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Local figure

John Gray

John Gray was one of the first officers of Orange County. The 1752 act creating the county named him a vestryman of St. Matthew's Parish and set its first court at his house near the Eno. He was sheriff by 1754. As lieutenant colonel he tried to raise the county militia against the Regulators in 1768, and he represented Orange in the Assembly of 1773.

Source: Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina

5 indexed works are 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.

Session of December 1793-January 1794: Senate Bills: December 14

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1793

Senate bills of 14 December 1793, 15 images: one to divide Beaufort County, another to repeal the relief act for militiamen disabled by wounds and for widows and orphans of those who died in service. Courthouses, marriage law and prisons also appear, and Hillsborough is among the places tied to the session.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

House Committee of Privileges and Elections: reports and papers

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1783

Reports and papers of the House Committee of Privileges and Elections for the 1783 session at Hillsborough, including depositions on disputed elections in Washington, Bladen, Rutherford and Beaufort counties. John Gray Blount, William Blount and Landon Carter appear. 62 images.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Letters transmitted to the Governor of Orange County regarding the rebellious and civil disturbances in several provinces

1768

Letters sent to the governor in 1768 concerning rebellious and civil disturbances in Orange County and other provinces. Edmund Fanning, Francis Nash, William Butler, Peter Craven and James Hasell are named, with Hillsborough, Brunswick, Halifax and Wilmington as places and riot, militia, warrants and troop movements as topics. Cited to Colonial Office volume CO 5/312, North Carolina correspondence of the Secretary of State, 1768 to 1769.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

Duke NC State

Gray family papers, 1722-1879 (bulk 1846-1879).

Gray family · 1722

Gray family papers, roughly 650 items in a linear foot and a half running from 1722 to 1879 and heaviest after 1846, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. Account books sit among the correspondence. Topics include lawyers in eighteenth and nineteenth century North Carolina, fisheries, family social life, and students at the Bingham School in Orange County and at Wesleyan Female College in Murfreesboro.

Why this is here: Listed as its creator.

UNC

John Heritage Bryan (1798-1870) Collection

Bryan, John Heritage, 1798-1870 · 1716

Papers of John Heritage Bryan (1798 to 1870), New Bern lawyer, legislator and Whig congressman from 1825 to 1829, dating 1716 to 1907. His letters mostly follow social life in the towns and plantations of eastern North Carolina, chiefly New Bern and Raleigh, from the 1820s to the 1860s, and touch the university at Chapel Hill and the Hillsborough Academy.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

State Archives of NC

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John Patterson is named one of the first vestrymen of St. Matthew's Parish The act of the 1752 Assembly that created Orange County and the Parish of St. Matthew named John Patterson among the twelve vestrymen who were to serve until the first vestry election. People: Alexander Mebane, James Watson, Mark Morgan, John GraySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 23: Acts of the General Assembly, March 31-April 15, 1752, ch. VI
  2. The Orange County court holds its first session at John Gray's house Eight justices of the peace held the county's first Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions at John Gray's house near the Eno River, with Alexander Mebane as sheriff and Richard Caswell as clerk. They named fifteen road commissioners and several constables and laid a poll tax of one shilling on each tithable. People: John Patterson, John GrayLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 19
  3. Justices recommend John Gray for sheriff With Alexander Mebane's term running out, the court sent the governor three names, with 10 votes for John Gray, 8 for Lawrence Thompson and 6 for James Dickey. Gray, the justices' favorite, was appointed. People: Matthew Rowan, John Gray, Lawrence ThompsonSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 168
  4. Alexander McCulloch gives up his commission in the Orange County militia The 1754 return of the colony's militia records that McCulloch gave up his commission for Orange and recommended Sheriff John Gray as colonel. NCpedia says he resigned because he lived too far from the county. People: John GraySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Report concerning the militia in each county of North Carolina, 1754
  5. Edmund Fanning writes Governor Tryon that Orange is in revolt Two weeks after Regulators rescued a seized horse at Hillsborough, Fanning reported people across the county binding themselves by oath to refuse taxes, and said he and other officers expected an attack. People: Edmund Fanning, William Tryon, Thomas Lloyd (died 1792), Thomas Hart, Francis Nash, James Thackston, John GrayLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 31

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 John Gray, 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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Research sources

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Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for John Gray 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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