Exeter

… former town in E Pender County on the E side of Northeast Cape Fear River on a high sandy bluff between Sand Hill Cove and Jumping Run. Flourished from about 1740 to 1790. Est. 1754 as New Exeter for Exeter, England, but it seems generally to have been known as Exeter. Appears on the Collet map, 1770, as Exeter. Began to decline as South Washington, which see, grew in importance after 1790 but appears on the Purcell map, 1792. Rutherfords Mill (later Ashe's Mill) was located nearby in the nineteenth century. In 1781, during the Revolution, British major Sir James Henry Craig constructed field fortifications there, which are still visible. Headquarters of the Holly Shelter State Game Management Area now occupy the site.