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North Carolina County
Bertie County, North Carolina
Hope Plantation and Chowan River colonial heritage - from Hope Plantation (the beautifully restored 1803 Federal-style mansion near Windsor is one of North Carolina's finest examples of early Republican-era architecture, preserved as a museum of early 19th-century plantation life in the Roanoke-Chowan region) to Bertie County's Chowan River agricultural landscape (the county's flat coastal plain along the Chowan River and its tributaries supports tobacco, cotton, peanuts, and hog farming that define the agricultural character of one of northeastern North Carolina's more rural and sparsely settled counties in the Roanoke-Chowan region).
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Services: Recently housed in a modern, state-of-the-art facility with a reservable community room; contributes historic local newspaper archives (including the Bertie Ledger-Advance) to the DigitalNC project
Related: Sallie Harrell Jenkins Memorial Library – 302 Broad St, Aulander, NC 27805, (252) 345-4461, a separate branch serving the Aulander community.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Bertie County is genuinely home to HISTORIC HOPE PLANTATION, one of the finest surviving examples of late colonial and early Federal architecture in eastern North Carolina and the restored home of a North Carolina governor and U.S. senator; the grand circa-1803 mansion was built by David Stone (1770-1818), a genuine Renaissance man who graduated first in his class from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and, though trained as a physician, chose to practice law instead – at just 19 years old, Stone served as a delegate to North Carolina’s 1789 ratification convention in Fayetteville, where he cast his vote in favor of adopting the new Federal Constitution; he went on to serve as a superior court judge, a member of the NC General Assembly, a University of North Carolina trustee, a member of both the U.S. House and Senate, and ultimately as Governor of North Carolina from 1808 to 1810, followed by a second term in the U.S. Senate from 1812 to 1814; his mansion, Hope, was built on land originally granted to the Hobson family in the 1720s by the Lords Proprietors of the Carolina Colony and later purchased by Stone’s father, who gave the property to David in 1793; the house displays a Palladian design with neoclassical touches – a pedimented double portico across its five-bay facade, and a hipped roof topped by a “widow’s walk” surrounded by a Chinese Chippendale balustrade – and functioned as a genuinely self-contained plantation operation, complete with its own water-powered grist mill, still, sawmill, blacksmith shop, and cooper’s shop; after falling into decay through the mid-20th century, a group of dedicated Bertie County residents began a lengthy restoration effort in 1964, ultimately purchasing and painstakingly restoring the property, which reopened to the public as a museum; also relocated to the Hope Plantation grounds is the 1763 King-Bazemore House, one of only two surviving gambrel-roofed dwellings with brick end walls known anywhere in North Carolina; today the site hosts educational tours and community events including the popular annual “Historic Hope Haunted Forest” Halloween celebration
Notes: Hope Plantation’s genuine, extensively documented history as the restored home of a North Carolina governor and U.S. senator – saved from ruin by a dedicated community preservation effort beginning in 1964 – is a significant piece of both architectural and political history.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
GIS Portal: Bertie County GIS – accessible via bertiecounty.nc.gov
Parcel Search: Bertie County Tax Collection & Mapping Office
Addressing/911: Coordinated through Bertie County Emergency Management
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Facility: Bertie County Animal Shelter – operated by Bertie County | PO Box 530, Windsor, NC 27983
Services: County-run, open-admission shelter providing temporary housing and care for stray, unwanted, and owner-relinquished dogs and cats
Related: Bertie County Humane Society (also known as Roanoke Chowan Humane Society) – 217 County Farm Road, Windsor, NC, (252) 325-3647, a 501(c)(3) all-volunteer organization operating out of the county shelter; the shelter is SMALL and does NOT currently have set public visiting hours – contact ahead to arrange a meet-and-greet visit.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Environmental Complaints: NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) – deq.nc.gov
Notes: Contact your specific municipality directly for current refuse collection and recycling program details.
NOTES
Bertie County is genuinely home to Historic Hope Plantation, the restored circa-1803 estate of North Carolina Governor and U.S. Senator David Stone. Also worth noting for InmateAid readers: Bertie Correctional Institution, a close-security state prison for men (capacity 1,400), is located at 218 Cooper Hill Road in Windsor. All contact information above was sourced from official county, city, library, and shelter pages as of this writing; phone numbers and hours should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit.
About Bertie County
Bertie County is northeastern North Carolina’s Chowan River colonial heritage and Roanoke-Chowan agricultural county – Hope Plantation’s preserved Federal-era mansion and the county’s flat peanut and tobacco farming landscape reflect the deep colonial and plantation history of one of North Carolina’s oldest and most rural northeastern coastal plain counties.
Windsor (the county seat, population ~3,200) is Bertie County’s governmental and commercial hub along the Cashie River, serving the county’s rural farming communities in the Roanoke-Chowan region.
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Bertie County Assessor at 106 Dundee Street, Windsor, NC 27983, phone 252-794-5322. NC assessed at 100% market value.
Courts & Legal
Bertie County Superior Court at 106 Dundee Street, Windsor, NC 27983, phone 252-794-3033, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF SUPERIOR COURT
106 Dundee St, Windsor, NC 27983
(252) 794-5330
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Bertie County Clerk of Superior Court, Windsor (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Bertie County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Bertie County Clerk of Superior Court – Estates Division 108 Dundee Street (mail: P.O. Box 370), Windsor, NC 27983 (252) 794-6800 Bertie County is in northeastern North Carolina, seated in Windsor.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
North Carolina has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code. Probate is handled by the Clerk of Superior Court – an elected official who serves as the ex officio judge of probate – in the county where the decedent was domiciled, under Chapter 28A of the North Carolina General Statutes. Unlike most states, North Carolina does not have a separate probate court; the Clerk’s Estates Division handles all wills, estates, and guardianship matters.
Affidavit for Collection of Personal Property of Decedent (“collection by affidavit,” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 28A-25-1 and § 28A-25-1.1) – available when the decedent’s personal property, less liens and encumbrances, does not exceed $20,000, or $30,000 if the surviving spouse is the sole heir and receives all property covered by the statute. Filed at least 30 days after death, using Form AOC-E-203B. Real property CANNOT be transferred through this process. If the decedent left a will, the will must first be admitted to probate and a certified copy attached to the affidavit.
Summary Administration – an abbreviated procedure available only when the surviving spouse is the sole heir.
Full Estate Administration – required for larger or more complex estates; the personal representative (called “executor” if named in a will, “administrator” if intestate) is appointed by the Clerk and receives Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
Step 2: filing for administration
File the will (if any) and a petition with the Clerk of Superior Court, Estates Division, in the county where the decedent was domiciled.
The Clerk appoints the personal representative and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
The personal representative publishes notice to creditors; North Carolina’s creditor claim period is typically at least three months from first publication.
The personal representative inventories the estate’s assets, pays debts and expenses, and distributes the remaining assets according to the will or North Carolina’s intestacy law, reporting back to the Clerk at key stages.
The estate is closed once a final accounting is filed and approved by the Clerk.
What it costs
Filing fees for full estate administration generally follow the statewide statutory schedule, which scales with the estate’s value.
North Carolina repealed its state estate tax in 2013. There is no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax – only the federal estate tax could apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
130 Dundee St, Windsor, NC 27983
(252) 794-5330
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
106 Dundee St, Windsor, NC 27983
(252) 794-5307
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Health Department
100 Sterlingworth St, Windsor, NC 27983
(252) 794-3140
Social Services
100 Sterlingworth St, Windsor, NC 27983
(252) 794-5330
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Bertie County Health Department – part of Albemarle Regional Health Services (serving Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Pasquotank, and Perquimans counties)
Related: ECU Health Bertie Hospital – 1403 South King St., Windsor, NC, a critical access hospital that opened in 1952 with Hill-Burton Act funding, an International Style building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Services: Immunizations, WIC, environmental health, vital records
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Windsor
Population: 18,000
Established: 1722
Tier: 3
Public Records
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