Bath is the oldest town in North Carolina.  European settlement near the Pamlico River in the 1690s led to the creation of Bath, North Carolina's first town, in 1705. The town's location seemed ideal with easy access to the river and the Atlantic Ocean 50 miles away at Ocracoke Inlet.
The first settlers were French Protestants from Virginia. Among early English inhabitants were John Lawson, surveyor general of the colony and author of the first history of Carolina (1709), and Christopher Gale, first chief justice of the colony.
Trade in naval stores, furs, and tobacco was important, and Bath became the first port of entry into North Carolina. A library, sent to St. Thomas Parish in 1701, became the first public library in the colony. The parish also established a free school for Indians and blacks. In 1707 a gristmill and the colony's first shipyard were established in the town. By 1708, Bath consisted of 12 houses and about 50 people.