Chronology

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1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774

2. late 1770
   Protest or organizing · Hillsborough Hillsborough officials and merchants pledge to defend one another after the riot

   Just after the September 1770 riot, Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, Alexander Martin, Thomas Henderson, Jesse Benton, William Johnston, Adlai Osborne and others formed an association for mutual aid and protection. Many members lived too far apart to help one another in a sudden emergency.

3. September 24–25, 1770
   Protest or organizing · Hillsborough 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.

4. May 15 and 16, 1771
   Alamance battlefield (then Orange County) David Caldwell goes between Tryon's camp and the Regulators before the Battle of Alamance

   At the request of his parishioners, some of them Regulators, Caldwell visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15 with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures. On the morning of the battle he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given.

5. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799

6. September 1, 1775
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Alexander Martin lieutenant colonel of the Second North Carolina Regiment

   Alexander Martin attended the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough as a delegate from Guilford County. On September 1, 1775, the Congress named the officers of its two new regiments of Continental troops, with Robert Howe as colonel and Martin as lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment.

7. February 12, 1779
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough General Assembly charters an academy near Hillsborough named Science Hall

   Meeting at Halifax, the General Assembly passed an act to establish an academy in the neighborhood of Hillsborough, naming William Hooper, Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, James Hogg and others as trustees. The act named the school Science Hall and gave its trustees the same powers as those of Liberty Hall in Mecklenburg County.

8. September 5–13, 1780
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough General Assembly meets at Hillsborough and creates a Board of War

   Meeting at Hillsborough under Governor Abner Nash, the Assembly levied a provision tax in kind to supply the army and navy, passed acts on treason trials and confiscated property, and created a five-member Board of War. The Board of War held its first meeting in Hillsborough on September 14, 1780.

9. September–November 1780
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough Board of War, led by Alexander Martin, directs the war effort from Hillsborough

   The Board of War created by the General Assembly first met at Hillsborough on September 14, 1780, with Alexander Martin, John Penn and Oroondates Davis present. Through the fall it issued orders for arms, provisions and militia from the town and ran a shoe factory there for the army, then rose in late November to sit at Halifax from December 1.

10. October 5, 1781
    Appointment, election or service · Colonel Williams's, Granville County Alexander Martin takes the oath as acting governor while Burke is in enemy hands

    Three weeks after Fanning carried Governor Burke out of Hillsborough, Alexander Martin, Speaker of the Senate, qualified before the Council of State at Colonel Williams's in Granville County and took up the administration. He told the council that the government must be supported and the most vigorous and decisive measures taken against so daring an enemy.

11. April 15–May 18, 1782
    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough General Assembly at Hillsborough elects Alexander Martin governor and grants western land to Continental soldiers

    The Assembly met at Hillsborough, heard Governor Thomas Burke's message about his capture, and elected Alexander Martin governor on April 22. Its laws granted land in a western military reservation to officers and soldiers of the Continental line and directed the sale of confiscated Loyalist estates.

12. April 18–May 17, 1783
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough General Assembly at Hillsborough opens the western land office and passes an act of pardon

    Meeting at Hillsborough, the Assembly re-elected Alexander Martin governor and chose Hugh Williamson, Benjamin Hawkins, Abner Nash and Richard Dobbs Spaight as delegates to Congress. Its laws opened a land office for western lands to redeem specie certificates and pay army arrears, and an Act of Pardon and Oblivion covered wartime offenses, with exceptions.

13. April 19–June 3, 1784
    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough General Assembly at Hillsborough cedes the state's western lands to Congress

    The spring 1784 Assembly at Hillsborough passed an act ceding to Congress the state's claim to lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and an act giving Congress power to levy import duties. The House of Commons chose Thomas Benbury as speaker and elected Hugh Williamson and Richard Dobbs Spaight as delegates to Congress.

14. November 25, 1790
    Appointment, election or service · Chapel Hill William Lenoir is chosen the first president of the university's trustees

    At the board's second meeting, held at Fayetteville, the trustees made William Lenoir of Wilkes County their president and elected State Comptroller John Craven treasurer. Lenoir soon gave up the chair and Governor Alexander Martin succeeded him.

15. August 4, 1792
    Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Meeting in Hillsborough, UNC's trustees adopt the ordinance placing the university within fifteen miles of Cyprett's Bridge

    Twenty-five of the university's forty trustees gathered at Hillsborough on August 2, 1792. They balloted for Cyprett's Bridge as the center point on August 3 and on August 4 adopted the ordinance fixing a fifteen-mile radius and naming the site commissioners. In early November a commission chaired by Frederick Hargett toured the area and recommended New Hope Chapel Hill in southern Orange County.

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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.