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Local figure

James Watson

James Watson, one of Orange County's first settlers, owned the Eno land chosen for the courthouse in 1754 and was named a commissioner for Childsburg in 1759. A vestryman of St. Matthew's Parish and clerk of the county court, he sided with Governor Tryon against the Regulators and reported to him on the September 1770 court riot.

Source: Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 340

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

Search works on Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766 Research sources View background reading ↓

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 11 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 MorganSearch 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 act creating Orange County names James Watson a boundary commissioner and vestryman The 1752 act that created Orange County named James Watson one of three commissioners to run the dividing line between Orange and Granville, Johnston and Bladen counties, and one of the twelve first vestrymen of St. Matthew's Parish. Another act of the same session made him the county's receiver of the impost duty.Search the index · Documenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Acts of the North Carolina General Assembly, 1752 (vol. 23, pp. 371-386)
  3. The Assembly moves the county seat to the Eno crossing of the Western path Judging the Piney Ford site too far west, the Assembly directed that the courthouse, prison and stocks stand where the Western path crossed the Eno, on land where James Watson lived. The site, just east of the present courthouse, was the start of Hillsborough. People: James WatsonLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 169
  4. The county court names trustees for Corbin Town James Watson, Josiah Dixon and Lawrence Thompson became commissioners and trustees of the county seat, then called Corbin Town after Francis Corbin, Earl Granville's land agent. People: James WatsonLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 19
  5. James Watson succeeds Richard Caswell as clerk of the Orange County court Watson, one of the town's first residents, was the second clerk of the county court from 1755 to 1763. He was named register of the county in 1772 and was reappointed under the state government shortly before his death. People: Richard Caswell, James WatsonNash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 6
  6. Hillsborough's first courthouse is ready for use Until it opened, the county court met at the home of James Watson. It was the first of the four courthouses Hillsborough has had. People: James WatsonLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 20
  7. James Watson brings Edmund Fanning's answer to the Regulators' meeting at Maddock's Mill When none of the county's officers came to the meeting, Watson arrived alone late in the day with word from Fanning that he considered it an insurrection. The delegates drew up Regulator Advertisement Number Three in his presence; Watson called it just and reasonable and promised to give copies to the county officials. People: Edmund FanningSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), pp. 30-31
  8. Hillsborough's town commissioners sign the earliest town deed on record James Watson, William Nunn, Edmund Fanning and Francis Nash, acting as commissioners for the town, sign the earliest of the Hillsborough town deeds kept by the Orange County register of deeds. People: Edmund Fanning, Francis Nash, James Watson, William NunnLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 367
  9. Hillsborough's leading men write to Governor Tryon for protection after the riot James Watson, Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, Robert Lytle, William Johnston, James Thackston and James Monro wrote from Hillsborough describing the Regulators' insolence at the superior court, said they stood hourly in danger of their lives and estates, and asked Tryon to adopt whatever measures he judged proper. People: Francis Nash, Thomas Hart, William Johnston, James Thackston, James WatsonDocumenting the American South, Colonial and State Records: Letter from James Watson, Francis Nash, et al. to William Tryon, September 30, 1770
  10. James Watson becomes register of Orange County and a Hillsborough commissioner under the new state When county government resumed under statehood in 1777, James Watson was the county's register and one of the first commissioners of the town of Hillsborough, with William Johnston, James Hogg, John Shields and William Courtney. People: William Johnston, James Hogg, William CourtneySearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 46
  11. William Courtney is one of the first Hillsborough town commissioners under the state When the new state government was organized, the commissioners for the town of Hillsborough were William Johnston, James Hogg, John Sheels (Shields), William Courtney and James Watson. People: William Johnston, James Hogg, James WatsonSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 71

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.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as James Watson, 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

These works give background on Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766, the wider story this person is part of (83 works in all). Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

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.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 333.16 CHILTON NC Cardinal UNC Durham Library of Congress

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.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO BENTON BEN NC Cardinal Durham

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.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC BIO CHURTON SMI UNC Library of Congress

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.

NC Cardinal Durham

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.

NC Cardinal Duke NC State
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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.

Duke NC State

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