Brunswick Town, North Carolina

Brunswick Town is a colonial ghost town located beside the Cape Fear River in Smithville Township, Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. It was the first settlement in the Cape Fear region, a major North Carolina port in the 18th century, and home to three colonial governors. Brunswick Town lasted 50 years (1726–76) until it was razed by the British Army during the American Revolutionary War and never rebuilt. Parts of the abandoned town were covered by earthworks during the American Civil War, and Brunswick Town became an excavation site for Cape Fear history during the 20th century. The Brunswick Town Historic District contains the ruins of 18th-century commercial and residential colonial homes, the St. Philip's Church Ruins, Fort Anderson, and Russellborough, the former governor's mansion. The town's historic district and St. Philip's Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Brunswick Town is also one of the settings in which the Sleepy Hollow television series has been filmed.

The area surrounding Brunswick Town was originally inhabited by the Tuscarora Native Americans. After these natives were defeated in the Tuscarora War (1711–15), English colonists began to move into the Cape Fear region. Brunswick Town was founded in July 1726 by Maurice Moore with the help of his brother Roger, owner of the nearby Orton Plantation. The two men were sons of South Carolina colonial governor James Moore and grandsons of Irish nobleman Rory Moore. Maurice, a future colonial governor and father of Supreme Court Associate Justice Alfred Moore, named the town after Brunswick-Lüneburg, the German territory ruled by Great Britain's reigning King George I. During the next few months, Brunswick Town grew rapidly and became a busy port for exporting forest products used for the Royal Navy and merchant ships, tar, pitch, and turpentine. When the village of Newton, now known as Wilmington, was founded in 1733, the two towns jointly formed the Port of Brunswick.

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