Chronology

John Collett's map of North Carolina shows a row of mills on the Eno and Little River

Collett's 1770 map of the colony marks a series of mills along the Eno and on the main branches of the Little River.

Lawyer John Kinchen moves from Halifax to Hillsborough

Kinchen sold 1,300 acres in Northampton County and moved to Hillsborough to practise law in Orange County's growing courts. He kept his law office in town and bought a plantation called Tar Hill in the St. Mary's community, staying about ten years.

Northern Orange residents petition for a county of their own

They told the General Assembly that travel to the county's musters and courts was a heavy burden. Caswell County was not formed until 1777.

Orange Presbytery forms as North Carolina's first presbytery

The pastors of the early Orange County Presbyterian churches and other ministers formed Orange Presbytery, the first presbytery in North Carolina.

People: Henry Pattillo · David Caldwell · Hugh McAden

Orange County reelects Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly

In the new election called after Tryon dissolved the Assembly in November 1769, Orange again returned the Regulator candidates Husband and Pryor. Fanning, who had lost, came back through the new borough of Hillsborough.

People: Edmund Fanning

William Few conveys his home place near Hillsborough to John Butler

In debt and weighing a move to Georgia, Few deeded the Kirkland place east of town to his friend John Butler, sheriff that year. Butler in turn sold the tract to the Scottish merchant Ralph MacNair on July 23, 1771.

People: John Butler · Ralph McNair

Tryon makes Hillsborough a borough and market town

Hillsborough became a borough, with its own member in the Assembly, and a chartered market town. Edmund Fanning sat for the new borough when the Assembly met at New Bern that December.

People: Edmund Fanning

James Hunter presents a Regulator petition to Judge Henderson on the first day of the Hillsborough court

On Saturday, the first day of the September 1770 Hillsborough superior court, James Hunter presented Judge Richard Henderson with a petition signed by many Regulators. Henderson put off his answer until Monday, the day the Regulators crowded the courtroom and broke up the court.

Part of Hillsborough court riot, September 1770

People: Richard Henderson

Ralph McNair's house is attacked on the night of the Hillsborough court riot

On the night after the Regulators broke up the superior court, parties of them patrolled Hillsborough's streets, and McNair's house was attacked and its windows broken along with those of several other houses. McNair gave a sworn account on October 9, 1770.

Regulators stone Johnston and Thackston's store, where Edmund Fanning took refuge

During the riot at the Hillsborough superior court, Edmund Fanning broke loose from the crowd dragging him from the courtroom and fled into the store of William Johnston and James Thackston. The Regulators attacked the building with stones and brickbats and broke everything they could reach.

People: William Johnston · Edmund Fanning

Regulators pull down and plunder Edmund Fanning's house in Hillsborough

The morning after the court broke up and Judge Henderson slipped out of town, the Regulators went to Fanning's house, smashed the furniture, emptied the cellar, carried his papers into the street and left the house almost demolished. Witnesses also heard them drink damnation to King George and success to the Pretender.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Edmund Fanning · Richard Henderson · Ralph McNair

Hillsborough's leading men write to Governor Tryon for protection after the riot

James Watson, Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, Robert Lytle, William Johnston, James Thackston and James Monro wrote from Hillsborough describing the Regulators' insolence at the superior court, said they stood hourly in danger of their lives and estates, and asked Tryon to adopt whatever measures he judged proper.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Francis Nash · Thomas Hart · William Johnston · James Thackston · James Watson

Tryon's Council orders a proclamation against the Hillsborough rioters and defers the Assembly

Meeting at New Bern on the Hillsborough dispatches, the Council heard the Attorney General's opinion that pulling down Fanning's house and the assaults amounted to a riot, and ordered a proclamation requiring every justice of the peace to pursue the persons who assembled at Hillsborough on September 24 and 25. It advised putting off the Assembly to November 30.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning

Regulators name the Orange County sheriff one of two officials charging fair fees

John Butler of the Hawfields was sheriff of Orange County in 1770, at the height of the Regulator crisis, and testified to the General Assembly that the Regulators had obstructed him in carrying out his duties. A Regulator petition of October 1770 nonetheless named him as one of only two public officials charging fair fees for their services.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

The Assembly expels Orange County's member Herman Husband and the Council orders his arrest

The House of Assembly resolved that Husband, a principal promoter of the late riots in Orange County and publisher of a seditious letter printed over James Hunter's name, be expelled. The same day the Council unanimously advised his arrest and the Chief Justice issued a warrant; he lay in the New Bern jail until a grand jury found no bill on February 8, 1771.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Tryon · Martin Howard

A district jail is built at Hillsborough

It replaced the second county jail, which had burned.

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

Barnaby Cabe hauls supplies and prisoners for Governor Tryon's army

An expense account shows Cabe served as a wagoner for Tryon's militia in 1771, carrying supplies, hauling prisoners to New Bern and appearing as a witness against the Regulators after Alamance.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

Governor Tryon's army buys supplies at Ralph McNair's Hillsborough store

On his expedition against the Regulators, Governor William Tryon bought supplies at McNair's Hillsborough store, including Delft bowls and gilt tin cups.

People: William Tryon

James Hunter's family takes refuge at Gilbert Strayhorn's house

After James Hunter was outlawed and his house burned, the Hunter family fled to Gilbert Strayhorn's house in the New Hope settlement. There Strayhorn's nephew Alexander Strain met and married Hunter's daughter.

People: James Hunter

Orange County elects Francis Nash to a seat left by Herman Husband's expulsion

With John Pryor dead and Herman Husband expelled from the Assembly, Orange County filled the two vacant seats in 1771 with Ralph McNair and Francis Nash, both strong opponents of the Regulators. Nash had fought against the Regulators at Alamance that year as a militia captain.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Herman Husband · Ralph McNair

Outlawed Regulator leaders petition Governor Martin for pardon

From hiding, some in South Carolina, Jeremiah Field, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Matthew Hamilton, James Hunter, Thomas Welborn, William Butler and John Fruit asked the new governor, Josiah Martin, for pardon. The Assembly asked mercy for all but Husband, Butler and Howell, but Martin waited because Tryon had left the matter to the Crown.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Josiah Martin · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator)

Regulator leader Thomas Person is held in irons at Hillsborough

After the Battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon had Thomas Person seized and held in irons in Hillsborough for three weeks, during which he was marched to the gallows and back. He was released without trial.

People: William Tryon

The Assembly passes the Johnston Riot Act against the Regulators

Named for its author Samuel Johnston, the law let riot cases be tried in any county, outlawed anyone who resisted or evaded arrest, and allowed the governor to use troops against the Regulators. The Crown later condemned parts of it.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Samuel Johnston

Guilford County is formed from Orange and Rowan

Governor Tryon assented to the act creating Guilford County from parts of Rowan and Orange, a bill Edmund Fanning had brought in. Tryon told the Earl of Hillsborough the new county was meant to divide the Regulator districts.

People: William Tryon

A mounted troop of Regulators rides through Hillsborough firing pistols

A troop of mounted Regulators, turned back from its march on New Bern, came down on Hillsborough, drove residents indoors, took liquor at the tavern and galloped through the streets firing pistols before riding off. Nash says they did no great damage.

Regulators marching on New Bern turn back at Haw River

Regulators from Rowan, Orange and Granville gathered under James Hunter to march on New Bern, where Herman Husband was jailed. They broke up at Haw River on hearing that a grand jury had declined to indict him and he had been released on February 8.

People: James Hunter · Herman Husband · Rednap Howell

A special court at New Bern presents and indicts Husband, Hunter, Butler and Howell for the Hillsborough riot

Sitting under Chief Justice Martin Howard with Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, the special court of oyer and terminer at New Bern received a grand jury presentment against the Regulators who in September last 'broke up that Court' at Hillsborough, and returned indictments for riot against Herman Husband, James Hunter, William Butler and Rednap Howell among others.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Richard Henderson · Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator) · Maurice Moore · Martin Howard · Rednap Howell

Regulator threats keep the Hillsborough superior court from sitting

At the March 1771 term the Hillsborough District superior court recorded that the Regulators led by Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler and Samuel Devinney, who had broken up the September court, were still threatening judges, lawyers and officers, so none attended. The court was continued to September 1771.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: James Hunter · Herman Husband · Rednap Howell

Four Orange County militia companies march with Tryon against the Regulators

When Tryon's eastern column gathered on the march from New Bern, Orange and Dobbs each supplied four companies, the largest contingents in a force of 917 rank and file and 151 officers. Two Orange companies were later left to guard Hillsborough when the army moved on to Alamance.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon

Thomas Hart contracts to supply provisions for Tryon's campaign against the Regulators

Hart accepted Governor Tryon's offer to victual the militia raised to suppress the Regulators, on the terms on which he had supplied the troops at Hillsborough in 1768. His department covered nearly a thousand men from eleven counties including Orange.

People: William Tryon

James Thackston raises a company of Orange County militia against the Regulators

Thackston raised a company of sixty-two Orange County militiamen, who went on to serve in the Alamance campaign.

Robert Howe serves as quartermaster general of Tryon's army against the Regulators

Governor Tryon's order book for the 1771 campaign against the Regulators, which took his army through Hillsborough to the Battle of Alamance and back to the Hillsborough camp, names Colonel Robert Howe quartermaster general.

People: William Tryon

Tryon's army camps on the south bank of the Eno opposite Hillsborough

Marching west from New Bern, Tryon's army entered Orange by an old road past Patterson's and camped across the Eno from the town on May 9. A hospital and a supply depot were set up at Hillsborough, and on May 11 the army marched through town and west along the later Graham road.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning · John Ashe

Tryon's army halts at Colonel Mebane's for Sunday worship on the march to Alamance

Leaving Hillsborough on May 11, Tryon stopped on Sunday at Colonel Mebane's for divine service, then marched to the Haw River, where 23 mounted men under Captain Bullock joined as his only cavalry. He ordered his troops not to take property and reached Alamance Creek on May 14.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon

David Caldwell goes between Tryon's camp and the Regulators before the Battle of Alamance

At the request of his parishioners, some of them Regulators, Caldwell visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15 with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures. On the morning of the battle he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given.

People: William Tryon · Alexander Martin

Regulators seize Colonel John Ashe and Captain Walker and whip them

On the morning before the battle, some of the Regulators caught Colonel John Ashe and Captain Walker while they were out scouting, whipped them severely and held them prisoner. Many Regulators condemned the act, and some threatened to leave the cause if it happened again.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: John Ashe

Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County

Jones marched into Orange County with Governor William Tryon's colonial militia and was appointed Tryon's aide-de-camp on May 15, 1771, the day before Tryon defeated the Regulators at Alamance. Several days later he was sent to raid the plantation of the Regulator leader Herman Husband.

People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

Tryon proclaims a pardon for Regulators who come into camp, lay down their arms and take the oath

From the camp Tryon offered the King's free pardon for all treasons and rebellions to anyone who came in by May 21, surrendered his arms, swore allegiance, promised to pay his taxes and submitted to the law, excepting the outlawed leaders and the prisoners already in camp. Further proclamations on May 21, 24 and 31 and June 11 extended the terms.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon

Tryon's army camps a week at Sandy Creek after Alamance

Five days after the battle the army marched to Sandy Creek, the home district of Husband and many Regulators, and stayed a week, taking supplies from the people and giving them the oath of allegiance. It moved west on May 29.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon

Colonel John Ashe commands the guard left at Hillsborough

When Tryon's army marched west from its camp across the Eno in May 1771, two of the four Orange County companies under Edmund Fanning stayed behind as a guard for Hillsborough under Colonel John Ashe. They rejoined the army before the Battle of Alamance.

People: Edmund Fanning · William Tryon

Tryon offers 100 pounds and a thousand acres for Husband, Hunter, Howell and Butler, dead or alive

Marching back toward Hillsborough, Tryon proclaimed from Bethabara that Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell and William Butler stood outlawed and liable to be shot by anyone, and offered one hundred pounds and one thousand acres of land to whoever brought any of them into his or General Waddell's camp.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon · Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator) · Rednap Howell

Tryon's army returns to Hillsborough with its Regulator prisoners

The army came back on June 14 and the next day marched through town with drums beating and oak sprigs in their hats before camping a mile east. The special court of oyer and terminer, opened May 30 and adjourned to await the prisoners, then resumed and tried fourteen men for treason.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon · Martin Howard · Richard Henderson · Maurice Moore

Tryon takes leave of his army at Hillsborough and hands the command to Colonel Ashe

Having received at Hillsborough camp the King's command to go at once to govern New York, Tryon thanked the officers and men for their conduct through the campaign, gave the army to Colonel John Ashe to march to Colonel Bryan's and disband by counties, and ordered the artillery escorted to New Bern and the horses taken in battle sold for the public. He reached New Bern on June 24 and sailed on the 30th.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon · John Ashe

Governor Tryon's army turns its horses onto the Few farm's crops

Back at Hillsborough in mid-June 1771 after the Battle of Alamance, Governor William Tryon's army turned its horses onto the wheat, barley and oats of the Few farm a mile east of town, where William Few Sr. had given bond for Regulator leaders. The family left for Georgia that winter.

People: William Tryon

The Hillsborough superior court holds its first term since the 1770 riot

For the first time in a year and a half the district court sat at Hillsborough, with Judges Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson presiding and about 300 cases on its dockets. Thomas Clark qualified as clerk, and a suit by James Few against Francis Nash was entered as abated by the plaintiff's hanging.

People: Maurice Moore · Richard Henderson · Francis Nash

Tryon, now governor of New York, asks the King's free pardon for the six reprieved Regulators

Writing from Fort George in New York, Tryon named the six men convicted of high treason at the Hillsborough court in June whose executions he had suspended at the army officers' request, James Stewart, James Emmerson, William Brown, Forester Mercer, James Copeland and Harmon Cox, and repeated his request that the King grant them a free pardon.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: William Tryon

At Governor Martin's urging, Edmund Fanning drops his riot damage suits

After the matter was raised with Governor Martin in March 1772, he urged Fanning, by then surveyor general of New York, to drop his suits over the destruction of his Hillsborough property, and Fanning had them discontinued, leaving his 1,500 pound claim to the Assembly. The House refused to pay it in March 1773.

Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events

People: Edmund Fanning · Josiah Martin

Francis Nash builds his house on West Tryon Street

Francis Nash built the house now called the Nash-Hooper House on West Tryon Street in Hillsborough in 1772, on land bought from Isaac Edwards. After his death in 1777 it passed through other hands to William Hooper in 1782.

People: William Hooper

Subject: Nash-Hooper House

Governor Josiah Martin complains about Orange County's roads

On his time in the backcountry in 1772, Governor Martin wrote of how poor the roads in Orange were.

Morgan Edwards reports 1,500 families have left since Alamance

The Baptist preacher and traveler wrote that many more were waiting to sell their farms and follow. The book says many former Regulators went to the Tennessee country.

Thomas Burke is admitted as an attorney and settles at Hillsborough

Burke, born in Ireland and trained as a physician, had practiced law in Virginia before coming to Hillsborough. He was admitted as an attorney in March 1772 and later lived two miles northeast of town.

Governor Josiah Martin spends the summer at Hillsborough

Governor Martin dated his dispatches to London from Hillsborough through the summer of 1772, and in August the Rev. Charles E. Taylor wrote that the governor had gone up to Hillsborough to spend the summer.

Governor Martin and his council at Hillsborough forbid the export of wheat, rye and flour

Told of a long drought and failing corn crops in the western parts of the province, the council sitting at Hillsborough advised an embargo, and Martin proclaimed a three-month ban on shipping wheat, rye or flour out of the province.

People: Martin Howard · Samuel Strudwick · Alexander McCulloch

Governor Martin summons the judges to Hillsborough over the cases of the outlawed Regulators

After Regulator leaders offered to surrender, Martin called the judges to Hillsborough and asked in writing whether their outlawry could be completed and whether they could still be tried. Writing from Hillsborough on August 30, he told London the troubles had been provoked by extortion from attorneys, clerks and other officers.

People: Richard Henderson · Martin Howard · James Hunter

English traveler J. F. D. Smyth finds German-speaking districts west of Hillsborough

Traveling in western Orange, Smyth had trouble in some places finding anyone who understood English, a sign of how many Germans had settled there.

Rochester becomes a partner in a Hillsborough store

Rochester joined James Monroe and John Hamilton as a partner in a Hillsborough store in 1773. The business prospered but was liquidated in 1775 as the Revolution approached.

People: John Hamilton

The upper house rejects a general amnesty for the Regulators

Although the British government advised a general amnesty act to close the Regulator prosecutions, the provincial upper house turned the bill down in 1773 because it did not except enough people.

Henry Pattillo leaves the Hawfields and Eno churches

Pattillo, who came to the Hawfields and Eno churches in 1765, left in 1774. The New Hope families still belonged to the Hawfields then, and Craig believed Pattillo had organized New Hope church in its first meetinghouse.

Subject: Eno Presbyterian Church · Hawfields Presbyterian Church · New Hope Presbyterian Church

Thomas Hart is Orange County's only member at the first Provincial Convention

When North Carolina's first Provincial Convention met on August 25, 1774 and chose delegates to the first Continental Congress, Thomas Hart alone sat for Orange County and the borough of Hillsborough sent no one.

James Hogg moves to Hillsborough and opens his company's office there

The merchant James Hogg, who had brought emigrants from Scotland to North Carolina in 1774, moved from Cross Creek to Hillsborough about 1775 to open his company's office, and lived at Old House on his land east of town.

James Patterson keeps an inn on the road where Chapel Hill will be laid out

Before the university existed, James Patterson's inn stood near the sharp bend in the road west of the later campus, serving travellers on the two roads that met at New Hope Chapel. It was the only inn on the site when the first village lots were sold in 1793.

People: James Patterson

John DeBow takes the Hawfields and Eno charge and preaches at New Hope

DeBow, a young minister, succeeded Pattillo at the Hawfields and Eno about 1775 and preached at New Hope as he could. Craig calls him probably the first preacher with anything like a regular appointment there.

Subject: Eno Presbyterian Church · Hawfields Presbyterian Church · New Hope Presbyterian Church

Orange County chooses a committee of safety

Orange had no committee of safety until the summer of 1775, and Samuel Johnston wrote on August 14 that one had been chosen. By 1776 John Hogan was its chairman and James Hogg its secretary; its records for 1775 and 1776 are lost.

People: James Hogg · Samuel Johnston · Colonel John Hogan

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough orders its journal printed by James Davis

The congress meeting at Hillsborough directed that its proceedings be delivered to James Davis, the province's printer and a delegate for the town of New Bern, who was desired to print them and send a copy to each member. It also named a committee to state and settle his account for services done as printer to the province.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Willie Jones · Thomas Person

The Allison family settles at Cedar Grove

The Allison family settles the Cedar Grove area in the late eighteenth century, and other families follow. Allisons still lived there when the survey was made.

The Provincial Congress names Orange County's minutemen and militia officers

Orange was to raise three companies of minutemen, and James Thackston was named colonel of minutemen for the Hillsborough district. For the county militia the Congress named John Hogan colonel, John Butler lieutenant colonel, William Moore first major and Nathaniel Rochester second major.

People: John Butler · Nathaniel Rochester · James Thackston · Colonel John Hogan

William Johnston produces gunpowder, lead and flints at Snow Hill

During the Revolution Hillsborough merchant William Johnston apparently produced gunpowder, lead and rifle flints at his Snow Hill plantation northeast of the town.

Orange County sends Thomas Burke, John Kinchen and Francis Nash to the second Provincial Congress

The second Provincial Congress met at New Bern a day ahead of the royal legislature, with Burke, Kinchen and Nash as Orange's delegates. In the legislature itself Orange sat Ralph McNair and Thomas Hart, and Thomas Nash sat for Hillsborough.

People: Francis Nash · Thomas Hart · Ralph McNair · John Kinchen

George Micklejohn opens the Provincial Congress with prayers

At the request of the congress, delivered by Francis Nash, Micklejohn attended and opened the Provincial Congress by reading prayers in the church at Hillsborough.

People: Francis Nash

The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough adopts a test for its members to sign

On August 21, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough named Allen Jones to a committee of seven to prepare a Test to be signed by its members. The committee reported on August 23 and the Test was read, approved, ordered entered on the journal and signed. Subscribers professed allegiance to the King while denying that Parliament could tax them.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Thomas Burke · William Hooper · Willie Jones · John Penn · Maurice Moore · Robert Howe

Congress at Hillsborough appoints a committee to address the inhabitants of the province

The same day the congress named Maurice Moore, William Hooper, Robert Howe, Richard Caswell and Joseph Hewes to prepare an address to the inhabitants of North Carolina, stating the controversy with Great Britain in plain language and calling on them to unite in defence of American liberty. Doctor Burke was added to the committee on August 24.

People: William Hooper · Richard Caswell · Maurice Moore · Robert Howe

Henry Pattillo is asked to read morning prayers to the Provincial Congress

The congress at Hillsborough asked the Rev. Henry Pattillo, a delegate from Bute County, to read prayers to it every morning, and Charles Edward Taylor every evening.

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a Committee of Secrecy to procure arms

On August 23, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough resolved that its president, Mr. Harnett, Mr. Caswell, Mr. Hewes, Mr. Nash, Mr. Willie Jones and Mr. Young be a Committee of Secrecy for procuring arms and ammunition. The committee was to report what sums of money would be needed for the purpose.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Richard Caswell · Willie Jones · Cornelius Harnett

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a committee to confer with inhabitants who had scruples about the American cause

The congress sitting at Hillsborough appointed thirteen of its members, among them Memucan Hunt of Granville County, to confer with inhabitants of the province who held religious or political scruples. They were directed to use argument and persuasion to bring those inhabitants into support of the American cause.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Thomas Burke · Richard Caswell · John Penn · Thomas Person · Henry Pattillo

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough orders Governor Martin's proclamation burnt by the hangman

The congress read a proclamation Martin had issued on August 8 from HMS Cruizer in the Cape Fear, addressed to the "Provincial Convention of Hillsborough", and resolved unanimously that it was a seditious libel to be burnt by the common hangman.

Hillsborough has seventy or eighty houses when the Congress meets

At the time of the 1775 Congress the town held about seventy or eighty houses and three or four hundred people, and residents found lodging for nearly two hundred delegates and visitors.

People: Samuel Johnston

The Provincial Congress forms the Hillsborough District and its committee of safety

The Congress grouped Orange, Granville, Chatham and Wake counties into a Hillsborough District with a thirteen-member committee of safety; John Atkinson, John Butler and William Johnston sat for Orange. Thomas Person and John Kinchen represented the district on the Provincial Council.

People: John Butler · William Johnston · Thomas Person · John Kinchen

Congress at Hillsborough names Francis Nash lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Regiment

On September 1, 1775 the Provincial Congress meeting at Hillsborough appointed the officers of the first of its two new regiments: James Moore, colonel, and Francis Nash, lieutenant colonel. On the congress's opening day Nash had been asked to bring the Rev. George Micklejohn to open it with prayers in the church at Hillsborough.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: George Micklejohn

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints Benjamin Williams a lieutenant in the second regiment

Williams sat for Johnston County in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. On September 1 the Congress named him one of the lieutenants of the second regiment, and on September 9 it made him a member of the committee of safety for the New Bern district.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Alexander Martin lieutenant colonel of the Second North Carolina Regiment

Alexander Martin attended the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough as a delegate from Guilford County. On September 1, 1775, the Congress named the officers of its two new regiments of Continental troops, with Robert Howe as colonel and Martin as lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment.

People: Robert Howe

Adam Boyd lays the Philadelphia synod's pastoral letters before the Provincial Congress

At the Provincial Congress meeting in Hillsborough, Boyd presented two hundred pastoral letters from the Synod of Philadelphia addressed to the inhabitants of the province, and they were handed out to the members. The congress voted to pay him for them.

Congress at Hillsborough appoints Hooper, Hewes and Caswell to the Continental Congress

Meeting at Hillsborough on September 2, 1775, the congress thanked William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and Richard Caswell for their service as the province's delegates at the last Continental Congress and appointed the three delegates for a further year, each to be paid five hundred pounds proclamation money.

People: William Hooper · Richard Caswell

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District

Meeting at Hillsborough, the Congress appointed Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District and Richard Caswell treasurer for the Southern District, giving them the powers the colony's treasurers had held under a 1773 act of Assembly.

People: Richard Caswell

The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints John Penn to the Continental Congress

Richard Caswell told the congress at Hillsborough that his new duties as treasurer for the Southern District and as a signer of the public bills of credit left him unable to serve in the Continental Congress. The congress resolved the same day that John Penn take his place beside William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, with the same powers and allowance.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Joseph Hewes · Richard Caswell

The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough adopts William Hooper's resolution of loyalty to George III

Two days before it dissolved, the Congress unanimously passed a resolution from Hooper professing its members' support for the king's succession, even as it raised troops and money for defense.

People: William Hooper

John Butler is commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Orange County militia

The Third Provincial Congress named John Butler to the committee of safety for the Hillsborough District and on September 9, 1775 made him lieutenant colonel of the Orange County militia under Colonel John Hogan. Minutemen officers were named by district, not county. Butler went on to lead the county's militia in the Moore's Creek Bridge campaign and became its colonel in April 1776.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Colonel John Hogan

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough elects a Provincial Council to govern between sessions

On September 9, 1775, the Congress at Hillsborough elected a thirteen-member Provincial Council to direct the army and militia during its recess: Samuel Johnston for the province at large and two members for each of the six districts, among them Abner Nash and James Coor for New Bern and Thomas Person and John Kinchen for Hillsborough.

People: Samuel Johnston · Samuel Ashe · Willie Jones · Waightstill Avery · Thomas Person · Cornelius Harnett · John Kinchen · Samuel Spencer

Provincial Congress at Hillsborough makes Thomas Benbury a Chowan militia major and a district committee of safety member

Thomas Benbury sat for Chowan County in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. On September 9, 1775, the Congress named him first major of the Chowan County militia under Colonel Thomas Bonner and a member of the committee of safety for the Edenton District.

Loyalist rector George Micklejohn is taken into custody

With the outbreak of the Revolution Micklejohn remained loyal to the Crown and was taken into custody. St. Matthew's Parish had no Episcopal rector again until 1825.

Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

Orange County militia join Griffith Rutherford's campaign against the Cherokee

Orange was first asked for 500 men and could not raise them; the quota was cut to 300, which was met. Officers from the county included Major Hugh Tinnin and Captains William Williams and William Murray, with Jacob Albright as drummer.

Richard Bennehan buys the land that began the Stagville plantation

Bennehan bought land northeast of Snow Hill on the west side of the Flat River, the start of what became the Stagville-Fairntosh plantation complex.

Rochester is named to a commission to set up a gun factory near Hillsborough

The commission was to establish a gun factory near Hillsborough, and Rochester led a wagon train to Philadelphia to obtain iron for it. Illness later that year ended his military service.

Michael Holt turns back from the Loyalist march and later takes the Whig oath

Holt took a commission from Governor Martin and started for the Loyalist gathering at Cross Creek, but turned for home with some of his men. After his arrest he was permitted to take the Whig oath of allegiance, as James Hunter later was.

People: James Hunter · Josiah Martin

Orange County militia under James Thackston hold Cross Creek during the Loyalist rising

Militia bound east against Donald MacDonald's Loyalists gathered at Hillsborough, and Thackston's Orange contingent occupied Cross Creek (now Fayetteville), denying the Loyalists a refuge. The rising ended at Moore's Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776, a battle the Orange men did not fight in.

People: James Thackston

Crowds force the Orange County polls to close four times in the election for the fifth Provincial Congress

The whole county, then taking in later Caswell, Alamance, Person and Durham, voted only at the Hillsborough courthouse, and the crush of voters forced four halts; by sunset about a quarter had voted. The winners, James Saunders, William Moore, John McCabe, John Atkinson and John Paine, faced a petition to keep them from their seats.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

George Micklejohn swears allegiance to the state and is released from parole

Taken prisoner after Moore's Creek, the Hillsborough rector was paroled on May 3, 1776 to Perquimans County, then ordered moved there in July when he was found still in Orange. On November 24 he took the oath of allegiance before the Halifax Congress and was discharged, and he later lived at Thomas Person's Goshen in Granville.

People: Thomas Person · Willie Jones

Orange County votes again after the Halifax Congress voids its October return

The Congress first upheld the sitting Orange members on November 21, then on November 28 ordered a new election run by named commissioners over as many as three days. Held December 10, it returned Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, Alexander Mebane, John Butler and John McCabe, who took their seats just before the state constitution was adopted.

People: Thomas Burke · Nathaniel Rochester · John Butler · Richard Bennehan · Colonel John Hogan · Alexander Mebane

The new state constitution provides for public schools and a university

Section 41 of the constitution adopted at Halifax, modeled on Pennsylvania's, told the legislature to establish schools and to promote learning in one or more universities. Orange's delegates voted on it, and it became the legal basis for chartering UNC.

People: Thomas Burke · Nathaniel Rochester · John Butler · Alexander Mebane

Thomas Burke of Hillsborough is elected to the Continental Congress

The last Provincial Congress chose Burke with William Hooper and Joseph Hewes. Apart from April to August 1778 he served until April 12, 1781, sitting on 108 committees.

People: William Hooper · Joseph Hewes

A special Hillsborough District court fails to sit when John Penn does not appear

Governor Richard Caswell named John Kinchen and John Penn judges of a special court of oyer and terminer for the Hillsborough District. Penn did not come, Kinchen would not sit alone, and no court was held.

People: John Penn · Richard Caswell

Hillsborough gets its first regular Presbyterian services

After years of occasional preaching in the courthouse by David Caldwell, John DeBow and others, the Rev. Alexander McMillan began regular services there in 1777, shared with Little River and New Hope. Presbytery deposed him in September 1778, and the town had no organized Presbyterian church for many years.

People: David Caldwell

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

James Hogg sits on the Hillsborough board of commissioners

James Hogg, a member of the Hillsborough Committee of Safety during the Revolution, sat on the town's board of commissioners in 1777.

James Watson becomes register of Orange County and a Hillsborough commissioner under the new state

When county government resumed under statehood in 1777, James Watson was the county's register and one of the first commissioners of the town of Hillsborough, with William Johnston, James Hogg, John Shields and William Courtney.

People: William Johnston · James Hogg · William Courtney

Rochester serves as clerk of the Orange County court

Rochester resigned his seat in the first General Assembly of the state to become clerk of court. He was also commissioned to supervise the building of a new courthouse and to help establish an academy in the Hillsborough area, and he gave up the clerkship in 1778 because its fees did not cover the expenses of the office.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

William Courtney buys the East King Street lots from Ralph McNair

William Courtney bought from Ralph McNair the lots at 141 East King Street where the house later called William Courtney's Yellow House stands.

People: Ralph McNair · William Courtney

William Courtney is one of the first Hillsborough town commissioners under the state

When the new state government was organized, the commissioners for the town of Hillsborough were William Johnston, James Hogg, John Sheels (Shields), William Courtney and James Watson.

People: William Johnston · James Hogg · James Watson

William Courtney represents the town of Hillsborough in the House of Commons

Courtney held Hillsborough's borough seat in the House of Commons in the Assemblies of 1777 and 1778. At the August 1778 session held in Hillsborough he sat on joint committees on Indian affairs and on claims.

The Orange County court sits for the first time under the new state

The May 1777 court recorded 22 justices commissioned by Governor Richard Caswell, and eleven took the state oath and their seats. It named Alexander Mebane Jr., son of the first sheriff, as the first sheriff under statehood and county treasurer, and appointed 33 road overseers.

People: Richard Caswell · Nathaniel Rochester · John Butler · William Courtney · Alexander Mebane

The county court jails Charles Richardson for refusing the oath of allegiance

Called before the court as a suspicious person, Richardson would not swear allegiance to the state. The court sent him to jail until he took the oath and paid the fees.

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

The county court orders the Hillsborough District jail to hold Continental deserters

At its May 1777 term the court told the jailer of Hillsborough District to take in any Continental Army soldiers arrested as deserters by a justice of the peace anywhere in the district.

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

The county court orders the road from Bennehan's to New Hope Chapel finished

The road ordered earlier from Richard Bennehan's to New Hope Chapel had been cleared only as far as John Patterson's, so the May 1777 court named an overseer to clear the rest.

People: John Patterson

Merchants who traded with Britain are ordered to swear allegiance or leave

Under a state act, the August court cited fourteen merchants and agents, among them James Hogg, and only Nathaniel Rochester and John Hogan took the oath. The court ordered everyone who failed to appear or to swear, Quakers excepted, to leave for Europe or the West Indies within sixty days.

People: James Hogg · Nathaniel Rochester · Colonel John Hogan

The county court binds James Empey not to recruit soldiers for another state

The August 1777 court made Empey give security for his good behavior and for not evading the state law by recruiting men in North Carolina for another state. Robert Baker and William Armstrong were his sureties at fifty pounds each.

Brigadier General Francis Nash of Hillsborough is killed at Germantown

Nash, promoted to brigadier general, died leading North Carolina troops at the Battle of Germantown in Pennsylvania. Word reached Orange County that October.

John Hogan's paper mill opens near Hillsborough

A notice in the North Carolina Gazette announced a newly built paper mill near Hillsborough ready to work and asked households to save linen rags for it. John Hogan owned the mill, a mile and a half northeast of town; drought hampered it in 1778, and the Assembly gave him more time to earn the state's premium for paper.

People: Colonel John Hogan

Absalom Tatom becomes assistant quartermaster and keeper of the arsenal at Hillsborough

During the Revolution, Continental officer Absalom Tatom takes charge of the state's arsenal at Hillsborough as assistant quartermaster.

Drought shuts down the state gun factory near Hillsborough

The factory's shop sat beside a creek on Thomas Burke's land about two miles northeast of town, and a dry summer left the creek too low to drive its wheel. The dry spell slowed the paper mill as well, and the Assembly gave John Hogan more time to earn the paper bounty.

People: Thomas Burke · Colonel John Hogan

Methodists divide their North Carolina circuit and form the New Hope Circuit, taking in part of Orange

When the original North Carolina circuit was split in three in 1778, the new New Hope Circuit covered parts of Orange, Chatham, Cumberland and Wake counties. Hillsborough was served by its riders, beginning with James O'Kelly and Philip Adams in 1779.

Richard Bennehan lists 31 enslaved people for taxes

On the 1778 tax list Richard Bennehan of Stagville, one of the largest landholders in Orange County with 4,065 acres, reported 31 enslaved people. Most Orange households of the period held no one in slavery.

People: Richard Bennehan

Rochester opens a Hillsborough store with Thomas Hart and James Brown

The partnership was successful and Rochester began putting his earnings into real estate. The business was liquidated in 1780 when British occupation of Hillsborough became a probability, and Hart moved his family to Maryland.

People: Thomas Hart · James Brown

The superior court sits at Hillsborough for the first time in five years

Judges Samuel Ashe and James Iredell opened the March 1778 term in the old courthouse, with Waightstill Avery prosecuting and John Henderson of Granville as grand jury foreman. The district court had not sat since September 1772, when the quarrel between Governor Martin and the Assembly over the court law shut the courts.

People: Samuel Ashe · James Iredell · Waightstill Avery

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

The Assembly orders a new courthouse built at Hillsborough

Nathaniel Rochester and William Courtney oversaw the work. Planned in brick but built of wood because of wartime shortages, it was one room about 40 by 25 feet near the present courthouse site and served until fire destroyed it in late 1789 or 1790.

People: Nathaniel Rochester · William Courtney

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

The Assembly sets Orange County's quota of clothing for the state's troops

A statewide act passed at New Bern fixed each county's share of supplies for soldiers in the field. Orange owed 73 hats, 306 yards of linen, 146 yards of wool, 146 pairs of shoes and 146 pairs of stockings.

Orange magistrates tender the state oath across the county

The county court named two magistrates in each district to offer the oath to people suspected of disloyalty, and they returned lists of those who took and refused it to the May 1778 term. At that term James Hogg, William Johnston and Samuel Strudwick were cited again, and those who still declined were given sixty days to leave.

People: James Hogg · William Johnston · Samuel Strudwick

The Assembly at Hillsborough clears Thomas Burke in his quarrel with Congress

Congress had referred Burke's conduct to North Carolina after he walked out to break a quorum and sent back a rough answer when summoned. A joint committee chaired by William Hooper reported on August 14 that he was answerable only to the state, and the Assembly, which had re-elected him to Congress two days earlier, adopted the report.

People: Thomas Burke · William Hooper

John Hogan is appointed trustee for Orange County

The county court named John Hogan trustee, the office later called county treasurer, under a bond of 1,500 pounds. The book dates the treasurer's office in Orange from 1778 to its abolition in 1948.

People: Colonel John Hogan · William McCauley

The Presbytery removes Alexander McMillan, who had led Presbyterian worship in Hillsborough

McMillan had held regular services in the courthouse jointly with the Little River and New Hope congregations until the Presbytery deposed him for misconduct. For some years afterward Hillsborough had no regular Presbyterian services.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · New Hope Presbyterian Church

Christopher Barbee buys his brother Francis's share of their father's land grant east of Chapel Hill

Christopher Barbee buys from his brother Francis the western half of the 585-acre grant their father William Barbee took up in 1753, which included the hilltop later called The Mountain. Barbee made his plantation there, and a stone foundation at Meadowmont is thought to be his house.

People: Christopher Barbee

Subject: The Mountain (Christopher Barbee plantation, now Meadowmont)

Hillsborough becomes a depot for the army's supplies

As the war moved south the town became a collection and storage point for army supplies, and the governor split his time between Halifax and Hillsborough.

People: Richard Caswell

Hillsborough gathers supplies and light horse for the South Carolina campaign

As the state sent troops to aid South Carolina in 1779, supplies for the militia were collected at Hillsborough and a regiment of light horse under General Allen Jones assembled there. Hillsborough district militia under John Butler fought at Stono Ferry on June 20.

People: Allen Jones · John Butler

John Hogan sits as Orange County's state senator

For the 1779 General Assembly, Colonel John Hogan was Orange County's senator, with Mark Patterson and William McCauley as its members in the House of Commons and Thomas Tulloch for the borough of Hillsborough.

People: William McCauley

Orange County militia serve at Stono Ferry in South Carolina

Under General John Butler, militia from Orange took part in Benjamin Lincoln's attack on the British at Stono Ferry.

People: John Butler · Benjamin Lincoln

William Cain acquires the Pleasant Grove plantation on the Trading Path

William Cain acquired the Orange County property later called Pleasant Grove, beside the old Indian Trading Path, and held it until his death in 1834.

Subject: Pleasant Grove (William Cain plantation)

General Assembly charters an academy near Hillsborough named Science Hall

Meeting at Halifax, the General Assembly passed an act to establish an academy in the neighborhood of Hillsborough, naming William Hooper, Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, James Hogg and others as trustees. The act named the school Science Hall and gave its trustees the same powers as those of Liberty Hall in Mecklenburg County.

People: Alexander Martin · Nathaniel Rochester · Thomas Hart · James Hogg · Thomas Burke · William Hooper · William Johnston · John Kinchen

Subject: Hillsborough Academy

Colonel John Gunby of Maryland commands the Hillsborough garrison

With more than a thousand troops in and around the town, among them Buford's horse and the Maryland Continentals, Colonel Gunby of the First Maryland Regiment served as commandant through the last months of 1780 and into January 1781. His 400 to 500 Marylanders were barefoot until shoes came from Maryland.

Most Orange enslavers hold fewer than ten people

By 1780, 95 percent of the county's enslavers held fewer than ten people and 3 percent held twenty or more.

Samuel Strudwick asks the Assembly to stop taxing him on the whole Haw Fields

Strudwick petitioned for relief from taxes on the entire Haw Fields tract, saying settlers had blocked his court-ordered survey and, since the Revolution, had taken state patents on nearly all of the 30,000 acres, even his own house and plantation.

People: Samuel Strudwick

The oldest frame section of the Hill Farm house is built on St. Mary's Road

The earliest part of the Hill Farm house, a frame section on a stone foundation with a double-shouldered chimney nearly eight feet wide, may go back to the 1780s, making it one of the few eighteenth-century buildings along the road.

Subject: Hill Farm (Roland Hill House)

Thomas Burke takes up his neighbors' complaints against army plundering

Home from Congress in 1780, Burke found troops around Hillsborough grazing horses on growing corn, pulling down haystacks and taking cattle, wagons and smokehouse stores. He warned local officials, wrote to the president of Congress and to General Gates, and Nash credits him with largely stopping the abuse in Orange.

People: Horatio Gates

William Courtney serves as state senator for Orange County

In 1780 William Courtney was Orange County's senator in the General Assembly, while William McCauley and Mark Patterson represented the county and Thomas Tulloch the town in the House of Commons.

People: William McCauley

Baron de Kalb halts at Hillsborough with 2,000 Continental troops

De Kalb's force, marching to relieve Charleston after it had already fallen, stopped at Hillsborough and used up the area's provisions before moving south.

Horatio Gates, on his way to the Southern Army, presses the governor for supplies from Hillsborough

Writing from Hillsborough, Gates told Governor Abner Nash that the army's commissary and quartermaster departments were in a deplorable state, asked the state to set up magazines of provisions and forage and to supply 700 tents for its militia, and urged Nash to come to Hillsborough himself.

People: Abner Nash

Barnaby Cabe takes a wagonload of flour to General Gates's army

Thomas Burke of Hillsborough wrote to Horatio Gates that his neighbor Cabe was bringing a load of flour to the southern army and would hand it over only on Gates's order, having been put off by the commissaries. The former Tryon wagoner had come over to the patriot side.

People: Thomas Burke

Francis Asbury preaches to about 200 people at a Hillsborough tavern

On a tour of the state the Methodist leader Francis Asbury rode into Hillsborough and preached in the tavern of a Mr. Cortney (Courtney) to a crowd of about 200, whom he found orderly.

Gates regroups the defeated southern army at Hillsborough after Camden

After the American defeat at Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780, Gates gathered the remnants of his army at Hillsborough. On September 3 he reported from the town that the Maryland division and the artillery were there being refitted and that nearly 500 regulars were marching from Petersburg to join them.

Samuel Strudwick asks Thomas Burke for help as settlers threaten his Haw Fields plantation

Strudwick wrote Burke that a man named Bowles, who held a new patent for a small plantation in sight of his house, meant to take the peaches from his orchard to distill and said he could raise a posse to do it, and that another settler who had patented Strudwick's own house might drive the family into the woods. He asked Burke what he should do.

People: Thomas Burke

General Assembly meets at Hillsborough and creates a Board of War

Meeting at Hillsborough under Governor Abner Nash, the Assembly levied a provision tax in kind to supply the army and navy, passed acts on treason trials and confiscated property, and created a five-member Board of War. The Board of War held its first meeting in Hillsborough on September 14, 1780.

People: Alexander Martin · Abner Nash · Thomas Benbury

General Assembly at Hillsborough relieves Richard Caswell of command of the state militia

After commanding the North Carolina militia in the defeat at Camden, Caswell reported to the General Assembly sitting at Hillsborough. On September 12 the Assembly took his illness into account and relieved him temporarily of command of the state militia, leaving him the separate command of the North Carolina Partisan Rangers.

Part of General Assembly sessions at Hillsborough, 1778–1784

Board of War, led by Alexander Martin, directs the war effort from Hillsborough

The Board of War created by the General Assembly first met at Hillsborough on September 14, 1780, with Alexander Martin, John Penn and Oroondates Davis present. Through the fall it issued orders for arms, provisions and militia from the town and ran a shoe factory there for the army, then rose in late November to sit at Halifax from December 1.

People: John Penn

James Thackston gathers Continental recruits and returned deserters at Hillsborough

After Gates's defeat at Camden, the Board of War authorized Lieutenant Colonel Thackston to assemble new recruits and repatriated deserters at Hillsborough. By the middle of November he had collected only sixteen men.

South Carolina's Governor John Rutledge takes refuge in Hillsborough

After Camden the town filled with fugitives, and Rutledge, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Daniel Morgan were among those there. It was so crowded that Attorney General Iredell and Judge Williams, arriving for the October superior court, found beds only at Burke's house two miles out, and Rutledge moved into town to share a bed with John Penn of the Board of War.

People: James Iredell · John Penn · John Williams

The Board of War makes the courthouse a storehouse and the church a hospital

With supply wagons crowding every road into Hillsborough, the board designated the courthouse a storehouse and ordered the church repaired for use as a hospital.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

From Hillsborough, Gates thanks the victors of Kings Mountain

On receiving the news of Major Ferguson's defeat at Kings Mountain, Gates wrote from Hillsborough thanking the commanding officers and ordering the prisoners sent under guard to Fincastle Court House, Virginia. The same day he told Governor Thomas Jefferson he would move the whole army to the Yadkin once supplies arrived.

People: Thomas Jefferson

Gates marches the southern army out of Hillsborough toward Salisbury

The Board of War concluded that Hillsborough and Orange County could not feed the army through the winter and persuaded Gates to move toward Salisbury, where provisions were thought to be more plentiful.

Nathanael Greene reaches Hillsborough in search of his new command

Named by Washington to succeed Gates, Greene arrived to find the army already gone and hurried after it.

Civil authorities hold four Maryland soldiers for robbing a house south of Hillsborough

Four free Black soldiers of the First Maryland Regiment, Leonard Turner, Valentine Murrin, Thomas Thompson and John Adams, were charged with robbing Joseph Hastings's house and abusing him and his wife. Major McIntosh took them from the civil officers by force, but Colonel Gunby returned them to the sheriff when the magistrates appealed, and they were bound over for trial but never tried.

Thomas Freeland is killed when Hillsborough is taken

In a story John Strayhorn told John A. Freeland, Whig militia were gathering at the public spring when Hillsborough was taken and the governor captured, and Thomas Freeland was shot through the head by a Tory. He was buried on the hill south of the Eno near Kirkland's old tan yard, where Strayhorn had been posted.

Tradition says parts of the town clock were hidden in the Eno during Fanning's raid

According to local tradition, parts of the clock were thrown into the river so that the Loyalist raiders under David Fanning and Hector McNeill could not turn them into war material.

People: David Fanning

Lee's Legion joins Pickens's militia camp after the Hart's Mill raid

Later the same day as the Hart's Mill raid, Henry Lee's Legion, returning from beyond the Dan River with Greene's army, reached General Andrew Pickens's militia at a farm up Stony Creek, where the camp at first took the horsemen for Tarleton's cavalry. The combined force then went after Tarleton west of the Haw, the movement that led to Pyle's defeat.

People: Andrew Pickens · Joseph Graham (1759-1836)

Cornwallis calls loyal subjects to the Royal Standard at Hillsborough

From his headquarters at Hillsborough, Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis issued a proclamation inviting loyal subjects to come without delay, with their arms and ten days' provisions, to the Royal Standard erected in the town and help restore royal government in North Carolina.

People: Charles Cornwallis

Cornwallis marches his army out of Hillsborough

With his commissary reporting that town and county could no longer feed the army, Cornwallis left before his proclamation's deadline and camped on Alamance Creek between the Deep and Haw rivers.

People: Charles Cornwallis

British soldiers pave the crossing of King and Churton streets

To keep his men busy and away from plunder, Cornwallis had stone laid near his artillery park for 150 yards in each direction from the intersection of King and Churton streets.

People: Charles Cornwallis

Greene sends Pickens's militia to shadow the British army at Hillsborough

Nathanael Greene ordered Brigadier General Andrew Pickens to pass around the British force at Hillsborough, fall in its rear and report its movements. Pickens's men struck at British parties when they could, and he sent Captain Joseph Graham to scout the ground around the town.

People: Nathanael Greene · Joseph Graham (1759-1836)

Pickens's cavalry fights Tarleton's horse at Clapp's Mill

An American force ambushed Banastre Tarleton's cavalry at Clapp's Mill on Alamance Creek, in the part of Orange County that became Alamance County in 1849. Forty of Pickens's cavalry under Captains Joseph Graham and Richard Simmons took part. The American second line broke and the British lost about twenty-one men.

People: Joseph Graham (1759-1836)

The Assembly elects Thomas Burke of Hillsborough governor

Meeting at Wake Court House, the General Assembly chose Burke. He ran the government from Halifax for his first two months.

Loyalists rob James Hogg at his Hillsborough house during Fanning's raid

During David Fanning's raid on Hillsborough on September 12, 1781, Loyalists ransacked James Hogg's house on Cameron Street and took his watch, buckles and keys until an officer posted a guard. Poplar Hill, sometimes named as the scene, was not built until about 1793.

Butler's militia ambushes Fanning's Loyalists at Lindley's Mill

The day after David Fanning's raid carried Governor Thomas Burke out of Hillsborough, John Butler rode with about four hundred militia to the ford where the Wilmington road crossed Cane Creek at Lindley's Mill and laid an ambush with Colonel Robert Mebane. The opening volley killed Colonel Hector McNeil, but Fanning organized a flanking attack that drove the militia from the field, and the prisoners went on to Wilmington.

Part of David Fanning’s raid on Hillsborough, September 1781

People: David Fanning · Thomas Burke

Governor Burke returns to Hillsborough and raises a company against the Loyalists

Hearing that Loyalists were plundering in southern Orange and that David Fanning was active again, Burke came to Hillsborough and formed a mixed infantry and cavalry company under a Captain Allen of New Hope to guard the area's Whigs.

People: Thomas Burke · David Fanning

Alexander Martin takes the oath as acting governor while Burke is in enemy hands

Three weeks after Fanning carried Governor Burke out of Hillsborough, Alexander Martin, Speaker of the Senate, qualified before the Council of State at Colonel Williams's in Granville County and took up the administration. He told the council that the government must be supported and the most vigorous and decisive measures taken against so daring an enemy.

People: Alexander Martin · Thomas Burke

Burke is admitted to parole as a prisoner of war on James Island

Held first as a prisoner of state after Fanning's men delivered him to Major Craig at Wilmington, Burke was admitted to parole on James Island outside Charleston. Loyalist refugees on the island, outlaws from the state he had governed, left him in what he called hourly danger of assassination.

People: Thomas Burke · James Henry Craig

The Assembly levies a tax on the Hillsborough District to repair the courthouse, stocks and streets

An act taxed residents of the district and the town, with the money going to repair the courthouse and stocks and the town's streets.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

A brick courthouse replaces the first one at Hillsborough

The county's second courthouse, built of brick, went up in 1782. The book says fire destroyed it seven years later and a wooden courthouse followed in 1790.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Alfred Moore prosecutes at Hillsborough and is made attorney general

Acting as prosecutor in several major cases at Hillsborough while the state attorney general was away, Alfred Moore of Wilmington did well enough to be appointed attorney general that same year. He held the office until 1790 and built Moorefields west of Hillsborough while serving.

People: Alfred Moore

Hillsborough collects meat for Greene's army and holds prisoners of war

Alexander Mebane, commissioner of specific supplies for Orange, gathered more than 2,000 pounds of salt and fresh meat at Hillsborough for Greene's army in South Carolina. The town jail held British and Loyalist prisoners while exchanges were negotiated.

People: Alexander Mebane

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

Jesse Benton's son Thomas Hart Benton is born near Hart's Mill

Thomas Hart Benton, later a U.S. senator from Missouri, was born in 1782 at Hart's Mill near Hillsborough, the son of Jesse and Ann Gooch Benton.

The General Assembly names Hillsborough its meeting place until a seat of government is fixed

An act of the April 1782 session, held at Hillsborough, directed that future General Assemblies meet there until a proper place was fixed for the seat of government. With the war over, the April 1783 session, also at Hillsborough, repealed it.

William Hooper makes the Nash house in Hillsborough his home

The house Francis Nash built in 1772 became the home of William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence, in 1782. William A. Graham lived there in the 1860s.

People: Francis Nash · William A. Graham

Subject: Nash-Hooper House

Burke escapes from his parole on James Island

Having written General Leslie on December 30 asking for a parole within American lines, Burke slipped off James Island on the night of January 16. Two days later he offered Leslie to return within British lines if guaranteed the treatment of a Continental officer, and on January 19 he asked Greene that men of honor judge the act.

People: Thomas Burke · Nathanael Greene

Thomas Burke returns to Hillsborough and takes up the governorship again

After leaving his parole on James Island, Burke resumed his duties at Hillsborough. His breach of parole drew criticism from many constituents and a dispute between Greene and the British.

People: Thomas Burke · Nathanael Greene

Three of David Fanning's men are hanged at Hillsborough

Seven captured raiders were tried before Judge John Williams, with Alfred Moore prosecuting and William R. Davie defending in his first case. Three were hanged despite Fanning's threats, and Burke commuted the other four sentences to a year in the Continental army.

People: Thomas Burke · David Fanning · William Richardson Davie · Alfred Moore · John Williams

General Assembly at Hillsborough elects Alexander Martin governor and grants western land to Continental soldiers

The Assembly met at Hillsborough, heard Governor Thomas Burke's message about his capture, and elected Alexander Martin governor on April 22. Its laws granted land in a western military reservation to officers and soldiers of the Continental line and directed the sale of confiscated Loyalist estates.

People: Alexander Martin · Thomas Benbury · Hugh Williamson · Thomas Burke

The General Assembly at Hillsborough votes its thanks to Thomas Burke

A day after choosing his successor, both houses resolved that the thanks of the General Assembly be given to Burke for his steady and constant attention to the duties of his office and his vigorous dispatch of the public business while he was governor. The resolution passes over his capture and parole in silence.

People: Thomas Burke

A false alarm of a Fanning attack turns the legislators out into Hillsborough's streets

With the General Assembly in session and General John Butler guarding it with 200 county militia, members were roused from bed and paraded in the streets before the report proved false. Fanning had in fact married and fled to South Carolina.

People: John Butler · David Fanning · Thomas Burke

William Moore is named commissioner of confiscated Loyalist estates for the Hillsborough District

The April Assembly at Hillsborough appointed commissioners to deal with estates taken from Loyalists, electing William Moore for the Hillsborough District.

Assembly at Hillsborough elects Abner Nash and Hugh Williamson delegates to Congress

On May 3, 1782, a joint ballot of the General Assembly at Hillsborough elected Abner Nash, Hugh Williamson, Benjamin Hawkins and William Blount as the state's delegates to Congress for the year. Nash had been returned to the House for Jones County, and Williamson sat for the town of Edenton.

People: Hugh Williamson · William Blount · Benjamin Hawkins