Chronology

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.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

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.

People: Thomas Hart · James Brown

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.

People: Thomas Burke · William Hooper

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.

People: Abner Nash

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.

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.

People: Alexander Martin · Abner Nash · Thomas Benbury

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.

Part of General Assembly sessions at Hillsborough, 1778–1784

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.

People: John Penn

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.

People: Thomas Jefferson

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.

Tradition says parts of the town clock were hidden in the Eno during Fanning's raid

According to local tradition, parts of the clock were thrown into the river so that the Loyalist raiders under David Fanning and Hector McNeill could not turn them into war material.

People: David Fanning

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.

People: Andrew Pickens

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.

People: Charles Cornwallis

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.

People: Charles Cornwallis

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.

People: Charles Cornwallis

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.

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.

People: Thomas Burke · David Fanning

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.

People: Alexander Martin · Thomas Burke

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.

People: Thomas Burke · James Henry Craig

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.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

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.

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.

People: Thomas Burke · Nathanael Greene

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.

People: Thomas Burke · Nathanael Greene

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.

People: Thomas Burke · David Fanning · William Richardson Davie

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.

People: Alexander Martin · Thomas Benbury · Hugh Williamson · Thomas Burke

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.

People: Thomas Burke

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.

People: John Butler · David Fanning · Thomas Burke

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.

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.

People: Hugh Williamson · Benjamin Hawkins · William Blount

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.

People: Alexander Martin · Abner Nash · Hugh Williamson · Richard Dobbs Spaight · Richard Caswell · Benjamin Hawkins

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.

People: Alexander Martin · Hugh Williamson · Thomas Benbury · Richard Dobbs Spaight

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.

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.

Part of Slavery in Orange County · 102 events

People: John Hogan

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.

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.

People: Thomas Person · James Iredell · William Richardson Davie

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.

People: Thomas Person · James Iredell · Richard Dobbs Spaight · William Richardson Davie

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.

People: Samuel Johnston

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.

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.

People: William Lenoir · Richard Dobbs Spaight

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.

People: Samuel Johnston

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.

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.

Part of Hillsborough ratification convention, 1788

People: James Iredell · Thomas Person

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.

People: James Iredell · Willie Jones · David Caldwell

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.

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.

People: Samuel Johnston

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.

People: Willie Jones · Samuel Johnston

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.

People: Willie Jones · William Richardson Davie

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.

People: James Iredell · Willie Jones

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.

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.

People: James Iredell · Willie Jones

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.

People: Willie Jones · Archibald Maclaine · Thomas Person · William Richardson Davie

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.

People: Samuel Johnston · Willie Jones

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.

People: Willie Jones

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.

People: Willie Jones

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.

People: Samuel Johnston

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.

People: Samuel Johnston · Willie Jones

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.

People: James Hogg · David Stone · Joel Lane

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.

People: John Hogan · Edmund Jones · Mark Morgan

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.

Subject: Person Hall

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.

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.

People: Richard Henderson · Frank Nash

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

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.

People: Archibald Henderson

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.

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