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Local figure

William Cain Sr.

William Cain owned Pleasant Grove, a plantation beside the Indian Trading Path in Orange County, from 1779 until his death in 1834, and by 1800 was the county's largest landowner with 4,417 acres. He enslaved 30 people in 1800 and 95 by 1830, ran a mill on the Little River, and was a justice of the peace.

Source: Open Durham: Pleasant Grove / Hardscrabble Plantation

Also found in catalogs as William Cain.

1743–1834 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 indexed work is connected with this person.

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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.

Willie Person Mangum papers,

Mangum, Willie Person,; Mangum, Arthur,; Mangum, Charity Alston Cain

Personal and political papers of Willie Person Mangum, the Whig senator from Orange County, together with papers of Arthur Mangum and Charity Alston Cain Mangum. Correspondents include Daniel Webster, William A. Graham, David L. Swain, John Chavis and Abraham Lincoln, and other topics include plantations at Hillsborough, the estate called Walnut Hill, state politics, agriculture and education.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Cain, William, Sr., 1743-1834 -- Correspondence.

Library of Congress

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 8 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John Hogan is appointed trustee for Orange County The county court named John Hogan trustee, the office later called county treasurer, under a bond of 1,500 pounds. The book dates the treasurer's office in Orange from 1778 to its abolition in 1948. People: Colonel John Hogan, William McCauley, William Cain Sr.Search the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 176
  2. William Cain acquires the Pleasant Grove plantation on the Trading Path William Cain acquired the Orange County property later called Pleasant Grove, beside the old Indian Trading Path, and held it until his death in 1834.Search the index · Open Durham: Pleasant Grove / Hardscrabble Plantation
  3. Hillsborough builders add a Federal-style house at Cain's Pleasant Grove The Cains commissioned the Hillsborough builders Martin Palmer and Samuel Hopkins to build a second, Federal-style house about ten feet from the original 1775 Georgian house at Pleasant Grove. People: Samuel HopkinsSearch the index · Open Durham: Pleasant Grove / Hardscrabble Plantation
  4. Orange County leads the state in pledges to the university By July, Davie and Willie Jones reported 909 pounds 4 shillings pledged in Orange against 804 pounds in Halifax, out of $6,723 statewide. William Cain and Walter Alves of Orange were among the three largest subscribers at $200 each, and Jesse Neville of Orange gave $100. People: Willie Jones, Walter Alves, William Richardson Davie, Alfred Moore, William Cain Sr.Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 78
  5. William Courtney mortgages a man named Africa to William Cain William Courtney of Orange County pledged an enslaved man known as Africa to William Cain as security for 200 pounds, the bill of sale to be void if Courtney repaid the debt with interest by the following February 28. People: William Cain Sr., William CourtneyOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 7, p. 321 (deed image)
  6. William Cain is the largest landowner in Orange County, enslaving 30 people By 1800 William Cain owned 4,417 acres, the most of any landowner in Orange County, and enslaved 30 people at Pleasant Grove, a number he increased to 95 by 1830.Search the index · Open Durham: Pleasant Grove / Hardscrabble Plantation
  7. Hillsborough Academy reopens for boys and girls under Andrew Flinn The academy's trustees announced that it had reopened on a larger plan for youth of both sexes under the Rev. Andrew Flinn, teaching Latin, Greek, English, mathematics and bookkeeping. People: William Kirkland, Duncan Cameron, William Cain Sr., Walter AlvesInternet Archive: Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840: A Documentary History (1915)
  8. William Cain Sr. dies at ninety-one William Cain Sr. died in Orange County on the evening of July 28, 1834, aged ninety-one. His son and executor William Cain sold the crops and stock of his Flat River plantation, his home plantation and his mill that November.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 30, 1834, p. 3

Places in this person’s story

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.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as William Cain Sr., 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.

Research sources

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Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for William Cain Sr. Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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Historical records and collections

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