Brunswick Town

Once a thriving colonial port on the Cape Fear River, Brunswick stood at the center of North Carolina’s early political and commercial life before the Revolution. Founded in 1726 by Maurice Moore and named for King George I, the town prospered as a major exporter of naval stores—tar, pitch, and turpentine—vital to the ships of the British Empire. With two royal governors residing there and the colonial assembly occasionally meeting in its courthouse, Brunswick functioned as the colony’s unofficial capital. In 1765, local resistance to the Crown’s tax stamps halted their distribution along the Cape Fear, signaling growing unrest years before open war erupted.

By 1776, however, Brunswick’s fortunes had shifted. As Wilmington rose and political power moved elsewhere, the town declined, and when British troops landed in the spring of that year, much of it was reportedly burned. Never rebuilt after the Revolutionary War, its remains later became part of Orton Plantation. During the Civil War, Confederate forces constructed Fort Anderson atop the abandoned town site. Today, visitors can follow a tour trail that weaves among colonial foundations and through the earthworks of the fort, where layers of Revolutionary and Civil War history meet along the quiet riverbank.