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Thomas Burke (about 1744–1783) settled on a farm near Hillsborough in 1772 and sat in the provincial congresses from 1775. While governor he was captured at Hillsborough in 1781 by the Loyalist raider David Fanning. He was buried on his farm near Hillsborough. He was an enslaver.
Source: NCpedia: Burke, Thomas
1747–1783 as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗
36 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 6 works by Thomas Burke. 1 held at OCPL →
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.
Narrow these works. Each link opens the search already limited to this person. Counts are indexed works, not copies on a shelf; a work can carry more than one period or place.
Heartsease, the frame house at 113 East Queen Street in Hillsborough, documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey after 1933 in eight photographs, five data pages and a caption page. Names connected with the house include Governor Thomas Burke, the Heartt family, Rebecca B. Wall and the Loyalist raider David Fanning, and its history reaches back to the Revolutionary War.
Thomas Burke, the state's third governor, wrote and received these letters in April 1782, after his return from British captivity. Seized at Hillsborough by the Loyalist raider David Fanning in 1781, he had been paroled to James Island before making his way home. The 49 images mention the Cape Fear River and Hillsborough.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Thomas Burke's papers as governor from March 1782, 88 images, written after he came back to North Carolina from captivity. Hillsborough, where the Loyalist David Fanning had seized him in 1781, is named, along with Camden, Chatham and Halifax counties.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
A run of Governor Thomas Burke's letters dated 28 July to 29 August 1781, in 63 images. The correspondence reaches Hillsborough and Anson, Bladen, Cumberland, Franklin, Granville, Northampton, Wake and Warren counties. Burke had been elected the state's third governor that June.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Letters of Governor Thomas Burke from September 1781, in 71 images. Burke was captured at Hillsborough by the Loyalist David Fanning that year and later resumed his duties. Bertie and Chatham counties are also named in the month's papers.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
A short run of Thomas Burke's correspondence, 9 to 11 September 1781, in 12 images. Granville County and Hillsborough are named. Burke, the state's third governor, fell into Loyalist hands at Hillsborough later in 1781.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Stewart E. Dunaway's account of the Battle of Lindley's Mill, fought in September 1781 after the Loyalist David Fanning raided Hillsborough and carried off Governor Thomas Burke. Burke, Fanning and the Lindley family, whose mill gave the fight its name, are the people at its center, with the Revolutionary campaigns in North Carolina as the frame. Published in 2009.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Burke, Thomas, Approximately 1747-1783.
John Sayle Watterson's biography of Thomas Burke, the Irish-born Hillsborough lawyer who sat in the Continental Congress and served as governor of North Carolina during the Revolution, published by University Press of America in 1980. Topics include the state's politics and government from 1775 to 1783 and the Continental Congress. 288 pages with maps.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Burke, Thomas, Approximately 1747-1783.
Reviewed in Journal of American History (1980), The Journal of Southern History (1981).
Governor Alexander Martin's correspondence from his second administration, 12 January to 27 November 1792, with some items from 1791, in 121 images. Oliver Wolcott Jr. is among the writers. Matters include taxation, tobacco, liquor, military pensions, debts and the army's clothing accounts, with William Blount, Benjamin Hawkins, Richard Caswell and Hillsborough named.
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.
April 1791 letters of Governor Alexander Martin, eight images, including correspondence from Abishai Thomas. Martin was elected governor six times. Hillsborough and Orange County figure in the month's business.
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.
Governor Alexander Martin's letters from January 1791, during his second administration, in 20 images. Abishai Thomas is among the correspondents, and Richmond County, Hillsborough and Orange County are named.
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.
June 1791 correspondence of Alexander Martin as governor, 14 images. Letters from Abishai Thomas are among them, and Hillsborough and Orange County come up in the month's affairs.
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.
Letters written and received by Governor Alexander Martin in October 1791, in 22 images, part of the Governors' Papers at the State Archives of North Carolina. Hillsborough and Orange County are among the places concerned.
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.
Hugh Williamson is among the correspondents in Governor Alexander Martin's letters from 6 March to 26 December 1790, during his second administration. County boundaries are a recurring matter, and the 33 images touch Anson, Cumberland, Granville, Johnston, Mecklenburg, Rowan and Orange counties.
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.
Francis Child is among the correspondents in Governor Alexander Martin's letters for May 1790, 14 images. Hillsborough and Orange County appear in the month's business.
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.
House joint resolutions from the session of April 21 to June 3, 1784 at Hillsborough, 193 images of resolutions, petitions and depositions. They range from a replacement certificate for John Hogan and claims by auditors and veterans to courts-martial, Cherokee affairs, taxation and the Continental Congress.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Burke, Thomas, Approximately 1747-1783.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Two reports of the Committee of Claims and Depreciation dated 26 May 1784, in 15 images. One answers John Huske, who had been secretary to the late Governor Thomas Burke, and the other a petition from Burke's executors, with its enclosures. Burke, governor from 1781 to 1782, made his home near Hillsborough.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Burke, Thomas, Approximately 1747-1783.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Senate bill of 8 May 1783, laid over, proposing an Inspector General to oversee the state's finances. It comes from the General Assembly's session at Hillsborough in the last year of the Revolution and bears on public finance. Thomas Burke, the Hillsborough lawyer and former governor, also figures in it. Nine images.
Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Burke, Thomas, Approximately 1747-1783.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.
Stewart E. Dunaway's life of Thomas Burke (about 1747 to 1783), the Irish-born physician, lawyer and poet who settled at Hillsborough, sat in the Continental Congress and became North Carolina's third governor in 1781. Loyalists under David Fanning captured Burke that September; he died at Tyaquin, his Orange County home. The 2009 second issue has 195 pages with illustrations, maps and an index; the first appeared in 2008.
Thomas Burke, a doctor and poet from Ireland, settled at Hillsborough in 1774, sat in the Continental Congress and became North Carolina's third governor in 1781; Stewart E. Dunaway tells his life. Taken prisoner that September by David Fanning's Loyalists, Burke escaped British captivity in 1782 and died in 1783 at Tyaquin, his Orange County home. Printed through Lulu at Morrisville in the 2000s; 160 pages with illustrations, maps and an index.
Thomas Burke, the Irish-born physician and lawyer who settled in Hillsborough in 1774 and was governor when David Fanning's Loyalists captured him in 1781, wrote these twenty-three poems, from verses on the war for independence to love poems. Seventeen were printed here for the first time. Richard Walser supplied an introduction and notes, and the 69-page book, published in Raleigh in 1961, imitates eighteenth-century printing.
Dated events connected with this person: sixteen of 27, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 27 dated events in the chronology →
Burke, born in Ireland and trained as a physician, had practiced law in Virginia before coming to Hillsborough. He was admitted as an attorney in March 1772 and later lived two miles northeast of town.
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
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
Section 41 of the constitution adopted at Halifax, modeled on Pennsylvania's, told the legislature to establish schools and to promote learning in one or more universities. Orange's delegates voted on it, and it became the legal basis for chartering UNC.
People: Thomas Burke · Nathaniel Rochester · John Butler
The factory's shop sat beside a creek on Thomas Burke's land about two miles northeast of town, and a dry summer left the creek too low to drive its wheel. The dry spell slowed the paper mill as well, and the Assembly gave John Hogan more time to earn the paper bounty.
People: Thomas Burke
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 Burke
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.
People: Alexander Martin · Nathaniel Rochester · Thomas Hart · James Hogg · Thomas Burke · William Hooper · William Johnston
Subject: Hillsborough Academy
Thomas Burke of Hillsborough wrote to Horatio Gates that his neighbor Cabe was bringing a load of flour to the southern army and would hand it over only on Gates's order, having been put off by the commissaries. The former Tryon wagoner had come over to the patriot side.
People: Thomas Burke
Meeting at Wake Court House, the General Assembly chose Burke. He ran the government from Halifax for his first two months.
Fanning’s Loyalists captured Governor Thomas Burke during a surprise raid on Hillsborough.
Part of David Fanning’s raid on Hillsborough, September 1781
People: David Fanning · Thomas Burke
Hearing that Loyalists were plundering in southern Orange and that David Fanning was active again, Burke came to Hillsborough and formed a mixed infantry and cavalry company under a Captain Allen of New Hope to guard the area's Whigs.
People: Thomas Burke · David Fanning
Held first as a prisoner of state after Fanning's men delivered him to Major Craig at Wilmington, Burke was admitted to parole on James Island outside Charleston. Loyalist refugees on the island, outlaws from the state he had governed, left him in what he called hourly danger of assassination.
People: Thomas Burke · James Henry Craig
After leaving his parole on James Island, Burke resumed his duties at Hillsborough. His breach of parole drew criticism from many constituents and a dispute between Greene and the British.
People: Thomas Burke · Nathanael Greene
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 Burke
With the General Assembly in session and General John Butler guarding it with 200 county militia, members were roused from bed and paraded in the streets before the report proved false. Fanning had in fact married and fled to South Carolina.
People: John Butler · David Fanning · Thomas Burke
The North Carolina highway marker G-16, cast in 1939, stands on Churton Street in Hillsborough. It records that Governor Burke was captured in the town by David Fanning and his Tories on September 12, 1781, and taken to Charleston.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.
People named in the same dated entries as Thomas Burke, 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.
The index lists works with an Orange County connection. To find everything else about Thomas Burke, search these catalogs.
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Picture: Thomas Burke, 2013. No known copyright restrictions. Photograph by State Archives of North Carolina; www.flickr.com; via Wikimedia Commons
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