Russellborough

SE Brunswick County on the Cape Fear River just N of the location of the former town of Brunswick, site of the home of royal governors Arthur Dobbs and William Tryon. A house there, begun by Capt. John Russell of His Majesty's Sloop Scorpion, was purchased in 1758 by Dobbs; renamed Castle Dobbs after his marriage in 1762. At Dobbs's death in 1765, Tryon occupied the house and named it Castle Tryon. When Tryon left the house in 1770, it was purchased by William Dry and renamed Bellfont. It burned in 1776. The site was excavated in 1967 by the N.C. Department of Archives and History, and eighteenth-century artifacts were discovered, many of which are on display at Brunswick State Historic Site.