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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,368 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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9 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,368 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–9.Back to highlights

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9 dated events
1768Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. William Johnston and James Thackston go into business as Hillsborough merchants

    Founding or opening · Hillsborough

    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.

    People: James Thackston

  3. Edmund Fanning writes Governor Tryon that Orange is in revolt

    Publication, speech or performance · Hillsborough

    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 · James Thackston

  4. Justice James Thackston reports William Butler vowing not to pay the palace tax

    Protest or organizing · Orange County

    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.

    People: William Butler (Regulator) · James Thackston

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

    Hillsborough

    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.

    People: William Johnston · Edmund Fanning

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

    Protest or organizing · Hillsborough

    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 · James Thackston · James Watson

  7. James Thackston raises a company of Orange County militia against the Regulators

    Orange County

    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. The Provincial Congress names Orange County's minutemen and militia officers

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    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.

    People: John Butler · Nathaniel Rochester · James Thackston · Colonel John Hogan

  10. Orange County militia under James Thackston hold Cross Creek during the Loyalist rising

    Violence or armed conflict · Hillsborough; Cross Creek

    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.

    People: James Thackston

  11. James Thackston gathers Continental recruits and returned deserters at Hillsborough

    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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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.

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Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026