James Iredell

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens in the chronology.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →

1. March 24, 1778 The superior court sits at Hillsborough for the first time in five years Judges Samuel Ashe and James Iredell opened the March 1778 term in the old courthouse, with Waightstill Avery prosecuting and John Henderson of Granville as grand jury foreman. The district court had not sat since September 1772, when the quarrel between Governor Martin and the Assembly over the court law shut the courts. People: Samuel Ashe, James Iredell, Waightstill AverySearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 69 · Also: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952
2. September 1780 South Carolina's Governor John Rutledge takes refuge in Hillsborough After Camden the town filled with fugitives, and Rutledge, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Daniel Morgan were among those there. It was so crowded that Attorney General Iredell and Judge Williams, arriving for the October superior court, found beds only at Burke's house two miles out, and Rutledge moved into town to share a bed with John Penn of the Board of War. People: James Iredell, John Penn, John WilliamsSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 79
3. July 21–August 4, 1788 Hillsborough Convention declines to ratify the Constitution Meeting at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough, delegates defeated a motion to ratify the Constitution 184 to 84 on August 1, 1788. On August 2 they voted to neither ratify nor reject it until a declaration of rights and amendments went before Congress. People: Samuel Johnston, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Willie Jones, James IredellColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 22, pp. 1-35: Minutes of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention at Hillsborough
4. July 21, 1788 The convention appoints a committee of privileges and elections with three members from each district The convention set up a 27-member committee of privileges and elections, three from each district, which went on to rule on the disputed returns. Alexander Mebane of Orange County sat on it with Thomas Person, William R. Davie and James Iredell. People: Thomas Person, James Iredell, William Richardson Davie, Alexander MebaneDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 20
5. July 21, 1788 The convention names a select committee to draft its rules of debate On its first day the convention asked William R. Davie, Thomas Person, James Iredell, Elisha Battle, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Samuel Spencer and a member named McDonald to propose rules for its discussion of the Constitution. People: Thomas Person, James Iredell, Richard Dobbs Spaight, William Richardson Davie, Samuel SpencerDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 19
6. July 23, 1788 Willie Jones moves that the Hillsborough Convention vote on the Constitution at once Jones moved that the question on the federal Constitution be put immediately, arguing that members had long since made up their minds and that a long sitting would waste public money. Thomas Person seconded him and James Iredell objected. The convention took up the Constitution clause by clause instead, debating it for eleven days. People: James Iredell, Thomas Person, James GallowaySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Convened at Hillsborough, on Monday the 21st Day of July, 1788
7. July 24, 1788 The convention resolves itself into a committee of the whole with Elisha Battle in the chair After David Caldwell's attempt to fix governing maxims for the debate was set aside, the delegates went into committee of the whole, Elisha Battle presiding, and began reading the proposed Constitution clause by clause. The committee sat each day through July 31 except Sunday, July 27. People: James Iredell, Willie Jones, David CaldwellDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, 1788
8. July 26, 1788 James Galloway speaks on the slave trade clause at the Hillsborough convention In committee of the whole, Galloway said he wished to see the "abominable trade" in enslaved people ended, objected to a federal tax on all immigrants, and warned that freeing enslaved people would destroy the property of the southern states. He said the state could not be happy if freed people stayed among the white population after manumission. People: James Iredell, Richard Dobbs SpaightSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 124
9. August 1, 1788 Iredell's motion to ratify and recommend amendments afterward is defeated 184 to 84 Declaring all debate at an end and the majority irresistible, James Iredell moved that the convention ratify the Constitution and recommend amendments afterward, so that the minority's view would stand on the journal. The yeas and nays were taken and the motion lost, 84 to 184. People: James Iredell, Willie JonesDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, 1788
10. August 1, 1788 The majority votes to keep Iredell's ratification motion off the journal, then agrees to let it be offered as an amendment When Samuel Spencer moved to concur with the committee's report, Iredell moved to postpone it for his own resolution, and the house fell into confusion, with Whitmill Hill warning that the minority would secede. Willie Jones carried a motion that Iredell's motion had no right to a place on the journal, but while the yeas and nays were being taken the two sides agreed that Spencer would withdraw and Iredell would offer his resolution as an amendment. People: James Iredell, Willie Jones, Samuel SpencerDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 275
11. February 10, 1934 The Sons of the Revolution give the law school portraits of Justices Iredell and Moore The North Carolina Society, Sons of the Revolution, presented portraits of James Iredell and Alfred Moore, the state's two early justices of the United States Supreme Court, to the University of North Carolina law school. A. B. Andrews of Raleigh spoke on Iredell and Justice Heriot Clarkson of the state supreme court on Moore. People: Alfred Moore, Alexander Boyd AndrewsSearch the index · Internet Archive: "Historical News", North Carolina Historical Review 11 (1934), p. 161 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, February 9, 1934, p. 1