EDENTON

town, seat of Chowan county, northeastern North Carolina, U.S., on Albemarle Sound. Settled c. 1660, it was incorporated in 1722 and named for Charles Eden, the first royal governor, and served as the unofficial capital of the colony until c. 1760; Edenton's busy port exported plantation products, lumber, and fish. Joseph Hewes, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, lived there; his house and many other colonial structures are preserved, including the Cupola and Iredell houses, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and the Chowan County courthouse. A bronze teapot marker commemorates the anti-British Edenton Tea Party (Oct. 25, 1774) staged by women of the town. The town's basic agricultural economy (peanuts [groundnuts], truck crops, and livestock) is supplemented by light manufacturing, fishing, and boating. Pop. (1990) 5,268.