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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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11 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–11.Back to highlights

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11 dated events
1793Revolution and early republic
  1. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
  2. William Kirkland opens his own store in Hillsborough

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    William Kirkland, who left Ayr, Scotland, to work in the mercantile trade, had married and opened his own store in Hillsborough by 1793.

  3. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
  4. Hillsborough Academy reopens for boys and girls under Andrew Flinn

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    The academy's trustees announced that it had reopened on a larger plan for youth of both sexes under the Rev. Andrew Flinn, teaching Latin, Greek, English, mathematics and bookkeeping.

    People: William Kirkland · Duncan Cameron · William Cain Sr. · Walter Alves

    Subject: Hillsborough Academy

  5. Hillsborough Academy trustees engage Thomas Baron after George Johnston fails to arrive

    Hillsborough

    The academy trustees, Walter Alves among them, announced that George Johnston had not taken charge as promised and that they had engaged Thomas Baron, a Harvard graduate, to teach languages, arithmetic, geography and mathematics.

    People: William Kirkland · Duncan Cameron · George Johnston

    Subject: Hillsborough Academy

  6. Suit by William Kirkland and others leads to the sale of Hannah and her children

    Slavery and freedom · Hillsborough, Market House

    Legal proceedings brought by William Kirkland, Catlett Campbell, Jacob Greer and Isaac Mordecai against Robert Bell placed Hannah and her children Jenny and David in the hands of the sheriff. Sheriff Samuel Turrentine sold the three at public auction at the Hillsborough Market House to Duncan Cameron for 200 pounds.

    People: Duncan Cameron · William Kirkland

  7. William Kirkland gives four enslaved people to Thomas and Anne Ruffin

    Slavery and freedom · Hillsborough

    Out of affection for his son-in-law Thomas Ruffin and his daughter Anne, William Kirkland of Ayr Mount conveyed to Ruffin a woman named Juley, her two children, John and an infant, and a young girl, all of them already in the Ruffins' household. The deed was proved at the Orange County court that August.

    People: William Kirkland · Thomas Ruffin · Anne Kirkland Ruffin

    Subject: Ayr Mount

  8. Ayr Mount is completed

    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough

    Scottish-born merchant William Kirkland built Ayr Mount, a Federal-style brick plantation house near Hillsborough, in 1815. Its brick was made on the plantation, and carpenter John J. Briggs, a mason named Collier and joiner Elhannon Nutt worked on the house.

    People: William Kirkland

    Subject: Ayr Mount

  9. William Kirkland opens a cash store in Hillsborough

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    Kirkland advertised in February 1820 a new cash store in his former house, stocked with cloth, blankets, guns, tools and hardware. He also sought a young clerk.

  10. The Rev. William Mercer Green builds the first house on the land later called Montrose

    Construction or physical change · Montrose, 320 St. Mary's Road, Hillsborough

    Around 1821 the Rev. William Mercer Green, rector of St. Matthew's, built the first house on land he had acquired from William Kirkland; the tract had first belonged to James Hogg. William A. Graham bought it in 1842.

    People: William Kirkland

    Subject: Montrose

  11. The Orange County Sunday School Union asks the Assembly to fund its schools

    Protest or organizing · Orange County

    The Orange County Sunday School Union petitioned the General Assembly for 25 cents a year per pupil for its 22 Sunday schools, which taught 800 to 1,000 children, many from poor families, to read. John Scott of Hillsborough presented it in the House of Commons, which turned it down.

    People: James Webb · William Kirkland · William Norwood · John Knox Witherspoon · Dennis Heartt

  12. William Kirkland dies, leaving Ayr Mount to his widow

    Life event · Hillsborough, Ayr Mount

    William Kirkland died in 1836 and left his estate to his wife, Margaret Scott Kirkland; their son John Umstead Kirkland later acquired Ayr Mount from her estate. The inventory taken after his death lists twenty enslaved people, some of whom worked at his store, tannery and other businesses in Hillsborough.

    People: John U. Kirkland

    Subject: Ayr Mount

  13. Reconstruction and the New South · 1866–1899
  14. Orange County holds its first township elections

    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill Township

    Voters in each township chose magistrates, a clerk, a constable and school committeemen for the first time. In Chapel Hill Township 540 of 565 registered voters cast ballots.

    People: William Kirkland · Jones Watson · Andrew Mickle · John Wesley Carr

Suggest a correction to an entry →

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