Bonarva was one of the plantations owned by the Pettigrew family, who were neighbors of the Collins family in the large plantation zone that encompassed hundreds of acres in Tyrrell and Washington counties. Ebenezer Pettigrew moved there in 1803; he wrote [(1804]) to James Iredell, Jr., that he lived so close to the county line that “without much trouble I can peep alternately into both counties.” Pettigrew was constantly making improvements to his house and farm. Receipts in the Pettigrew Papers indicate that Joe Welcome and Jim Millen (Miller) worked intermittently on brickwork, whitewashing, and other endeavors at Bonarva from 1803 through 1818. See for example Ebenezer Pettigrew’s payments to Josiah Collins, Jr., October 4, 1816, Pettigrew Papers, North Carolina State Archives.