Chronology

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1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774

2. January 15, 1771
   Law, policy or court · New Bern The Assembly passes the Johnston Riot Act against the Regulators

   Named for its author Samuel Johnston, the law let riot cases be tried in any county, outlawed anyone who resisted or evaded arrest, and allowed the governor to use troops against the Regulators. The Crown later condemned parts of it.

3. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799

4. summer 1775
   Founding or opening · Orange County Orange County chooses a committee of safety

   Orange had no committee of safety until the summer of 1775, and Samuel Johnston wrote on August 14 that one had been chosen. By 1776 John Hogan was its chairman and James Hogg its secretary; its records for 1775 and 1776 are lost.

5. August 20–September 10, 1775
   Storyline · 15 events · Hillsborough Third Provincial Congress meets at Hillsborough

   Delegates to the Third Provincial Congress gathered at Hillsborough on August 20, 1775 but lacked a quorum. The Congress organized the next day, its members signed the test of allegiance on August 23, and it sat until September 10.

6. August 1775
   Statistic or record · Hillsborough Hillsborough has seventy or eighty houses when the Congress meets

   At the time of the 1775 Congress the town held about seventy or eighty houses and three or four hundred people, and residents found lodging for nearly two hundred delegates and visitors.

7. September 7, 1775
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District

   Meeting at Hillsborough, the Congress appointed Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District and Richard Caswell treasurer for the Southern District, giving them the powers the colony's treasurers had held under a 1773 act of Assembly.

8. September 9, 1775
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Provincial Congress at Hillsborough elects a Provincial Council to govern between sessions

   On September 9, 1775, the Congress at Hillsborough elected a thirteen-member Provincial Council to direct the army and militia during its recess: Samuel Johnston for the province at large and two members for each of the six districts, among them Abner Nash and James Coor for New Bern and Thomas Person and John Kinchen for Hillsborough.

9. July 21–August 4, 1788
   Law, policy or court · Hillsborough Hillsborough Convention declines to ratify the Constitution

   Meeting at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough, delegates defeated a motion to ratify the Constitution 184 to 84 on August 1, 1788. On August 2 they voted to neither ratify nor reject it until a declaration of rights and amendments went before Congress.

10. July 21, 1788
    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough The ratification convention opens at Hillsborough and elects Governor Samuel Johnston its president

    A majority of the elected delegates met at the church in Hillsborough and chose Governor Samuel Johnston president without a dissenting vote. They then named John Hunt and James Taylor clerks and appointed doorkeepers.

11. July 23, 1788
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough The convention has the state and federal founding documents read and receives news of two states' ratifications

    On James Galloway's motion, seconded by Macon, the clerks read the state Bill of Rights and constitution, the Articles of Confederation, the act naming North Carolina's deputies to Philadelphia and the resolve of Congress sending the Constitution to the states. Johnston then laid before the members official accounts of ratification by Massachusetts and South Carolina.

12. July 30, 1788
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough Governor Johnston moves in committee that the convention ratify and propose amendments afterward

    When the committee of the whole reached the seventh article, read without objection, Johnston moved that North Carolina ratify the Constitution and at the same time propose amendments to be made by one of the methods it provides. His motion put the question of ratification before the committee for the first time.

13. July 30, 1788
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough Willie Jones's previous question carries 183 to 84, setting aside Johnston's ratification motion

    Jones answered Johnston by moving the previous question, meaning to bring in his own resolution calling for amendments before North Carolina adopted the Constitution. After long argument the committee carried it 183 to 84, and its chairman, James Kenan, reported resolutions not yet put in form.

14. August 2, 1788
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough The convention directs its president to send its resolutions to Congress and the other twelve states

    A unanimous resolution asked Samuel Johnston to forward the resolution on the Constitution, with the impost and paper money resolutions, to Congress and to the executives of the twelve other states.

15. August 4, 1788
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough The convention adjourns sine die after fixing the seat of government at Isaac Hunter's in Wake County

    With the Constitution neither ratified nor rejected, the convention turned to its second charge, the seat of government. A ballot on August 2 fixed it at Isaac Hunter's in Wake County, and on Monday, August 4, after approving the ordinance for it, the convention adjourned sine die.

16. November 21, 1789
    Law, policy or court · Fayetteville A second convention at Fayetteville ratifies the Constitution 195 to 77

    Sixteen months after the Hillsborough convention withheld ratification, a second convention that opened at Fayetteville on the third Monday of November 1789 voted to adopt and ratify the Constitution, 195 to 77, and adjourned the next day. Congress had by then sent the states the amendments that became the Bill of Rights.

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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.