John Lawson surveyed the first seventy-one lots in Bath in 1704. In 1710, Thomas Harding, the first recorded shipbuilder in the colony, was contracted by Governor Thomas Cary to build a sloop in the Pamlico area. In 1715, Harding was named a town commissioner and vestryman, and he owned Lots 27-28 at this spot. In 1716, Bath was officially named the first Port of Entry for the North Carolina Colony.