Historical Information on Chowan County

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 granted authority to eight proprietors.  Within a year a governor and a six-man advisory council were appointed “for Albemarle river.”  The province of Carolina was born.  

In 1694 John Archdale, governor, brought a semblance of order to the area.  Settlers were less turbulent and 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 court house 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 was suspected of giving aid to Blackbeard.  In 1718 Governor Spottswood of Virginia sent out a force that caught and executed the famous pirate.