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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–14.Back to highlights
Entries
Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
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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.
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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.
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Orange County citizens petition to bar members of the Society of the Cincinnati from the Assembly
At the New Bern session county residents asked that members of the officers' society be kept out of the legislature. John Butler, Orange's representative and himself eligible to join, introduced a bill to that end, which was never acted on.
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The county court names a jury to lay off a road from McCauley's mill to Hillsborough
At the week-long August 1786 term, held by justices John Butler, William McCauley and William Ansley, the court named a jury to mark the best and most direct road from McCauley's mill to Hillsborough. The same term licensed three taverns and named tax collectors for all seven taxing districts.
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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.
