Jesse Benton

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →

1. late 1770 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. People: Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, Alexander Martin, Jesse Benton, William Johnston, Adlai Osborne Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Thomas HendersonNash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 19
2. Fall 1780 Thomas Hart leaves Hartford and moves his family to Maryland With Loyalists raiding his property and Cornwallis expected after Camden, Thomas Hart took General Gates's advice and in the fall of 1780 moved his family from Hartford to Hagerstown, Maryland, according to his partner Nathaniel Rochester, who went with him. Before leaving Hart sold part of his land, and Hartford went to Jesse Benton, husband of his niece, for a payment and a note. There is no record that Hart came back. People: Thomas Hart, Nathaniel Rochester, Horatio Gates, Jesse Benton Place: Hartford, near HillsboroughInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 333
3. February 1781 Cornwallis's troops plunder Jesse Benton's brandy and sugar Jesse Benton wrote Thomas Hart in June 1781 that when Cornwallis's army held Hillsborough he had saved everything from the troops except 110 gallons of brandy, 60 pounds of brown sugar, and some jugs, bottles and other trifles that they plundered. People: Jesse Benton, Thomas Hart Place: Eno River, near HillsboroughInternet Archive: William N. Chambers, "As the Twig Is Bent: The Family and the North Carolina Years of Thomas Hart Benton, 1752-1801", North Carolina Historical Review 26 (1949), p. 394
4. March 14, 1782 Jesse Benton's son Thomas Hart Benton is born near Hillsborough Thomas Hart Benton, later a U.S. senator from Missouri, was born on March 14, 1782, the son of Jesse and Ann Gooch Benton. His biographer William N. Chambers placed the birth in a house on the Benton land on the right bank of the Eno about three miles west of Hillsborough, and thought the family did not live at Hart's Mill until late 1782; the state highway marker gives Hart's Mill, and a local tradition names Moorefields. Place: Hart's Mill, near Hillsborough · Also named: Thomas Hart Benton, Ann Gooch Benton · Also mentions: MoorefieldsSearch the index · NC DNCR: Thomas H. Benton (G-26) · Also: Internet Archive: William N. Chambers
5. 1783 Jesse Benton of Orange County writes to Thomas Hart about legal disputes Jesse Benton of Orange County wrote to Thomas Hart about legal disputes and the pursuit of enslaved people. The letter survives in the Jesse Benton Papers at the State Archives. People: Thomas Hart Place: Orange CountySearch the index · State Archives of North Carolina catalog: Jesse Benton Papers (PC.322)
6. 1784 Jesse Benton serves as secretary-treasurer of the Science Hall academy's trustees Jesse Benton supported the academy called Science Hall that was trying to get started at Hillsborough, and in 1784 he was secretary-treasurer of its board of trustees. Some years later he gave the school the 50 pounds damages he won from Colonel William Sheppard for an assault. Chambers found that the school disappeared from the record about 1790. People: Jesse Benton Place: Hillsborough · Also named: William SheppardInternet Archive: William N. Chambers, "As the Twig Is Bent: The Family and the North Carolina Years of Thomas Hart Benton, 1752-1801", North Carolina Historical Review 26 (1949), p. 400
7. 1788 The county court rules Jesse Benton owes no tax on his unsurveyed western claims Jesse Benton's 1788 list of taxable property showed claims to 23,931 acres west of the mountains, among them tracts on the Chickasaw Bluffs of the Mississippi and on the Obion River. Because none had been surveyed, the Orange County court, with his brother Samuel Benton Jr. as clerk, found that he need not pay tax on them that year. Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Samuel Benton Jr.Search the index · Internet Archive: William N. Chambers, "As the Twig Is Bent: The Family and the North Carolina Years of Thomas Hart Benton, 1752-1801", North Carolina Historical Review 26 (1949), p. 401
8. May 28, 1789 The court lets John, a man enslaved by William Hooper, carry a gun on Hooper's land On William Hooper's motion through his attorney Jesse Benton, the court allowed John, a man Hooper held in slavery, to hunt with and carry a gun on Hooper's plantation on the Eno about two miles below Hillsborough, to protect Hooper's stock and kill game for his family. People: William Hooper, Jesse Benton Place: William Hooper's plantation on the Eno, about two miles below Hillsborough · Also named: JohnMark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1789
9. May Term 1789 Jesse Benton wins Jean Latta a support order against William McCabe On a motion by her attorney Jesse Benton, the county court ordered William McCabe, whom Jean Latta had charged on oath with being the father of her daughter born 23 April 1789, to pay her £48 over six years, at £8 a year in half-yearly sums, and to give bond. The order was to lapse if the child or the mother died before the child turned six. People: Jesse Benton Place: Orange County · Also named: Jean Latta, William McCabeSearch the index · Mark Chilton, Natural Child: Legitimacy, Sexuality and Shame in the Court Records of Orange County, North Carolina 1777 to 1868 (Wandering through the NC Piedmont)
10. Late 1790 Jesse Benton dies at Hartford Jesse Benton died of consumption before the end of 1790, leaving a large estate heavily in debt. His will, dated October 21, 1790, left his widow Nancy the Meadow Place plantation on McGowen's Creek, divided the enslaved people and western lands among the children, and let his executors, Nancy, Alfred Moore, William Watters and Absalom Tatom, sell Hartford and its mills to pay his debts. It was witnessed by his brothers Samuel and Augustine and proved at Hillsborough in the August 1791 term. He was buried at Hartford. People: Alfred Moore, Absalom Tatom Place: Hartford, near Hillsborough · Also named: Nancy Benton, William WattersSearch the index · Internet Archive: William N. Chambers, "As the Twig Is Bent: The Family and the North Carolina Years of Thomas Hart Benton, 1752-1801", North Carolina Historical Review 26 (1949), p. 403
11. by November 15, 1890 Col. George W. Tate nears the end of his map survey of Orange County Surveyor George W. Tate wrote that his survey for a map of Orange would be finished within days, after he had covered every part of the county. His letter describes historic places west of Hillsborough, among them the site of Maddock's Mill, the old Tryon road and Jesse Benton's unmarked grave, which he asks the county to preserve. People: Jesse Benton, George W. Tate Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Orange County Observer (Hillsborough), November 15, 1890, p. 2