John Penn

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Select a title to open its page or chronology entry.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

1. August 21–23, 1775 The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough adopts a test for its members to sign On August 21, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough named Allen Jones to a committee of seven to prepare a Test to be signed by its members. The committee reported on August 23 and the Test was read, approved, ordered entered on the journal and signed. Subscribers professed allegiance to the King while denying that Parliament could tax them. People: Thomas Burke, William Hooper, Willie Jones, John Penn, Maurice Moore, Robert HoweSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
2. August 23, 1775 Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a committee to confer with inhabitants who had scruples about the American cause The congress sitting at Hillsborough appointed thirteen of its members, among them Memucan Hunt of Granville County, to confer with inhabitants of the province who held religious or political scruples. They were directed to use argument and persuasion to bring those inhabitants into support of the American cause. People: Thomas Burke, Richard Caswell, John Penn, Thomas Person, Henry PattilloSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
3. September 7, 1775 The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough appoints John Penn to the Continental Congress Richard Caswell told the congress at Hillsborough that his new duties as treasurer for the Southern District and as a signer of the public bills of credit left him unable to serve in the Continental Congress. The congress resolved the same day that John Penn take his place beside William Hooper and Joseph Hewes, with the same powers and allowance. People: Joseph Hewes, Richard CaswellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
4. August 2, 1776 William Hooper signs the Declaration of Independence William Hooper signed the Declaration in Philadelphia. He later became a Hillsborough resident. People: John Penn, Joseph HewesSearch the index · NCpedia
5. early 1777 A special Hillsborough District court fails to sit when John Penn does not appear Governor Richard Caswell named John Kinchen and John Penn judges of a special court of oyer and terminer for the Hillsborough District. Penn did not come, Kinchen would not sit alone, and no court was held. People: John Penn, Richard CaswellSearch the index · NCpedia: Kinchen, John (Henry W. Lewis, Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 1988)
6. September–November 1780 Board of War, led by Alexander Martin, directs the war effort from Hillsborough The Board of War created by the General Assembly first met at Hillsborough on September 14, 1780, with Alexander Martin, John Penn and Oroondates Davis present. Through the fall it issued orders for arms, provisions and militia from the town and ran a shoe factory there for the army, then rose in late November to sit at Halifax from December 1. People: John PennSearch the index · Colonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina Board of War, Sep 14, 1780 to Jan 30, 1781 (vol. 14, pp. 376–495)
7. September 1780 South Carolina's Governor John Rutledge takes refuge in Hillsborough After Camden the town filled with fugitives, and Rutledge, Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Daniel Morgan were among those there. It was so crowded that Attorney General Iredell and Judge Williams, arriving for the October superior court, found beds only at Burke's house two miles out, and Rutledge moved into town to share a bed with John Penn of the Board of War. People: James Iredell, John Penn, John WilliamsSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 79