Copyright Notice: This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

This content is from the North Carolina Gazetteer, edited by William S. Powell and Michael Hill. Copyright © 2010 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Some place names included in The North Carolina Gazetteer contain terms that are considered offensive.

Preface to the 2nd edition
Preface to the 1st edition
Acknowledgments

"The North Carolina Gazetteer is a geographical dictionary in which an attempt has been made to list all of the geographic features of the state in one alphabet. It is current, and it is historical as well. Many features and places that no longer exist are included; many towns and counties for which plans were made but which never materialized are also included. Some names appearing on old maps may have been imaginary, but many of them also appear in this gazetteer.

Each entry is located according to the county in which it is found. I have not felt obliged to keep entries uniform. The altitude of a place, the date of incorporation of a city or town, may appear in the beginning of one entry and at the end of another. Some entries may appear more complete than others. I have included whatever information I could find. If there is no comment on the origin or meaning of a name, it is because the information was not available. In some cases, however, resort to an unabridged dictionary may suggest the meaning of many names."

--From The North Carolina Gazetteer, 1st edition, preface by William S. Powell

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Place Description
Roxboro

town and county seat, central Person County. Est. as county seat, 1793. Named for Roxburgh, Scotland. Inc. 1855. Produces lumber, fabricated metals, textiles, processed poultry, and tobacco. Alt. 671.
Roxboro Lake

See Carolina Power Lake.
Roxboro Township

central Person County.
Roxobel

town in NW Bertie County. Settled about 1800; inc. 1895. The early settlement was known as Cotten's Cross Roads; around 1808 the name was changed to Granberrys Cross Roads; and in 1816 a post office there was called Brittons Store. Roxobel appears as the post office name in 1847. The name was selected by Frances Norfleet for the popular three-volume novel Roxobel, written by Mary Martha Sherwood. The final change was necessary to avoid confusion with Britton's Neck, S.C.
Roxobel Township

NW Bertie County.
Royal

community in SE Beaufort County est. 1908 and known first as Dublin for the city in Ireland. Renamed for George E. Royal, a railroad official.
Royal Cotton Mills

community in NE Wake County. Named for the mills est. there. Chartered 1907; charter repealed 1943.
Royal Creek

a short stream in N central Carteret County flowing E into South River.
Royal Oak

appears on the Price map, 1808, and on the MacRae map, 1833, on the Jones-Onslow county line where a slight change in direction is made. Said to have been named after a British soldier was found hiding in the tree's top to spy on Americans; he was hanged from a limb of the tree. The decayed stump of the tree was removed about 1916 when the road from Richlands to Comfort was widened.
Royal Oak Swamp

rises in Green Swamp in central Brunswick County and flows E into Lockwoods Folly River.