Brunswick Town is a colonial ghost town located beside the Cape Fear River in Smithville Township, Brunswick County, North Carolina, United States. It was the first settlement in the Cape Fear region, a major North Carolina port in the 18th century, and home to three colonial governors. Brunswick Town lasted 50 years (1726–76) until it was razed by the British Army during the American Revolutionary War and never rebuilt. Parts of the abandoned town were covered by earthworks during the American Civil War, and Brunswick Town became an excavation site for Cape Fear history during the 20th century. The Brunswick Town Historic District contains the ruins of 18th-century commercial and residential colonial homes, the St. Philip's Church Ruins, Fort Anderson, and Russellborough, the former gover