Giovanni da Verrazano was reportedly the first…
1740 CE
Giovanni da Verrazano was reportedly the first European to observe the area around present Wilmington, North Carolina, including its present site in the early sixteenth century, but the city was not born until much later.
It was not until the 1720s that English colonists began settling in the area.
Wilmington can trace its beginnings to 1733, with the settlement of a new community on land owned by John Watson on the Cape Fear River, where the river forks into its northwest and northeast branches.
The settlement was first called "New Carthage," then "New Liverpool," but gradually had taken on the name of "New Town" or "Newton".
It was in Newton that Governor Gabriel Johnston soon after had established his provincial government for the North Carolina colony.
The town is in 1739/40 incorporated under a new name, Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington.