Duncan Cameron

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 18 dated events in the chronology →

1. About 1798 Duncan Cameron sets up as a lawyer at Hillsborough Cameron was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1798 and, after a brief practice at Martinsville in Guilford County, established himself as a successful attorney at Hillsborough. A rivalry with another young Hillsborough lawyer, William Duffy, followed.Search the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Cameron, Duncan
2. between 1801 and 1807 Duncan Cameron builds a law office on Margaret Lane, later the Nash Law Office Lawyer Duncan Cameron built a one-story Federal-style law office on his lots on Margaret Lane. In 1807 he sold the property to Frederick Nash, who kept his practice there and taught law students in it until his death in 1858. People: Frederick NashSearch the index · Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation (National Register, 2014), pdf page 101
3. October 16, 1801 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)
4. 1802 Cameron becomes a trustee of the University of North Carolina Cameron joined the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina in 1802, while he was practicing law at Hillsborough.In the index: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Cameron, Duncan
5. March 18, 1803 Hillsborough Academy trustees engage Thomas Baron after George Johnston fails to arrive The academy trustees, Walter Alves among them, announced that George Johnston had not taken charge as promised and that they had engaged Thomas Baron, a Harvard graduate, to teach languages, arithmetic, geography and mathematics. People: William Kirkland, Duncan Cameron, George JohnstonSearch the index · Internet Archive: Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840 (1915)
6. 1804 Suit by William Kirkland and others leads to the sale of Hannah and her children Legal proceedings brought by William Kirkland, Catlett Campbell, Jacob Greer and Isaac Mordecai against Robert Bell placed Hannah and her children Jenny and David in the hands of the sheriff. Sheriff Samuel Turrentine sold the three at public auction at the Hillsborough Market House to Duncan Cameron for 200 pounds. People: Duncan Cameron, William KirklandOn These Grounds (UNC Libraries): 1804, Sale of Hannah, Jenny, and David
7. December 1805 Trustees repeal the monitor ordinance that set off the student secession The 1805 law made student monitors swear to report every breach of the rules, and forty-five students signed a remonstrance and left when it was only softened. The board repealed it unanimously in December, but few of the seceders came back. People: Archibald D. Murphey, Duncan Cameron, William PolkSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 204
8. 1807 Frederick Nash moves from New Bern to Hillsborough Nash and his wife left New Bern for Hillsborough in 1807 seeking a healthier climate. There he bought a small one-story house, an office and cabins for slave quarters from Duncan Cameron. People: Duncan CameronSearch the index · NCpedia: Nash, Frederick
9. 1810–1811; enlarged 1818–1821 Cameron builds Fairntosh east of the Stagville house On land beside Stagville that Richard Bennehan gave the couple at their 1803 marriage, Duncan Cameron began building Fairntosh in 1810, finished the main house in 1811 and added a large wing about 1818 to 1821. Its dependencies included his law office, a chapel and a family burying ground, and he went on to hold more than a thousand people in slavery.Search the index · UNC Wilson Library, Southern Historical Collection: Cameron Family Papers #00133, biographical note
10. November 23, 1816 Robert H. Chapman resigns the university presidency At the first board meeting after the Shepard affair Chapman resigned, saying he wished to give himself to the ministry. The trustees made it effective at once, paid him half a year's salary and let him keep the president's house to the end of the session. People: Duncan Cameron, Robert H. (Robert Hett) ChapmanSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 239
11. 1824 Faculty and Orange County trustees expel two students who attacked professors Two students, drunk from the village grog shop and armed with a club and a pistol, went out after members of the faculty and assaulted two of them. The trustees living in Orange County were called to sit with the faculty, and the two were expelled. People: Elisha Mitchell, Duncan Cameron, Thomas Ruffin, James WebbSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 298
12. 1826 Duncan Cameron records tobacco sales of nearly 30,000 pounds Cameron's accounts for 1826 show close to 30,000 pounds of tobacco sold from the Bennehan-Cameron plantations, where the crop was grown with the labor of enslaved people. People: Duncan CameronNC Historic Preservation Office: Richard L. Mattson, History and Architecture of Orange County (1996), p. 12
13. 1834 Duncan Cameron of Orange is elected president of the state Colonization Society Cameron, a leading Orange planter and banker, took the presidency of the North Carolina branch of the colonization movement in 1834. People: Duncan CameronLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 104
14. December 24, 1834 Duncan Cameron gives his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people Duncan Cameron deeded his son Paul C. Cameron forty-one enslaved people, with any children the women would bear: Gabriel, Mima, Simeon and Sarah in Orange County, and families at the Mill Quarter plantation in Person County, among them Phillip and Jenny and their children Randol, Jim, Ellen, Nancy and Phill. Cameron acknowledged the deed before Justice William Gaston at Raleigh on January 1, 1835. People: Duncan Cameron, Paul C. Cameron, William GastonOrange County Deed Book 26, p. 184 (Register of Deeds images read 2026-10-01); abstract in the Register of Deeds' slave records
15. 1835 St. Matthew's adds a gallery for Black worshippers under William Mercer Green In 1835, during William Mercer Green's rectorship, a gallery was added to St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough to seat Black worshippers. Green also held monthly services at Duncan Cameron's Salem Chapel, where he gave instruction to enslaved people. People: Duncan CameronSearch the index · St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Hillsborough: From the Abundance of God's Grace: A Brief History of St. Matthew's Parish, 1752-2017
16. January 2, 1835 Trustees create an executive committee to run the university At Duncan Cameron's instance the board placed management in a seven-member executive committee including the governor, with the powers of the land, appointments and building committees and the right to change studies and dismiss faculty. The first members were Cameron, George E. Badger, William McPheeters, Charles Manly, Frederick Nash, William A. Graham and Governor Swain. People: Duncan Cameron, David L. Swain, George E. Badger, William McPheeters, Frederick Nash, William A. GrahamSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 399
17. March to November 1835 Trustees sell off the university's Tennessee lands On resolutions drafted by Duncan Cameron, the executive committee sent Charles Manly to Tennessee to close out the lands with agent Samuel Dickens, and 42,345 acres plus the 20,000 Smith acres went to Orme and Gifford of Boston for $56,345.83. Manly's report of November 21, 1835 counted assets of $171,658, which he reckoned would carry the university's yearly costs with a surplus. People: Duncan Cameron, David L. SwainSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 400
18. June 8, 1846 William Mercer Green pledges fifteen enslaved people and his Bolin Creek land for a loan To secure 2,500 dollars borrowed from John H. Bryan, with David L. Swain and Duncan Cameron as his sureties, William Mercer Green conveyed to William H. Battle in trust his land on Bolin Creek near Chapel Hill and fifteen enslaved people: Jenny, Nancy, Lucy, Frances, Ellen, Celia, Anne, Julia, Rachel, Margaret, Peter, Sam, Aaron, Cain and Robert. If the debt went unpaid, they were to be advertised in the Hillsborough Recorder and sold at Chapel Hill to the highest bidder. People: William Mercer Green, William Horn Battle, David L. Swain, Duncan CameronOrange County Deed Book 32, p. 118 (Register of Deeds images read 2026-10-01); abstract in the Register of Deeds' slave records