Christoph von Graffenried, 1st Baron of Bernberg (15 November 1661 – 27 October 1743) was a Swiss nobleman and explorer who was one of the founders of New Bern, North Carolina.

Born in Worb Castle in the Canton of Bern, he played a major role in the colonisation of North America by German and Swiss settlers.

In c. 1716, von Graffenried published a memoir entitled Relation of My American Project, which recounted his life in both Switzerland and North America.

[1][2] As his family grew, Von Graffenried found that his salary as a local government official and income from his estate were insufficient to cover expenses and growing debts.

Around 1708, he became acquainted with the explorer-adventurer Franz Ludwig Michel who persuaded him to join an initiative to mine American silver deposits and establish a colony of Swiss refugees who were either poor or religiously persecuted.

As a significant landowner, Von Graffenried was named a "Landgrave of Carolina" and was later granted the provincial title, "Baron of Bernburg."

In addition, Queen Anne provided £4,000 to pay for the transportation of 100 German Palatine families that had fled to England to escape the War of the Spanish Succession.

Their voyage was hindered by a series of winter storms and it was thirteen weeks before they landed in Virginia and then proceeded overland to Carolina.

In the summer of 1711, an outbreak of yellow fever hit the colony and several settlers died, including two Swiss servants in Von Graffenried's household.

Von Graffenried defended himself, saying that he had no part in any quarrels with the Natives and that he was under the protection of the Queen of England who would surely avenge his death.

[13] During the winter of 1711–1712, Graffenried and the remaining loyal settlers barricaded themselves in the town of New Bern and made plans to move their settlement to Virginia.

In addition to locating a suitable site for settlement, Graffenried was anxious to find a source of silver that was rumored to exist in the region.

[16] When it became apparent that Michel would not be transporting any colonists (he later claimed his ship was not seaworthy), Graffenried decided to return to North Carolina.

On his return, he stopped to confer with Governor Edward Hyde just as an epidemic of yellow fever was sweeping the province.

[17] Graffenried tried for a while longer to find some way of reviving his colonial venture but his investors had lost faith in him and creditors were threatening to have him arrested and thrown into debtors' prison.

Perhaps in an effort to defend himself from critics, Graffenried soon wrote a manuscript entitled Relation of My American Project, detailing his exploits in America.