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Local figure

Thomas Person

Thomas Person, an original trustee of the University of North Carolina, gave $1,050 to complete the chapel built at Chapel Hill in 1795 to 1798, which was named Person Hall. A leader of the Regulators, he was arrested after the Battle of Alamance and held in Hillsborough for three weeks before release without trial.

Source: UNC Names in Brick and Stone: Person Hall

1733–1800 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 indexed works are connected with this person, and the index includes 2 works by Thomas Person.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

By Thomas Person

Seven Hearths, 157 East King Street, Hillsborough, Orange County, NC

Murphy, Robert; Reed, William; Cabe, Barnaby; Courtney, William; Watts, Thomas D; Person, Thomas; Parker, Africa; North Carolina State University; Boucher, Jack E; Silverman, Eleni; Newsom, J L · 1933

Seven Hearths at 157 East King Street, Hillsborough, a wooden house documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey after 1933 in five photographs, fourteen measured drawings, six data pages and a caption page. North Carolina State University contributed, and names connected with the house include Robert Murphy, William Reed, Barnaby Cabe, William Courtney, Thomas Person and Africa Parker.

Thomas Person Papers, 1769-1783

Person, Thomas · 1769

Letters to and from General Thomas Person and William Person, 1769 to 1783, covering colonial politics and the Revolutionary War, with Hillsborough and Granville County among the places. Thomas Person (1733 to 1800) sat in the General Assembly and Provincial Congress and served as a brigadier general. 17 images.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

About Thomas Person

John Penn (1741-1788) Papers, 1769-1788

1741

Finding aid for the papers of John Penn (1741 to 1788), covering 1769 to 1788. Penn, a Granville County lawyer, sat on the state Board of War, served in the Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. The papers include a February 1776 letter from Philadelphia to Thomas Person on British plans and raising battalions in North Carolina. One image.

Why this is here: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Start at OCPL

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.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 975.657 WRI Historical Sketch of Person County Wright, Stuart T. · 1974

    Person County, formed from Caswell in 1791 and named for the Revolutionary general Thomas Person, lies just north of Orange, with Roxboro as its seat. Stuart Thurman Wright's history of the county was published in 1974 by the Womack Press of Danville: 232 pages with maps, bibliographical references and a separate index.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 11 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Regulator leader Thomas Person is held in irons at Hillsborough After the Battle of Alamance, Governor Tryon had Thomas Person seized and held in irons in Hillsborough for three weeks, during which he was marched to the gallows and back. He was released without trial. People: William TryonSearch the index · NCpedia: Person, Thomas
  2. Provincial Congress at Hillsborough orders its journal printed by James Davis The congress meeting at Hillsborough directed that its proceedings be delivered to James Davis, the province's printer and a delegate for the town of New Bern, who was desired to print them and send a copy to each member. It also named a committee to state and settle his account for services done as printer to the province. People: Willie Jones, Thomas PersonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, August 20 to September 10, 1775
  3. 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
  4. The Provincial Congress forms the Hillsborough District and its committee of safety The Congress grouped Orange, Granville, Chatham and Wake counties into a Hillsborough District with a thirteen-member committee of safety; John Atkinson, John Butler and William Johnston sat for Orange. Thomas Person and John Kinchen represented the district on the Provincial Council. People: John Butler, William Johnston, Thomas PersonLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 43
  5. Provincial Congress at Hillsborough elects a Provincial Council to govern between sessions On September 9, 1775, the Congress at Hillsborough elected a thirteen-member Provincial Council to direct the army and militia during its recess: Samuel Johnston for the province at large and two members for each of the six districts, among them Abner Nash and James Coor for New Bern and Thomas Person and John Kinchen for Hillsborough. People: Samuel Johnston, Samuel Ashe, Willie Jones, Samuel Spencer, Waightstill Avery, Thomas Person, Cornelius HarnettSearch the index · Colonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, Aug 20 to Sep 10, 1775 (vol. 10, pp. 164–220)
  6. George Micklejohn swears allegiance to the state and is released from parole Taken prisoner after Moore's Creek, the Hillsborough rector was paroled on May 3, 1776 to Perquimans County, then ordered moved there in July when he was found still in Orange. On November 24 he took the oath of allegiance before the Halifax Congress and was discharged, and he later lived at Thomas Person's Goshen in Granville. People: Thomas Person, Willie JonesSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 53
  7. The convention appoints a committee of privileges and elections with three members from each district The convention set up a 27-member committee of privileges and elections, three from each district, which went on to rule on the disputed returns. Alexander Mebane of Orange County sat on it with Thomas Person, William R. Davie and James Iredell. People: Thomas Person, James Iredell, William Richardson DavieDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 20
  8. The convention names a select committee to draft its rules of debate On its first day the convention asked William R. Davie, Thomas Person, James Iredell, Elisha Battle, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Samuel Spencer and a member named McDonald to propose rules for its discussion of the Constitution. People: Thomas Person, James Iredell, Richard Dobbs Spaight, William Richardson DavieDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Hillsborough, 1788, p. 19
  9. Willie Jones moves that the Hillsborough Convention vote on the Constitution at once Jones moved that the question on the federal Constitution be put immediately, arguing that members had long since made up their minds and that a long sitting would waste public money. Thomas Person seconded him and James Iredell objected. The convention took up the Constitution clause by clause instead, debating it for eleven days. People: James Iredell, Thomas PersonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, Convened at Hillsborough, on Monday the 21st Day of July, 1788
  10. The convention adopts a declaration of rights and twenty-six amendments to be laid before Congress before ratification On Thomas Person's motion the convention concurred with its committee of the whole, resolving that a declaration of rights of twenty articles and twenty-six amendments to the most ambiguous and exceptionable parts of the Constitution be laid before Congress and a convention of the states before North Carolina would ratify. On Willie Jones's motions it also recommended a state impost matching whatever Congress laid, urged redemption of the paper currency, and ordered the resolutions sent to Congress and the twelve other states. People: Willie Jones, Archibald Maclaine, Thomas Person, William Richardson DavieDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, 1788
  11. Thomas Person gives $1,050 to complete the university chapel, later named Person Hall Trustee Thomas Person gave $1,050 to finish the chapel then under construction at Chapel Hill. The trustees thanked him for his liberality and the building, completed in 1798, was named Person Hall.Search the index · UNC Names in Brick and Stone: Person Hall

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 and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

  • Person Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Thomas Person, 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.

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