Time Line 1663-1760

1663 - William Hilton with many companions, among whom have been mentioned Anthony Long and Peter Fabian, entered the Cape Fear River and explored, in the area of the present city of Wilmington.
1729 - New Hanover Precinct formed from Craven County.
1730 - A few Quakers settled in the Cape Fear area. Little is known about them, for all records have been lost.
1731 - Lower Cape Fear spawned a few wealthy families whose lives became connected by marriage and economic interests. Thirty five members of the "Family," as historian Lawrence Lee termed them, owned 115,000 acres of land privately. The Moores–Maurice, Roger and Nathaniel, Edward Mosely, John Baptista Ashe, Samuel and John Swann, Thomas Jones, Edward Smith, Mosely Vail, Eleazer Allen, John Porter, and John Grange. In April, Governor George Burrington, who counted the Brunswick clique among his many enemies, asked the General Assembly to "pass an Act for building a Town on Cape Fear and appointing Commissioners for that purpose."
1733 - Present site of Wilmington called New Carthage, then New Liverpool, then Newton or New Town. John Watson granted 640 acres in New Hanover Precinct. Watson, along with Joshua Grainger, Michael Higgins and James Wimble were the chief owners of land on which Wilmington now stands. In April of this year they joined in laying out the town after a plan similar to that of Brunswick.
1734 - James Campbell referred to himself in this year as a "merchant of New Liverpool," thus making him one of Wilmington’s earliest residents. A town commissioner and the father of future commissioners — James, John, Samuel, and William Campbell — the elder Campbell was dead by 1756. (New Hanover County Deed Books, AB, 100,101)
1735 - In March, the inhabitants in and around Newtown petitioned the governor’s council to designate the place as a town. On May 13, Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston announced his intention to open a land office and ordered the council and the Court to meet in Newton. (Saunders, Colonial Records, IV, 44, 45, 48.)
1736 - Market Street, Front Street, Dock Street, Mulberry Street, Chestnut Street, Red Cross Street, King Street, Queen Street, and Nun Street were listed in existence. In October, a bill, that failed to win legislative approval, was introduced to establish the town of Wilmington "at a place now called Newton."
1737 - Richard Eagles granted land now called Eagles’ Island, present site of the Battleship North Carolina. Shipbuilding existed by this year when Michael Dyer operated a shipyard between Church and Castle streets. (New Hanover Deed Books, AB, 60)
1739 - George Whitfield, the English divine, preached in Newton.
1739/40 - On February 20, Colonel William Bartram of Bladen County introduced a bill into the General Assembly for the establishment of the town and township of Wilmington. The bill passed into law and the village of Newton was incorporated as the town of Wilmington. Named in honor of Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, and patron of Royal Governor Gabriel Johnston. The Gregorian calendar then and now in general use in most parts of the world was first prescribed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to correct the Julian year to the astronomical year. Prior to 1752 Great Britain and the American colonies used the Julian calendar, which did not register the change of each year until March 25. The British officially converted to the more accurate
Gregorian system in 1752. Entries for January 1 through March for years prior to 1752 are actually one year later than recorded.
1741 - St. James Parish (created 1729) was divided, and the area west of the river became St. Phillips Parish. Armand John deRosset (1693-1759), "Doctor of Physick," purchased a house in Wilmington and was living there by this year. (New Hanover Deed Books, AB, 137, 152.)
1742 - Anglican missionary James Moir reported to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel that the county contained about 3,000 inhabitants, two thirds of whom were Negro, also that the people of St. James Parish in Wilmington were dominated by dissenters who interfered with his work and refused to pay him a livable wage for his
service. At the same time, they objected to his trips to officiate at St. Philips Parish in Brunswick. In disgust, Moir left Wilmington to accept the Brunswick ministry; then the Wilmington vestry, in an effort to exasperate the people of St. Philips Parish, began to insist that Moir officiate frequently in Wilmington. (Saunders, Colonial Records, IV, 605-608).
1743 - Jeremiah Vail was employed to resurvey the town and draft a plan. (Wilmington Town Book, May 30th)
1744 - According to Ida Brooks Kellam, late Wilmington researcher, the Smith-Anderson house, 102 Orange Street, may have been constructed in this year making it the oldest structure in the city.
1747 - June 23rd, at a Meeting of the Commissioners, ‘Ordered that all the male inhabitants in the Town meet at the courthouse on Monday the 29th instant by six o’clock in the morning with proper tools to work on the streets & bridges for six whole days, provided the work require so long a time.’ (Wilmington Town Book, 1743-1778)
1748 - Alarm sounded in Wilmington when Spanish war ships dropped anchor down the Cape Fear River and invaded Brunswick Town.
1749 - Wilmington was surrounded by sand hills, and numerous streams flowed throughout the city. It was necessary to bridge these streams or to build drainage arches or tunnels through which the water could flow. One example of this can be found in the provisions of a 1749 deed from Richard Hellier and wife to Caleb Mason for a lot on the northeast corner of Front and Dock streets. Hellier reserved the right "to build a drain sink or gutter underground with brick into the run of water that runs through the said lot & to have Egress & Ingress & Regress into the premises to & for to repair the same forever." (New Hanover Deed Books, C, 211)
1751 - The original St. James Episcopal Church was constructed on land donated by Michael Higgins. To raise funds for the building, subscribers reserved space for family pews, each pew in proportion to the amount donated. The early church was a simple, square brick building with a peaked roof and no belfry.
1754 - Vail’s plan of Wilmington was accepted as official by a final Wilmington Act, in this year and with slight changes and allowances for increase of territory, remains the official plan for the present city.
1755 - Wilmington Town Book reveals 106 taxables in the city; one year later this number had increased to 125. These statistics do not include women, white males below the age of sixteen, or Negroes below the age of twelve, and accordingly are not an accurate record of the town’s population, but, there were in the town 58 house owners with property subject to tax evaluations.
1756 - Hugh McAden, pioneer Presbyterian minister, preached in Wilmington. The town apparently suffered a major fire in this year.
1757 - Author Peter Du Bois wrote, "...the regularity of the streets are equal to those of Philadelphia and the buildings in general very good. Many of brick, two and three stories high with double piazzas, which make a good appearance." The regularity Du Bois speaks of was due to design.
1759 - One water engine or fire engine with hose was bought by Captain Benjamin Heron through his brother in England.
1760 - Wilmington was a town under commissioners elected by the freeholders until this year. By royal charter under the provincial seal, dated Brunswick, February 25, and signed by Arthur Dobbs, Wilmington was erected into a borough. John Sampson became the first mayor of Wilmington, followed by Frederick Gregg and Moses John deRosset, each dubbed "His Worshipful."