Hertford was originally incorporated in 1758 as the county seat for Perquimans County, first inhabited by the Yeopim Indians. County records show that the Yeopim chief Kalcacenin sold land to George Durant at the river mouth in March 1662, adjacent to land he had already sold to Samuel Pricklove. The area was settled soon afterwards, and a brick house on the site, the Newbold-White House, has been dated by dendrochronology to 1730; it is the oldest known brick structure in the state.