Local figure
William Johnston, a Scottish-born merchant, lived in Hillsborough by 1767 and kept a store there with James Thackston, besides a plantation and store called Snow Hill about fifteen miles northeast of the town. During the Revolution he sat on the Hillsborough district committee of safety and represented Hillsborough in the Provincial Congresses of 1776.
Source: NCpedia: Johnston, William (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
1 work about William Johnston is indexed here, as are 2 works by Johnston.
Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.
Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →
People named in the same dated entries as William Johnston, 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.
Works about or by William Johnston. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.
Letters to and from Governor James Turner in October 1804, 20 images. William Johnston is among the writers, and Mecklenburg County, Hillsborough and Orange County are named.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Letter of 2 December 1783 from William Johnston, Orange County legislator and agent for the loyalist Edmund Fanning, to Adlai Osborn of Rowan County, about selling Fanning's Rowan lands to satisfy a judgment. Johnston also remarks on the death of former governor Thomas Burke. A photocopy. State Archives of North Carolina, PC.644.
Issue of Eno, the journal of the Eno River Association, published in 2001 and devoted to the Little River, the Eno tributary that runs along the Orange and Durham county line. Pieces cover the country above the Little River Reservoir, lore of the colonial Trading Path near the river, the eighteenth-century entrepreneur William Johnston, and the river's plants from Lewis's heartleaf to yellow-flowered trillium. 72 pages with illustrations.
Included because: Their name appears in the record.
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.
William Johnston Hogan's study of the Huntington silversmiths and their silver, chiefly Roswell Huntington, who lived from 1763 to 1836, and William Huntington, from 1792 to 1874. The Sir Walter Press of Durham published it in 1977 as a Philip Scott book, 136 illustrated pages with a bibliography and an index.
Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 1 with a known location.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.
Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.
Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.
These searches use William Johnston’s name without birth or death dates, so results may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.
Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.
More to discover
The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.
