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Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
- 1720s
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Herman Husband, the Regulators’ pamphleteer, was born
Herman Husband was born in Cecil County, Maryland, to an Anglican family and later became a Quaker. He settled at Sandy Creek, then in Orange County and now in Randolph County, where he reprinted and circulated political pamphlets and became a leading voice of the protest against county officers.
- 1750s
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Herman Husband buys two town lots from William Churton
Years before he became a Regulator leader, Herman Husband bought two lots in Corbinton from William Churton and built a house on them. He lived in the town only a few months.
- 1760s
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A Deep River meeting drafts Regulator Advertisement Number Two
Meeting in Herman Husband's neighborhood, settlers wrote a second paper and chose William Cox and William Masset to attend the Maddock's Mill meeting on October 10. It asked the county's assemblymen, vestrymen and officers to come and answer their questions.
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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.
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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.
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A general Regulator meeting agrees to send twelve men to meet county officials at Thomas Lindley's
The meeting agreed to send twelve men and then named thirteen, among them Herman Husband, James Hunter and Rednap Howell, to gather at Lindley's on May 11 in hope of meeting representatives of the officers. The arrests of Husband and William Butler broke up the plan.
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More than 400 Orange County inhabitants sign a petition to the governor and council
At the April 30 meeting the Regulators drew up a petition to the governor and council in the name of the inhabitants of Orange County, to be held back unless the officers failed to settle. Herman Husband, not yet a Regulator, was among more than 400 signers.
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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.
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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.
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Regulators hear the governor's letter from the sheriff and resolve to petition the Assembly
At a Regulator meeting called to answer Tryon's reply, the Orange sheriff read a letter and proclamation telling them to submit to tax collection. The sheriff and his deputy swore the crowd refused and threatened them; Husband said the people only told the sheriff they would take the matter to the Assembly, and the meeting sent Tryon an answer saying so.
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Sheriff John Lea brings the Regulators Tryon's demand for a 1,000 pound bond
On the day set for settling accounts, the former sheriff stayed away and the new sheriff, John Lea, brought a severe letter from Tryon, endorsed by three councillors at Hillsborough. It demanded that twelve leading Regulators meet him at Salisbury by August 25 and give a 1,000 pound bond that no one would try to rescue Butler and Husband at the September court; Tryon left for Salisbury the same day.
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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.
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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.
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William Butler is convicted of riot at the Hillsborough superior court
With Governor Tryon's militia in Hillsborough for the September 1768 term, the superior court tried the Regulator cases. Herman Husband was acquitted; William Butler was found guilty on two counts and sentenced to a fine of 50 pounds and six months in prison, but Tryon released him and suspended the fines.
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Tryon pardons the 1768 protesters except thirteen named leaders
His proclamation left out men including James Hunter, Herman Husband, Ninian Bell Hamilton and William Payne.
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An unsigned address urges Orange County voters to change their assemblymen
When Tryon dissolved the Assembly and called a new election in 1769, an address appeared in Orange, perhaps by Husband, that set out the people's wrongs and told voters the remedy was in their own hands. Orange went on to replace its whole delegation, electing Husband and John Pryor.
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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.
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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.
- 1770s
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Herman Husband publishes An Impartial Relation
His account of the Regulation traced the first disturbances to Orange County while granting that Granville and Halifax had been in the same dispute years earlier.
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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.
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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.
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The Assembly expels Orange County's member Herman Husband and the Council orders his arrest
The House of Assembly resolved that Husband, a principal promoter of the late riots in Orange County and publisher of a seditious letter printed over James Hunter's name, be expelled. The same day the Council unanimously advised his arrest and the Chief Justice issued a warrant; he lay in the New Bern jail until a grand jury found no bill on February 8, 1771.
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Orange County elects Francis Nash to a seat left by Herman Husband's expulsion
With John Pryor dead and Herman Husband expelled from the Assembly, Orange County filled the two vacant seats in 1771 with Ralph McNair and Francis Nash, both strong opponents of the Regulators. Nash had fought against the Regulators at Alamance that year as a militia captain.
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Regulators marching on New Bern turn back at Haw River
Regulators from Rowan, Orange and Granville gathered under James Hunter to march on New Bern, where Herman Husband was jailed. They broke up at Haw River on hearing that a grand jury had declined to indict him and he had been released on February 8.
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A special court at New Bern presents and indicts Husband, Hunter, Butler and Howell for the Hillsborough riot
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.
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Regulator threats keep the Hillsborough superior court from sitting
At the March 1771 term the Hillsborough District superior court recorded that the Regulators led by Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler and Samuel Devinney, who had broken up the September court, were still threatening judges, lawyers and officers, so none attended. The court was continued to September 1771.
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Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County
Jones marched into Orange County with Governor William Tryon's colonial militia and was appointed Tryon's aide-de-camp on May 15, 1771, the day before Tryon defeated the Regulators at Alamance. Several days later he was sent to raid the plantation of the Regulator leader Herman Husband.
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Battle of Alamance
Governor William Tryon's militia defeated the Regulators at Alamance. James Few, captured on the field, was hanged at Tryon's camp the next day.
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Tryon offers 100 pounds and a thousand acres for Husband, Hunter, Howell and Butler, dead or alive
Marching back toward Hillsborough, Tryon proclaimed from Bethabara that Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell and William Butler stood outlawed and liable to be shot by anyone, and offered one hundred pounds and one thousand acres of land to whoever brought any of them into his or General Waddell's camp.
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