Skip to content

Local figure

Joseph Hewes

Hewes sat at Hillsborough as a delegate for Edenton in the Provincial Congress of August and September 1775, serving on its Committee of Secrecy for procuring arms and on the committee that drafted an address to the province. That congress appointed him a delegate to the Continental Congress.

Source: Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775

1730–1779 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

3 indexed works are connected with this person.

Joseph Hewes, 1776
Joseph Hewes, 1776

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.

House Joint Resolutions: May 3-15

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1779

House joint resolutions of May 3 to 15, 1779, 146 images of resolutions, messages and petitions. The House appointed a chaplain and acted on requests from Walter Gibson of Bladen County, James Glasgow and Captain Francis Tartason, among many others, with matters of militia, taxation, land grants and schools.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Hewes, Joseph, 1730-1779.

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

Joint Papers (January-February, 1779): Election writs and certificates

North Carolina. General Assembly · 1779

Election writs and certificates for the January to February 1779 session of the North Carolina General Assembly, twelve images. Counties and towns named include Beaufort, Chowan, New Hanover, Pitt, Washington, Edenton and Orange. Joseph Hewes and Timothy Bloodworth are among the people.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Digital Collections record: Hewes, Joseph, 1730-1779.

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

William Hooper (1742-1790) Papers

Hooper, William, 1742-1790 · 1773

Papers of William Hooper, lawyer, legislator for New Hanover and Orange counties and delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1777, dated 1773 to 1810. They include a March 1776 letter from Commissary General Joseph Trumbull on the siege of Boston, a letter about medicines and one from the loyalist Mary Middleton about a vessel. Hooper signed the Declaration of Independence and later lived in Hillsborough. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.1141.

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

Life and Orange County connections

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

  1. Congress at Hillsborough appoints a committee to address the inhabitants of the province The same day the congress named Maurice Moore, William Hooper, Robert Howe, Richard Caswell and Joseph Hewes to prepare an address to the inhabitants of North Carolina, stating the controversy with Great Britain in plain language and calling on them to unite in defence of American liberty. Doctor Burke was added to the committee on August 24. People: William Hooper, Richard Caswell, Maurice Moore, Robert HoweSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
  2. Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a Committee of Secrecy to procure arms On August 23, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough resolved that its president, Mr. Harnett, Mr. Caswell, Mr. Hewes, Mr. Nash, Mr. Willie Jones and Mr. Young be a Committee of Secrecy for procuring arms and ammunition. The committee was to report what sums of money would be needed for the purpose. People: Richard Caswell, Willie Jones, Cornelius HarnettSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
  3. Congress at Hillsborough appoints Hooper, Hewes and Caswell to the Continental Congress Meeting at Hillsborough on September 2, 1775, the congress thanked William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and Richard Caswell for their service as the province's delegates at the last Continental Congress and appointed the three delegates for a further year, each to be paid five hundred pounds proclamation money. People: William Hooper, Richard CaswellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
  4. The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints John Penn to the Continental Congress Richard Caswell told the congress at Hillsborough that his new duties as treasurer for the Southern District and as a signer of the public bills of credit left him unable to serve in the Continental Congress. The congress resolved the same day that John Penn take his place beside William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, with the same powers and allowance. People: Joseph Hewes, Richard Caswell, William HooperSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
  5. William Hooper signs the Declaration of Independence William Hooper signed the Declaration in Philadelphia. He later became a Hillsborough resident. People: John Penn, Joseph HewesSearch the index · NCpedia
  6. Thomas Burke of Hillsborough is elected to the Continental Congress The last Provincial Congress chose Burke with William Hooper and Joseph Hewes. Apart from April to August 1778 he served until April 12, 1781, sitting on 108 committees. People: William Hooper, Joseph HewesSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 46

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Joseph Hewes, 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 Joseph Hewes 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 Joseph Hewes

More catalogs that show where copies are

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Hewes, Joseph, 1730-1779, 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.

Picture: Joseph Hewes, 1776. Public domain. Guilford Courthouse National Military Park; via Wikimedia Commons

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

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

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