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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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29 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–29.Back to highlights

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29 dated events
1724Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Herman Husband, the Regulators’ pamphleteer, was born

    Life event · Countywide

    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.

  3. Herman Husband buys two town lots from William Churton

    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough

    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.

    People: Herman Husband · William Churton

  4. A Deep River meeting drafts Regulator Advertisement Number Two

    Protest or organizing · Deep River

    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.

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

    People: Herman Husband

  5. The Regulator movement organizes in Orange County

    Protest or organizing · Countywide

    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

  6. Regulators rescue a seized horse at Hillsborough

    Violence or armed conflict · 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

  7. A general Regulator meeting agrees to send twelve men to meet county officials at Thomas Lindley's

    Protest or organizing · 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.

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

    People: Herman Husband · William Butler (Regulator)

  8. More than 400 Orange County inhabitants sign a petition to the governor and council

    Protest or organizing · Orange County

    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.

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

    People: Herman Husband

  9. Regulators confront officials at Hillsborough

    Protest or organizing · 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

  10. Ralph McNair presses Herman Husband to adopt a petition written by the officers

    Protest or organizing · Orange County

    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

  11. Regulators hear the governor's letter from the sheriff and resolve to petition the Assembly

    Protest or organizing · Orange County

    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.

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

    People: Herman Husband

  12. Sheriff John Lea brings the Regulators Tryon's demand for a 1,000 pound bond

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    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.

    People: William Tryon · William Butler (Regulator) · Herman Husband

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. William Butler is convicted of riot at the Hillsborough superior court

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    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.

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

    People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

  16. Tryon pardons the 1768 protesters except thirteen named leaders

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    His proclamation left out men including James Hunter, Herman Husband, Ninian Bell Hamilton and William Payne.

    People: James Hunter · Peter Craven · Herman Husband

  17. An unsigned address urges Orange County voters to change their assemblymen

    Publication, speech or performance · Orange County

    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.

    People: Herman Husband

  18. The March 1769 superior court at Hillsborough hears the Regulators' cases against the officers

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    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

  19. Orange voters elect Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    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

  20. Herman Husband publishes An Impartial Relation

    Publication, speech or performance · Orange County

    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.

    People: Herman Husband

  21. Orange County reelects Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    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

  22. 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

  23. The Assembly expels Orange County's member Herman Husband and the Council orders his arrest

    Law, policy or court · New Bern

    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.

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

    People: Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Tryon · Martin Howard

  24. Orange County elects Francis Nash to a seat left by Herman Husband's expulsion

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    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.

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

    People: Herman Husband · Ralph McNair

  25. Regulators marching on New Bern turn back at Haw River

    Protest or organizing · 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.

    People: James Hunter · Herman Husband

  26. 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

  27. Regulator threats keep the Hillsborough superior court from sitting

    Protest or organizing · Hillsborough

    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.

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

    People: James Hunter · Herman Husband

  28. Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County

    Appointment, election or service · 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.

    People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

  29. Battle of Alamance

    Violence or armed conflict · Present-day Alamance County; then Orange County

    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.

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

    People: William Tryon · Herman Husband

  30. Tryon offers 100 pounds and a thousand acres for Husband, Hunter, Howell and Butler, dead or alive

    Law, policy or court · Bethabara

    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.

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

    People: William Tryon · Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator)

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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.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026