Chronology

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1. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799

2. February 12, 1779
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough 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.

3. 1785–1790
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough Hillsborough Academy opens in the old Anglican church

   The school chartered as Science Hall opened as Hillsborough Academy in the old Anglican church, which an act of the 1784 Hillsborough session had ordered repaired for a school and a free meeting house. It never thrived and closed in 1790.

4. Antebellum and Civil War · 1800–1865

5. October 16, 1801
   Founding or opening · Hillsborough Hillsborough Academy reopens for boys and girls under Andrew Flinn

   The academy's trustees announced that it had reopened on a larger plan for youth of both sexes under the Rev. Andrew Flinn, teaching Latin, Greek, English, mathematics and bookkeeping.

6. March 18, 1803
   Hillsborough Hillsborough Academy trustees engage Thomas Baron after George Johnston fails to arrive

   The academy trustees, Walter Alves among them, announced that George Johnston had not taken charge as promised and that they had engaged Thomas Baron, a Harvard graduate, to teach languages, arithmetic, geography and mathematics.

7. 1804
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Richard Henderson becomes head of Hillsborough Academy

   In 1804 Hillsborough Academy announced Richard Henderson, formerly a professor at the university, as its head.

8. February 1812
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Rev. William Bingham takes charge of Hillsborough Academy

   The trustees announced that the Rev. William Bingham had taken charge of Hillsborough Academy, with exercises to begin on February 3 and Elizabeth Russell in charge of a female department.

9. 1814
   Law, policy or court · Hillsborough Hillsborough Academy is rechartered

   Hillsborough Academy received a new charter from the General Assembly in 1814.

10. 1815
    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough A Mr. Graham and Miss Farley take charge of Hillsborough Academy

    After William Bingham left in 1815, Hillsborough Academy was run for a time by a teacher named Graham, with Miss Farley presumably over the female department.

11. 1816
    Hillsborough William Norwood becomes a trustee of Hillsborough Academy

    William Norwood was a trustee of Hillsborough Academy by 1816 and chaired its board in 1826.

12. 1816
    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough Witherspoon takes charge of the Hillsborough Academy

    Returning to Hillsborough at twenty-five, Witherspoon took a double charge: the pastorate of the newly built Presbyterian church and the principalship of the closely allied Hillsborough Academy. He gave up the academy sometime after 1819.

13. December 11, 1818
    Publication, speech or performance · Hillsborough Hillsborough Academy publishes its rules for students

    Under principal John Witherspoon, Hillsborough Academy printed its rules of conduct in the Raleigh Register. Students had to attend daily worship, stay out of stores and taverns, avoid liquor, and keep the Sabbath.

14. 1819
    Closing or ending · Orange County The university closes its grammar school and makes Hillsborough Academy its preparatory school

    When Abner W. Clopton gave up the grammar school the university dropped it. Caldwell arranged for Hillsborough Academy, under John Witherspoon with John Rogers teaching, to prepare boys for the university, whose faculty could attend its examinations and admit its top pupils on certificate.

15. 1820
    Property or economic transaction · Hillsborough Eagle Lodge votes money toward a male academy in Hillsborough

    A year after its revival, Eagle Lodge voted to put money toward building a male academy in Hillsborough.

16. 1822 to 1826
    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough John Rogers runs Hillsborough Academy

    John Rogers ran Hillsborough Academy from 1822 to 1826, when W. J. Bingham succeeded him.

17. 1827–1844
    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough William James Bingham becomes principal of Hillsborough Academy

    After John Rogers resigned, the trustees engaged William James Bingham as principal of Hillsborough Academy, where he taught until he moved his school to the country in 1844.

18. November 1844
    Founding or opening · The Oaks, Orange County William James Bingham opens his school at the Oaks

    William James Bingham gave up Hillsborough Academy after its spring 1844 session and in May announced a select classical and mathematical school twelve miles southwest of Hillsborough, to open that November on the Oaks tract he bought the same year. It became known as the Bingham School and stayed at the Oaks until December 1864.

19. 1845
    Construction or physical change · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough Hillsborough citizens pay to refit the academy building for the Caldwell Institute

    Townspeople paid for the repair and enlargement of the Hillsborough Academy building so that the Caldwell Institute could move in from Greensboro. The older school was absorbed into the institute under Alexander Wilson.

20. July 9, 1845
    Founding or opening · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough Caldwell Institute reopens in Hillsborough after leaving Greensboro

    The Orange Presbytery's Caldwell Institute, founded at Greensboro, moved to Hillsborough and began its first session there on July 9, 1845, with Alexander Wilson as president. It used the Hillsborough Academy building and absorbed that school.

21. 1850
    Closing or ending · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough Caldwell Institute closes in Hillsborough

    The Caldwell Institute ended in 1850 after five years in Hillsborough.

22. 1851–1858
    Founding or opening · Hillsborough Academy, Hillsborough Hillsborough Academy is revived under Benjamin Huske and Ralph Graves

    After the Caldwell Institute closed, Benjamin R. Huske and Ralph Henry Graves revived the Hillsborough Academy, which ran until 1858.

23. January 12, 1859
    Founding or opening · Hillsborough Hillsborough Military Academy opens

    Charles C. Tew, then superintendent of the South Carolina military academy at Columbia, opened the Hillsborough Military Academy on January 12, 1859, holding its first classes in the Hillsborough Academy building. Its neo-Gothic barracks west of town, built to house 125 cadets, was finished in September 1860.

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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.