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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–12.Back to highlights

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12 dated events
1768Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Chief Justice Martin Howard and two associate justices hold the Hillsborough superior court term

    Hillsborough

    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

  3. A Hillsborough jury finds Edmund Fanning guilty on an indictment

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    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

  4. Grand jury indictments for rout against James Hunter are quashed at the Hillsborough superior court

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    The grand jury returned three indictments for rout naming James Hunter with William Butler, Ninian Hamilton and other Regulators. The court quashed all three for an irregular return and ordered the attorney general to prepare new bills.

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

    People: William Butler (Regulator) · Richard Henderson · Peter Craven · Maurice Moore · Martin Howard

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

    Protest or organizing · Hillsborough

    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

  6. Regulators disrupt the Hillsborough Superior Court

    Protest or organizing · Hillsborough

    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

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

    Violence or armed conflict · 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

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

    Law, policy or court · New Bern

    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

  9. Tryon's army returns to Hillsborough with its Regulator prisoners

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    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

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

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    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

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

    Hillsborough

    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

  12. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  13. Richard Henderson becomes head of Hillsborough Academy

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    In 1804 Hillsborough Academy announced Richard Henderson, formerly a professor at the university, as its head.

    People: Richard Henderson

    Subject: Hillsborough Academy

  14. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
  15. Hillsborough dedicates a tablet crediting Daniel Boone with an expedition from the Old State House

    Naming or commemoration · Hillsborough

    During a day of patriotic meetings and a war bond drive, Hillsborough dedicated a steel tablet at the site of the Old State House stating that frontiersmen under Richard Henderson, led by Daniel Boone, set out from there for Kentucky on March 17, 1776. A Trading Path tablet was added to the monument on July 4, 1931. The inscription is disputed: the American Revolution tour AmRevNC says Boone was not with the party that left the courthouse that day.

    People: Richard Henderson · Frank Nash

    Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

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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.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026