Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

John Haywood

John Haywood (1755–1827), North Carolina's state treasurer for forty years, was one of the university's original trustees in 1789 and stayed on the board until his death. He served on the building committee that placed the first building and laid out and sold the lots of Chapel Hill. After he died, his estate sold enslaved people to repay missing state funds.

Source: NCpedia: Haywood, John (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)

4 indexed works are connected with this person.

Search these 4 works Research sources View indexed works ↓

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.

Petitions (Real Estate and Confiscated Property)

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1791

Petitions to the North Carolina General Assembly of 1791 to 1792 concerning real estate and confiscated property, 176 images. Petitioners from across the state sought relief over land titles, estates, wills and debts. Hillsborough and the University of North Carolina appear among the places and bodies named.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Haywood, John, 1755-1827.

NC Digital Collections

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

House Joint Resolutions: May 1-17, 1783

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1783

House joint resolutions of May 1 to 17, 1783, from the Assembly's Hillsborough session. They settle what was owed to Samuel Johnston and Whitmell Hill, former delegates to Congress, review the court-martial of Chowan County's Colonel James Blount, and touch on Moravians, Quakers, Mennonites and Cherokee affairs. 73 images.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Haywood, John, 1755-1827.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

Joint Select Committees: Reports and Papers, May 8 - May 18

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1782

From the 1782 session of the General Assembly, joint select committee reports and papers of 8 to 18 May, in 134 images. Captain James Reed, James Houston of Rowan County and George Meek are among those whose cases came before the committees. Other matters include State Legion officers, disabled veterans, price regulation, Cherokee affairs, Thomas Burke, and Hillsborough and Orange County.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Haywood, John, 1755-1827.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

Senate Joint Resolutions: February 1-2

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1781

Resolutions of 1 and 2 February 1781 before the North Carolina Senate, 33 images: a flag of truce to Charles Town carrying supplies for prisoners, a rejected purchase of arms taken at Kings Mountain, pay for John Haywood as secretary of the board of war, and Anthony Bledsoe's appointment as lieutenant colonel of militia. William R. Davie and Isaac Shelby are also named.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Haywood, John, 1755-1827.

NC Digital Collections

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

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Trustees adopt a university seal showing Apollo and the rising sun A committee of James Hogg, Alfred Moore and John Haywood, given sole power to choose a device for the corporation's seal, picked the face of Apollo with the rising sun, meant to stand for the dawn of higher education in the state. People: James Hogg, John Haywood, Alfred MooreDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 15
  2. Trustees name John Williams to the committee that will build the university and lay off Chapel Hill On the day they fixed the university at New Hope Chapel Hill, the trustees appointed seven commissioners to erect its buildings and lay off an adjoining town of 24 two-acre and six four-acre lots. People: William Richardson Davie, Alfred Moore, Thomas Blount, Alexander Mebane, John HaywoodSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 77
  3. Trustees adopt the plan of instruction and set the university's opening for January 15 The board ordered the McCorkle committee's scheme into effect, fixed tuition by subject and created a presiding professor at $300 a year plus fees. It also resolved to build a steward's house before the opening and set a bill of fare for Commons with no drink but water. People: Samuel Eusebius McCorkle, John Haywood, William LenoirDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 50
  4. The university raises money for the Main Building by lottery The legislature of 1801 let the trustees raise up to $4,000 by lotteries. Two drawings, the first of 1,500 five-dollar tickets and the second in 1802, cleared $5,080.81, though agents were slow to account for tickets. People: John Haywood, William PolkSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 126
  5. Students move into the finished South Building Subscriptions Caldwell gathered on tours of the state in 1809 and 1811, about $8,220, let contractor John Close finish the Main Building begun in 1798. Students moved in during 1814. People: Joseph Caldwell, William Gaston, John HaywoodSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 134
  6. Joseph Caldwell is elected president a second time After William Neill and Lewis von Schweinitz declined the office, the trustees returned the presidency to Caldwell by a commission taking effect January 1, 1817. People: John Haywood, William PolkSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 245

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.

  • South Building University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 2 events here
  • Steward’s Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as John Haywood, 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

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for John Haywood 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

Local help

Search further

Ready-made searches in other catalogs and collections. Results are not checked against this person.

Books about John Haywood

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the catalog heading Haywood, John, 1755-1827, which helps separate this person from others with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026