Chronology

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1. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

2. 1837–1857
   Hillsborough Burwell School for young women operates

   Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell operated their Hillsborough school for girls from 1837 to 1857.

3. July 1837
   Founding or opening · Burwell School, Hillsborough Anna Burwell opens a school for girls in Hillsborough

   Anna Burwell advertised that she would open a female school in Hillsborough on July 17, 1837, teaching the usual English branches, with music available. She and her husband, the Rev. Robert Burwell, ran it in their home until 1857.

4. April 10, 1838
   Life event · Hillsborough Elizabeth Hobbs writes to her mother from Hillsborough

   Elizabeth Hobbs wrote to her mother Agnes Hobbs in Virginia asking for news of home and saying she did not expect to see her family again. She wrote that Anna Burwell planned to go to Petersburg without her and that she had been told she would belong to Elizabeth Burwell once that daughter married. She also wrote that she had been a bridesmaid at Ann Nash's wedding a week before Christmas 1837.

5. May 17, 1838
   Life event · Hillsborough Frances Armistead Burwell is born to Robert and Anna Burwell of Hillsborough

   Frances Armistead Burwell, called Fanny, was the fourth of the twelve children of Robert and Margaret Anna Burwell.

6. April 27, 1856
   Life event · Hillsborough Fanny Burwell dies aboard the steamer Jamestown as her parents bring her home to Hillsborough

   Fanny Burwell had gone to New York to complete her music education, but fell ill with erysipelas in early March. Her mother went north to nurse her, and she died at dawn on the steamer Jamestown between New York and Norfolk with both parents beside her, in her eighteenth year; her body was brought home to Hillsborough for burial.

7. 1857
   Closing or ending · Burwell School, Hillsborough Burwell School closes as the Burwells move to Charlotte

   The Burwells closed their Hillsborough school in 1857, the same year they took charge of a girls' school in Charlotte.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.