Search and filters
Search and filters · 1 active
28 dated events match your filters.
Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–28.Back to highlights
- Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
-
Edmund Fanning qualifies as register of Orange County
Fanning, a lawyer who came to the county town in 1762, qualified as register in March 1763. He went on to buy several town lots and build a large house on the later site of the Masonic Lodge.
People: Edmund Fanning
-
The Regulator movement organizes in Orange County
Orange County farmers first organized in 1766 to question county officers about taxes and fees, a Sandy Creek effort that Herman Husband led and that lapsed in 1767. In early 1768 a new association, soon called the Regulation, pledged to pay no taxes or fees beyond what the law allowed.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning · William Tryon
-
Edmund Fanning tells the November court he has answered the farmers' complaints
Speaking for the county officers, Fanning rejected the protest and reported that he had written its organizers a reply he expected to end the matter.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Edmund Fanning
-
The governor's Council thanks Edmund Fanning and his men for their conduct against the Regulators
After Tryon read the Council his cold reply to the Regulators' petition, which forbade further meetings and told them to let the taxes be collected, Fanning was called into the room and formally thanked with his men for their behavior in the recent troubles.
People: Edmund Fanning · William Tryon
-
Regulators rescue a seized horse at Hillsborough
After the sheriff seized a Regulator's horse for an unpaid levy, about 100 Regulators rode into Hillsborough, took the horse back and fired shots into the roof of Edmund Fanning's house. Officials sought the arrest of William Butler, Peter Craven and Ninian Bell Hamilton as ringleaders.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning
-
Tenants on Samuel Strudwick's Haw Fields land meet to keep possession by force
Francis Nash reported to Edmund Fanning that Strudwick's tenants had formed an association to hold his lands against him and had met in the Haw Fields the day before he wrote.
People: Francis Nash · Edmund Fanning
-
Edmund Fanning writes Governor Tryon that Orange is in revolt
Two weeks after Regulators rescued a seized horse at Hillsborough, Fanning reported people across the county binding themselves by oath to refuse taxes, and said he and other officers expected an attack.
People: Edmund Fanning · William Tryon · Thomas Lloyd (died 1792) · Thomas Hart · Francis Nash
-
Tryon orders the Regulators home and puts seven counties' militia on alert
Answering Fanning, the governor issued one proclamation to the people and another to militia officers in Bute, Halifax, Granville, Rowan, Mecklenburg, Cumberland and Johnston counties to stand ready to march to his aid.
People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning
-
The governor's secretary posts Tryon's proclamation at Hillsborough
On the day the Regulators met to choose their delegates, Governor Tryon's secretary Edwards reached Hillsborough and put up the governor's proclamation against the disturbances. Fanning set out for Sandy Creek with an armed party the next day.
People: Edmund Fanning
-
Orange militia is called out against the Regulators, and only 120 armed men appear
With Edmund Fanning away at the Halifax court, Lieutenant Colonel Gray reported the Hillsborough horse rescue and was ordered to raise seven militia companies. Only 120 men came with arms, and the officers judged that no more than 150 men in the county could be relied on, so they agreed to a truce and named three men to meet the Regulator leaders on April 20.
People: Edmund Fanning
-
Regulators confront officials at Hillsborough
Edmund Fanning and 27 armed men arrested Herman Husband and William Butler at Sandy Creek on May 2, 1768. The next day hundreds of Regulators and neighbors marched on Hillsborough; officials released the prisoners, and the governor's secretary read a proclamation promising to hear their grievances, after which the crowd dispersed.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Herman Husband · William Butler (Regulator) · Edmund Fanning
-
Ralph McNair presses Herman Husband to adopt a petition written by the officers
After the May confrontation at Hillsborough, the county officers sent Husband, through Ralph McNair, a petition of their own drafting in which the Regulators would call their conduct illegal and withdraw their charges. McNair warned that Fanning would report the case to Tryon as treason if it was refused, and the Regulators instead named their own committee to lay their papers before the governor.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning · Ralph McNair
-
Hillsborough's town commissioners sign the earliest town deed on record
James Watson, William Nunn, Edmund Fanning and Francis Nash, acting as commissioners for the town, sign the earliest of the Hillsborough town deeds kept by the Orange County register of deeds.
People: Edmund Fanning · Francis Nash
-
Tryon's army gathers at Hillsborough to guard the superior court
Tryon reached Hillsborough on September 19 with 195 Rowan and 310 Mecklenburg volunteers, and two days later 699 Orange and 120 Granville militia joined them. With gentlemen volunteers, artillery and officers the force came to 1,461 men, a quarter of the Assembly among its officers.
People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning · Thomas Lloyd (died 1792) · Thomas Hart
-
Chief Justice Martin Howard and two associate justices hold the Hillsborough superior court term
Martin Howard, Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson sat at the Hillsborough District Superior Court term in which Edmund Fanning was found guilty and Regulators including William Butler were tried.
People: Maurice Moore · Richard Henderson · Edmund Fanning · William Butler (Regulator) · Herman Husband
-
A Hillsborough jury finds Edmund Fanning guilty on an indictment
In the same superior court term that tried the Regulator leaders, the King's indictment against Edmund Fanning went to a jury on September 27, which found him guilty. The day before, Herman Husband had surrendered William Butler to the court, and both men entered 500 pound bonds to abide its sentence.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Edmund Fanning · Herman Husband · William Butler (Regulator) · Richard Henderson · Maurice Moore · Martin Howard
-
Edmund Fanning resigns as register of Orange County after his conviction
Found guilty at the September court on five counts of taking excess fees for registering deeds, and fined a penny on each, Fanning at once gave up the office of register.
People: Edmund Fanning
-
The Assembly lets reform bills sought from Orange die
A bill for trying debts under 5 pounds before one justice, asked for in an Orange petition and brought in by Fanning, failed when the two houses split over a rider on riot trials. Bills to form new counties out of Orange and Johnston and out of Orange and Rowan were also rejected, though many people had to travel as far as 60 miles to court.
People: Edmund Fanning
-
The March 1769 superior court at Hillsborough hears the Regulators' cases against the officers
With no troops in town, many Regulators came to the March 1769 court to prosecute the officers, with little success. Herman Husband was tried and acquitted, James Hunter's case was continued, and Fanning was tried again on the old fee charge and formally convicted.
People: Herman Husband · James Hunter · Edmund Fanning
-
Orange voters elect Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly
In the elections set for July 18, 1769, Orange returned the Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly over Edmund Fanning. Granville, Anson and Halifax also sent Regulator delegations that year.
People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning
-
Hillsborough officials and merchants pledge to defend one another after the riot
Just after the September 1770 riot, Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, Alexander Martin, Thomas Henderson, Jesse Benton, William Johnston, Adlai Osborne and others formed an association for mutual aid and protection. Many members lived too far apart to help one another in a sudden emergency.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Francis Nash · Edmund Fanning · Alexander Martin · Jesse Benton · William Johnston · Adlai Osborne
-
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
-
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
-
Regulators disrupt the Hillsborough Superior Court
About 150 Regulators crowded the Hillsborough Superior Court, beat the lawyer John Williams, Edmund Fanning and others, and forced Judge Richard Henderson to adjourn; he fled that night. The next day the crowd tore down Fanning's house and wrote mocking judgments on the court docket.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning · Richard Henderson · Alexander Martin · Thomas Hart
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
Suggest a correction to an entry →
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.
