Chronology

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1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774

2. late 1767 or early 1768
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough William Johnston and James Thackston go into business as Hillsborough merchants

   Johnston, a Scottish merchant of means related to the Johnston governors, came to Hillsborough and formed a partnership with James Thackston. Their store stood at the southwest corner of King and Churton streets.

3. April 23, 1768
   Publication, speech or performance · Hillsborough 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.

4. August 3, 1768
   Protest or organizing · Orange County Justice James Thackston reports William Butler vowing not to pay the palace tax

   Thackston told former sheriff Tyree Harris that Butler said the Regulators would pay nothing toward the governor's house at New Bern for three years, and that some two hundred Regulators had threatened anyone who seized their goods.

5. September 24, 1770
   Hillsborough Regulators stone Johnston and Thackston's store, where Edmund Fanning took refuge

   During the riot at the Hillsborough superior court, Edmund Fanning broke loose from the crowd dragging him from the courtroom and fled into the store of William Johnston and James Thackston. The Regulators attacked the building with stones and brickbats and broke everything they could reach.

6. September 30, 1770
   Protest or organizing · Hillsborough 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.

7. May 1, 1771
   Orange County James Thackston raises a company of Orange County militia against the Regulators

   Thackston raised a company of sixty-two Orange County militiamen, who went on to serve in the Alamance campaign.

8. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799

9. August or September 1775
   Appointment, election or service · Orange County The Provincial Congress names Orange County's minutemen and militia officers

   Orange was to raise three companies of minutemen, and James Thackston was named colonel of minutemen for the Hillsborough district. For the county militia the Congress named John Hogan colonel, John Butler lieutenant colonel, William Moore first major and Nathaniel Rochester second major.

10. February 1776
    Violence or armed conflict · Hillsborough; Cross Creek Orange County militia under James Thackston hold Cross Creek during the Loyalist rising

    Militia bound east against Donald MacDonald's Loyalists gathered at Hillsborough, and Thackston's Orange contingent occupied Cross Creek (now Fayetteville), denying the Loyalists a refuge. The rising ended at Moore's Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776, a battle the Orange men did not fight in.

11. September to November 1780
    Hillsborough James Thackston gathers Continental recruits and returned deserters at Hillsborough

    After Gates's defeat at Camden, the Board of War authorized Lieutenant Colonel Thackston to assemble new recruits and repatriated deserters at Hillsborough. By the middle of November he had collected only sixteen men.

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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.