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Local figure

John Patterson

John Patterson was one of the justices at Orange County's first court session in September 1752. In October 1754 the county court directed him, as treasurer of Corbin Town (later Hillsborough), to hold back ten shillings from the price of each town lot for public use, and in 1755 it nominated him for sheriff.

Source: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), pp. 19, 166-168

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

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John Patterson is named one of the first vestrymen of St. Matthew's Parish The act of the 1752 Assembly that created Orange County and the Parish of St. Matthew named John Patterson among the twelve vestrymen who were to serve until the first vestry election. People: Alexander Mebane, James Watson, Mark Morgan, John Gray Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Documenting the American South: Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 23: Acts of the General Assembly, March 31-April 15, 1752, ch. VI
  2. The Orange County court holds its first session at John Gray's house Eight justices of the peace held the county's first Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions at John Gray's house near the Eno River, with Alexander Mebane as sheriff and Richard Caswell as clerk. They named fifteen road commissioners and several constables and laid a poll tax of one shilling on each tithable. People: John Patterson, John Gray, Richard Caswell Place: John Gray's house, near the Eno River · Also named: Alexander Mebane · Also mentions: Eno RiverLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 19
  3. Town treasurer John Patterson is told to hold back ten shillings a lot for public use The county court directed Patterson to keep ten shillings sterling from the price of each Corbin Town lot for public purposes. People: John Patterson Place: Corbin Town, later HillsboroughLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 19
  4. Lawrence Thompson is appointed sheriff of Orange County In 1755 the county court sent the governor three names for sheriff, John Patterson, Lawrence Thompson and Alexander Mebane, and Thompson received the appointment. He had run second to John Gray in the justices' vote two years before. People: John Patterson, John Gray, Lawrence Thompson Place: Orange County · Also named: Alexander MebaneSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 168
  5. The county court orders the road from Bennehan's to New Hope Chapel finished The road ordered earlier from Richard Bennehan's to New Hope Chapel had been cleared only as far as John Patterson's, so the May 1777 court named an overseer to clear the rest. People: Richard Bennehan, John Patterson Place: Road from Richard Bennehan's to New Hope ChapelSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 174

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 →

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as John 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 Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766

Background reading on Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss John Patterson. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

The Fullkersons in the Battle of King's Mountain : a revolutionary war story

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2014 · Stewart E. Dunaway?

Stewart E. Dunaway's family history following the Fulkerson (spelled Fullkerson in the title) and Hilton families through the Revolutionary War, centered on the Battle of King's Mountain fought in South Carolina in October 1780. It traces the families in eighteenth-century Hillsborough and elsewhere in North Carolina and Virginia. Apparently self-published in North Carolina, 2014, 137 pages with illustrations, some in color, maps and portraits.

UNC

The Land Grant Atlas of Old Orange County

Chilton, Mark · 2012 · Hand Made Books

Mark Chilton's oversized atlas plotting eighteenth-century land grants across the original Orange County, which stretched well beyond today's boundaries into what became Alamance and Durham counties. Published in Carrboro by Hand Made Books beginning in 2012, the set was planned in four volumes: Henry McCulloh's great tract number 11 and the land north of it; the Saxapahaw old fields (volume 2); Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and the Johnston Tract; and Durham, Rougemont and McCulloh's tract number 12. Maps and color illustrations, 41 cm.

Jesse Benton Letters (1780-1790)

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2009 · lulu.com

Stewart E. Dunaway's transcription of letters exchanged between Jesse Benton and Thomas Hart from 1780 to 1790, concerning Hart's affairs at Hartford, his place at Hillsborough. The letters concern the economic and social conditions of Hillsborough in the eighteenth century and the Revolution in North Carolina. Self-published through lulu.com in 2009, 68 pages with illustrations and facsimiles, and part of the library's Wall Local History Collection.

The Young Man From Mitre Court

Smith, Marshall L. · 1998 · M.L. Smith

Marshall L. Smith's brief life of William Churton, 1710 to 1767, the surveyor who laid out Hillsborough in the 1750s, with notes on the Churton family. Self-published in Hillsborough in 1998, 22 unnumbered pages with illustrations and maps.

The History Of Few's Ford (Eno V. 8, No. 1)

Anderson, Jean Bradley · 1989

Jean Bradley Anderson's history of Few's Ford, the Eno River crossing that gave its name to the Fews Ford section of Eno River State Park, published in 1989 as volume 8, number 1 of Eno, the journal of the Eno River Association. Topics include the Few family and eighteenth-century Orange and Durham county history.

Letters and dispatches from William Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough, October 1768 - May 1769

2019 · Adam Matthew Digital

Governor William Tryon's correspondence with the Earl of Hillsborough for the months from October 1768 to May 1769, just after Tryon marched militia to Hillsborough to protect the court from the Regulators. Adam Matthew Digital reproduced the file, Colonial Office CO 5/301, in 2019. Topics include legislation, Anglican clergy, soldiers' wages, sheriffs, land and quitrents, trade and currency, taxes and education, the Catawba and the boundary line, roads, a murder case, punishment and prison, and people such as Richard Caswell, James Hasell and John Rutherford.

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Jesse Benton letters (1780-1790) : Hartford, Hillsborough, NC.

Benton, Jesse · 2009 · S.E. Dunaway

Letters written between 1780 and 1790 by Jesse Benton, a lawyer at Hillsborough, to Thomas Hart, the owner of the Hartford mill complex, edited by Stewart Dunaway and published in 2009. Sixty eight pages with illustrations, facsimiles and a plan. The correspondence falls in the Revolutionary and early federal years.

UNC

Farmers in court : Orange County, North Carolina, 1750-1776

Bushman, Richard L. · 2001

Richard L. Bushman looks at the county court of Orange County and the farmers who came before it between 1750 and 1776, a period that in this county included the Regulator insurrection of 1766 to 1771. Published in 2001 as pages 388 to 413 of a larger volume. Topics include courts, farmers and eighteenth century law in the county.

UNC

The Orange County and Mecklenburg County instructions : the development of political individualism in backcountry North Carolina, 1740-1776

Blower, Daniel Frederick · 1984

Daniel Frederick Blower's two volume study of the instructions that voters in Orange and Mecklenburg counties gave their representatives, and of the growth of political individualism in the North Carolina backcountry between 1740 and 1776. Five hundred ninety-one leaves with a bibliography, completed in 1984. Topics include colonial politics and government and representative government in the province.

UNC

A map of Orange County, N.C.

Noble, M. C. S. (Marcus Cicero Stephens), 1855-1942 · 1915

Marcus Cicero Stephens Noble drew this 1915 map to show how Orange County's original territory was divided, tracing the formation of Caswell, Person, Alamance, Durham, Chatham, Randolph, Guilford and Rockingham counties out of it. Topics include county boundaries and the history of political divisions in the Piedmont. Surviving as a photocopy on a sheet 31 by 23 centimeters.

UNC

Towns of the Revolution - Hillsborough, N.C.

Colton, Henry E. · 1856

Henry E. Colton's account of Hillsborough as a town of the Revolution, dated 1856 and paginated 161 through 176, which marks it as a piece lifted from a larger volume. It concerns eighteenth century Hillsborough and the Revolutionary War in North Carolina.

UNC

Copy of The Journal of the Proceedings of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, held at Hillsborough on the 20th of August, 1775

1775

The provincial congress of North Carolina met at Hillsborough on 20 August 1775, and this copy of its journal records the delegates and their proceedings as the colony moved toward war. Samuel Johnston, Richard Caswell, Samuel Spencer and Thomas Wade are among the men named, with delegates drawn from Anson, Rowan and other counties. The congress sat in Orange County. Reference CO 5/318.

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Background

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Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for John Patterson 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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