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Local figure

Tyree Harris

Tyree Harris served as sheriff of Orange County during the Regulator movement. In August 1768 the justice James Thackston reported to him that the Regulator William Butler had vowed not to pay the tax for the governor's house at New Bern. That October Harris wrote Governor William Tryon that the Regulators he had visited in their homes were now willing to pay their taxes.

Source: NCpedia: Bennehan, Richard

3 works about Tyree Harris are indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineThe sheriff and the taxes: Orange County's sheriffs, 1752–17771752–1777 · 19 events · In colonial Orange County the sheriff collected the taxes, and how sheriffs and their deputies collected them became a grievance that fed the Regulation. The governor chose sheriffs from names the county court sent him, beginning with Alexander Mebane, who returned 1,113 tithables for 1752 and 1753. Thomas Hart's short account and the Assembly bill excusing him from taxes, deputies' seizures of deer skins and livestock, and Tyree Harris's extra charge on late payers came before the 1768 depositions and the rescue of a seized horse at Hillsborough. Regulators whipped Sheriff John Lea in 1769. In 1777 the first court under statehood named Mebane's son sheriff.

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

  1. Thomas Hart is made an Orange militia captain and commissary In 1768 Thomas Hart was made a captain in the Orange County militia and commissary for the troops of Orange and Granville counties. NCpedia says he also began a second term as sheriff that year, but the papers printed in Husband's Impartial Relation name Tyree Harris as the sheriff collecting the 1767 taxes in 1768 and John Lea as the new sheriff that August; Henderson gives Hart's terms as sheriff as 1762-63. People: Thomas Hart, Tyree Harris Place: Orange County · Also named: John LeaSearch the index · NCpedia: Hart, Thomas · Also: Internet Archive: Hermon Husband, An Impartial Relation
  2. Sheriff Tyree Harris advertises his tax collection and a charge on late payers Under a new act requiring sheriffs to sit at five places in each county between January 1 and March 1 to receive taxes, Orange sheriff Tyree Harris posted notice that anyone who did not pay at those times and places would owe him two shillings eightpence extra, even if the money was ready when his deputy called. Husband called the notice insulting and said it helped stir up the "Mob" that became the Regulators. People: Tyree Harris Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Hermon Husband, An Impartial Relation (1770), ed. William K. Boyd, North Carolina Historical Review 3 (1926), p. 234
  3. Justice James Thackston reports William Butler vowing not to pay the palace tax Thackston told former sheriff Tyree Harris that Butler said the Regulators would pay nothing toward the governor's house at New Bern for three years, and that some two hundred Regulators had threatened anyone who seized their goods. People: William Butler (Regulator), James Thackston, Tyree Harris Place: Orange CountyLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 29
  4. Tyree Harris reports the Regulators ready to pay their taxes Writing to Tryon, Tyree Harris said that on recent visits to the Regulators in their homes he had found them willing to pay their taxes. People: William Tryon, Tyree Harris Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 179
  5. Richard Bennehan buys the land that began the Stagville plantation Bennehan bought land northeast of Snow Hill on the west side of the Flat River, the start of what became the Stagville-Fairntosh plantation complex. People: Richard Bennehan, Tyree Harris Place: Orange County · Also mentions: Snow HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Bennehan, Richard (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Tyree Harris, 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.

Indexed works

Works about or by Tyree Harris. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Collection of responses to the insurgents by various governors and settlers, and minutes of a council held at Hillsborough, 13th August 1768

1768

Governor William Tryon's council met at Hillsborough on 13 August 1768, and this file gathers its minutes together with replies to the insurgents from governors and settlers. People named include Tryon, James Hunter, William Butler and Tyree Harris, and subjects include rebellion, treason, taxes and civil disturbance. The setting is Orange County itself. Reference CO 5/312.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

Duke NC State

Session of January-March, 1773: Lower House Papers; February 3, Speaker's warrant for Tyree Harris, late sheriff of Orange County

1773

Speaker's warrant of February 3 for Tyree Harris, late sheriff of Orange County, issued during the General Assembly session of January to March 1773. Two images in the State Archives of North Carolina.

Included because: Its title names this person.

NC Digital Collections

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

Session of December, 1770-January, 1771: Bills; December 10, Bill to enlarge the time for several sheriffs to settle their accounts, etc.

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1770

Colonial bill of the North Carolina General Assembly, dated 10 December 1770, giving several sheriffs more time to settle their accounts. The papers include a petition from Tyree Harris, former sheriff of Orange County, with testimony from John Butler and William Picket. Ten images.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections

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

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, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

  • Stagville Houses, farms, parks and cemeteries · Little River · 1 event here

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Research sources

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Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • Harris, Tyree, 1728-1787Colonial and State Records of North Carolina Lists his four documents in the Colonial and State Records, 1768-1773.
  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Tyree Harris Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • 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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