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Local figure

Duncan Cameron

Cameron built a successful law practice at Hillsborough after his admission to the bar in 1798, became a trustee of the University of North Carolina in 1802, and was a judge of the superior court from 1814 to 1816. He built Fairntosh in 1804 and by 1850 held more than a thousand people in slavery.

Source: NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Cameron, Duncan

1777–1853 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Duncan Cameron. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Duncan Cameron’s life and work.

Search works on Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies Research sources View background reading ↓
Duncan Cameron, engraving published 1906
Duncan Cameron, engraving published 1906

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 30 dated events in the chronology →

  1. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. People: Richard BennehanSearch the index · UNC Wilson Library, Southern Historical Collection: Cameron Family Papers #00133, biographical note
  10. Hillsborough men organize a company to build a cotton and woolen factory Citizens of Hillsborough and Orange County met in 1813 to set up a joint-stock company for a cotton and woolen factory in or near the town, with at least a hundred shares at $25 each. Calling it the Hillsborough Manufacturing Company, the stockholders adopted rules that gave large holders proportionally fewer votes. John Umstead chaired and John Taylor Jr. was secretary; subscription books went to James Mebane, John Craig, Michael Holt and Duncan Cameron of Orange and to Frederick Nash, William Whitted and John Taylor Jr. of Hillsborough, with agents in a dozen other places. The author found no sign the company went beyond organizing. People: James Mebane, Duncan Cameron, Frederick NashSearch the index · Internet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 34 (1957), p. 22
  11. 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 Hett ChapmanSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 239
  12. Orange County elects Michael Holt to the state senate over Duncan Cameron Orange County voters chose Michael Holt over Duncan Cameron for the state senate, 695 to 555, and sent Willie Shaw and James Mebane to the House of Commons ahead of William Barbee. The borough of Hillsborough re-elected John Scott to the Commons. People: Duncan Cameron, James Mebane, William BarbeeSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 16, 1820, p. 3
Show all 30 dated events
  1. The Orange County Agricultural Society is organized at Hillsborough A meeting at Hillsborough during superior court week organized an agricultural society for Orange County, with William Kirkland in the chair and John Taylor Jr. as secretary, adopted a constitution and offered premiums for the largest yields of corn, cotton, turnips and potatoes on reclaimed land; Duncan Cameron, James Mebane, William Norwood and Dr. James S. Smith formed its corresponding committee. People: William Kirkland, Duncan Cameron, James Mebane, William Norwood, James Strudwick SmithSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 27, 1822, p. 3
  2. The Orange Agricultural Society meets at Hillsborough and elects Duncan Cameron president The Orange Agricultural Society met in Hillsborough with a quorum, elected Duncan Cameron president, William Norwood first vice president, William Kirkland treasurer and John Taylor secretary, and named a corresponding committee. The meeting also took up claims for the premiums the society offered and voted money to several of them. People: Duncan Cameron, William Norwood, William KirklandSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 28, 1822, p. 3
  3. An Orange County meeting declares the state constitution defective and names four delegates for the reform convention Delegates from the county's militia captains' districts met at the Hillsborough court house, resolved that the state constitution was defective and ought to be amended, and endorsed the Raleigh convention movement. They recommended Thomas Ruffin, Willie P. Mangum, James S. Smith and Michael Holt as Orange's delegates to the November meeting at Raleigh and asked the sheriff to open a poll for delegates at the next election. People: Thomas Ruffin, Willie P. Mangum, James Strudwick Smith, Duncan CameronSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, June 11, 1823, p. 3
  4. The Orange County Bible Society holds its first anniversary meeting The Auxiliary Bible Society of Orange County met at Hillsborough, heard its first annual report and re-elected Judge William Norwood president. The board reported that it had given out 110 of the 100 Bibles and 75 Testaments received from the American Bible Society in a county of 23,492 people, cut annual dues to one dollar, and moved future anniversaries to the first Monday in August. People: William Norwood, James Webb, Duncan Cameron, William Kirkland, James Mebane, William Huntington, John Witherspoon, Walker AndersonSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 16, 1823, p. 3
  5. 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 Webb, Francis L. HawksSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 298
  6. 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
  7. Bishop Ravenscroft consecrates Salem Chapel, built by Duncan Cameron near his home Duncan Cameron paid for a chapel near his residence in Orange County for his household and neighbors, standing by 1825 and still unfinished when the bishop preached in it in May 1826. After Cameron executed the deeds, Bishop Ravenscroft consecrated it as Salem Chapel on Sunday, October 7, 1827, assisted by Mr. Wright of Salisbury and by William Mercer Green, who served it from Hillsborough. People: John Stark Ravenscroft, William Mercer GreenSearch the index · Joseph W. Murphy, A Sermon-Sketch of the History of St. Matthew's Parish, Hillsboro, N.C. (1900), scan p. 31
  8. Farmers of Orange, Chatham and Guilford meet to talk about a railroad On August 1, 1828, citizens of Orange, Chatham and Guilford met at William Albright's store in Chatham County, with James Mebane of Orange in the chair, to urge a central railroad through North Carolina, the first such meeting in the state. The Rev. Joseph Caldwell gave the address, which was to be printed as a pamphlet, and Caldwell, Duncan Cameron and Michael Holt were named the Orange members of a committee of correspondence. Public meetings on a line through the county went on into the early 1850s. People: Duncan Cameron, Joseph Caldwell, James MebaneSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: Historic Resources of Orange County, National Register multiple property documentation form (1993), p. 19
  9. An Orange County mass meeting calls for state aid to roads and river navigation Friends of internal improvement met at the court house in Hillsborough on April 20, 1829, with Thomas Clancy in the chair and Dennis Heartt as secretary. After the Rev. Joseph Caldwell spoke on the county's want of markets, Caldwell, Duncan Cameron and Cadwallader Jones were named to draft an address. At the adjourned meeting on May 25, chaired by Dr. James Webb, the meeting adopted the address to the people of Orange, which held that a fund for internal improvement must be raised by taxation, and had 500 copies printed for circulation in the county. People: James Webb, Dennis Heartt, Duncan Cameron, Joseph CaldwellSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 86
  10. Orange citizens name Duncan Cameron, Frederick Nash and James Mebane to the state improvement convention An adjourned meeting of Orange County citizens at Hillsborough chose Duncan Cameron, Frederick Nash and James Mebane as the county's delegates to the state internal improvement convention due to meet at Raleigh in November. People: Duncan Cameron, Frederick Nash, James MebaneSearch the index · The Harbinger (Chapel Hill), September 17, 1833, p. 3
  11. 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
  12. An Orange County meeting takes up the internal improvement convention's plan Citizens met at the court house in Hillsborough to hear the county's delegates to the November 1833 Internal Improvement Convention. Duncan Cameron urged a vigorous state system of improvements, Frederick Nash read the convention's memorial to the legislature, and the meeting named Nash, William A. Graham, Priestly H. Mangum and Walker Anderson to draft an address to the people of Orange, adjourning to Thursday of May court. People: Duncan Cameron, Frederick Nash, William A. Graham, Walker Anderson, Edmund StrudwickSearch the index · The Harbinger (Chapel Hill), March 13, 1834, p. 3
  13. 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 Register of Deeds: Deed Book 26, p. 184 (deed image)
  14. 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
  15. 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, Frederick Nash, William A. Graham, George E. Badger, Charles Manly, William McPheetersSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 399
  16. 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. Swain, Charles ManlySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 400
  17. 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 Register of Deeds: Deed Book 32, p. 118 (deed image)
  18. Duncan Cameron gives Thomas D. Bennehan's charity bequest to the Orange County wardens of the poor The Court of Wardens of the Poor for Orange County accepted from Duncan Cameron a gift for the county's poor, made under the clause of Thomas D. Bennehan's will that left Cameron $1,000 for Christian and benevolent purposes at his discretion, entered it in their minutes and sent him their thanks.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 29, 1848, 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.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Duncan Cameron, 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.

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Background on Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies

These works give background on Orange County’s nineteenth-century academies, the wider story this person is part of (166 works in all). Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

By Duncan Cameron

To the freemen of Orange County. Fellow-citizens, the General Assembly of this state commenced its session on Monday the 15th of November, and adjourned this day ...

Cameron, Duncan · 1813

Sixteen-page pamphlet by Duncan Cameron addressed to Orange County's freemen, reporting on the state legislative session that opened November 15, 1813. Cameron first summarizes the session's acts and resolutions and then turns to the federal government, criticizing its handling of defense during the War of 1812. Subjects include North Carolina politics and government, 1775-1865, and Orange County history.

Duke

To the freemen of Orange County : under the same impressions and sense of duty which led me at the close of the last session of the General Assembly ...

Cameron, Duncan, 1777-1853 · 1807

Printed at Raleigh as a broadside in 1807, a sheet in which Duncan Cameron, writing to the freemen of Orange County, reports to his constituents on the acts passed at the last session of the General Assembly. Signed at the end by Cameron and dated December 19, 1807.

UNC Duke

About Duncan Cameron

Anna Burwell and the business of being a Presbyterian minister's wife in North Carolina, 1835-1857

Hoffert, Sylvia D. · 2019 · Historical Research Office, Office of Archives and History

Sylvia D. Hoffert's article on Margaret Anna Burwell, 1810 to 1871, and the work of being a Presbyterian minister's wife in North Carolina from 1835 to 1857, the years of the female school she and her husband kept in Hillsborough. Pages 245 to 275 with illustrations, facsimiles and portraits, issued by the Office of Archives and History in Raleigh in 2019.

UNC

Antebellum Hillsborough, Slavery, and Enslaved and Free People of Color Who Worked at the Burwell School, 1837-1857

Historic Hillsborough Commission (Hillsborough, N.C.) · 2019

The Historic Hillsborough Commission's account of slavery in antebellum Hillsborough and of the enslaved and free people of color who worked at the Burwell School, the female school the Burwells kept in town, between 1837 and 1857. African American history in Hillsborough and the school's own history are its two threads. Published in 2019.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 HISTORIC

The Book of Burwell Students

Engstrom, Mary Claire · 1979 · Historic Hillsborough Commission

Mary Claire Engstrom's biographical register of the young women who attended the Burwell School in Hillsborough, subtitled lives of educated women in the antebellum South. The school was kept by Margaret Anna Burwell and her husband, and the book bears on women's education in nineteenth-century North Carolina. Published by the Historic Hillsborough Commission, 1979, 256 pages with illustrations and portraits.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 371.82 ENG NC Cardinal UNC Durham

The natural bent : the memoirs of Dr. Paul B. Barringer

1949

Memoirs of Dr. Paul B. Barringer, physician and educator, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1949, 280 pages. Barringer attended the Bingham School in Orange County as a boy; he went on to a career in medicine and later headed the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. Subjects include physicians and Bingham School students.

UNC Library of Congress

A Sketch of the School of the Misses Nash and Miss Kollock, Hillsboro, North Carolina

Primrose, Ella P. · 1926

Ella P. Primrose's short sketch of the school kept by the Misses Nash and Miss Kollock in Hillsborough, a select boarding and day school for girls in the nineteenth century. Printed in Raleigh in 1926, 13 pages with a single plate.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 373.756 PRI UNC NC Cardinal

An Historical Address Delivered in Saint Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, N.C., on Sunday, August 24, 1924

Cheshire, Joseph Blount · 1925

Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.

UNC Duke Durham DPLA
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Parent, a word with you about your boy

1910 · Bingham School

Recruiting booklet from Bingham School, the private school in Orange County near Mebane, published in 1910: a word to parents about their boy, with the sentence begun on the cover completed page by page as reasons to enroll him. Signed at the end by Preston Lewis Gray, president of the school. Fourteen pages with illustrations in a small oblong format.

UNC

Where can I send my boy to a safe school?

1907 · Bingham School

Promotional booklet from the Bingham School in Orange County, gathering testimonials from students, parents and others about the quality of its teaching and the way the school was run; the latest testimonials date from 1907. Twenty unnumbered pages with illustrations in a small 9 by 16 cm format.

UNC

A few reasons why the Bingham School, Orange County, near Mebane, N.C. is the best place to educate your boy

1899 · Edwards & Broughton, printers and binders

Small promotional pamphlet for the Bingham School, the private boys' school in Orange County near Mebane, setting out reasons a parent should send a son there. Signed by Preston Lewis Gray on the last page and printed by Edwards & Broughton in Raleigh, around 1899. Ten unnumbered pages, 9 by 16 centimeters.

UNC

Soiree musicale at the Misses Nash and Miss Kollock's School : Hillsboro, N.C., June 10, 1891

1891 · The School

Single-sheet program for a soiree musicale given June 10, 1891 at the Misses Nash and Miss Kollock's School in Hillsborough, a girls' school of the period. It lists the student performers and the music they played, a small record of a school evening and of Hillsborough printing in 1891. One unnumbered page, 22 by 13 centimeters.

UNC

[Form letter] 1882 September 6, Mebaneville, N.C., Dear sir

Bingham, R. · 1882 · R. Bingham

Form letter from R. Bingham concerning the Bingham School, dated September 6, 1882 at Mebaneville, North Carolina, and addressed Dear sir. The family's boarding school was then in Orange County. A single printed sheet, 26 by 21 cm.

UNC

The Misses Nash & Miss Kollock request the pleasure of your company at a musical entertainment, under the direction of Miss Mary Nash : to be given by the young ladies of their school on Thursday evening, June 22nd, at 8 1/2 o'clock

1882 · The School

Printed invitation and program for a musical entertainment given by the young ladies of the Nash and Kollock School in Hillsborough on Thursday evening, June 22, 1882, under the direction of Miss Mary Nash, listing performers and their pieces. A single folded sheet dated June 3, 1882. The Misses Nash and Miss Kollock ran their girls' school in Hillsborough for three decades after the Civil War.

UNC

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Picture: Duncan Cameron, engraving published 1906. Public domain. Samuel A. Ashe, ed., Biographical History of North Carolina, vol. III (1906); via the Internet Archive

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