Nathaniel Rochester

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 13 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1768 Nathaniel Rochester goes to work for a Hillsborough merchant At sixteen Rochester took employment with James Monroe, a Scottish merchant in Hillsborough, the seat of Orange County. Within two years he was made clerk of the vestry of St. Matthew's Parish.Search the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Rochester, Nathaniel
2. 1773–1775 Rochester becomes a partner in a Hillsborough store Rochester joined James Monroe and John Hamilton as a partner in a Hillsborough store in 1773. The business prospered but was liquidated in 1775 as the Revolution approached. People: John HamiltonSearch the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Rochester, Nathaniel
3. August or September 1775 The Provincial Congress names Orange County's minutemen and militia officers Orange was to raise three companies of minutemen, and James Thackston was named colonel of minutemen for the Hillsborough district. For the county militia the Congress named John Hogan colonel, John Butler lieutenant colonel, William Moore first major and Nathaniel Rochester second major. People: John Butler, Nathaniel RochesterSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 51
4. 1776 Rochester is named to a commission to set up a gun factory near Hillsborough The commission was to establish a gun factory near Hillsborough, and Rochester led a wagon train to Philadelphia to obtain iron for it. Illness later that year ended his military service.Search the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Rochester, Nathaniel
5. December 10, 1776 Orange County votes again after the Halifax Congress voids its October return The Congress first upheld the sitting Orange members on November 21, then on November 28 ordered a new election run by named commissioners over as many as three days. Held December 10, it returned Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, Alexander Mebane, John Butler and John McCabe, who took their seats just before the state constitution was adopted. People: Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, John Butler, Richard BennehanSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 56
6. December 18, 1776 The new state constitution provides for public schools and a university Section 41 of the constitution adopted at Halifax, modeled on Pennsylvania's, told the legislature to establish schools and to promote learning in one or more universities. Orange's delegates voted on it, and it became the legal basis for chartering UNC. People: Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, John ButlerLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 68
7. 1777–1778 Rochester serves as clerk of the Orange County court Rochester resigned his seat in the first General Assembly of the state to become clerk of court. He was also commissioned to supervise the building of a new courthouse and to help establish an academy in the Hillsborough area, and he gave up the clerkship in 1778 because its fees did not cover the expenses of the office.Search the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Rochester, Nathaniel
8. May 1777 The Orange County court sits for the first time under the new state The May 1777 court recorded 22 justices commissioned by Governor Richard Caswell, and eleven took the state oath and their seats. It named Alexander Mebane Jr., son of the first sheriff, as the first sheriff under statehood and county treasurer, and appointed 33 road overseers. People: Richard Caswell, Nathaniel Rochester, John ButlerSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 173
9. August 1777 Merchants who traded with Britain are ordered to swear allegiance or leave Under a state act, the August court cited fourteen merchants and agents, among them James Hogg, and only Nathaniel Rochester and John Hogan took the oath. The court ordered everyone who failed to appear or to swear, Quakers excepted, to leave for Europe or the West Indies within sixty days. People: James Hogg, Nathaniel RochesterSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 174
10. 1778–1780 Rochester opens a Hillsborough store with Thomas Hart and James Brown The partnership was successful and Rochester began putting his earnings into real estate. The business was liquidated in 1780 when British occupation of Hillsborough became a probability, and Hart moved his family to Maryland. People: Thomas Hart, James BrownSearch the index · NCpedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography): Rochester, Nathaniel
11. April 20, 1778 The Assembly orders a new courthouse built at Hillsborough Nathaniel Rochester and William Courtney oversaw the work. Planned in brick but built of wood because of wartime shortages, it was one room about 40 by 25 feet near the present courthouse site and served until fire destroyed it in late 1789 or 1790. People: Nathaniel RochesterSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 48
12. February 12, 1779 General Assembly charters an academy near Hillsborough named Science Hall Meeting at Halifax, the General Assembly passed an act to establish an academy in the neighborhood of Hillsborough, naming William Hooper, Thomas Burke, Nathaniel Rochester, James Hogg and others as trustees. The act named the school Science Hall and gave its trustees the same powers as those of Liberty Hall in Mecklenburg County. People: Alexander Martin, Nathaniel Rochester, Thomas Hart, James Hogg, Thomas Burke, William Hooper, William JohnstonDocumenting the American South: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1779 (Colonial and State Records, vol. 24)
13. about 1800 The one-story house later called the Nathaniel Rochester House is built on West King Street A one-story frame house, close in detail to the Ruffin-Roulhac House, was built at 225 West King Street around 1800; tradition makes Nathaniel Rochester, founder of Rochester, New York, an early owner.Search the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Hillsborough Historic District Additional Documentation, National Register (OR0077ad, 2014), 225 W. King Street (Nathaniel Rochester House)