Andrew Lee Hatchell Comes to Beaufort, NC

When Andrew Lee Hatchell came to Beaufort in 1826 there were 1665 people, or about 230 families in Beaufort and the immediate area . As fate would have it, 23-year-old Andrew Lee Hatchell met Charity Fuller, who lived with her parents on the waterfront. The couple were married on November 16, 1826. Little did he know that this marriage would lead to inherited land and a home for him and his new wife. Even though Andrew met an early death in 1841, this marriage began the Hatchell/Hatsell lineage in Beaufort.

Charity Fuller, who would become mother, grandmother and caretaker of the family, was the daughter of Belcher Fuller and Zilphia Gutherie. Belcher Fuller's father Nathan Fuller (1750-1800) served in the Revolutionary War as an ensign in the Carteret County Militia. In Beaufort’s Old Burial Ground Mamré Wilson wrote, as a “navigator and ship owner, Fuller sailed from Beaufort to the West Indies, England and Barbados bringing supplies into Beaufort harbor prior to the Revolutionary War. By 1784, his landholdings had increased to 400 acres. He was elected to the North Carolina House the following year. He married Mary Pacquinett...”

The Front Street  house was originally built by William Borden Jr. Borden purchased property and built the original portion of the house before 1768. His father, William Borden, Sr., was a shipbuilder from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, who arrived in North Carolina in 1732 aboard his schooner. He and his family settled in Mill Creek, where he built a shipyard and sawmill. He went on to accumulate much property and became a prominent citizen in Carteret County. William Sr. died in 1747, leaving his properties to his children. His son followed in his footsteps, becoming a leader in the Carteret shipbuilding industry, and was a delegate to the Fifth Provincial Congress that adopted the Bill of Rights in 1776.  During the latter part of the eighteenth century, Borden sold the house to Nathan Fuller.

In 1796, Nathan's son Belcher Fuller (1776-1828), married Zilphia Gutherie (1780-1846). Belcher inherited the house from his father in 1800. Belcher Fuller was a North Carolina state Senator from Carteret County for several years in the early 1800’s. He was also a notary public, justice of the peace, and lieutenant colonel of militia in 1823.

Belcher and Zilphia Fuller had four daughters. Their daughter, Charity Fuller 1807-1891, married Andrew Lee Hatchell in 1826. In his will, Belcher Fuller left Charity property on the west side of the first block of Orange Street. Andrew Lee and Charity built the 1828 Hatsell House on the southern portion of Lot 55 Old Town.

More about the Fuller Family in Beaufort