Chronology

Abner Nash settles briefly in Hillsborough and builds the town's first mill on the Eno

The Virginia lawyer Abner Nash moved to Hillsborough, then called Childsburgh, in 1762 or early 1763 with his younger brother Francis. He bought town lots, dammed the Eno River and built the town's first mill before moving to Halifax by 1764.

People: Francis Nash

Francis Nash becomes clerk of the Orange County court

Having settled at Childsburgh (Hillsborough), where he kept a store and a law practice, Francis Nash became clerk of the Orange County court in 1763. A superior court clerkship at Hillsborough was possible only after the 1767-68 act made the town a district court seat, with its first term in March 1768.

A second jail with a stockade goes up at Hillsborough

A ten-foot stockade was built around the jail and stocks for twenty-four pounds, with Thomas Hart and Francis Nash overseeing the work.

People: Thomas Hart · Francis Nash

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

Clerk Francis Nash is cleared of charging illegal fees

In the first Regulator complaints against Orange County officials in 1768, the clerk Francis Nash was accused of taking illegal fees. He was exonerated.

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

Orange farmers swear scores of depositions against county officers

They accused Sheriff William Nunn and his deputies of seizing deer skins, livestock, a gun and cloth, and one man swore he had paid clerk Francis Nash for letters of administration he never received.

People: Francis Nash

Tenants on Samuel Strudwick's Haw Fields land meet to keep possession by force

Francis Nash reported to Edmund Fanning that Strudwick's tenants had formed an association to hold his lands against him and had met in the Haw Fields the day before he wrote.

People: Francis Nash · Edmund Fanning

Edmund Fanning writes Governor Tryon that Orange is in revolt

Two weeks after Regulators rescued a seized horse at Hillsborough, Fanning reported people across the county binding themselves by oath to refuse taxes, and said he and other officers expected an attack.

People: Edmund Fanning · William Tryon · Thomas Lloyd (died 1792) · Thomas Hart · Francis Nash

Hillsborough's town commissioners sign the earliest town deed on record

James Watson, William Nunn, Edmund Fanning and Francis Nash, acting as commissioners for the town, sign the earliest of the Hillsborough town deeds kept by the Orange County register of deeds.

People: Edmund Fanning · Francis Nash

Orange County inhabitants petition for a public inspection at Hillsborough

Francis Nash and twenty five other inhabitants petitioned Governor Tryon and the legislature for a public inspection station at Hillsborough. They argued that having to haul tobacco and hemp at least a hundred miles overland to be inspected discouraged farmers from growing crops their soil suited.

People: Francis Nash · William Tryon

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.

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

People: Francis Nash · Edmund Fanning · Alexander Martin · Jesse Benton · William Johnston · Adlai Osborne

Hillsborough's leading men write to Governor Tryon for protection after the riot

James Watson, Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, Robert Lytle, William Johnston, James Thackston and James Monro wrote from Hillsborough describing the Regulators' insolence at the superior court, said they stood hourly in danger of their lives and estates, and asked Tryon to adopt whatever measures he judged proper.

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

People: Francis Nash · Thomas Hart · William Johnston

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

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

The Hillsborough superior court holds its first term since the 1770 riot

For the first time in a year and a half the district court sat at Hillsborough, with Judges Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson presiding and about 300 cases on its dockets. Thomas Clark qualified as clerk, and a suit by James Few against Francis Nash was entered as abated by the plaintiff's hanging.

People: Maurice Moore · Richard Henderson · Francis Nash

Francis Nash builds his house on West Tryon Street

Francis Nash built the house now called the Nash-Hooper House on West Tryon Street in Hillsborough in 1772, on land bought from Isaac Edwards. After his death in 1777 it passed through other hands to William Hooper in 1782.

People: William Hooper

Subject: Nash-Hooper House

Orange County sends Thomas Burke, John Kinchen and Francis Nash to the second Provincial Congress

The second Provincial Congress met at New Bern a day ahead of the royal legislature, with Burke, Kinchen and Nash as Orange's delegates. In the legislature itself Orange sat Ralph McNair and Thomas Hart, and Thomas Nash sat for Hillsborough.

People: Francis Nash · Thomas Hart · Ralph McNair

George Micklejohn opens the Provincial Congress with prayers

At the request of the congress, delivered by Francis Nash, Micklejohn attended and opened the Provincial Congress by reading prayers in the church at Hillsborough.

People: Francis Nash

Congress at Hillsborough names Francis Nash lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Regiment

On September 1, 1775 the Provincial Congress meeting at Hillsborough appointed the officers of the first of its two new regiments: James Moore, colonel, and Francis Nash, lieutenant colonel. On the congress's opening day Nash had been asked to bring the Rev. George Micklejohn to open it with prayers in the church at Hillsborough.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: George Micklejohn

Brigadier General Francis Nash of Hillsborough is killed at Germantown

Nash, promoted to brigadier general, died leading North Carolina troops at the Battle of Germantown in Pennsylvania. Word reached Orange County that October.

William Hooper makes the Nash house in Hillsborough his home

The house Francis Nash built in 1772 became the home of William Hooper, signer of the Declaration of Independence, in 1782. William A. Graham lived there in the 1860s.

People: Francis Nash · William A. Graham

Subject: Nash-Hooper House