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Local figure

William Kirkland

William Kirkland (1768–1836) emigrated from Ayr, Scotland, opened a store in Hillsborough and built Ayr Mount, his plantation at Hillsborough, where he held at least twenty Black people in slavery.

Source: On These Grounds (UNC Libraries): William Kirkland (1768-1836)

4 works about William Kirkland are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

Search these 4 works Research sources View indexed works ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 16 dated events in the chronology →

  1. William Kirkland opens his own store in Hillsborough William Kirkland, who left Ayr, Scotland, to work in the mercantile trade, had married and opened his own store in Hillsborough by 1793. Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Classical American Homes Preservation Trust: About the Kirkland Family (Ayr Mount), archived January 20, 2014 · Also: Open Orange: Ayr Mount
  2. James Baldridge is appointed treasurer of the county's public buildings The court appointed James Baldridge treasurer of the county's public buildings. At August Term he gave bond of £2,000, with Walter Alves, William Kirkland and Henry Thompson Sr. as sureties, and took the oaths. People: Walter Alves, William Kirkland Place: Hillsborough · Also named: James Baldridge, Henry Thompson Sr.Search the index · Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: May Term 1796
  3. Hillsborough Academy reopens for boys and girls under Andrew Flinn The academy's trustees announced that it had reopened on a larger plan for youth of both sexes under the Rev. Andrew Flinn, teaching Latin, Greek, English, mathematics and bookkeeping. People: William Kirkland, Duncan Cameron, William Cain Sr., Walter Alves Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Andrew FlinnInternet Archive: Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840: A Documentary History (1915)
  4. Hillsborough Academy trustees engage Thomas Baron after George Johnston fails to arrive The academy trustees, Walter Alves among them, announced that George Johnston had not taken charge as promised and that they had engaged Thomas Baron, a Harvard graduate, to teach languages, arithmetic, geography and mathematics. People: Walter Alves, William Kirkland, Duncan Cameron, George Johnston Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Thomas BaronSearch the index · Internet Archive: Charles L. Coon, North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790-1840 (1915)
  5. Suit by William Kirkland and others leads to the sale of Hannah and her children Legal proceedings brought by William Kirkland, Catlett Campbell, Jacob Greer and Isaac Mordecai against Robert Bell placed Hannah and her children Jenny and David in the hands of the sheriff. Sheriff Samuel Turrentine sold the three at public auction at the Hillsborough Market House to Duncan Cameron for 200 pounds. People: Duncan Cameron, William Kirkland Place: Hillsborough, Market House · Also named: Catlett Campbell, Jacob Greer, Isaac Mordecai, Robert Bell, Samuel Turrentine, David, Hannah, JennyOn These Grounds (UNC Libraries): 1804, Sale of Hannah, Jenny, and David
  6. William Kirkland gives four enslaved people to Thomas and Anne Ruffin Out of affection for his son-in-law Thomas Ruffin and his daughter Anne, William Kirkland of Ayr Mount conveyed to Ruffin a woman named Juley, her two children, John and an infant, and a young girl, all of them already in the Ruffins' household. The deed was proved at the Orange County court that August. People: William Kirkland, Thomas Ruffin, Anne Kirkland Ruffin Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Ayr MountOrange County Register of Deeds: Deed Book 13, pp. 574-575 (deed image) · Also: Orange County Register of Deeds: sales of enslaved people, 1761-1867; Orange County Indexed: the record of Deed Book 13/574, with everyone named in it; Mark Chilton’s abstract of Deed Book 13/574, in Orange County Indexed’s historic deeds
  7. The court orders the street opposite the Hillsborough courthouse paved The court appointed William Kirkland and William Whitted commissioners, with the treasurer of public buildings, to contract with a suitable person to pave the street opposite the courthouse in Hillsborough, and set aside one hundred dollars for the work from money in the treasurer's hands. People: William Kirkland Place: Street opposite the courthouse, Hillsborough · Also named: William WhittedSearch the index · Mark Chilton, transcription of the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions minutes: February Term 1814
  8. Ayr Mount is completed Scottish-born merchant William Kirkland built Ayr Mount, a Federal-style brick plantation house near Hillsborough, in 1815. Its brick was made on the plantation, and carpenter John J. Briggs, a mason named Collier and joiner Elhannon Nutt worked on the house. People: William Kirkland Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Ayr MountSearch the index · Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation: Ayr Mount
  9. William Kirkland opens a cash store in Hillsborough Kirkland advertised in February 1820 a new cash store in his former house, stocked with cloth, blankets, guns, tools and hardware. He also sought a young clerk. Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 272
  10. The Orange County Agricultural Society is organized at Hillsborough A meeting at Hillsborough during superior court week organized an agricultural society for Orange County, with William Kirkland in the chair and John Taylor Jr. as secretary, adopted a constitution and offered premiums for the largest yields of corn, cotton, turnips and potatoes on reclaimed land; Duncan Cameron, James Mebane, William Norwood and Dr. James S. Smith formed its corresponding committee. People: William Kirkland, Duncan Cameron, James Mebane, William Norwood, James Strudwick Smith Place: Hillsborough · Also named: John Taylor Jr.Search the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 27, 1822, p. 3
  11. The Orange Agricultural Society meets at Hillsborough and elects Duncan Cameron president The Orange Agricultural Society met in Hillsborough with a quorum, elected Duncan Cameron president, William Norwood first vice president, William Kirkland treasurer and John Taylor secretary, and named a corresponding committee. The meeting also took up claims for the premiums the society offered and voted money to several of them. People: Duncan Cameron, William Norwood, William Kirkland Place: Hillsborough · Also named: John TaylorSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, August 28, 1822, p. 3
  12. The Union Hotel company calls its Hillsborough stockholders for their last installment William Kirkland, president of the stock company that owned Hillsborough's Union Hotel, called on the stockholders to pay their last installment of $14.85 a share by November 28 and summoned them to a general meeting at the hotel in court week. People: William Kirkland Place: Union Hotel, HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, October 30, 1822, p. 3
Show all 16 dated events
  1. The Orange County Bible Society holds its first anniversary meeting The Auxiliary Bible Society of Orange County met at Hillsborough, heard its first annual report and re-elected Judge William Norwood president. The board reported that it had given out 110 of the 100 Bibles and 75 Testaments received from the American Bible Society in a county of 23,492 people, cut annual dues to one dollar, and moved future anniversaries to the first Monday in August. People: William Norwood, James Webb, Duncan Cameron, William Kirkland, James Mebane, William Huntington, John Witherspoon, Walker Anderson Place: HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 16, 1823, p. 3
  2. The Orange County Sunday School Union asks the Assembly to fund its schools The Orange County Sunday School Union petitioned the General Assembly for 25 cents a year per pupil for its 22 Sunday schools, which taught 800 to 1,000 children, many from poor families, to read. John Scott of Hillsborough presented it in the House of Commons, which turned it down. People: James Webb, William Kirkland, William Norwood, John Knox Witherspoon, Dennis Heartt, John Wall Norwood, William Huntington Place: Orange County · Also named: John ScottSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), pp. 131-132
  3. The Rev. William Mercer Green builds the first house on the land later called Montrose Around 1827 the Rev. William Mercer Green, rector of St. Matthew's, built the first house on land he had bought that May from William Kirkland, who had acquired it in 1821; the tract had first belonged to James Hogg. William A. Graham bought it in 1842. People: William Mercer Green, William Kirkland, James Hogg, William A. Graham Place: Montrose, 320 St. Mary's Road, Hillsborough · Also mentions: St. Matthew'sSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Montrose, National Register nomination (OR0050), section 8 · Also: NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register
  4. William Kirkland dies, leaving Ayr Mount to his widow William Kirkland died in 1836 and left his estate to his wife, Margaret Scott Kirkland; their son John Umstead Kirkland later acquired Ayr Mount from her estate. The inventory taken after his death lists twenty enslaved people, some of whom worked at his store, tannery and other businesses in Hillsborough. People: John U. Kirkland Place: Hillsborough, Ayr Mount · Also named: Margaret Scott KirklandSearch the index · NC Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Ayr Mount (OR0002, 1971) · Also: Columbian Repository (Chapel Hill), July 2, 1836, p. 3

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as William Kirkland, 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.

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Indexed works

Works about or by William Kirkland. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

The Kirklands of Ayr Mount

Anderson, Jean Bradley · 1991 · University of North Carolina Press

Jean Bradley Anderson's family history of the Kirklands, the Scottish family who built Ayr Mount, the plantation house that still stands outside Hillsborough. Beginning with a 1696 marriage in Lochfergus, Scotland, the account centers on William Kirkland, born 1768, who came to North Carolina from Scotland, married Margaret Blain Scott in 1792 and established the family at Ayr Mount, and it follows their descendants. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1991, 241 pages plus 22 pages of plates, with maps.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 AND NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson

Ayr Mount on the Eno River, near Hillsborough, North Carolina

Sanders, John L. · 1989

John L. Sanders writing on Ayr Mount, the house built for William Kirkland on the Eno River near Hillsborough. Printed as an offprint from the May 1989 issue of The Magazine Antiques, with a bibliography on page 13. Covering historic buildings in Orange County and Kirkland himself, who lived from 1768 to 1836, it is a compact account of one of the county's landmark houses.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Kirkland, William, 1768-1836.

UNC

Ayr Mount

North Carolina ECHO (Project) · 2002

William Kirkland, a Scottish merchant and investor, built Ayr Mount in Hillsborough. His portrait was photographed at the house on 6 April 2002 for the North Carolina ECHO project.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

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

John U. Kirkland account books, 1829-1867

Kirkland, John U. (John Umstead), 1802-1879 · 1829

Merchant account books of John U. Kirkland (1802-1879), covering 1829 to 1867, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 405. The volumes concern nineteenth century Hillsborough commerce and the leather trade, including two firms Kirkland was tied to: Cain and Kirkland, and William Kirkland and Son of Hillsborough.

Included because: Listed as its creator.

UNC

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 4 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.

All places and the county map →

Records of enslaved people

8 records, 1796 to 1829, name William Kirkland as a party to the sale, gift, trust or other transfer of enslaved people. Each record lists the people named in it, with their ages and family ties.

Search all records of enslaved people in Orange County →

Deeds

53 deeds, 1795 to 1835, in the county’s deed books name William Kirkland as a party, from Mark Chilton’s published abstracts. Each links to the deed-book page at the Register of Deeds.

Show all 53 deeds

Search every historic deed →

Wills

6 wills and papers in the county’s will books name William Kirkland, from Ruth Herndon Shields’s abstracts. Each shows the role and the year.

Search the wills →

Research sources

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.

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for William Kirkland Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • 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

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Books about William Kirkland

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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