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Key local figure

Herman Husband

Herman Husband (1724 to about 1795) acquired more than 10,000 acres in Orange and Rowan counties and settled on Sandy Creek. He was the Regulators' spokesman and pamphleteer and represented Orange County in the Assembly in 1769 and 1770, when he was expelled. After the Battle of Alamance in 1771 he fled the province as a proscribed traitor.

Source: NCpedia: Husband (or Husbands), Herman (or Hermon, Harman)

Also found in catalogs as Hermon Husbands, Herman Husbands, Hermon Husband.

1724–1795 as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

14 indexed works are connected with this person.

Search these 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.

The sword of peace : Hermon Husbands and Quaker heritage

Couch, Jack · 1974

Jack Couch's 1974 account of Hermon Husbands, the Quaker associated with the Regulator movement, set against the heritage of Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in what is now Alamance County. The Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771 turned on Hillsborough, then the seat of Orange County, where the Regulators broke up the court. Topics include Alamance County history in the eighteenth century.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Husbands, Hermon, 1724-1795.

UNC

A church quarrel and what resulted

White, Julia S. · 1900

Julia S. White's short piece on a quarrel at the Cane Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends and what followed from it, printed in 1900 as pages 90 to 98 of a larger work. The account includes Herman Husbands, 1724 to 1795, and Rachel Wright, linking the episode to the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, centered on Hillsborough when Cane Creek still lay in Orange County.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Husbands, Hermon, 1724-1795.

NC Cardinal

Correspondence of the Earl of Hillsborough and Governor Martin concerning ammunitions at Fort Johnston, the Powder Act of South Carolina, and insurgents approaching New Bern

1771

Letters between the Earl of Hillsborough and Governor Josiah Martin, dated 1771, on the ammunition stored at Fort Johnston, South Carolina's Powder Act, and reports of insurgents moving toward New Bern. A second letter in the file turns to routine state business, Treasury bills and the birth of a royal prince. Herman Husbands is named. Hillsborough town in Orange County carries the Earl's title.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Husbands, Herman.

Duke NC State

Journal of the North Carolina assembly, 5 December 1770 - 26 January 1771

1770

The journal of the North Carolina assembly from 5 December 1770 to 26 January 1771, covering appointments, prices, public revenue, grievances, trade, rebellion and the courts. Herman Husbands, Richard Caswell and John Burgwin are among the names, and the session fell in the Regulator years, when the unrest centred on Hillsborough and the Orange County courts.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Husbands, Herman.

Duke NC State

George Bancroft letters

Bancroft, George · 1845

Letters of the historian George Bancroft, 1845 to 1885, 22 items. Fifteen are transcripts of letters addressed to UNC president David L. Swain about the state's history: the Regulators, the Loyalists, the Mecklenburg Declaration, Tryon and Martin as governors, and Edmund Fanning and Hermon Husbands, both central to the Regulator troubles in Hillsborough.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the DPLA record: Husbands, Hermon, 1724-1795.

Duke DPLA

Letter from Governor Martin (no.4) regarding six rebels sentenced to death and the location of Herman Husbands

1771

Governor Josiah Martin's dispatch numbered 4, written in 1771, on six rebels sentenced to death and the whereabouts of Herman Husbands, with Pennsylvania among the places. Six men are mentioned alongside Husbands: William Brown, James Copeland, Herman Cox, James Emerson, Forrester Mercer and James Stewart. Hillsborough is named, with petitions, mercy and capital punishment among the topics. From Colonial Office volume CO 5/329.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Husbands, Herman.

Duke NC State
Show 6 more

Letters from William Tryon (Jan-Feb 1771) regarding appointments to Council, legislation and moves towards the restoration of public tranquillity

1771

From January and February 1771, Tryon's letters on appointments to the council, legislation, and moves toward restoring public tranquillity. Herman Husbands and Orange County are mentioned, with sedition, the militia, riot, punishment, currency and petitions listed as topics. Cited to Colonial Office volume CO 5/328, North Carolina letters to the Secretary of State, 1766 to 1771.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Husbands, Herman.

Duke NC State

Letters from William Tryon (Apr 1769) regarding ordnance stores for Fort Johnston, recent unrest in relation to taxes and the acquittal of Herman Husbands

1769

Ordnance stores for Fort Johnston, recent unrest over taxes, and the acquittal of Herman Husbands are the matters William Tryon reported in April 1769. Hillsborough, Brunswick, Wilmington, Charleston and the Cape Fear River appear as places, and topics include artillery, privateering, riot, punishment and rebellion. One online resource in Colonial Office series CO 5/328, North Carolina letters to the secretary of state, 1766 to 1771.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Duke record: Husbands, Herman.

Duke NC State

Orange County (N.C.) court records, 1769-1771.

1769

Five Orange County court documents from 1769 to 1771, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 564-z. The documents concern indictments during the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771 and Regulator leader Hermon Husbands. The items are the county court's own papers from the years of that conflict.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Husbands, Hermon, 1724-1795.

UNC

Letter from the Earl of Hillsborough to William Tryon regarding a petition to introduce paper money as legal tender

1768

Five letters from the Earl of Hillsborough to Governor William Tryon, dated 1768. They take up a petition to make paper money legal tender, addresses by Parliament against disaffection in the colonies, storm damage and the rebuilding of New Bern, a postal route through the province with a request for a governor's house, and the suppression of insurgents with a general pardon and boundary disputes. Herman Husbands is among the names.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC State record: Husbands, Herman.

Duke NC State

Writ at large for arrest of Regulators, writ for arrest and writ for imprisonment of Herman Husband, May 1 - 2, 1768

North Carolina. Office of Archives and History. Division of Archives and Records Management · 1768

Three court writs of 1 and 2 May 1768 from the Regulator troubles: a general writ for the arrest of Regulators, and writs to arrest and to imprison Herman Husband, a leader of the movement. Backcountry settlers had rebelled against royal officials they accused of taking excessive fees, and Orange County was the center of the unrest. Seven images.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

John Allen (1749-1826) Papers

Unknown · 1756

Papers of the family of John Allen of Alamance County, 1756 to 1877 and 1900 to 1904. They include his father's 1756 Granville grant in Orange County and 1769 will from Chester County, Pennsylvania, grants, plats and a deed for Orange and Chatham tracts from 1789 to 1797, tax receipts and store account books. Quakers and Hermon Husband are among the topics. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.1467.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the State Archives of NC record: Husband, Hermon.

State Archives of NC

Search all 14 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Start here · NC 975.602 TROXLER 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.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 31 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Herman Husband, the Regulators’ pamphleteer, was born Herman Husband was born in Cecil County, Maryland, to an Anglican family and later became a Quaker. He settled at Sandy Creek, then in Orange County and now in Randolph County, where he reprinted and circulated political pamphlets and became a leading voice of the protest against county officers.Search the index · Documenting the American South: John Spencer Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1894), "The Leaders"
  2. Herman Husband buys two town lots from William Churton Years before he became a Regulator leader, Herman Husband bought two lots in Corbinton from William Churton and built a house on them. He lived in the town only a few months. People: Herman Husband, William ChurtonNash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 19
  3. A Deep River meeting drafts Regulator Advertisement Number Two Meeting in Herman Husband's neighborhood, settlers wrote a second paper and chose William Cox and William Masset to attend the Maddock's Mill meeting on October 10. It asked the county's assemblymen, vestrymen and officers to come and answer their questions. People: Herman HusbandLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 30
  4. The Regulator movement organizes in Orange County Orange County farmers first organized in 1766 to question county officers about taxes and fees, a Sandy Creek effort that Herman Husband led and that lapsed in 1767. In early 1768 a new association, soon called the Regulation, pledged to pay no taxes or fees beyond what the law allowed. People: Herman Husband, Edmund Fanning, William TryonColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 7, pp. 671-672: Regulators' Advertisement No. 4
  5. Deputy attorney general John Williams signs the order jailing Herman Husband and William Butler Appointed deputy attorney general for the Hillsborough district in 1768, Williams signed the order that sent the Regulator leaders Husband and Butler to jail after the April disturbance in Hillsborough. NCpedia suggests this is why the rioters beat him in 1770. People: Herman Husband, William Butler (Regulator)Search the index · NCpedia: Williams, John (Marion M. Edmonds, 1996)
  6. Regulators rescue a seized horse at Hillsborough After the sheriff seized a Regulator's horse for an unpaid levy, about 100 Regulators rode into Hillsborough, took the horse back and fired shots into the roof of Edmund Fanning's house. Officials sought the arrest of William Butler, Peter Craven and Ninian Bell Hamilton as ringleaders. People: Herman Husband, Edmund Fanning, Peter CravenColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 7, pp. 705-706: Letter from John Gray to Edmund Fanning, April 9, 1768
  7. 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
  8. More than 400 Orange County inhabitants sign a petition to the governor and council At the April 30 meeting the Regulators drew up a petition to the governor and council in the name of the inhabitants of Orange County, to be held back unless the officers failed to settle. Herman Husband, not yet a Regulator, was among more than 400 signers. People: Herman HusbandInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 169
  9. Regulators confront officials at Hillsborough Edmund Fanning and 27 armed men arrested Herman Husband and William Butler at Sandy Creek on May 2, 1768. The next day hundreds of Regulators and neighbors marched on Hillsborough; officials released the prisoners, and the governor's secretary read a proclamation promising to hear their grievances, after which the crowd dispersed. People: Herman Husband, William Butler (Regulator), Edmund FanningColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 7, pp. 759-766: Regulators' Advertisement No. 11
  10. Ralph McNair presses Herman Husband to adopt a petition written by the officers After the May confrontation at Hillsborough, the county officers sent Husband, through Ralph McNair, a petition of their own drafting in which the Regulators would call their conduct illegal and withdraw their charges. McNair warned that Fanning would report the case to Tryon as treason if it was refused, and the Regulators instead named their own committee to lay their papers before the governor. People: Herman Husband, Edmund Fanning, Ralph McNairInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 170
  11. Regulators hear the governor's letter from the sheriff and resolve to petition the Assembly At a Regulator meeting called to answer Tryon's reply, the Orange sheriff read a letter and proclamation telling them to submit to tax collection. The sheriff and his deputy swore the crowd refused and threatened them; Husband said the people only told the sheriff they would take the matter to the Assembly, and the meeting sent Tryon an answer saying so. People: Herman HusbandInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 174
  12. Sheriff John Lea brings the Regulators Tryon's demand for a 1,000 pound bond On the day set for settling accounts, the former sheriff stayed away and the new sheriff, John Lea, brought a severe letter from Tryon, endorsed by three councillors at Hillsborough. It demanded that twelve leading Regulators meet him at Salisbury by August 25 and give a 1,000 pound bond that no one would try to rescue Butler and Husband at the September court; Tryon left for Salisbury the same day. People: William Tryon, William Butler (Regulator), Herman HusbandInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 175
Show all 31 dated events
  1. Chief Justice Martin Howard and two associate justices hold the Hillsborough superior court term Martin Howard, Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson sat at the Hillsborough District Superior Court term in which Edmund Fanning was found guilty and Regulators including William Butler were tried. People: Maurice Moore, Richard Henderson, Edmund Fanning, William Butler (Regulator), Herman HusbandSearch the index · Documenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Minutes of the Hillsborough District Superior Court, September 22 to October 1, 1768
  2. A Hillsborough jury finds Edmund Fanning guilty on an indictment In the same superior court term that tried the Regulator leaders, the King's indictment against Edmund Fanning went to a jury on September 27, which found him guilty. The day before, Herman Husband had surrendered William Butler to the court, and both men entered 500 pound bonds to abide its sentence. People: Edmund Fanning, Herman Husband, William Butler (Regulator), Richard Henderson, Maurice Moore, Martin HowardDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Minutes of the Hillsborough District Superior Court, September 22 to October 1, 1768
  3. William Butler is convicted of riot at the Hillsborough superior court With Governor Tryon's militia in Hillsborough for the September 1768 term, the superior court tried the Regulator cases. Herman Husband was acquitted; William Butler was found guilty on two counts and sentenced to a fine of 50 pounds and six months in prison, but Tryon released him and suspended the fines. People: Herman Husband, William Tryon, Samuel DevinneySearch the index · Documenting the American South: John Spencer Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771)
  4. Tryon pardons the 1768 protesters except thirteen named leaders His proclamation left out men including James Hunter, Herman Husband, Ninian Bell Hamilton and William Payne. People: James Hunter, Herman Husband, Peter CravenLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 35
  5. An unsigned address urges Orange County voters to change their assemblymen When Tryon dissolved the Assembly and called a new election in 1769, an address appeared in Orange, perhaps by Husband, that set out the people's wrongs and told voters the remedy was in their own hands. Orange went on to replace its whole delegation, electing Husband and John Pryor. People: Herman HusbandSearch the index · Internet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 183
  6. The March 1769 superior court at Hillsborough hears the Regulators' cases against the officers With no troops in town, many Regulators came to the March 1769 court to prosecute the officers, with little success. Herman Husband was tried and acquitted, James Hunter's case was continued, and Fanning was tried again on the old fee charge and formally convicted. People: Herman Husband, James Hunter, Edmund FanningInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 182
  7. Orange voters elect Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly In the elections set for July 18, 1769, Orange returned the Regulators Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly over Edmund Fanning. People: Herman Husband, Edmund Fanning, John PryorColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 8, pp. 302-303: members returned to the Assembly begun at New Bern October 23, 1769 (list printed at the head of the December 1770 minutes)
  8. Herman Husband publishes An Impartial Relation His account of the Regulation traced the first disturbances to Orange County while granting that Granville and Halifax had been in the same dispute years earlier. People: Herman HusbandLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 25
  9. Orange County reelects Herman Husband and John Pryor to the Assembly In the new election called after Tryon dissolved the Assembly in November 1769, Orange again returned the Regulator candidates Husband and Pryor. Fanning, who had lost, came back through the new borough of Hillsborough. People: Edmund Fanning, John PryorSearch the index · Internet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 189
  10. Regulators disrupt the Hillsborough Superior Court About 150 Regulators crowded the Hillsborough Superior Court, beat the lawyer John Williams, Edmund Fanning and others, and forced Judge Richard Henderson to adjourn; he fled that night. The next day the crowd tore down Fanning's house and wrote mocking judgments on the court docket. People: Herman Husband, Edmund Fanning, Richard Henderson, Alexander Martin, Thomas Hart, John WilliamsColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 8, pp. 241-244: Letter from Richard Henderson to William Tryon, September 29, 1770
  11. The Assembly expels Orange County's member Herman Husband and the Council orders his arrest The House of Assembly resolved that Husband, a principal promoter of the late riots in Orange County and publisher of a seditious letter printed over James Hunter's name, be expelled. The same day the Council unanimously advised his arrest and the Chief Justice issued a warrant; he lay in the New Bern jail until a grand jury found no bill on February 8, 1771. People: Herman Husband, James Hunter, William Tryon, Martin HowardDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Minutes of the North Carolina Governor's Council, December 20, 1770
  12. Orange County elects Francis Nash to a seat left by Herman Husband's expulsion With John Pryor dead and Herman Husband expelled from the Assembly, Orange County filled the two vacant seats in 1771 with Ralph McNair and Francis Nash, both strong opponents of the Regulators. Nash had fought against the Regulators at Alamance that year as a militia captain. People: Herman Husband, Ralph McNair, John PryorSearch the index · Documenting the American South: John Spencer Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771)
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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 Howell, Samuel DevinneySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records, Minutes of the Hillsborough District Superior Court, March 1771
  16. Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County Jones marched into Orange County with Governor William Tryon's colonial militia and was appointed Tryon's aide-de-camp on May 15, 1771, the day before Tryon defeated the Regulators at Alamance. Several days later he was sent to raid the plantation of the Regulator leader Herman Husband. People: Herman Husband, William TryonSearch the index · NCpedia: Jones, Willie
  17. Battle of Alamance Governor William Tryon's militia defeated the Regulators at Alamance. James Few, captured on the field, was hanged at Tryon's camp the next day. People: William Tryon, Herman Husband, Robert Palmer, James FewNCpedia
  18. 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
  19. The Recorder begins reprinting Herman Husband's account of the Regulation Dennis Heartt began reprinting in the Recorder, from the Greensborough Patriot, Herman Husband's rare account of the Regulation in Orange so that subscribers could read and keep it, praising the Regulators' spirit of liberty. The Patriot's copy had come through the Rev. Mr. Caruthers from a Regulator's granddaughter living in Indiana. People: Dennis Heartt, Herman HusbandSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, February 8, 1844, p. 3

Places in this person’s story

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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.

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