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13 dated events and 1 storyline match your filters.
Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–14.Back to highlights
- Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
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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.
Part of The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771 · 90 events
People: Samuel Johnston
- Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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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.
People: James Hogg · Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: William Hooper · Samuel Johnston · Waightstill Avery · James Davis · Memucan Hunt · Cornelius Harnett
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: Richard Caswell
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston · Samuel Ashe · Willie Jones · Samuel Spencer · Waightstill Avery · Thomas Person · Cornelius Harnett
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston · Richard Dobbs Spaight · Willie Jones · James Iredell
Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: Willie Jones · Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston · Willie Jones
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston
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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.
People: Samuel Johnston · Willie Jones
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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.
