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Local figure

James Patterson

James Patterson, a slaveholder and a donor of land to the university, was hired by its building committee to oversee the construction of Old East, finished in 1795. In a 1795 letter he wrote that several of his own enslaved workers had painted the building's roof; he named none of them.

Source: UNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and Old East

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to James Patterson. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about James Patterson’s life and work.

Browse all 105 works on The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795 Research sources View background reading ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

StorylineChapel Hill's first inns and taverns, 1793–18051793–1805 · 7 events · The county court licensed Chapel Hill's first taverns as taverns at the University, beginning in 1793 with James Patterson, Old East's contractor, whose inn was the starting point of the cornerstone procession. William and Betsy Nunn bought it in 1795 and added a tavern, the trustees barred students from taverns without leave in 1796, and John Taylor Sr. opened a second tavern by 1799. Betsy Nunn ran the inn from about 1805 until her death, and it stayed in the Nunn family for more than half a century.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. James Patterson keeps an inn on the road where Chapel Hill will be laid out Before the university existed, James Patterson's inn stood near the sharp bend in the road west of the later campus, serving travellers on the two roads that met at New Hope Chapel. It was the only inn on the site when the first village lots were sold in 1793. People: James Patterson Place: Patterson's inn (later Nunn's Tavern), Lot #5, Franklin Street, Chapel HillSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 15
  2. James Patterson of Chatham County is hired to build the university's first building The commissioners contracted with Patterson for 2,500 pounds to build a house about 96 feet long and 40 feet wide. It became Old East, the first building raised on the campus of a state university in the United States. People: James Patterson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 78-79
  3. James Patterson buys two lots at the first Chapel Hill lot sale At the sale held the day Old East's cornerstone was laid, Patterson, the building's contractor, bought village lots 4 and 5 for 108 pounds 10 shillings. The cornerstone procession that day set out from his inn. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 46
  4. Enslaved men owned by contractor James Patterson paint the roof of Old East James Patterson, the slaveholding contractor who built Old East between 1793 and 1795, reported in a 1795 letter that several of his own enslaved workers had painted the building's roof. Their names were not recorded. People: James Patterson Place: Old East, UNCUNC University Archives (For the Record): Slave Labor and Old East
  5. William Nunn buys James Patterson's inn and adds a tavern Captain William Nunn, a Revolutionary War officer and former Orange County sheriff, bought Patterson's inn. He and his wife Betsy enlarged the rooms for lodgers and added a tavern, and the business stayed in the Nunn family for more than half a century. People: James Patterson, William Nunn Place: Nunn's Tavern and Inn, Lot #5, Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Betsy NunnSearch the index · Bernard Lee Bryant Jr., Occupants and Structures of Franklin Street, Chapel Hill (1998; Chapel Hill Historical Society, 1999), scan p. 21
  6. Orange County railroad meeting backs a central route through Orange and Guilford A county meeting at the Hillsborough court house, chaired by Dr. Edmund Strudwick, adopted William A. Graham's resolutions that the central railroad should run through Orange and Guilford, pledged enough subscriptions to grade the road through the county, and named ten delegates to the Salisbury railroad convention in June. Graham and Giles Mebane spoke. People: William A. Graham, Edmund Strudwick, Giles Mebane, Dennis Heartt, David L. Swain, Cadwallader Jones, John Wall Norwood, John U. Kirkland, James Patterson Place: Court house, HillsboroughSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, March 21, 1849, p. 3

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 2 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 →

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as James Patterson, 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 on The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795

Background reading on The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss James Patterson. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

The Black family in slavery and freedom, 1750-1925

Gutman, Herbert G. (Herbert George), 1928-1985 · 1976 · Pantheon Books

Herbert G. Gutman's 1976 history of African American families from 1750 to 1925, published by Pantheon Books in New York, 664 pages with 38 leaves of plates. Its Orange County connection is the Bennehan and Cameron family plantations, Stagville and Fairntosh: the book discusses the people enslaved by Richard Bennehan (1743-1825) and the Camerons, and follows family ties among them under slavery and after emancipation. Subjects include African American families and enslaved persons in Orange County.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1977), The William and Mary Quarterly (1977), The American Historical Review (1977), Journal of American History (1977), The History Teacher (1977), Political Science Quarterly (1977), Journal of Black Psychology (1978), Journal of Social History (1978), Civil War history (1978), Signs (1978).

NCCU UNC CH Historical Society Library of Congress

The Cameron Plantation in Central North Carolina (1776-1973) and Its Founder Richard Bennehan

Sanders, Charles Richard · 1974 · Sanders

Charles Richard Sanders's short history of the Cameron plantation in central North Carolina from 1776 to 1973 and of its founder Richard Bennehan, whose lands became Stagville and Fairntosh. It covers the Bennehan and Cameron families and their connection with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published by the author in Durham in 1974, 79 pages with a plate and illustrations.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 929.209 SAN Duke Chapel Hill PL Library of Congress Davidson UNC

A Documentary History of the University of North Carolina, 1776-1799

Connor, R. D. W. · 1953

Two-volume collection of documents on the founding and first years of the University of North Carolina, 1776 to 1799, compiled by R. D. W. Connor and published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953. Each volume carries its own bibliography.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1954).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 378.756 CON NC Cardinal Duke Durham Wingate CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Opening ceremonies of the bicentennial observance, October 11 and 12, 1993

1993 · The University

A portfolio of programs from the opening ceremonies of the University of North Carolina bicentennial, staged in Chapel Hill on October 11 and 12, 1993. It includes the program for the rededication of Old East, the university's first building, and the citations for the 1993 distinguished alumna and alumnus. Illustrated, and published by the university itself.

UNC

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.

UNC

General William R. Davie

Manning, John, 1830-1899 · 1893 · Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

A sketch of William Richardson Davie, the Revolutionary officer remembered as the founder of the University of North Carolina, written by John Manning and signed by him at the end. Detached from the January 1893 North Carolina University Magazine and printed at Chapel Hill by the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, it concerns Revolutionary biography for the state.

UNC
Show 6 more

A meeting of the citizens of Hillsborough was held on Friday the 30th instant, to adopt resolutions expressive of their feelings on occasion of the death of the late Rev. Dr. Caldwell, president of the university.

1835

Resolutions adopted by a meeting of Hillsborough citizens on Friday 30 January 1835, on the death of Joseph Caldwell, president of the University of North Carolina, who died that year. Signed at the end by W. J. Bingham as secretary and dated 31 January 1835. Printed at Hillsborough, it is a single sheet of civic mourning from Orange County.

UNC

William Richardson Davie : soldier, statesman, and founder of the University of North Carolina : 1756-2006 semiquincentennial

Fulghum, Neil · 2006

A booklet accompanying the exhibition on William Richardson Davie, 1756 to 1820, the soldier and statesman remembered as founder of the University of North Carolina, shown in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library from February to June 2006, his semiquincentennial year. R. Neil Fulghum researched and wrote it. Thirty-seven pages of color illustrations, portraits by Charles Willson Peale and Gilles-Louis Chrétien among them.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Library of Congress

Walter Alves papers, 1771-1858, Orange County, North Carolina : also Kentucky and Tennessee.

Alves, Walter, 1768-1819 · 1993 · University Publications of America

University Publications of America issued this two reel microfilm edition in 1993, reproducing the Walter Alves papers of 1771 to 1858 with a printed reel guide. Alves, 1768 to 1819, was an Orange County landowner, and the material runs to real estate investment in North Carolina and Tennessee, Scottish American families, and letters with Richard Bennehan, William Boylan and John Wickham.

UNC

The "other Jeffersons" and the state university idea

Johnson, Eldon L. · 1987 · Ohio State University Press

Eldon L. Johnson's article on the founders of the early state universities and the idea of a public university they worked from, issued as an offprint of the Journal of Higher Education, volume 58, number 2, for March and April 1987, with a bibliography. William Richardson Davie, who led the founding of the University of North Carolina, is the figure the article takes up here.

UNC

William R. Davie and Frank P. Graham : a remarkable founding father and a remarkable son : University Day address, Memorial Hall, October 12, 1986.

Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015 · 1986

Former chancellor William B. Aycock gave this University Day address in Memorial Hall on October 12, 1986, pairing William Richardson Davie, who founded the university, with Frank Porter Graham. The text was reprinted from the Chapel Hill Newspaper of October 13, 1986, and runs pages 519 to 523.

UNC

Hillsborough's James Hogg

Cheshire, Lucius McGehee · 1970

Lucius McGehee Cheshire's typescript on James Hogg of Hillsborough, 1729 to 1805, prepared for delivery to the Hillsborough Historical Society and dated 12 March 1970. It runs to 26 pages with ten further unnumbered leaves. The account connects Hogg's life in Hillsborough with the early University of North Carolina. Part of UNC's North Carolina Collection.

UNC NC Cardinal

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