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Rednap Howell

Rednap Howell (died 1787), a New Jersey man known as the poet of the Regulators, was indicted after the Regulators kept the court from sitting at Hillsborough in September 1770, though he probably took no part in the worst of the rioting. After the Battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon outlawed him and offered a reward for his capture.

Source: NCpedia: Howell, Rednap (Elmer D. Johnson, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1988)

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

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. A general Regulator meeting agrees to send twelve men to meet county officials at Thomas Lindley's The meeting agreed to send twelve men and then named thirteen, among them Herman Husband, James Hunter and Rednap Howell, to gather at Lindley's on May 11 in hope of meeting representatives of the officers. The arrests of Husband and William Butler broke up the plan. People: Herman Husband, William Butler (Regulator), Rednap HowellColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 7, pp. 731-732: Regulators' Advertisement No. 8, minutes of the meeting of April 30, 1768
  2. Regulators meeting at George Sally's appoint a committee of eight to petition Governor Tryon Having agreed after the May confrontation to submit their case to the governor, the Regulators met at George Sally's in Orange County, declared their loyalty to King George and named William Moffitt, William Cox, Harmon Cox, John Low, John Marshall, James Hunter, Rednap Howell and George Hendry to gather the complaints into a petition and to implore the governor's pardon in the most submissive manner. People: James Hunter, Rednap HowellDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Regulators' Advertisement No. 10, minutes of a meeting of the Regulators, May 21, 1768
  3. James Hunter and Rednap Howell present the Regulators' petition to Tryon at Brunswick The petition, Advertisement Number Nine, carried 474 names, 31 of them written in German. Tryon told the Regulators to give up their name and pay their taxes, but he also warned officers against excess fees and had the lawful fees published. People: James Hunter, William Tryon, Rednap HowellLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 34
  4. Regulators marching on New Bern turn back at Haw River Regulators from Rowan, Orange and Granville gathered under James Hunter to march on New Bern, where Herman Husband was jailed. They broke up at Haw River on hearing that a grand jury had declined to indict him and he had been released on February 8. People: James Hunter, Herman Husband, Rednap HowellNash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 21
  5. A special court at New Bern presents and indicts Husband, Hunter, Butler and Howell for the Hillsborough riot Sitting under Chief Justice Martin Howard with Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, the special court of oyer and terminer at New Bern received a grand jury presentment against the Regulators who in September last 'broke up that Court' at Hillsborough, and returned indictments for riot against Herman Husband, James Hunter, William Butler and Rednap Howell among others. People: Richard Henderson, Herman Husband, James Hunter, William Butler (Regulator), Maurice Moore, Martin Howard, Rednap HowellDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Minutes of the New Bern District Court of Oyer and Terminer, including court docket, March 11 to 16, 1771
  6. Regulator threats keep the Hillsborough superior court from sitting At the March 1771 term the Hillsborough District superior court recorded that the Regulators led by Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell, William Butler and Samuel Devinney, who had broken up the September court, were still threatening judges, lawyers and officers, so none attended. The court was continued to September 1771. People: James Hunter, Herman Husband, Rednap HowellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records, Minutes of the Hillsborough District Superior Court, March 1771
  7. Tryon offers 100 pounds and a thousand acres for Husband, Hunter, Howell and Butler, dead or alive Marching back toward Hillsborough, Tryon proclaimed from Bethabara that Herman Husband, James Hunter, Rednap Howell and William Butler stood outlawed and liable to be shot by anyone, and offered one hundred pounds and one thousand acres of land to whoever brought any of them into his or General Waddell's camp. People: William Tryon, Herman Husband, James Hunter, William Butler (Regulator), Rednap HowellDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Proclamation by William Tryon concerning a reward for the capture of Regulator leaders, June 9, 1771

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Rednap Howell, 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.

Background on The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771

These works give background on The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771, the wider story this person is part of (176 works in all). Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Hillsborough and the Regulators

Cameron, Annie Sutton · 1964 · Orange County Historical Museum

Annie Sutton Cameron's short account of Hillsborough during the Regulator uprising of 1766 to 1771, when backcountry farmers protested colonial officials and courts and Hillsborough, as the seat of Orange County, stood at the center of the conflict. Published by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough in 1964, 36 pages with illustrations.

Farming Dissenters: The Regulator Movement in Piedmont North Carolina

Troxler, Carole Watterson · 2011

Carole Watterson Troxler's history of the Regulator movement in Piedmont North Carolina, from land speculation and backcountry resentment through Herman Husband and the Sandy Creek network to the petitions, court proceedings and rioting in Hillsborough and Salisbury, the Battle of Alamance in 1771 and the movement's afterlife in the Revolution. An appendix compiles names in a Regulator context. Published by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources in 2011, 221 pages with illustrations, maps and an index.

Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina

Kars, Marjoleine · 2002 · University of North Carolina Press

Marjoleine Kars's history of the Regulator Rebellion of 1766 to 1771, the backcountry uprising against corrupt county officials that ended at the Battle of Alamance. Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, was a center of the Regulators' protests and the scene of their 1770 court riot. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2002, 286 pages with illustrations and maps.

Reviewed in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2003).

The War of the Regulation and the Battle of Alamance, May 16, 1771

Powell, William S. · 1976 · State Dept. of Archives and History

William S. Powell's short account of the War of the Regulation and its end at the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771, when Governor Tryon's militia defeated the backcountry Regulators. The fighting took place in what was then Orange County, and Hillsborough, the county seat, had been the center of the Regulators' grievances and riots. Issued by the State Department of Archives and History, 32 pages with illustrations, facsimiles, a portrait and a folding map; this printing is dated 1976.

The Regulators in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1759-1776

Powell, William Stevens; Huhta, James K.; Farnham, Thomas J. · 1971 · State Dept. of Archives and History

Documentary history of the Regulator movement of 1766 to 1771, the backcountry protest against corrupt county officials that centered on Hillsborough and ended at the Battle of Alamance, compiled by William S. Powell, James K. Huhta and Thomas J. Farnham. The volume prints primary sources from 1759 to 1776. Published by the State Department of Archives and History in 1971, xxxix and 626 pages with illustrations.

Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1972), The Journal of Southern History (1972).

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Some Neglected History of North Carolina: Being an Account of the Revolution of the Regulators

Fitch, William Edward · 1905 · Neale Pub. Co.

William Edward Fitch's account of the Regulator movement and the Battle of Alamance of 1771, which his subtitle calls the first battle of the American Revolution, published by Neale in 1905 in a second edition. Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, was the scene of the Regulators' 1770 courthouse riot and of the hangings that followed Alamance. 307 pages with nine leaves of plates, folding maps and a portrait.

On the Important Duty of Subjection to the Civil Powers

Micklejohn, George · 1768

George Micklejohn's sermon on the duty of subjection to the civil powers, preached at Hillsborough in Orange County on Sunday, September 25, 1768, before Governor William Tryon and the troops he had raised against the Regulators. The full title calls the rising the late insurrection. Online reproduction of the original, 15 pages plus one unnumbered page.

The history of Maddock's Mill - Hillsborough, NC : including owners Thomas Hart, Rev. James Frazier, Jesse Benton, Catlett Campbell

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2022

History of Maddock's Mill at Hillsborough and of its owners Thomas Hart, Rev. James Frazier, Jesse Benton and Catlett Campbell. Stewart E. Dunaway published it in 2022 through Lulu, 174 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles, appending Benton and Hart family histories.

Dispatches from Josiah Martin to the Earl of Dartmouth numbered 21-24, enclosing copies of legislation

2019 · Adam Matthew Digital

Governor Josiah Martin's numbered dispatches 21 through 24 to the Earl of Dartmouth, with copies of North Carolina legislation enclosed, reproduced by Adam Matthew Digital in 2019 from Colonial Office file CO 5/303 part 2. Subjects include finance and currency, debt and the courts, judges' wages, the council and assembly, voting and taxes, oaths, litigation, sheriffs, inheritance, prisoners, Irish settlers, customs, quitrents, land grants, surveying and mortgages. Names include Arthur Dobbs, William Dry, Willie Jones, John Rutherford and Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough.

Dispatches from William Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough numbered 59-67, enclosing documents concerning the Regulators

2019 · Adam Matthew Digital

Numbered dispatches 59 through 67 from Governor William Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough, with enclosures about the Regulators, whose protests broke into riot at Hillsborough in 1770. Reproduced by Adam Matthew Digital in 2019 from Colonial Office CO 5/302. The papers touch on the council and assembly, naval stores and trade, oaths, militia and provincial troops, judges, sheriffs and juries, voting, currency, Cherokee affairs, clergy, quitrents and land, and name officials such as Richard Caswell, Richard Henderson, Maurice Moore and Hugh Waddell.

Letters and Dispatches from Josiah Martin to the Earl of Hillsborough and the Lords Commissioners

2019 · Adam Matthew Digital

Dispatches from Josiah Martin, the last royal governor of North Carolina, to Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, the secretary of state for the colonies for whom the Orange County seat is named, and to the Lords Commissioners in London. Adam Matthew Digital reproduced the file, Colonial Office CO 5/303 part 1, in 2019. Topics include women, medicine and health, land grants, the courts and litigation, German and Protestant migration to the frontier, the Regulators, riot and treason, salt and alcohol imports, Spanish shipping and crime.

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