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Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
- 1770s
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Rochester serves as clerk of the Orange County court
Rochester resigned his seat in the first General Assembly of the state to become clerk of court. He was also commissioned to supervise the building of a new courthouse and to help establish an academy in the Hillsborough area, and he gave up the clerkship in 1778 because its fees did not cover the expenses of the office.
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Rochester opens a Hillsborough store with Thomas Hart and James Brown
The partnership was successful and Rochester began putting his earnings into real estate. The business was liquidated in 1780 when British occupation of Hillsborough became a probability, and Hart moved his family to Maryland.
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General Assembly holds its August 1778 session at Hillsborough
The second session of the 1778 General Assembly met at Hillsborough, elected Whitmell Hill and Thomas Burke as additional delegates to the Continental Congress, and authorized 850,000 pounds in bills of credit to pay the state's war debts. The House adjourned to meet next at Halifax in January 1779.
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The Assembly at Hillsborough clears Thomas Burke in his quarrel with Congress
Congress had referred Burke's conduct to North Carolina after he walked out to break a quorum and sent back a rough answer when summoned. A joint committee chaired by William Hooper reported on August 14 that he was answerable only to the state, and the Assembly, which had re-elected him to Congress two days earlier, adopted the report.
- 1780s
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Horatio Gates, on his way to the Southern Army, presses the governor for supplies from Hillsborough
Writing from Hillsborough, Gates told Governor Abner Nash that the army's commissary and quartermaster departments were in a deplorable state, asked the state to set up magazines of provisions and forage and to supply 700 tents for its militia, and urged Nash to come to Hillsborough himself.
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Gates regroups the defeated southern army at Hillsborough after Camden
After the American defeat at Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780, Gates gathered the remnants of his army at Hillsborough. On September 3 he reported from the town that the Maryland division and the artillery were there being refitted and that nearly 500 regulars were marching from Petersburg to join them.
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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.
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General Assembly at Hillsborough relieves Richard Caswell of command of the state militia
After commanding the North Carolina militia in the defeat at Camden, Caswell reported to the General Assembly sitting at Hillsborough. On September 12 the Assembly took his illness into account and relieved him temporarily of command of the state militia, leaving him the separate command of the North Carolina Partisan Rangers.
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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.
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From Hillsborough, Gates thanks the victors of Kings Mountain
On receiving the news of Major Ferguson's defeat at Kings Mountain, Gates wrote from Hillsborough thanking the commanding officers and ordering the prisoners sent under guard to Fincastle Court House, Virginia. The same day he told Governor Thomas Jefferson he would move the whole army to the Yadkin once supplies arrived.
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Thomas Freeland is killed when Hillsborough is taken
In a story John Strayhorn told John A. Freeland, Whig militia were gathering at the public spring when Hillsborough was taken and the governor captured, and Thomas Freeland was shot through the head by a Tory. He was buried on the hill south of the Eno near Kirkland's old tan yard, where Strayhorn had been posted.
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Lee's Legion joins Pickens's militia camp after the Hart's Mill raid
Later the same day as the Hart's Mill raid, Henry Lee's Legion, returning from beyond the Dan River with Greene's army, reached General Andrew Pickens's militia at a farm up Stony Creek, where the camp at first took the horsemen for Tarleton's cavalry. The combined force then went after Tarleton west of the Haw, the movement that led to Pyle's defeat.
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Patriots and Loyalists clash at Hart’s Mill
At daybreak about 45 North Carolina cavalry under Captain Joseph Graham and mounted riflemen under Captain Richard Simmons, sent out by General Andrew Pickens, surprised the British guard of about 26 regulars and two Loyalists that was keeping Thomas Hart's mill on the Eno grinding for Cornwallis's army. Graham's accounts report the whole guard killed, wounded or captured with no Patriot dead, and the party reached Pickens's camp with its prisoners ahead of pursuing British cavalry.
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Cornwallis calls loyal subjects to the Royal Standard at Hillsborough
From his headquarters at Hillsborough, Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis issued a proclamation inviting loyal subjects to come without delay, with their arms and ten days' provisions, to the Royal Standard erected in the town and help restore royal government in North Carolina.
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Cornwallis occupies Hillsborough
After driving Nathanael Greene's army across the Dan River, Lord Cornwallis reached Hillsborough on February 20, 1781, raised the royal standard and issued a proclamation calling loyalists to join him. Short of food and forage, and told that Greene had recrossed the Dan, he left on February 26, crossing the Haw toward Alamance Creek.
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Cornwallis marches his army out of Hillsborough
With his commissary reporting that town and county could no longer feed the army, Cornwallis left before his proclamation's deadline and camped on Alamance Creek between the Deep and Haw rivers.
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Pyle's defeat near the Haw River
Henry Lee's Legion and Andrew Pickens's militia attacked a few hundred Loyalist recruits under Dr. John Pyle who were riding to join Cornwallis at Hillsborough. Mistaking Lee's men for Tarleton's cavalry, the Loyalists were cut down, with more than 90 killed, on Michael Holt's land, then in Orange County and now in southern Alamance.
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British soldiers pave the crossing of King and Churton streets
To keep his men busy and away from plunder, Cornwallis had stone laid near his artillery park for 150 yards in each direction from the intersection of King and Churton streets.
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David Fanning raids Hillsborough and captures Governor Burke
Fanning’s Loyalists captured Governor Thomas Burke during a surprise raid on Hillsborough.
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Loyalists rob James Hogg at his Hillsborough house during Fanning's raid
During David Fanning's raid on Hillsborough on September 12, 1781, Loyalists ransacked James Hogg's house on Cameron Street and took his watch, buckles and keys until an officer posted a guard. Poplar Hill, sometimes named as the scene, was not built until about 1793.
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Governor Burke returns to Hillsborough and raises a company against the Loyalists
Hearing that Loyalists were plundering in southern Orange and that David Fanning was active again, Burke came to Hillsborough and formed a mixed infantry and cavalry company under a Captain Allen of New Hope to guard the area's Whigs.
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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.
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Burke is admitted to parole as a prisoner of war on James Island
Held first as a prisoner of state after Fanning's men delivered him to Major Craig at Wilmington, Burke was admitted to parole on James Island outside Charleston. Loyalist refugees on the island, outlaws from the state he had governed, left him in what he called hourly danger of assassination.
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The Assembly levies a tax on the Hillsborough District to repair the courthouse, stocks and streets
An act taxed residents of the district and the town, with the money going to repair the courthouse and stocks and the town's streets.
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The General Assembly names Hillsborough its meeting place until a seat of government is fixed
An act of the April 1782 session, held at Hillsborough, directed that future General Assemblies meet there until a proper place was fixed for the seat of government. With the war over, the April 1783 session, also at Hillsborough, repealed it.
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Burke escapes from his parole on James Island
Having written General Leslie on December 30 asking for a parole within American lines, Burke slipped off James Island on the night of January 16. Two days later he offered Leslie to return within British lines if guaranteed the treatment of a Continental officer, and on January 19 he asked Greene that men of honor judge the act.
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Thomas Burke returns to Hillsborough and takes up the governorship again
After leaving his parole on James Island, Burke resumed his duties at Hillsborough. His breach of parole drew criticism from many constituents and a dispute between Greene and the British.
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Three of David Fanning's men are hanged at Hillsborough
Seven captured raiders were tried before Judge John Williams, with Alfred Moore prosecuting and William R. Davie defending in his first case. Three were hanged despite Fanning's threats, and Burke commuted the other four sentences to a year in the Continental army.
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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.
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The General Assembly at Hillsborough votes its thanks to Thomas Burke
A day after choosing his successor, both houses resolved that the thanks of the General Assembly be given to Burke for his steady and constant attention to the duties of his office and his vigorous dispatch of the public business while he was governor. The resolution passes over his capture and parole in silence.
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A false alarm of a Fanning attack turns the legislators out into Hillsborough's streets
With the General Assembly in session and General John Butler guarding it with 200 county militia, members were roused from bed and paraded in the streets before the report proved false. Fanning had in fact married and fled to South Carolina.
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William Moore is named commissioner of confiscated Loyalist estates for the Hillsborough District
The April Assembly at Hillsborough appointed commissioners to deal with estates taken from Loyalists, electing William Moore for the Hillsborough District.
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Assembly at Hillsborough elects Abner Nash and Hugh Williamson delegates to Congress
On May 3, 1782, a joint ballot of the General Assembly at Hillsborough elected Abner Nash, Hugh Williamson, Benjamin Hawkins and William Blount as the state's delegates to Congress for the year. Nash had been returned to the House for Jones County, and Williamson sat for the town of Edenton.
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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.
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Thomas Burke dies at Tyaquin
Thomas Burke died at his farm near Hillsborough after serving as North Carolina’s governor.
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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.
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A bill to make Hillsborough the state capital fails by four votes
Hillsborough's backers pressed the question from session to session, and in 1785 a bill to fix the capital there lost 41 to 37.
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Thomas Lloyd signs his lands and enslaved people over to his sons-in-law
To keep his property from confiscation as a Loyalist, Thomas Lloyd conveyed his lands and the people he enslaved to his sons-in-law Daniel and John Hogan for nominal sums and leased them straight back. His property was never confiscated.
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The Assembly orders the state treasurer and comptroller to move their offices to Hillsborough
Meeting at Fayetteville, the Assembly directed both officers to take their offices and records to Hillsborough so they would be convenient to most of the state's people. The comptroller was slow to comply, and a year later the order was repeated.
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Hillsborough Convention declines to ratify the Constitution
Meeting at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough, delegates defeated a motion to ratify the Constitution 184 to 84 on August 1, 1788. On August 2 they voted to neither ratify nor reject it until a declaration of rights and amendments went before Congress.
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The convention appoints a committee of privileges and elections with three members from each district
The convention set up a 27-member committee of privileges and elections, three from each district, which went on to rule on the disputed returns. Alexander Mebane of Orange County sat on it with Thomas Person, William R. Davie and James Iredell.
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The convention names a select committee to draft its rules of debate
On its first day the convention asked William R. Davie, Thomas Person, James Iredell, Elisha Battle, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Samuel Spencer and a member named McDonald to propose rules for its discussion of the Constitution.
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The ratification convention opens at Hillsborough and elects Governor Samuel Johnston its president
A majority of the elected delegates met at the church in Hillsborough and chose Governor Samuel Johnston president without a dissenting vote. They then named John Hunt and James Taylor clerks and appointed doorkeepers.
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The convention adopts eighteen rules for the conduct of its members
The rules committee reported and the convention agreed to its rules with one article left out. The rules let any two members call for a recorded yea-and-nay vote and excused Quaker members from the ban on wearing hats in the house.
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William Lenoir brings a petition against the Dobbs County election before the convention
On Lenoir's motion the convention read the Dobbs County return and a petition from county residents complaining of an illegal election, and sent both to the committee of elections. Richard Dobbs Spaight and Stephen Cabarrus added depositions and the sheriff's copy of the poll.
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The convention has the state and federal founding documents read and receives news of two states' ratifications
On James Galloway's motion, seconded by Macon, the clerks read the state Bill of Rights and constitution, the Articles of Confederation, the act naming North Carolina's deputies to Philadelphia and the resolve of Congress sending the Constitution to the states. Johnston then laid before the members official accounts of ratification by Massachusetts and South Carolina.
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The convention unseats the Dobbs County delegates and voids both of the county's elections
The committee of elections reported that a riot at the first Dobbs poll had carried off the ballot box before all the ballots were counted, and that a majority of the county had not approved the second election the governor recommended. The convention agreed that the sitting members vacate their seats and that both elections were void.
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Willie Jones moves that the Hillsborough Convention vote on the Constitution at once
Jones moved that the question on the federal Constitution be put immediately, arguing that members had long since made up their minds and that a long sitting would waste public money. Thomas Person seconded him and James Iredell objected. The convention took up the Constitution clause by clause instead, debating it for eleven days.
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The convention resolves itself into a committee of the whole with Elisha Battle in the chair
After David Caldwell's attempt to fix governing maxims for the debate was set aside, the delegates went into committee of the whole, Elisha Battle presiding, and began reading the proposed Constitution clause by clause. The committee sat each day through July 31 except Sunday, July 27.
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The convention rules that Fayetteville has no right to a delegate and seats Thomas Devane for New Hanover
Adopting a second report from the committee of elections, the convention held that the town of Fayetteville had no right of representation, so John Ingram, returned for the town, could not sit. It seated Thomas Devane Sr. for New Hanover County, finding that ballots for him written two ways were meant for the same man.
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Governor Johnston moves in committee that the convention ratify and propose amendments afterward
When the committee of the whole reached the seventh article, read without objection, Johnston moved that North Carolina ratify the Constitution and at the same time propose amendments to be made by one of the methods it provides. His motion put the question of ratification before the committee for the first time.
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Willie Jones's previous question carries 183 to 84, setting aside Johnston's ratification motion
Jones answered Johnston by moving the previous question, meaning to bring in his own resolution calling for amendments before North Carolina adopted the Constitution. After long argument the committee carried it 183 to 84, and its chairman, James Kenan, reported resolutions not yet put in form.
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The committee of the whole adopts Willie Jones's resolution for a declaration of rights and amendments before ratification
After a day of debate on the resolution, Davie asked that the amendments be taken one at a time, but the committee approved the resolution as it stood by a large majority. Kenan reported it to the convention, which ordered it to lie on the table overnight.
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Iredell's motion to ratify and recommend amendments afterward is defeated 184 to 84
Declaring all debate at an end and the majority irresistible, James Iredell moved that the convention ratify the Constitution and recommend amendments afterward, so that the minority's view would stand on the journal. The yeas and nays were taken and the motion lost, 84 to 184.
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Orange County's delegates vote against ratifying the Constitution before amendments
In the 184 to 84 roll call that defeated Iredell's amendment to ratify, Alexander Mebane, William Mebane, William McCauley, Jonathan Lindley and William Shepperd of Orange all voted no, as did A. Tatom. The next day the same members voted to concur in the declaration of rights and amendments.
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The majority votes to keep Iredell's ratification motion off the journal, then agrees to let it be offered as an amendment
When Samuel Spencer moved to concur with the committee's report, Iredell moved to postpone it for his own resolution, and the house fell into confusion, with Whitmill Hill warning that the minority would secede. Willie Jones carried a motion that Iredell's motion had no right to a place on the journal, but while the yeas and nays were being taken the two sides agreed that Spencer would withdraw and Iredell would offer his resolution as an amendment.
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The convention adopts a declaration of rights and twenty-six amendments to be laid before Congress before ratification
On Thomas Person's motion the convention concurred with its committee of the whole, resolving that a declaration of rights of twenty articles and twenty-six amendments to the most ambiguous and exceptionable parts of the Constitution be laid before Congress and a convention of the states before North Carolina would ratify. On Willie Jones's motions it also recommended a state impost matching whatever Congress laid, urged redemption of the paper currency, and ordered the resolutions sent to Congress and the twelve other states.
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The convention directs its president to send its resolutions to Congress and the other twelve states
A unanimous resolution asked Samuel Johnston to forward the resolution on the Constitution, with the impost and paper money resolutions, to Congress and to the executives of the twelve other states.
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The convention recommends that North Carolina collect an impost for the use of Congress
Having neither ratified nor rejected the Constitution, the convention adopted by a large majority Willie Jones's resolution asking the legislature to lay a duty on goods imported into North Carolina whenever Congress laid an impost in the ratifying states, and to pay the money to Congress.
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The convention unanimously urges the Assembly to redeem the state's paper currency
On Willie Jones's motion, seconded by James Galloway, the convention asked the General Assembly to retire the state's paper currency as quickly as the people's circumstances allowed.
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The convention adjourns sine die after fixing the seat of government at Isaac Hunter's in Wake County
With the Constitution neither ratified nor rejected, the convention turned to its second charge, the seat of government. A ballot on August 2 fixed it at Isaac Hunter's in Wake County, and on Monday, August 4, after approving the ordinance for it, the convention adjourned sine die.
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A second convention at Fayetteville ratifies the Constitution 195 to 77
Sixteen months after the Hillsborough convention withheld ratification, a second convention that opened at Fayetteville on the third Monday of November 1789 voted to adopt and ratify the Constitution, 195 to 77, and adjourned the next day. Congress had by then sent the states the amendments that became the Bill of Rights.
- 1790s
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Fire destroys the greater part of Hillsborough
A letter written at Hillsborough early in March 1790 reported that the greatest part of the town had been destroyed by fire a few days earlier, news that reached New Bern by March 18 and was printed in the State Gazette of North Carolina on March 27. The district and county courthouse was among the buildings lost, the courts moved into a private house, and the General Assembly ordered a replacement built on the same lot before the year was out.
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Willie Jones views New Hope Chapel Hill as a university commissioner and signs for the site
Jones was one of six commissioners the trustees sent to fix the seat of the university. On November 5, 1792 he handed the commissioners Joel Lane's offer of 640 acres in Wake County; the commissioners then went on to view New Hope Chapel Hill in Orange County, where they took offers of 1,390 acres and about 798 pounds. Jones signed the report.
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Trustees fix the university at Chapel Hill and list its Orange County land donors
Meeting on December 5, 1792, the trustees voted unanimously to place the university at New Hope Chapel Hill and recorded nine donors of Orange County land, among them Matthew McCauley (150 acres) and William McCauley (100 acres). Each donor could have one student educated free of tuition.
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Thomas Person gives $1,050 to complete the university chapel, later named Person Hall
Trustee Thomas Person gave $1,050 to finish the chapel then under construction at Chapel Hill. The trustees thanked him for his liberality and the building, completed in 1798, was named Person Hall.
Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865
- 1800s
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James Hogg dies and is buried in Hillsborough
James Hogg, the Scottish merchant who came to North Carolina in 1774 and pressed the trustees to put the university at Chapel Hill, died on November 9, 1804. He is buried in Hillsborough two blocks north of the site of his state highway marker on Churton Street.
Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
- 1910s
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Hillsborough dedicates a tablet crediting Daniel Boone with an expedition from the Old State House
During a day of patriotic meetings and a war bond drive, Hillsborough dedicated a steel tablet at the site of the Old State House stating that frontiersmen under Richard Henderson, led by Daniel Boone, set out from there for Kentucky on March 17, 1776. A Trading Path tablet was added to the monument on July 4, 1931. The inscription is disputed: the American Revolution tour AmRevNC says Boone was not with the party that left the courthouse that day.
- 1930s
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Lloyd descendants dedicate a memorial stone to Thomas Lloyd north of Chapel Hill
The Thomas Lloyd Memorial Association set up a granite marker to Thomas Lloyd near Old Highway 86 at Stony Hill Road, northwest of Calvander. Its inscription mixes in details from the life of a different Thomas Lloyd of New Hanover County.
Civil rights era · 1945–1975
- 1960s
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The Colonial Dames erect a marble monument to the hanged Regulators beside the Hughes Academy schoolhouse
In 1963 the North Carolina Society of the Colonial Dames of America erected a marble slab monument to the six Regulators hanged at Hillsborough in June 1771, placing it next to the historic Hughes Academy schoolhouse in Hillsborough. The men's grave, thought to lie near the Eno, has never been found.
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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 1, 2026.
