1714, however, the Governor and Council forbade the survey and sale of lands within twenty miles of the Cape Fear River, up to the waters of the Trent River. This order cut off surveys below the line of the New River settlement. Even worse than this, because, more general in their character, were the obstacles to settlement arising from the instructions of the Lord Proprietors in the matter of the entry and survey of lands outside of Albemarle county. For ten years, the restrictions on the purchase of lands in the county of Bath, then extending from the Pamplico to the South Carolina line, were such as to amount to a practical prohibition. The consequences were that new settlers were prevented from coming in and old ones induced to go away for want of land until April 17, 1724, when the grievance was no longer bearable; the Assembly petitioned the Governor and Council to devise some way of opening up lands outside.
Sources: *Historical collections of South Carolina, embracing many rare and valuable pamphlets and other documents relating to that State’s history, from its first discovery to its independence in 1770.
The Colonial Records of North Carolina, published under the supervision of the Trustees of the Public Libraries, by Order of the General Assembly, Collected and Edited by William L. Saunders, Secretary of State, Vol. 1, 1662-1712. (published in 1886).
