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Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 7,092 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

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10 dated events
1771Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Outlawed Regulator leaders petition Governor Martin for pardon

    Law, policy or court · Orange County

    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)

  3. Battle of Alamance

    Violence or armed conflict · Present-day Alamance County; then Orange County

    Governor William Tryon's militia defeated the Regulators at Alamance. James Few, captured on the field, was hanged at Tryon's camp the next day.

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

    People: William Tryon · Herman Husband · Robert Palmer · James Few

  4. Tryon proclaims a pardon for Regulators who come into camp, lay down their arms and take the oath

    Law, policy or court · Tryon's camp on Alamance Creek (then Orange County)

    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

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

    Violence or armed conflict · Sandy Creek (then Orange County, now Randolph County)

    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

  6. Tryon offers 100 pounds and a thousand acres for Husband, Hunter, Howell and Butler, dead or alive

    Law, policy or court · Bethabara

    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) · Rednap Howell

  7. Tryon's army returns to Hillsborough with its Regulator prisoners

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    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

  8. Regulators are tried and executed at Hillsborough

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    After the Battle of Alamance, Regulator prisoners were tried at Hillsborough and twelve were condemned for treason. Six were pardoned; on June 19 Governor Tryon's army marched the others to a gallows east of town and hanged them, among them Benjamin Merrill, Robert Messer, Robert Matear and James Pugh. James Few had been hanged at camp on May 17.

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

    People: William Tryon

  9. Tryon takes leave of his army at Hillsborough and hands the command to Colonel Ashe

    Closing or ending · Hillsborough

    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

  10. Tryon, now governor of New York, asks the King's free pardon for the six reprieved Regulators

    Law, policy or court · Fort George, New York

    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

  11. Civil rights era · 1945–1975
  12. The Colonial Dames erect a marble monument to the hanged Regulators beside the Hughes Academy schoolhouse

    Naming or commemoration · Hillsborough

    In 1963 the North Carolina Society of the Colonial Dames of America erected a marble slab monument to the six Regulators hanged at Hillsborough in June 1771, placing it next to the historic Hughes Academy schoolhouse in Hillsborough. The men's grave, thought to lie near the Eno, has never been found.

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

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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 3, 2026.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026