Chronology

Enoe Will agrees at Occaneechi Town to guide John Lawson to the English settlements

Within two hours of John Lawson's arrival at Occaneechi Town on the Eno, Enoe Will came into the king's cabin and agreed to guide Lawson's party to the English, leaving his pay to their discretion. The next morning they set out for Adshusheer, his town about 14 miles east, which Lawson described as Shoccories mixed with Eno and Adshusheer people with Will as their chief man.

Part of Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path · 48 events

People: John Lawson

Settlers from Pennsylvania and Virginia come down the Great Wagon Road into the Haw and Eno country

From the 1740s families moving south from Pennsylvania, Maryland and western Virginia along the Great Wagon Road took up land in the Piedmont backcountry that became Orange County in 1752. Quaker families reached the Cane Creek country by this route, and German and Scotch-Irish families entered the colony the same way.

Shearley Whatley buys 200 acres from the Earl Granville

Whatley paid thirty pounds for the grant, the first known private ownership of the land where the farmhouse later called Webb's Happy Acres stands. The grant document passed down through the family owners.

Subject: Webb's Happy Acres

The Granville District land office grants the land that became Orange County

The country on the Eno, Haw and Little River lay inside Earl Granville's one eighth share of Carolina, set off in 1742 and run from Edenton through agents including Francis Corbin and Thomas Child. Grants of unclaimed land were made from 1748 until Granville's death in 1763, and William Churton was the surveyor who mapped much of the district.

People: William Churton

The Great Trading Path across the Eno becomes the settlers' wagon road

The Indian route that Virginia traders had used since the 1670s crossed the Flat and Little rivers, forded the Eno at the place where the county town was laid out, and crossed the Haw near Swepsonville. After colonists reached the Piedmont in the mid eighteenth century the path was widened into a wagon road, and it is drawn on the colonial maps of Moseley, Collet and Mouzon.

Quakers set up Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in the country that became Orange County

About thirty Quaker families from Pennsylvania had settled near Cane Creek by 1751. Abigail Pike and Rachel Wright traveled 200 miles to the Perquimans County quarterly meeting for authority to organize, and the first monthly meeting was held on October 7, 1751. It is the oldest Quaker meeting in the North Carolina Piedmont.

People: Rachel Wright

Alexander Mebane, the first sheriff, returns 1,113 taxables

As Orange County's first sheriff, Mebane returned 1,113 tithables for 1752 and 1753. The book reckons this at about 4,000 people when the county was formed.

The Orange County court holds its first session at John Gray's house

Eight justices of the peace held the county's first Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions at John Gray's house near the Eno River, with Alexander Mebane as sheriff and Richard Caswell as clerk. They named fifteen road commissioners and several constables and laid a poll tax of one shilling on each tithable.

The county court contracts for a courthouse and prison near Piney Ford

The justices chose a site north of the Haw River within two miles of Piney Ford and gave Marmaduke Kimbrough the contract for a frame courthouse and a log prison. They met at the site in December, but the buildings were probably never finished.

William Churton presents his commission as public register

At the December court, Lord Granville's surveyor William Churton showed the governor's commission naming him the county's public register, the office later called register of deeds. He went on to lay out the county seat.

People: William Churton

Mark Morgan sits in the General Assembly for Orange County

Mark Morgan, a justice of the peace and militia officer who had settled on Morgan Creek near present Chapel Hill, was a member of the colonial General Assembly for Orange County for the 1753-54 session.

Richard Caswell serves as the first clerk of the Orange County court

Caswell, a deputy clerk in Johnston County, became the first clerk of the court of the newly formed Orange County. He held the post only briefly and resigned on being appointed high sheriff of Johnston.

The Earl Granville grants 371 acres on the Eno to John Tinnin and James Taylor

The land that became the Faucette farm, lying on both sides of the Eno, began as a 371-acre Granville grant to John Tinnin and James Taylor.

Subject: David Faucette House (The Elms)

The creation of Rowan County gives Orange a western boundary

Orange had no fixed western line until Rowan was formed. The new county also left the planned courthouse site at Piney Ford only fifteen miles from Orange's western edge.

Justices recommend John Gray for sheriff

With Alexander Mebane's term running out, the court sent the governor three names, with 10 votes for John Gray, 8 for Lawrence Thompson and 6 for James Dickey. Gray, the justices' favorite, was appointed.

People: Matthew Rowan

The Assembly moves the county seat to the Eno crossing of the Western path

Judging the Piney Ford site too far west, the Assembly directed that the courthouse, prison and stocks stand where the Western path crossed the Eno, on land where James Watson lived. The site, just east of the present courthouse, was the start of Hillsborough.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · Orange County jail, Hillsborough

The Orange County court moves to the new town on the Eno

Nash dates the county court's first sitting at the new county town to 1754, the year Churton laid off the town.

The burying ground beside the town church lot is laid out

The cemetery next to the site of the present Presbyterian church, later called the Old Town Cemetery, was laid out in 1754, the year the town itself was laid off.

Subject: Old Town Cemetery, Hillsborough

The county court names trustees for Corbin Town

James Watson, Josiah Dixon and Lawrence Thompson became commissioners and trustees of the county seat, then called Corbin Town after Francis Corbin, Earl Granville's land agent.

The county court sets the price of county-made beer in the ordinaries

The justices ordered that beer brewed in the county sell for four pence a quart in Orange County's ordinaries until further notice. Fixing tavern prices was one of the court's regular powers.

Town treasurer John Patterson is told to hold back ten shillings a lot for public use

The county court directed Patterson to keep ten shillings sterling from the price of each Corbin Town lot for public purposes.

Hugh McAden preaches to the Eno Presbyterian settlers

On August 10, 1755 the missionary Hugh McAden preached at Eno to a Presbyterian community already settled near the river, southeast of present Cedar Grove; the congregation counts its beginning from these years. The settlers asked Hanover Presbytery for supply preachers in 1756, and by church tradition the congregation was formally organized during the Synod mission of 1764.

Subject: Eno Presbyterian Church

James Watson succeeds Richard Caswell as clerk of the Orange County court

Watson, one of the town's first residents, was the second clerk of the county court from 1755 to 1763. He was named register of the county in 1772 and was reappointed under the state government shortly before his death.

People: Richard Caswell

Lawrence Thompson is appointed sheriff of Orange County

In 1755 the county court sent the governor three names for sheriff, John Patterson, Lawrence Thompson and Alexander Mebane, and Thompson received the appointment. He had run second to John Gray in the justices' vote two years before.

Orange counts 950 white taxables but only 490 men on its militia list

The book explains the gap by the county's many Quakers, whose pacifism kept them off the muster rolls.

The first Orange County courthouse is built at Hillsborough

A frame courthouse went up at the new county seat in 1755. Until then the court had met in private homes.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Mark Morgan fails to qualify for his captaincy at the Orange regiment's general muster

Reporting on the Orange regiment's general muster, Lieutenant Colonel Josias Dickson told Governor Arthur Dobbs that Mark Morgan had notice of his appointment as captain but did not attend to be qualified. Major Alexander Mebane listed Morgan among captains who refused to act and proposed Thomas Loyd in his place.

People: Arthur Dobbs

Hugh McAden preaches to the Eno and Hawfields settlements

The traveling Presbyterian licentiate Hugh McAden preached to the Eno settlement on the second Sabbath of August 1755, lodging at John Anderson's house, and rode on to preach at the Hawfields on the fourth Sabbath. His journal is the earliest surviving description of either settlement.

Subject: Hawfields Presbyterian Church · Eno Presbyterian Church

Herman Husband buys two town lots from William Churton

Years before he became a Regulator leader, Herman Husband bought two lots in Corbinton from William Churton and built a house on them. He lived in the town only a few months.

People: Herman Husband · William Churton

Hugh Laughlin and Thomas Lindley start a grist mill on Cane Creek

In 1756 Laughlin and Lindley started grinding at a mill on Cane Creek, the first mill in that part of the county. For more than a century people called it Lindley's Mill, and afterward Sutphin Mill.

Hillsborough's first courthouse is ready for use

Until it opened, the county court met at the home of James Watson. It was the first of the four courthouses Hillsborough has had.

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Thomas Lloyd is appointed a justice of the peace

Thomas Lloyd, a settler of Welsh descent with a land grant on Mark Creek, was made a justice of the peace in 1757 and later sat in the North Carolina Assembly. He founded the large Lloyd family of southern Orange; by 1850 nineteen of his grandsons and great-grandsons lived around White Cross.

The Few family settles on the Eno with four enslaved people and builds a saw and grist mill

William Few brought his family from Maryland in the fall of 1758 to 640 acres bought from James Taylor, lying on both sides of the Eno about seven miles east of the county town. Four enslaved people came with them, and Few and his brother James built a saw and grist mill on the river.

The town on the Eno is incorporated as Childsburg

The town William Churton had laid out in 1754 as Corbin Town or Corbinton was incorporated by act of assembly in 1759 as Childsburg, named for Thomas Child, the colony's attorney general. It was renamed Hillsborough in 1766.

Part of Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766 · 27 events

People: William Churton

German settler David Ephland comes to Orange County

David Ephland, later spelled Efland, arrived with other German settlers in the 1760s. His descendants still lived in the railroad town that carries the family name when the county was surveyed in 1993.

William Few attends a school opened in his Eno neighborhood

A schoolteacher came to the Few family's neighborhood on the Eno in 1760 to teach local children, and William Few Jr. attended. He later recalled the school with pleasure.

Abner Nash settles briefly in Hillsborough and builds the town's first mill on the Eno

The Virginia lawyer Abner Nash moved to Hillsborough, then called Childsburgh, in 1762 or early 1763 with his younger brother Francis. He bought town lots, dammed the Eno River and built the town's first mill before moving to Halifax by 1764.

People: Francis Nash

Francis Nash becomes clerk of the Orange County court

Having settled at Childsburgh (Hillsborough), where he kept a store and a law practice, Francis Nash became clerk of the Orange County court in 1763. A superior court clerkship at Hillsborough was possible only after the 1767-68 act made the town a district court seat, with its first term in March 1768.

Edmund Fanning qualifies as register of Orange County

Fanning, a lawyer who came to the county town in 1762, qualified as register in March 1763. He went on to buy several town lots and build a large house on the later site of the Masonic Lodge.

People: Edmund Fanning

John Armstrong contracts with Henry McCulloh to run a mill on the Haw River

John Armstrong of Orange County and Henry McCulloh of Halifax County made a contract about the operation of a mill on the Haw River.

The county town becomes a courthouse village of stores, ordinaries and public buildings

William Few recalled that in 1764 the town was the metropolis of the county, where the courts were held and all public business done, a village of thirty or forty inhabitants with two or three small stores and two or three ordinary taverns, and that Scottish merchants then opened stores of European goods and a church, courthouse and jail were built. Claude Joseph Sauthier's 1768 plan of the town marks Canby's Ordinary, Nunn's Ordinary, McNair's Store, the market house, the first courthouse and the second jail.

People: William Few

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · Orange County jail, Hillsborough

Henry Pattillo becomes pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches

Henry Pattillo moved to Orange County as pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River Presbyterian churches and served them for nine years, becoming known as "Father Pattillo." He was the first regularly installed minister at Eno.

Subject: Little River Presbyterian Church · Eno Presbyterian Church · Hawfields Presbyterian Church

Henry Pattillo keeps a classical school in his Orange County home

While pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches, Pattillo began a classical school for men in his home.

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.

A Deep River meeting drafts Regulator Advertisement Number Two

Meeting in Herman Husband's neighborhood, settlers wrote a second paper and chose William Cox and William Masset to attend the Maddock's Mill meeting on October 10. It asked the county's assemblymen, vestrymen and officers to come and answer their questions.

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

People: Herman Husband

Town lot owners are required to build, and taxable men to work the streets

Building requirements enacted in 1766 gave the purchaser of a town lot two years to put up a brick, stone or frame house at least twenty feet long, sixteen feet wide and nine feet pitch in the clear, with a brick or stone chimney. A separate ordinance made all taxable males liable for street service under a penalty of two shillings eight pence for each day neglected.

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.

Part of Maddock’s Mill organizing, 1766–1768

Edmund Fanning tells the November court he has answered the farmers' complaints

Speaking for the county officers, Fanning rejected the protest and reported that he had written its organizers a reply he expected to end the matter.

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

People: Edmund Fanning

The Assembly fixes the Orange County court at Hillsborough for good

Twelve years after the county court first sat at the town, the colonial Assembly made that location permanent in November 1766, the same month the town took the name Hillsborough.

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.

Orange is the most populous county in the province

In 1767 Orange County still ran over land later taken into Wake, Chatham, Guilford, Caswell, Person, Randolph, Rockingham, Alamance and Durham, and had the largest population of any county in North Carolina. Successive divisions cut it to about 7,560 people by 1779.

Sandy Creek men challenge the register's deed fees in the Orange County court

Using a copy of the province's revised laws bought jointly by two men, one of them a county justice, two Sandy Creek men copied the lawful fees for registering deeds and objected in court to what they were charged. Threatened with arrest for contempt, they gave up, and the justice who half owned the book was soon put out of his commission.

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

William Few takes over management of a second family farm near Hillsborough

In 1767 William Few Sr. bought another farm about seven miles from Hillsborough, and his son William, then nineteen, took over its management.

Governor Tryon reports that Hillsborough has hardly twenty families

Writing to the colonial secretary about the town's new name, Tryon put its resident households at scarcely twenty but predicted it would soon be the leading inland town of the province.

People: William Tryon

George Micklejohn is sent to St. Matthew's Parish in Hillsborough

Governor William Tryon sent the Rev. George Micklejohn, a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel missionary first assigned to Rowan County, to St. Matthew's Parish in Orange County.

People: William Tryon

Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

Thomas Hart buys Joseph Maddock's mill on the Eno

Joseph Maddock, a Quaker who had run the grist mill on the Eno west of Hillsborough since 1755, sold it to Thomas Hart, a friend of Governor William Tryon, who built it up with a sawmill, oil mill, fulling mill, distillery, tannery and other works. This is the mill, known as Hart's Mill, that a British guard held in February 1781.

People: Thomas Hart

Clerk Francis Nash is cleared of charging illegal fees

In the first Regulator complaints against Orange County officials in 1768, the clerk Francis Nash was accused of taking illegal fees. He was exonerated.

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

George Micklejohn carries messages between the Regulators and the authorities

During the 1768 unrest the Hillsborough rector acted several times as a courier between the Regulators and the authorities, seeking a peaceful settlement. The Regulators called him "our Rector."

Nathaniel Rochester goes to work for a Hillsborough merchant

At sixteen Rochester took employment with James Monroe, a Scottish merchant in Hillsborough, the seat of Orange County. Within two years he was made clerk of the vestry of St. Matthew's Parish.

Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

Orange farmers swear scores of depositions against county officers

They accused Sheriff William Nunn and his deputies of seizing deer skins, livestock, a gun and cloth, and one man swore he had paid clerk Francis Nash for letters of administration he never received.

People: Francis Nash

Regulator William Butler serves as an Orange County tax collector and deputy sheriff

William Butler, a farmer living near Sandy Creek, was appointed a county tax collector in Orange County in 1768 and a deputy sheriff in 1770, in the same years he emerged as a principal leader of the Regulators.

The governor's Council thanks Edmund Fanning and his men for their conduct against the Regulators

After Tryon read the Council his cold reply to the Regulators' petition, which forbade further meetings and told them to let the taxes be collected, Fanning was called into the room and formally thanked with his men for their behavior in the recent troubles.

People: Edmund Fanning · William Tryon

Thomas Hart begins a term as Orange County sheriff and is made militia captain and commissary

Thomas Hart began his second term as sheriff of Orange County in 1768. The same year he was made a captain in the Orange County militia and commissary for the troops of Orange and Granville counties.

Orange farmers draw up Regulator Advertisement Number Four

The paper set out the members' pledges on taxes and officers' fees, attendance at meetings, shared costs and majority rule.

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.

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

Subject: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough

Regulators ask Orange County's late sheriff and a vestryman to bring the tax accounts

Meeting again, the Regulators asked the former sheriff and a vestryman to meet their committee with lists of taxables, insolvents and public spending, and asked the county's assemblymen to come and show the law for the fees charged on deeds. Two men were chosen to carry the request, but the seizure of a Regulator's mare days later overtook it.

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

Tenants on Samuel Strudwick's Haw Fields land meet to keep possession by force

Francis Nash reported to Edmund Fanning that Strudwick's tenants had formed an association to hold his lands against him and had met in the Haw Fields the day before he wrote.

People: Francis Nash · Edmund Fanning

Edmund Fanning writes Governor Tryon that Orange is in revolt

Two weeks after Regulators rescued a seized horse at Hillsborough, Fanning reported people across the county binding themselves by oath to refuse taxes, and said he and other officers expected an attack.

People: Edmund Fanning · William Tryon · Thomas Lloyd (died 1792) · Thomas Hart · Francis Nash

Tryon orders the Regulators home and puts seven counties' militia on alert

Answering Fanning, the governor issued one proclamation to the people and another to militia officers in Bute, Halifax, Granville, Rowan, Mecklenburg, Cumberland and Johnston counties to stand ready to march to his aid.

People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning

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.

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

People: Herman Husband · William Butler (Regulator)

More than 400 Orange County inhabitants sign a petition to the governor and council

At the April 30 meeting the Regulators drew up a petition to the governor and council in the name of the inhabitants of Orange County, to be held back unless the officers failed to settle. Herman Husband, not yet a Regulator, was among more than 400 signers.

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

People: Herman Husband

The governor's secretary posts Tryon's proclamation at Hillsborough

On the day the Regulators met to choose their delegates, Governor Tryon's secretary Edwards reached Hillsborough and put up the governor's proclamation against the disturbances. Fanning set out for Sandy Creek with an armed party the next day.

People: Edmund Fanning

Orange militia is called out against the Regulators, and only 120 armed men appear

With Edmund Fanning away at the Halifax court, Lieutenant Colonel Gray reported the Hillsborough horse rescue and was ordered to raise seven militia companies. Only 120 men came with arms, and the officers judged that no more than 150 men in the county could be relied on, so they agreed to a truce and named three men to meet the Regulator leaders on April 20.

People: Edmund Fanning

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.

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

People: James Hunter

Orange Regulators send their papers to the Regulators of Anson County

Asked by the Anson County Regulators how to organize, the Orange Regulators sent them a copy of their May 21 proceedings, to keep them from running into errors, and promised more papers. Bassett thinks this advice helped turn the Anson movement toward petitioning that August.

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

Ralph McNair presses Herman Husband to adopt a petition written by the officers

After the May confrontation at Hillsborough, the county officers sent Husband, through Ralph McNair, a petition of their own drafting in which the Regulators would call their conduct illegal and withdraw their charges. McNair warned that Fanning would report the case to Tryon as treason if it was refused, and the Regulators instead named their own committee to lay their papers before the governor.

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

People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning · Ralph McNair

James Hunter and Rednap Howell present the Regulators' petition to Tryon at Brunswick

The petition, Advertisement Number Nine, carried 474 names, 31 of them written in German. Tryon told the Regulators to give up their name and pay their taxes, but he also warned officers against excess fees and had the lawful fees published.

People: James Hunter · William Tryon

Governor Tryon arrives at Hillsborough and stays into August

Tryon came to Hillsborough in early July 1768 and stayed until mid-August, hoping the county would submit, while the Regulators went on refusing their taxes. He left for Salisbury on August 17.

People: William Tryon

Regulators hear the governor's letter from the sheriff and resolve to petition the Assembly

At a Regulator meeting called to answer Tryon's reply, the Orange sheriff read a letter and proclamation telling them to submit to tax collection. The sheriff and his deputy swore the crowd refused and threatened them; Husband said the people only told the sheriff they would take the matter to the Assembly, and the meeting sent Tryon an answer saying so.

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

People: Herman Husband

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

Thackston told former sheriff Tyree Harris that Butler said the Regulators would pay nothing toward the governor's house at New Bern for three years, and that some two hundred Regulators had threatened anyone who seized their goods.

People: William Butler (Regulator)

James 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.

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

People: William Tryon

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.

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

People: William Tryon

Sheriff John Lea brings the Regulators Tryon's demand for a 1,000 pound bond

On the day set for settling accounts, the former sheriff stayed away and the new sheriff, John Lea, brought a severe letter from Tryon, endorsed by three councillors at Hillsborough. It demanded that twelve leading Regulators meet him at Salisbury by August 25 and give a 1,000 pound bond that no one would try to rescue Butler and Husband at the September court; Tryon left for Salisbury the same day.

People: William Tryon · William Butler (Regulator) · Herman Husband

Regulators refuse to give Tryon the bond he demanded

Two days after Lea delivered the demand, the Regulators answered that their peaceable leaders could restrain the rest only if they stayed free of such a bond, and that they had never meant to rescue the prisoners, only to ask the governor to dissolve the Assembly.

Hillsborough's town commissioners sign the earliest town deed on record

James Watson, William Nunn, Edmund Fanning and Francis Nash, acting as commissioners for the town, sign the earliest of the Hillsborough town deeds kept by the Orange County register of deeds.

People: Edmund Fanning · Francis Nash

Presbyterian ministers, among them Henry Pattillo of Orange, write against the Regulation

While Tryon toured Rowan and Mecklenburg to raise troops, Presbyterian ministers Hugh McAden, James Creswell, Henry Pattillo and David Caldwell sent him a letter of loyalty condemning the Regulators, and the pastors also wrote to the colony's Presbyterians telling them to keep out of the movement. The letter was read to the Rowan militia and helped raise volunteers for the march on Hillsborough.

People: Henry Pattillo · David Caldwell · William Tryon

Tryon musters about 400 militia at Hillsborough and swears them to allegiance

When the town was thought to be in danger, Tryon called out the militia but could gather only about 400 men, to whom he gave an oath of allegiance to the King and the provincial government before sending them home.

People: William Tryon

Tryon's army gathers at Hillsborough to guard the superior court

Tryon reached Hillsborough on September 19 with 195 Rowan and 310 Mecklenburg volunteers, and two days later 699 Orange and 120 Granville militia joined them. With gentlemen volunteers, artillery and officers the force came to 1,461 men, a quarter of the Assembly among its officers.

People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning · Thomas Lloyd (died 1792) · Thomas Hart

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.

People: Maurice Moore · Richard Henderson · Edmund Fanning · William Butler (Regulator) · Herman Husband

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.

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

People: William Tryon · Griffith Rutherford

Tryon sends troops out to arrest the Regulator leaders

The day after the Regulators dispersed, Tryon sent a body of troops to seize the men he most wanted. Some gave themselves up and others resisted, but all who were taken were soon let go because no true bill could be found against them.

People: William Tryon

George Micklejohn preaches to Tryon's militia at Hillsborough

Before Governor Tryon and the troops raised against the Regulators, Micklejohn preached on the important duty of subjection to the civil powers. Tryon had the sermon printed and distributed, and it cost Micklejohn favour with opponents of royal authority.

People: William Tryon

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.

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

People: Edmund Fanning · Herman Husband · William Butler (Regulator) · Richard Henderson · Maurice Moore · Martin Howard

The last of Tryon's militia leave Hillsborough

The troops stayed in town through the court term, began to be discharged on September 28, and the last detachment marched away on October 2. The expedition cost the province 4,844 pounds.

People: William Tryon

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.

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

People: William Butler (Regulator) · Richard Henderson · Peter Craven · Maurice Moore · Martin Howard

Edmund Fanning resigns as register of Orange County after his conviction

Found guilty at the September court on five counts of taking excess fees for registering deeds, and fined a penny on each, Fanning at once gave up the office of register.

People: Edmund Fanning

Samuel Devinney and John Philip Hartzo are convicted over the horse rescue

Each was fined 25 pounds and given three months in jail, but Tryon soon freed the prisoners and put off collecting their fines for three months.

People: William Tryon

Subject: Orange County jail, Hillsborough

William Butler is convicted of riot at the Hillsborough superior court

With Governor Tryon's militia in Hillsborough for the September 1768 term, the superior court tried the Regulator cases. Herman Husband was acquitted; William Butler was found guilty on two counts and sentenced to a fine of 50 pounds and six months in prison, but Tryon released him and suspended the fines.

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

People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

Tryon pardons the 1768 protesters except thirteen named leaders

His proclamation left out men including James Hunter, Herman Husband, Ninian Bell Hamilton and William Payne.

People: James Hunter · Peter Craven · Herman Husband

Tyree Harris reports the Regulators ready to pay their taxes

Writing to Tryon, Tyree Harris said that on recent visits to the Regulators in their homes he had found them willing to pay their taxes.

People: William Tryon

The Assembly issues 20,000 pounds in paper money to pay the troops raised at Hillsborough

The Assembly that met in November 1768 first proposed 30,000 pounds in paper to pay the militia gathered at Hillsborough and other debts; after the governor and upper house objected it passed a 20,000 pound issue that was not legal tender. Tryon said he signed it because the militia would not turn out again unpaid.

People: William Tryon

The Assembly pays for printing Micklejohn's sermon to the troops

The Assembly voted to repay the Orange parish minister George Micklejohn for printing the sermon he had preached to the troops at Hillsborough. Bassett, citing Foote's Sketches, reports that the sermon said at least twenty Regulators ought to have been hanged.

People: George Micklejohn

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.

People: Francis Nash · William Tryon

Orange and Rowan Regulators petition the Assembly for reforms

Regulators of Orange and Rowan joined in a petition asking that lawyers and court clerks be barred from the Assembly, that officers be paid salaries, that taxes rest on property, that small debts be tried before one magistrate and a jury of six, and that the county be divided. It also asked that ministers of every denomination be allowed to marry couples and that Assembly votes be recorded.

Regulators whip Orange County sheriff John Lea

The one serious disturbance Nash records in the county between October 1768 and the 1770 riot was the whipping of Sheriff John Lea in 1769.

The March 1769 superior court at Hillsborough hears the Regulators' cases against the officers

With no troops in town, many Regulators came to the March 1769 court to prosecute the officers, with little success. Herman Husband was tried and acquitted, James Hunter's case was continued, and Fanning was tried again on the old fee charge and formally convicted.

People: Herman Husband · James Hunter · Edmund Fanning

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. Granville, Anson and Halifax also sent Regulator delegations that year.

People: Herman Husband · Edmund Fanning

Governor Tryon buys county land and two Hillsborough lots

Tryon bought a large tract in the county and two lots in the town, and put up a house on the lots. His private secretary, Isaac Edwards, also bought and built in Hillsborough.

Tryon issues a general pardon for the 1768 disturbances

The proclamation extended to fines and forfeitures for everyone involved in the Orange County troubles of the year before.

People: William Tryon

Herman Husband publishes An Impartial Relation

His account of the Regulation traced the first disturbances to Orange County while granting that Granville and Halifax had been in the same dispute years earlier.

People: Herman Husband

Hillsborough officials and merchants pledge to defend one another after the riot

Just after the September 1770 riot, Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, Alexander Martin, Thomas Henderson, Jesse Benton, William Johnston, Adlai Osborne and others formed an association for mutual aid and protection. Many members lived too far apart to help one another in a sudden emergency.

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

People: Francis Nash · Edmund Fanning · Alexander Martin · Jesse Benton · William Johnston · Adlai Osborne

Tryon makes Hillsborough a borough and market town

Hillsborough became a borough, with its own member in the Assembly, and a chartered market town. Edmund Fanning sat for the new borough when the Assembly met at New Bern that December.

People: Edmund Fanning

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.

Part of Hillsborough court riot, September 1770

People: Richard Henderson

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.

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.

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

People: Edmund Fanning · Richard Henderson · Ralph McNair

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.

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

People: Francis Nash · Thomas Hart · William Johnston

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.

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

People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning

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.

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

People: Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Tryon · Martin Howard

Barnaby Cabe hauls supplies and prisoners for Governor Tryon's army

An expense account shows Cabe served as a wagoner for Tryon's militia in 1771, carrying supplies, hauling prisoners to New Bern and appearing as a witness against the Regulators after Alamance.

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

Governor Tryon's army buys supplies at Ralph McNair's Hillsborough store

On his expedition against the Regulators, Governor William Tryon bought supplies at McNair's Hillsborough store, including Delft bowls and gilt tin cups.

People: William Tryon

Orange County elects Francis Nash to a seat left by Herman Husband's expulsion

With John Pryor dead and Herman Husband expelled from the Assembly, Orange County filled the two vacant seats in 1771 with Ralph McNair and Francis Nash, both strong opponents of the Regulators. Nash had fought against the Regulators at Alamance that year as a militia captain.

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

People: Herman Husband · Ralph McNair

Outlawed Regulator leaders petition Governor Martin for pardon

From hiding, some in South Carolina, Jeremiah Field, Ninian Bell Hamilton, Matthew Hamilton, James Hunter, Thomas Welborn, William Butler and John Fruit asked the new governor, Josiah Martin, for pardon. The Assembly asked mercy for all but Husband, Butler and Howell, but Martin waited because Tryon had left the matter to the Crown.

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

People: Josiah Martin · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator)

Regulator leader Thomas Person is held in irons at Hillsborough

After the Battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon had Thomas Person seized and held in irons in Hillsborough for three weeks, during which he was marched to the gallows and back. He was released without trial.

People: William Tryon

The Assembly passes the Johnston Riot Act against the Regulators

Named for its author Samuel Johnston, the law let riot cases be tried in any county, outlawed anyone who resisted or evaded arrest, and allowed the governor to use troops against the Regulators. The Crown later condemned parts of it.

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

People: Samuel Johnston

A mounted troop of Regulators rides through Hillsborough firing pistols

A troop of mounted Regulators, turned back from its march on New Bern, came down on Hillsborough, drove residents indoors, took liquor at the tavern and galloped through the streets firing pistols before riding off. Nash says they did no great damage.

Regulators marching on New Bern turn back at Haw River

Regulators from Rowan, Orange and Granville gathered under James Hunter to march on New Bern, where Herman Husband was jailed. They broke up at Haw River on hearing that a grand jury had declined to indict him and he had been released on February 8.

People: James Hunter · Herman Husband

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.

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

People: Richard Henderson · Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator) · Maurice Moore · Martin Howard

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.

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

People: James Hunter · Herman Husband

Four Orange County militia companies march with Tryon against the Regulators

When Tryon's eastern column gathered on the march from New Bern, Orange and Dobbs each supplied four companies, the largest contingents in a force of 917 rank and file and 151 officers. Two Orange companies were later left to guard Hillsborough when the army moved on to Alamance.

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

People: William Tryon

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.

People: William Tryon

Tryon's army camps on the south bank of the Eno opposite Hillsborough

Marching west from New Bern, Tryon's army entered Orange by an old road past Patterson's and camped across the Eno from the town on May 9. A hospital and a supply depot were set up at Hillsborough, and on May 11 the army marched through town and west along the later Graham road.

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

People: William Tryon · Edmund Fanning · John Ashe

Tryon's army halts at Colonel Mebane's for Sunday worship on the march to Alamance

Leaving Hillsborough on May 11, Tryon stopped on Sunday at Colonel Mebane's for divine service, then marched to the Haw River, where 23 mounted men under Captain Bullock joined as his only cavalry. He ordered his troops not to take property and reached Alamance Creek on May 14.

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

People: William Tryon

David Caldwell goes between Tryon's camp and the Regulators before the Battle of Alamance

At the request of his parishioners, some of them Regulators, Caldwell visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15 with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures. On the morning of the battle he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given.

People: William Tryon · Alexander Martin

Regulators seize Colonel John Ashe and Captain Walker and whip them

On the morning before the battle, some of the Regulators caught Colonel John Ashe and Captain Walker while they were out scouting, whipped them severely and held them prisoner. Many Regulators condemned the act, and some threatened to leave the cause if it happened again.

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

People: John Ashe

Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County

Jones marched into Orange County with Governor William Tryon's colonial militia and was appointed Tryon's aide-de-camp on May 15, 1771, the day before Tryon defeated the Regulators at Alamance. Several days later he was sent to raid the plantation of the Regulator leader Herman Husband.

People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

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.

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

People: William Tryon · John Rutherford

Tryon's army camps a week at Sandy Creek after Alamance

Five days after the battle the army marched to Sandy Creek, the home district of Husband and many Regulators, and stayed a week, taking supplies from the people and giving them the oath of allegiance. It moved west on May 29.

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

People: William Tryon

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.

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

People: William Tryon · Herman Husband · James Hunter · William Butler (Regulator)

Tryon's army returns to Hillsborough with its Regulator prisoners

The army came back on June 14 and the next day marched through town with drums beating and oak sprigs in their hats before camping a mile east. The special court of oyer and terminer, opened May 30 and adjourned to await the prisoners, then resumed and tried fourteen men for treason.

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

People: William Tryon · Martin Howard · Richard Henderson · Maurice Moore

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.

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

People: William Tryon · John Ashe

Governor Tryon's army turns its horses onto the Few farm's crops

Back at Hillsborough in mid-June 1771 after the Battle of Alamance, Governor William Tryon's army turned its horses onto the wheat, barley and oats of the Few farm a mile east of town, where William Few Sr. had given bond for Regulator leaders. The family left for Georgia that winter.

People: William Tryon

The Hillsborough superior court holds its first term since the 1770 riot

For the first time in a year and a half the district court sat at Hillsborough, with Judges Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson presiding and about 300 cases on its dockets. Thomas Clark qualified as clerk, and a suit by James Few against Francis Nash was entered as abated by the plaintiff's hanging.

People: Maurice Moore · Richard Henderson · Francis Nash

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.

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

People: William Tryon

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.

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

People: Edmund Fanning · Josiah Martin

Francis Nash builds his house on West Tryon Street

Francis Nash built the house now called the Nash-Hooper House on West Tryon Street in Hillsborough in 1772, on land bought from Isaac Edwards. After his death in 1777 it passed through other hands to William Hooper in 1782.

People: William Hooper

Subject: Nash-Hooper House

Morgan Edwards reports 1,500 families have left since Alamance

The Baptist preacher and traveler wrote that many more were waiting to sell their farms and follow. The book says many former Regulators went to the Tennessee country.

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.

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.

People: Martin Howard · Alexander McCulloch

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.

People: Richard Henderson · Martin Howard · James Hunter

English traveler J. F. D. Smyth finds German-speaking districts west of Hillsborough

Traveling in western Orange, Smyth had trouble in some places finding anyone who understood English, a sign of how many Germans had settled there.

Rochester becomes a partner in a Hillsborough store

Rochester joined James Monroe and John Hamilton as a partner in a Hillsborough store in 1773. The business prospered but was liquidated in 1775 as the Revolution approached.

People: John Hamilton

The upper house rejects a general amnesty for the Regulators

Although the British government advised a general amnesty act to close the Regulator prosecutions, the provincial upper house turned the bill down in 1773 because it did not except enough people.

James Hogg moves to Hillsborough and opens his company's office there

The merchant James Hogg, who had brought emigrants from Scotland to North Carolina in 1774, moved from Cross Creek to Hillsborough about 1775 to open his company's office, and lived at Old House on his land east of town.

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Willie Jones · Thomas Person

William Johnston produces gunpowder, lead and flints at Snow Hill

During the Revolution Hillsborough merchant William Johnston apparently produced gunpowder, lead and rifle flints at his Snow Hill plantation northeast of the town.

Orange County sends Thomas Burke, John Kinchen and Francis Nash to the second Provincial Congress

The second Provincial Congress met at New Bern a day ahead of the royal legislature, with Burke, Kinchen and Nash as Orange's delegates. In the legislature itself Orange sat Ralph McNair and Thomas Hart, and Thomas Nash sat for Hillsborough.

People: Francis Nash · Thomas Hart · Ralph McNair

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.

People: Francis Nash

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Thomas Burke · William Hooper · Robert Howe · Willie Jones · John Penn · Maurice Moore

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.

People: William Hooper · Richard Caswell · Robert Howe · Maurice Moore

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.

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Richard Caswell · Willie Jones · Cornelius Harnett

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Thomas Burke · Richard Caswell · John Penn · Thomas Person · Henry Pattillo

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.

Hillsborough has seventy or eighty houses when the Congress meets

At the time of the 1775 Congress the town held about seventy or eighty houses and three or four hundred people, and residents found lodging for nearly two hundred delegates and visitors.

People: Samuel Johnston

The Provincial Congress forms the Hillsborough District and its committee of safety

The Congress grouped Orange, Granville, Chatham and Wake counties into a Hillsborough District with a thirteen-member committee of safety; John Atkinson, John Butler and William Johnston sat for Orange. Thomas Person and John Kinchen represented the district on the Provincial Council.

People: John Butler · William Johnston · Thomas Person

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: George Micklejohn

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

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.

People: Robert Howe

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.

People: William Hooper · Richard Caswell

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.

People: Richard Caswell

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.

Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

People: Joseph Hewes · Richard Caswell

The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough adopts William Hooper's resolution of loyalty to George III

Two days before it dissolved, the Congress unanimously passed a resolution from Hooper professing its members' support for the king's succession, even as it raised troops and money for defense.

People: William Hooper

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.

People: Samuel Johnston · Samuel Ashe · Willie Jones · Samuel Spencer · Waightstill Avery · Thomas Person · Cornelius Harnett

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.

Loyalist rector George Micklejohn is taken into custody

With the outbreak of the Revolution Micklejohn remained loyal to the Crown and was taken into custody. St. Matthew's Parish had no Episcopal rector again until 1825.

Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

Rochester is named to a commission to set up a gun factory near Hillsborough

The commission was to establish a gun factory near Hillsborough, and Rochester led a wagon train to Philadelphia to obtain iron for it. Illness later that year ended his military service.

James Hogg sits on the Hillsborough board of commissioners

James Hogg, a member of the Hillsborough Committee of Safety during the Revolution, sat on the town's board of commissioners in 1777.