An Overview

This photo was included in the 1922 William Henry Stanton 
book; Stanton was obviously told it was the "oldest."   
Known then as the "Jennie Thomas" house, first block 
of Orange Street, the house faced the water and was just 
south of the 1827 Hatsell House.  
Click the image to enlarge.
Born in Newport, Rhode Island 22 May 1688, Henry Stanton (1688-1751) was the son of John Stanton (1645-1713) and Mary Clarke (1641-1711).

In 1707, Henry Stanton married Mary Hull, sister of William Borden's wife Alice; they were parents of five daughters and two sons. 


In April 1721, Stanton purchased 1,992 acres north of Beaufort, around Core and Ware creeks, from Joshua Porter. He evidently traveled back and forth to Newport, R.I., while he prepared a home for his family. By 1733, Stanton sailed his family to the area, where he farmed his acreage, built a shipyard on Core Creek, while operating turpentine stills and a brickyard. 

Henry added to his area landholdings with purchases from George Cogdell and Carey Godby in 1732 as well as from King George II in 1736, 1740 and 1741. 

Henry Stanton had the first shipyard in the new Quaker Colony on Core Creek/Newport River just north of Beaufort. Henry’s wife Mary died after 1742; he married Lydia Albertson in 1745. Their children were Benjamin, Sarah, Avis and John—all born in Beaufort.

The first Quaker meeting in Carteret County, "Friends of Newport River, North Carolina," or "Core Sound Meeting," was organized on August 1, 1733, at the home of shipbuilder William Borden (who had come from R.I. about 1732 and had a shipyard off Harlowe Creek/Newport River). Subsequent meetings were held at the home of Henry Stanton until a meeting house could be erected.

Henry Stanton died about 1751. His son Benjamin, born 1746, added to the Stanton properties. According to Maurice Davis’ History of the Hammock House, Benjamin Stanton owned and used the "White House" as a “townhouse” from 1777 until 1785. Stanton and other Quakers, “made effective use of the hammock/hummock property while they owned it, erecting a windmill to grind grain and using the frontage on Carrot Island Channel/Taylor’s Creek to dock their ships. Part of this was during the period when Beaufort was an important port of supply for the Continental Army. The Quakers were pacifists, but they were not averse to helping in other ways to support a cause in which they had an important stake.”

In March 1790, Benjamin Stanton purchased Carrot Island from Nehemiah Harris. Two years later, Benjamin purchased “Banks land” from Joseph W. Davis.

After son Benjamin’s death in 1798, his wife Abigail, and other Quakers in the area, made their way, by horse and covered wagon, to the Ohio wilderness; Abigail took a brood of still minor children and left behind the few who had married.


Posts below, including images, were compiled from OUR ANCESTORS THE STANTONS by William Henry Stanton, Philadelphia, Privately Printed MCMXXII (1922)