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Searched the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–8.Back to highlights
Entries
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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William Courtney mortgages a man named Africa to William Cain
William Courtney of Orange County pledged an enslaved man known as Africa to William Cain as security for 200 pounds, the bill of sale to be void if Courtney repaid the debt with interest by the following February 28.
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A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →
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.
