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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina: Published colonial and early state records, including laws, council and assembly journals, and letters. They present events such as the Regulation from the officials' point of view.Open the sourceAll sources
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Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
- 1730s
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The Saponi scatter between Virginia and the Catawba and a group settles in Granville County
After living briefly with the Catawba the Saponi returned to Virginia in 1733 and had to petition Lieutenant Governor Gooch for leave to resettle. Over the next twenty years they broke into small groups and moved south to the Catawba and back again, and by 1754 about twelve or fourteen Sapona men with as many women and children were living on Colonel William Eaton's land in Granville County, North Carolina.
- 1750s
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Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough
The General Assembly created Orange County in 1752 from parts of Granville, Johnston and Bladen counties. William Churton laid out its county seat in 1754 where trading paths crossed the Eno. The town was called Orange, then Corbin Town, then Childsburgh from 1759, and took the name Hillsborough in 1766.
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John Patterson is named one of the first vestrymen of St. Matthew's Parish
The act of the 1752 Assembly that created Orange County and the Parish of St. Matthew named John Patterson among the twelve vestrymen who were to serve until the first vestry election.
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The act creating Orange County names James Watson a boundary commissioner and vestryman
The 1752 act that created Orange County named James Watson one of three commissioners to run the dividing line between Orange and Granville, Johnston and Bladen counties, and one of the twelve first vestrymen of St. Matthew's Parish. Another act of the same session made him the county's receiver of the impost duty.
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St. Matthew’s Parish is established
The act of the spring 1752 General Assembly session that created Orange County also made it the Anglican Parish of St. Matthew, with its own vestry. The parish's first church stood in Hillsborough by about 1768, but today's St. Matthew's Episcopal Church descends from a congregation reorganized in 1824.
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Alexander McCulloch gives up his commission in the Orange County militia
The 1754 return of the colony's militia records that McCulloch gave up his commission for Orange and recommended Sheriff John Gray as colonel. NCpedia says he resigned because he lived too far from the county.
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Hillsborough is laid out
William Churton laid out a town and common on a 400-acre tract on the north side of the Eno that was granted to him in 1754, where the trading path crossed the river. Known as Corbinton by 1755, it was incorporated as Childsburg by an act of the 1759–60 session and renamed Hillsborough in 1766.
- 1760s
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The Granville District land office is closed
The office that granted land across Orange County for the Granville proprietary stayed shut from about 1765. Governor Tryon wrote in 1770 that it had been closed for more than five years and that newcomers to Rowan and Orange, finding no land to buy, settled on vacant land, which fed their discontent.
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Orange County's 1766 tax return counts 3,324 white and 649 Black taxables
The return of taxables for 1766 counted 3,324 white men and 649 Black and mulatto men and women in Orange County, 3,973 taxables in all. These were people liable for the poll tax, not the whole population, and the returns do not show the Black population growing faster than the white.
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The Regulator movement organizes in Orange County
Orange County farmers first organized in 1766 to question county officers about taxes and fees, a Sandy Creek effort that Herman Husband led and that lapsed in 1767. In early 1768 a new association, soon called the Regulation, pledged to pay no taxes or fees beyond what the law allowed.
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Orange County's first Regulator paper invokes the Stamp Act resistance
An Orange County notice of August 1766, later called Regulators' Advertisement No. 1, praised the Sons of Liberty for resisting the Stamp Act and asked each neighborhood to send men to a meeting at Maddock's Mill to question local officers.
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Farmers met at Maddock’s Mill to press the county’s officers to account for fees and taxes
Delegates from Orange County neighborhoods met at Maddock's Mill to ask their assemblymen and vestrymen how public money was spent. The officers refused to attend, and the meeting resolved that such conferences between voters and their representatives should be held every year.
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Hillsborough is made the seat of a superior court district
An act dividing the province into six districts and establishing a superior court of justice in each set the court for the District of Hillsborough at Hillsborough, for the counties of Orange and Granville, on the twenty second day of March and September, each term to run ten days. Nash records that no superior court sat at Hillsboro until March 1768, the town having belonged first to the Halifax and then to the Salisbury district.
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Settlers west of the Haw River call Orange County's representatives and vestry to a settlement at the courthouse
Inhabitants on the west side of the Haw River addressed Orange County's Assembly men and vestrymen, asking them to fix a day before the next court to meet at the courthouse and settle accounts of taxes and officers' fees, and declaring they would pay no more taxes until they had a full settlement.
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Regulators rescue a seized horse at Hillsborough
After the sheriff seized a Regulator's horse for an unpaid levy, about 100 Regulators rode into Hillsborough, took the horse back and fired shots into the roof of Edmund Fanning's house. Officials sought the arrest of William Butler, Peter Craven and Ninian Bell Hamilton as ringleaders.
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A general Regulator meeting agrees to send twelve men to meet county officials at Thomas Lindley's
The meeting agreed to send twelve men and then named thirteen, among them Herman Husband, James Hunter and Rednap Howell, to gather at Lindley's on May 11 in hope of meeting representatives of the officers. The arrests of Husband and William Butler broke up the plan.
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Regulators confront officials at Hillsborough
Edmund Fanning and 27 armed men arrested Herman Husband and William Butler at Sandy Creek on May 2, 1768. The next day hundreds of Regulators and neighbors marched on Hillsborough; officials released the prisoners, and the governor's secretary read a proclamation promising to hear their grievances, after which the crowd dispersed.
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Regulators meeting at George Sally's appoint a committee of eight to petition Governor Tryon
Having agreed after the May confrontation to submit their case to the governor, the Regulators met at George Sally's in Orange County, declared their loyalty to King George and named William Moffitt, William Cox, Harmon Cox, John Low, John Marshall, James Hunter, Rednap Howell and George Hendry to gather the complaints into a petition and to implore the governor's pardon in the most submissive manner.
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James Hunter and John Low deliver a Regulator letter to Governor Tryon at Hillsborough
Hunter and John Low waited on Governor Tryon at Hillsborough with a letter from the Regulators. Tryon told them he would answer it on August 17, after consulting his Council.
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Eight Regulator leaders meet Governor Tryon at Hillsborough and are refused a committee to examine the county's taxes
A week after their letter was delivered, eight principal Regulators met Tryon in Hillsborough and asked that their grievances be settled by a committee reviewing the county's tax accounts. Tryon refused, telling them the law was the only channel for redress, and the next day sent a letter to the inhabitants south of the Haw.
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At the Hillsborough camp, Robert Palmer is named one of six lieutenants general
Palmer, whom Governor Tryon had made adjutant general of the militia marching on Hillsborough, was named a lieutenant general of the army in orders issued at the Hillsborough camp on September 20, 1768. The same orders posted a town guard of a hundred men, with the court house and market house as guard rooms.
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Chief Justice Martin Howard and two associate justices hold the Hillsborough superior court term
Martin Howard, Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson sat at the Hillsborough District Superior Court term in which Edmund Fanning was found guilty and Regulators including William Butler were tried.
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Eight hundred Regulators gather within a mile of Hillsborough, face Tryon's militia and disperse
With the superior court sitting under guard of more than a thousand militia, upwards of eight hundred Regulators appeared within a mile of Hillsborough on September 22. A council of war set terms: surrender nine leaders, lay down arms and promise to pay taxes. The Regulators asked for the night to answer and by the next morning had dispersed, about thirty coming in to give up their arms.
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Tryon hands John Rutherford command of the army at Hillsborough
Made a lieutenant general on September 20 to lead the right wing, the Orange Brigade, Rutherford took command of the whole army at the Hillsborough camp when Tryon's illness worsened, and ordered the next day's sermons to the troops.
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A Hillsborough jury finds Edmund Fanning guilty on an indictment
In the same superior court term that tried the Regulator leaders, the King's indictment against Edmund Fanning went to a jury on September 27, which found him guilty. The day before, Herman Husband had surrendered William Butler to the court, and both men entered 500 pound bonds to abide its sentence.
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Grand jury indictments for rout against James Hunter are quashed at the Hillsborough superior court
The grand jury returned three indictments for rout naming James Hunter with William Butler, Ninian Hamilton and other Regulators. The court quashed all three for an irregular return and ordered the attorney general to prepare new bills.
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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.
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Orange voters elect Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly
In the elections set for July 18, 1769, Orange returned the Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly over Edmund Fanning.
- 1770s
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James Hunter presents a Regulator petition to Judge Henderson on the first day of the Hillsborough court
On Saturday, the first day of the September 1770 Hillsborough superior court, James Hunter presented Judge Richard Henderson with a petition signed by many Regulators. Henderson put off his answer until Monday, the day the Regulators crowded the courtroom and broke up the court.
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Ralph McNair's house is attacked on the night of the Hillsborough court riot
On the night after the Regulators broke up the superior court, parties of them patrolled Hillsborough's streets, and McNair's house was attacked and its windows broken along with those of several other houses. McNair gave a sworn account on October 9, 1770.
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Regulators disrupt the Hillsborough Superior Court
About 150 Regulators crowded the Hillsborough Superior Court, beat the lawyer John Williams, Edmund Fanning and others, and forced Judge Richard Henderson to adjourn; he fled that night. The next day the crowd tore down Fanning's house and wrote mocking judgments on the court docket.
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Regulators pull down and plunder Edmund Fanning's house in Hillsborough
The morning after the court broke up and Judge Henderson slipped out of town, the Regulators went to Fanning's house, smashed the furniture, emptied the cellar, carried his papers into the street and left the house almost demolished. Witnesses also heard them drink damnation to King George and success to the Pretender.
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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.
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Tryon's Council orders a proclamation against the Hillsborough rioters and defers the Assembly
Meeting at New Bern on the Hillsborough dispatches, the Council heard the Attorney General's opinion that pulling down Fanning's house and the assaults amounted to a riot, and ordered a proclamation requiring every justice of the peace to pursue the persons who assembled at Hillsborough on September 24 and 25. It advised putting off the Assembly to November 30.
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The Assembly expels Orange County's member Herman Husband and the Council orders his arrest
The House of Assembly resolved that Husband, a principal promoter of the late riots in Orange County and publisher of a seditious letter printed over James Hunter's name, be expelled. The same day the Council unanimously advised his arrest and the Chief Justice issued a warrant; he lay in the New Bern jail until a grand jury found no bill on February 8, 1771.
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Guilford County is formed from Orange and Rowan
Governor Tryon assented to the act creating Guilford County from parts of Rowan and Orange, a bill Edmund Fanning had brought in. Tryon told the Earl of Hillsborough the new county was meant to divide the Regulator districts.
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Wake and Chatham counties are formed from Orange
Acts of the General Assembly session that ended January 26, 1771 created Wake County from parts of Johnston, Cumberland and Orange, effective March 12, 1771, and Chatham County from southern Orange, effective April 1. The same session also formed Guilford from Orange and Rowan, shrinking the original county on three sides.
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A special court at New Bern presents and indicts Husband, Hunter, Butler and Howell for the Hillsborough riot
Sitting under Chief Justice Martin Howard with Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, the special court of oyer and terminer at New Bern received a grand jury presentment against the Regulators who in September last 'broke up that Court' at Hillsborough, and returned indictments for riot against Herman Husband, James Hunter, William Butler and Rednap Howell among others.
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Regulator threats keep the Hillsborough superior court from sitting
At the March 1771 term the Hillsborough District superior court recorded that the Regulators led by Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler and Samuel Devinney, who had broken up the September court, were still threatening judges, lawyers and officers, so none attended. The court was continued to September 1771.
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Thomas Hart contracts to supply provisions for Tryon's campaign against the Regulators
Hart accepted Governor Tryon's offer to victual the militia raised to suppress the Regulators, on the terms on which he had supplied the troops at Hillsborough in 1768. His department covered nearly a thousand men from eleven counties including Orange.
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Robert Howe serves as quartermaster general of Tryon's army against the Regulators
Governor Tryon's order book for the 1771 campaign against the Regulators, which took his army through Hillsborough to the Battle of Alamance and back to the Hillsborough camp, names Colonel Robert Howe quartermaster general.
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Tryon proclaims a pardon for Regulators who come into camp, lay down their arms and take the oath
From the camp Tryon offered the King's free pardon for all treasons and rebellions to anyone who came in by May 21, surrendered his arms, swore allegiance, promised to pay his taxes and submitted to the law, excepting the outlawed leaders and the prisoners already in camp. Further proclamations on May 21, 24 and 31 and June 11 extended the terms.
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Tryon offers 100 pounds and a thousand acres for Husband, Hunter, Howell and Butler, dead or alive
Marching back toward Hillsborough, Tryon proclaimed from Bethabara that Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell and William Butler stood outlawed and liable to be shot by anyone, and offered one hundred pounds and one thousand acres of land to whoever brought any of them into his or General Waddell's camp.
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Tryon takes leave of his army at Hillsborough and hands the command to Colonel Ashe
Having received at Hillsborough camp the King's command to go at once to govern New York, Tryon thanked the officers and men for their conduct through the campaign, gave the army to Colonel John Ashe to march to Colonel Bryan's and disband by counties, and ordered the artillery escorted to New Bern and the horses taken in battle sold for the public. He reached New Bern on June 24 and sailed on the 30th.
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Tryon, now governor of New York, asks the King's free pardon for the six reprieved Regulators
Writing from Fort George in New York, Tryon named the six men convicted of high treason at the Hillsborough court in June whose executions he had suspended at the army officers' request, James Stewart, James Emmerson, William Brown, Forester Mercer, James Copeland and Harmon Cox, and repeated his request that the King grant them a free pardon.
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At Governor Martin's urging, Edmund Fanning drops his riot damage suits
After the matter was raised with Governor Martin in March 1772, he urged Fanning, by then surveyor general of New York, to drop his suits over the destruction of his Hillsborough property, and Fanning had them discontinued, leaving his 1,500 pound claim to the Assembly. The House refused to pay it in March 1773.
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Governor Josiah Martin spends the summer at Hillsborough
Governor Martin dated his dispatches to London from Hillsborough through the summer of 1772, and in August the Rev. Charles E. Taylor wrote that the governor had gone up to Hillsborough to spend the summer.
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Governor Martin and his council at Hillsborough forbid the export of wheat, rye and flour
Told of a long drought and failing corn crops in the western parts of the province, the council sitting at Hillsborough advised an embargo, and Martin proclaimed a three-month ban on shipping wheat, rye or flour out of the province.
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Governor Martin summons the judges to Hillsborough over the cases of the outlawed Regulators
After Regulator leaders offered to surrender, Martin called the judges to Hillsborough and asked in writing whether their outlawry could be completed and whether they could still be tried. Writing from Hillsborough on August 30, he told London the troubles had been provoked by extortion from attorneys, clerks and other officers.
Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough orders its journal printed by James Davis
The congress meeting at Hillsborough directed that its proceedings be delivered to James Davis, the province's printer and a delegate for the town of New Bern, who was desired to print them and send a copy to each member. It also named a committee to state and settle his account for services done as printer to the province.
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Third Provincial Congress meets at Hillsborough
Delegates to the Third Provincial Congress gathered at Hillsborough on August 20, 1775 but lacked a quorum. The Congress organized the next day, its members signed the test of allegiance on August 23, and it sat until September 10.
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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.
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The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough adopts a test for its members to sign
On August 21, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough named Allen Jones to a committee of seven to prepare a Test to be signed by its members. The committee reported on August 23 and the Test was read, approved, ordered entered on the journal and signed. Subscribers professed allegiance to the King while denying that Parliament could tax them.
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Congress at Hillsborough appoints a committee to address the inhabitants of the province
The same day the congress named Maurice Moore, William Hooper, Robert Howe, Richard Caswell and Joseph Hewes to prepare an address to the inhabitants of North Carolina, stating the controversy with Great Britain in plain language and calling on them to unite in defence of American liberty. Doctor Burke was added to the committee on August 24.
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Henry Pattillo is asked to read morning prayers to the Provincial Congress
The congress at Hillsborough asked the Rev. Henry Pattillo, a delegate from Bute County, to read prayers to it every morning, and Charles Edward Taylor every evening.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a Committee of Secrecy to procure arms
On August 23, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough resolved that its president, Mr. Harnett, Mr. Caswell, Mr. Hewes, Mr. Nash, Mr. Willie Jones and Mr. Young be a Committee of Secrecy for procuring arms and ammunition. The committee was to report what sums of money would be needed for the purpose.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a committee to confer with inhabitants who had scruples about the American cause
The congress sitting at Hillsborough appointed thirteen of its members, among them Memucan Hunt of Granville County, to confer with inhabitants of the province who held religious or political scruples. They were directed to use argument and persuasion to bring those inhabitants into support of the American cause.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough orders Governor Martin's proclamation burnt by the hangman
The congress read a proclamation Martin had issued on August 8 from HMS Cruizer in the Cape Fear, addressed to the "Provincial Convention of Hillsborough", and resolved unanimously that it was a seditious libel to be burnt by the common hangman.
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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.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints Benjamin Williams a lieutenant in the second regiment
Williams sat for Johnston County in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. On September 1 the Congress named him one of the lieutenants of the second regiment, and on September 9 it made him a member of the committee of safety for the New Bern district.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Alexander Martin lieutenant colonel of the Second North Carolina Regiment
Alexander Martin attended the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough as a delegate from Guilford County. On September 1, 1775, the Congress named the officers of its two new regiments of Continental troops, with Robert Howe as colonel and Martin as lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment.
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Adam Boyd lays the Philadelphia synod's pastoral letters before the Provincial Congress
At the Provincial Congress meeting in Hillsborough, Boyd presented two hundred pastoral letters from the Synod of Philadelphia addressed to the inhabitants of the province, and they were handed out to the members. The congress voted to pay him for them.
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Congress at Hillsborough appoints Hooper, Hewes and Caswell to the Continental Congress
Meeting at Hillsborough on September 2, 1775, the congress thanked William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and Richard Caswell for their service as the province's delegates at the last Continental Congress and appointed the three delegates for a further year, each to be paid five hundred pounds proclamation money.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District
Meeting at Hillsborough, the Congress appointed Samuel Johnston treasurer for the Northern District and Richard Caswell treasurer for the Southern District, giving them the powers the colony's treasurers had held under a 1773 act of Assembly.
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The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints John Penn to the Continental Congress
Richard Caswell told the congress at Hillsborough that his new duties as treasurer for the Southern District and as a signer of the public bills of credit left him unable to serve in the Continental Congress. The congress resolved the same day that John Penn take his place beside William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, with the same powers and allowance.
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John Butler is commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Orange County militia
The Third Provincial Congress named John Butler to the committee of safety for the Hillsborough District and on September 9, 1775 made him lieutenant colonel of the Orange County militia under Colonel John Hogan. Minutemen officers were named by district, not county. Butler went on to lead the county's militia in the Moore's Creek Bridge campaign and became its colonel in April 1776.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough elects a Provincial Council to govern between sessions
On September 9, 1775, the Congress at Hillsborough elected a thirteen-member Provincial Council to direct the army and militia during its recess: Samuel Johnston for the province at large and two members for each of the six districts, among them Abner Nash and James Coor for New Bern and Thomas Person and John Kinchen for Hillsborough.
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Provincial Congress at Hillsborough makes Thomas Benbury a Chowan militia major and a district committee of safety member
Thomas Benbury sat for Chowan County in the Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough. On September 9, 1775, the Congress named him first major of the Chowan County militia under Colonel Thomas Bonner and a member of the committee of safety for the Edenton District.
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Caswell County is created from northern Orange
An act of the General Assembly's spring 1777 session divided Orange County, forming Caswell from its northern part, from a point twelve miles due north of Hillsborough to the Virginia line. The legislature cited the hardship northern residents faced in attending to public duties, and the new county took effect June 1, 1777.
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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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General Assembly charters an academy near Hillsborough named Science Hall
Meeting at Halifax, the General Assembly passed an act to establish an academy in the neighborhood of Hillsborough, naming William Hooper, Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, James Hogg and others as trustees. The act named the school Science Hall and gave its trustees the same powers as those of Liberty Hall in Mecklenburg County.
- 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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Barnaby Cabe takes a wagonload of flour to General Gates's army
Thomas Burke of Hillsborough wrote to Horatio Gates that his neighbor Cabe was bringing a load of flour to the southern army and would hand it over only on Gates's order, having been put off by the commissaries. The former Tryon wagoner had come over to the patriot side.
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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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 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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The House pays the men who carried the state treasury out of Hillsborough
On November 10, 1789 the House of Commons voted to pay John Armstrong of Orange County three pounds for taking the Treasury's books and papers from Hillsborough to Fayetteville, and five pounds each to nine men of the Orange Company of Horse who guarded the money on the road. The treasurer's office had been kept in the town since 1786 in the confiscated store known as the Blue House, and its records had already been carted to Tarboro and back in 1787 and 1788.
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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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The county tax list counts 36 white polls and 82 taxable enslaved people in Hillsborough town
Orange County's 1790 tax list returned 2,272 polls and 406,106 acres across its eight districts, with a separate list for Hillsborough town showing 36 white polls against 82 black polls. William Hooper was charged for 22 of them, John Taylor for 10 and Francis Childs for 5.
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General Assembly orders a new district courthouse built at Hillsborough
Alexander Mebane of Orange brought in the bill, and the act named William Watters, Absalom Tatom and Jeduthan Harper commissioners to raise a courthouse on the lot where the burned one had stood and to sell off its brick and remains. It was paid for by a poll and land tax on Orange and by lighter taxes on Wake, Chatham, Caswell, Granville and Randolph, the counties of the Hillsborough district.
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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 4, 2026.
