Skip to content

Local figure

Thomas Benbury

Thomas Benbury presided as speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons when the General Assembly opened its second session of 1778 at Hillsborough on August 8, 1778; the session ran until August 19.

Source: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina House of Commons, Aug 08 to Aug 19, 1778 (vol. 12, pp. 816–880)

2 indexed works are connected with this person.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Biographical history of North Carolina from colonial times to the present

Ashe, Samuel A. · 1905 · C.L. Van Noppen

Samuel A. Ashe's eight volume set of North Carolina biographies, published by C.L. Van Noppen from 1905 and running from the colonial period forward. The sketches take in governors, judges and public men, among them William Tryon, Frederick Nash, Richard Henderson and Matt W. Ransom. Genealogists use the set as a name source for families across the state, Orange County included.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Benbury, Thomas.

House Joint Resolutions: February 12-14

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1781

Resolutions of the House of Commons, February 12 to 14, 1781, among them a request for an express rider to General Greene for the latest news and a summons for Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Taylor to appear before the next Assembly. Cornwallis, King's Mountain and militia matters figure in them. 79 images.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. 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.Search the index · Colonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, Aug 20 to Sep 10, 1775 (vol. 10, pp. 164–220)
  2. 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. People: Thomas Benbury, Allen Jones, Thomas BurkeColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina House of Commons, Aug 08 to Aug 19, 1778 (vol. 12, pp. 816–880)
  3. General Assembly meets at Hillsborough and creates a Board of War Meeting at Hillsborough under Governor Abner Nash, the Assembly levied a provision tax in kind to supply the army and navy, passed acts on treason trials and confiscated property, and created a five-member Board of War. The Board of War held its first meeting in Hillsborough on September 14, 1780. People: Alexander Martin, Abner Nash, Thomas BenburyColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1780 (September session; vol. 24, pp. 344–357)
  4. General Assembly at Hillsborough elects Alexander Martin governor and grants western land to Continental soldiers The Assembly met at Hillsborough, heard Governor Thomas Burke's message about his capture, and elected Alexander Martin governor on April 22. Its laws granted land in a western military reservation to officers and soldiers of the Continental line and directed the sale of confiscated Loyalist estates. People: Alexander Martin, Thomas Benbury, Hugh Williamson, Thomas BurkeColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina Senate, Apr 15 to May 18, 1782 (vol. 19, pp. 1–128)
  5. General Assembly at Hillsborough cedes the state's western lands to Congress The spring 1784 Assembly at Hillsborough passed an act ceding to Congress the state's claim to lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and an act giving Congress power to levy import duties. The House of Commons chose Thomas Benbury as speaker and elected Hugh Williamson and Richard Dobbs Spaight as delegates to Congress. People: Alexander Martin, Hugh Williamson, Thomas Benbury, Richard Dobbs SpaightColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1784 (Apr 19 to Jun 03, 1784; vol. 24, pp. 543–649)

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Thomas Benbury, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Search further

The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Thomas Benbury, search these catalogs.

Books about Thomas Benbury

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Searched by name (Benbury, Thomas). The catalogs give no dates for this person, so results may include other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Research sources

Additional research sources

Other catalogs to search and local organizations that can help.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

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