Local figure
The English surveyor John Lawson reached Occaneechi Town, near present-day Hillsborough, in early 1701 on a reconnaissance of the Carolina interior for the Lords Proprietors that began on December 28, 1700. There he engaged Enoe Will to guide his party to the English settlements on the coast.
Source: North Carolina History Project: John Lawson (1674-1711)
Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to John Lawson. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about John Lawson’s life and work.
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Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →
People named in the same dated entries as John Lawson, 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 reading on Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading Path. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss John Lawson. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
John Bradley's interview with John Blackfeather Jeffries, an elder of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, whose tribal grounds lie in northern Orange County near Hillsborough. Occaneechi history and Native history in North Carolina and Virginia, the tribe's older homeland, are its subjects. Published in 2021.
Lisa A. Smith's 1994 paper on how Hillsborough presents its past and how the story of the Occaneechi, the Native people whose town stood on the Eno near Hillsborough around 1700, has been brought into that public history. 47 leaves, filmed by the University of North Carolina Library on a microfilm reel with two other items.
Microfilm copy of one of the Research Laboratories of Anthropology reports on the mid-1980s excavations at the Occaneechi Town site near Hillsborough, dated 15 May 1986 and later numbered research report 4. The work was funded by a National Geographic Society grant, and the reel, filmed by the University of North Carolina Library, reproduces 171 leaves including a bibliography.
Roy S. Dickens's final report on the 1986 excavations at the Occaneechi Town site on the Eno River near Hillsborough, prepared by the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina and dated May 1987. Funded by a National Geographic Society grant and later numbered as the laboratories' research report 8, it covers the archaeology of the Occaneechi and culture change at the site. 171 leaves with illustrations, maps and a bibliography.
Criss Wynters's children's book retelling an Occaneechi folk story, published in 2024. Its Orange County connection is the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, based in the northern part of the county.
Alegría Rojas-Patino's bilingual Spanish and English graphic novel for young adults, published in 2024. This science fiction story of time travel is set in Durham, North Carolina, with Occaneechi people, cicadas and extraterrestrial beings among its elements. The Occaneechi town site lies on the Eno near Hillsborough in Orange County.
A 28-minute documentary video from the Native American Resource Center at UNC Pembroke in which members of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation speak about their history, culture and identity. Speakers include Tony Hayes, Forest Hazel, Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Sharn Jeffries, John Jeffries, Wanda Whitmore-Penner and Tammy Hayes Hill, and their words are set against photographs of the community's past and present. Produced by Stanley G. Knick and issued on DVD in 2008. Their ancestors' town stood on the Eno at present-day Hillsborough.
A 29-minute documentary video on the eight state-recognized Indian tribes of North Carolina and the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, produced in 2005 by the Native American Resource Center at UNC Pembroke with Stanley G. Knick. Among the tribes covered are the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, whose home ground includes northern Orange County, along with the Lumbee, Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Meherrin, Waccamaw and Eastern Band of Cherokee. One DVD, sound and color.
Jeremiah James Nowell Jr.'s 2000 study of race formation and the politics of American Indian recognition in North Carolina, with the Occaneechi people, whose present-day band is based in Orange and Alamance counties, among its subjects. Topics include the political, economic and social conditions of Native peoples in the state. xvii and 313 leaves with illustrations and maps.
Christina D. Morrow's 1999 study of how the Occaneechi people of North Carolina have sought political recognition of their Native American identity, 81 leaves. Subjects include the Occaneechi Indians of North Carolina, with the many variant spellings of the tribe's name from Acconeechy to Okenechee. The Occaneechi community today is centered near Hillsborough and Mebane, which gives the study its Orange County connection.
A CD-ROM publication from UNC Press (1998) presenting the archaeology of Occaneechi Town, the eighteenth-century Occaneechi village on the Eno River at Hillsborough known to archaeologists as the Fredericks site, excavated by UNC archaeologists. Text, images and data describe and interpret what was found, and an 'Electronic Dig' module lets students plan their own research strategy and work through the site themselves. Comes with an eight-page guide; requires a PC.
Forest Hazel's 1991 study of the Occaneechi-Saponi descendants living in the Texas community of Orange County, near Mebane, tracing the families of that settlement. It concerns Occaneechi genealogy and Indians of North America in North Carolina. A starting point for anyone researching the county's Indigenous families.
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.
Printed in London in 1709 as 'A New Voyage to Carolina', John Lawson's book pairs a natural history of the colony with the journal of his two-month, 500-mile trek from Charles Town, begun in December 1700, north and west to near present-day Hillsborough and then east to Bath, with accounts of the Indian nations he met. Frances Latham Harriss edited the Garrett and Massie edition, first issued in 1937; this is its 1951 second edition.
Hugh Talmage Lefler's annotated edition of John Lawson's account of Carolina, first printed in London in 1709. Lawson describes his trek of some 600 miles from Charles Town through the backcountry to the Pamlico in 1700 and 1701, then the country's plants, animals and Native peoples, with a short vocabulary of Indian languages. Lawson was killed by the Tuscaroras in 1711. University of North Carolina Press, 1967; 305 pages with maps and facsimiles.
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