Skip to content

Local figure

Adlai Osborne

Adlai Osborne (1744–1814), a Rowan County lawyer and court clerk whose Belmont plantation was worked by 25 enslaved people in 1800, was a University of North Carolina trustee from 1789 until his death. He served on the committees on Davie's plan of education and the building plan, and was the trustees' attorney in the Salisbury and Morgan districts from 1795 to 1803.

Source: NCpedia: Osborne, Adlai (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)

1 work about Adlai Osborne is indexed here.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Hillsborough officials and merchants pledge to defend one another after the riot Just after the September 1770 riot, Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, Alexander Martin, Thomas Henderson, Jesse Benton, William Johnston, Adlai Osborne and others formed an association for mutual aid and protection. Many members lived too far apart to help one another in a sudden emergency. People: Francis Nash, Edmund Fanning, Alexander Martin, Jesse Benton, William Johnston, Adlai Osborne Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Thomas HendersonNash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 19
  2. The General Assembly grants the university unsold confiscated lands The act gave the trustees confiscated Loyalist lands still unsold, chiefly the forfeited claims of Henry Eustace McCulloch, but sent anything above $20,000 to the state. The university's suits to collect under it angered landholders in Mecklenburg and nearby counties. People: Adlai Osborne Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry Eustace McCullochDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 136
  3. Trustees attend the university's July examination and praise its teachers Governor Benjamin Williams, Judge John Williams, James Hogg, Adlai Osborne, Willie Jones and Walter Alves attended the examination. Their report thanked the professors and tutors and said complaints against the steward had ended. People: John Williams, Benjamin Williams, James Hogg, Willie Jones, Walter Alves Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 116
  4. A trustee committee reports on the examination at the 1802 commencement Adlai Osborne, Henry Potter and Charles W. Harris made the trustees' report on the commencement examination, listing the preparatory school's classes from spelling and grammar through Latin authors and French. People: Charles Wilson Harris Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Henry Potter, Charles W. HarrisSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 168

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Adlai Osborne, 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.

Indexed works

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

Program of the sixth annual convention of the Lloyd clan, unveiling a marker in memory of Thos. F. Lloyd, Carrboro, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1941.

1941

An eight page program printed for the sixth annual Lloyd clan convention at Carrboro on October 22, 1941, when the family unveiled a marker to Thomas F. Lloyd, who died in 1792. The program also concerns Adlai Osborne (1744-1815). Family gathering ephemera that also records the placing of a Lloyd memorial in Orange County.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Osborne, Adlai, 1744-1815.

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 them all.

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 →

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.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Adlai Osborne 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

Local help

Search further

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.

Books about Adlai Osborne

Find copies at other libraries

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Catalog searches use the catalog name heading: Osborne, Adlai, 1744-1815. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and 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

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026