In the fall of 1758 William Few brought his family from Maryland to 640 acres bought from James Taylor on both sides of the Eno, about seven miles east of the county town. Four enslaved people came with them, and Few and his brother James built a saw and grist mill on the river. In 1760 a schoolteacher came to the neighborhood, and William Few Jr. attended. In 1763 or 1764 Few bought 200 acres a mile from town, later called the Kirkland place, moved the family there and kept a tavern while the family still ran the mill. In 1767 William Few Sr. bought another farm about seven miles from Hillsborough, and his son William, then nineteen, took over its management.
At the September 1768 court in Hillsborough William Few, who sympathized with the reforms but took no part in the agitation, went with John Butler, who opposed the Regulation, on the bond of John's brother William Butler, one of the most active Regulators. In 1770, in debt and weighing a move to Georgia, Few deeded the Kirkland place to his friend John Butler, sheriff that year. At the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771 Few's son James was captured, and he was hanged at Governor William Tryon's camp the next day; an anonymous open letter, by a hostile critic of Tryon, condemned the hanging as an execution without judge or jury. Back at Hillsborough in mid-June, Tryon's army turned its horses onto the wheat, barley and oats of the Few farm east of town, a loss the colonial assembly later compensated. That September the superior court entered a suit by James Few against Francis Nash as abated by the plaintiff's hanging. Pressed by lawsuits after going surety for several people, Few sold much of his property, and that winter the family left for Georgia, leaving his son William to settle his affairs.
Reading on the places and people in this storyline
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are about the sites and people its dated events name, those named most often first, so they may discuss the storyline only in part. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
About William Few · named in 7 of this story’s entries
Hillsborough District: Trial, Reference and Appearance Docket Superior Court, Part 1, 1768-1773
United States. District Court (North Carolina: Hillsborough District) · 1768
Hillsborough District Superior Court trial, reference and appearance docket, part 1, 1768 to 1773, from the colonial court at Hillsborough. Suits over debt, contracts, slander, detinue and trover fill it, and names include Edmund Fanning, William Tryon, Martin Armstrong and William Few. 299 images.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Dispatches and letters from William Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough, concerning the War of the Regulation
2019 · Adam Matthew Digital
William Tryon's dispatches and letters to the Earl of Hillsborough on the War of the Regulation, the late 1760s uprising of backcountry farmers against county officials centered on Hillsborough and Orange County and ended in battle in 1771. Reproduced by Adam Matthew Digital in 2019 from Colonial Office CO 5/302. Tryon, royal governor from 1765 to 1771, reports on the assembly, taxes and finance, Anglican clergy, ordnance and ships, provincial troops and militia, riot at the court, the trials of Regulators and the military expedition.
Dispatches from Josiah Martin to the Earl of Dartmouth numbered 21-24, enclosing copies of legislation
2019 · Adam Matthew Digital
Governor Josiah Martin's numbered dispatches 21 through 24 to the Earl of Dartmouth, with copies of North Carolina legislation enclosed, reproduced by Adam Matthew Digital in 2019 from Colonial Office file CO 5/303 part 2. Subjects include finance and currency, debt and the courts, judges' wages, the council and assembly, voting and taxes, oaths, litigation, sheriffs, inheritance, prisoners, Irish settlers, customs, quitrents, land grants, surveying and mortgages. Names include Arthur Dobbs, William Dry, Willie Jones, John Rutherford and Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough.
Dispatches from William Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough numbered 59-67, enclosing documents concerning the Regulators
2019 · Adam Matthew Digital
Numbered dispatches 59 through 67 from Governor William Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough, with enclosures about the Regulators, whose protests broke into riot at Hillsborough in 1770. Reproduced by Adam Matthew Digital in 2019 from Colonial Office CO 5/302. The papers touch on the council and assembly, naval stores and trade, oaths, militia and provincial troops, judges, sheriffs and juries, voting, currency, Cherokee affairs, clergy, quitrents and land, and name officials such as Richard Caswell, Richard Henderson, Maurice Moore and Hugh Waddell.
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.
About John Butler · named in 2 of this story’s entries
House Joint Resolutions: April 21-June 3
North Carolina. General Assembly · 1784
House joint resolutions from the session of April 21 to June 3, 1784 at Hillsborough, 193 images of resolutions, petitions and depositions. They range from a replacement certificate for John Hogan and claims by auditors and veterans to courts-martial, Cherokee affairs, taxation and the Continental Congress.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Joint Select Committees: reports and papers Apr. 19-May 2
North Carolina. General Assembly · 1783
Committee reports and papers of the North Carolina General Assembly from 19 April to 2 May 1783, in 84 images. Petitions came from John Fleetwood of Wayne County and David Dodd of Duplin County, with reports on the militia law and on the claim of Basel Smith. Hillsborough, confiscations, prisoners of war and Continental Army pay also figure in the session.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Senate Joint Resolutions: February 8-9
North Carolina. General Assembly · 1781
Senate joint resolutions of 8 and 9 February 1781, 24 images, on tax gatherers in counties without treasurers, a rejected resolution for Samuel Ashe, a rejected allowance for corn supplied to the army, and an order sending Brigadier General John Butler to raise some or all of the Hillsborough District militia.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Joint Papers (April-May, 1780): Miscellaneous statements, certificates, and protest
North Carolina. General Assembly · 1780
Miscellaneous statements, certificates and a protest laid before the North Carolina General Assembly in April and May 1780, in twelve images. Topics include militia, prisoners of war, the ships Rainbow and Sally, pork for the army and county jails, with Orange among the counties named.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Wider background: Colonial Orange County · the most widely held histories of the theme this storyline is filed under; they may not discuss it
Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina
Kars, Marjoleine · 2002 · University of North Carolina Press
Marjoleine Kars's history of the Regulator Rebellion of 1766 to 1771, the backcountry uprising against corrupt county officials that ended at the Battle of Alamance. Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, was a center of the Regulators' protests and the scene of their 1770 court riot. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2002, 286 pages with illustrations and maps.
Reviewed in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2003).
Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary
Nash, Frank · 1953
Francis Nash's history of Hillsborough in colonial and Revolutionary times, first published in 1903 and reprinted in 1953 by Edwards & Broughton with an index and a sketch of the author. Topics include the Regulator Insurrection of 1766 to 1771, the Revolution and local genealogy.
Hillsborough and the Regulators
Cameron, Annie Sutton · 1964 · Orange County Historical Museum
Annie Sutton Cameron's short account of Hillsborough during the Regulator uprising of 1766 to 1771, when backcountry farmers protested colonial officials and courts and Hillsborough, as the seat of Orange County, stood at the center of the conflict. Published by the Orange County Historical Museum in Hillsborough in 1964, 36 pages with illustrations.
Farming Dissenters: The Regulator Movement in Piedmont North Carolina
Troxler, Carole Watterson · 2011
Carole Watterson Troxler's history of the Regulator movement in Piedmont North Carolina, from land speculation and backcountry resentment through Herman Husband and the Sandy Creek network to the petitions, court proceedings and rioting in Hillsborough and Salisbury, the Battle of Alamance in 1771 and the movement's afterlife in the Revolution. An appendix compiles names in a Regulator context. Published by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources in 2011, 221 pages with illustrations, maps and an index.
The Regulators in North Carolina: A Documentary History, 1759-1776
Powell, William Stevens; Huhta, James K.; Farnham, Thomas J. · 1971 · State Dept. of Archives and History
Documentary history of the Regulator movement of 1766 to 1771, the backcountry protest against corrupt county officials that centered on Hillsborough and ended at the Battle of Alamance, compiled by William S. Powell, James K. Huhta and Thomas J. Farnham. The volume prints primary sources from 1759 to 1776. Published by the State Department of Archives and History in 1971, xxxix and 626 pages with illustrations.
Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1972), The Journal of Southern History (1972).
Church in the Old Fields: Hawfields Presbyterian Church and Community in North Carolina
Turner, Herbert Snipes · 1962
Herbert Snipes Turner's history of Hawfields Presbyterian Church and its community from 1738 to 1960. Hawfields lies in what is now Alamance County, land that was part of Orange County until 1849, and the book gives a place to Henry Pattillo, the congregation's eighteenth-century minister. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1962, 297 pages with illustrations.
Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1963).
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Some Neglected History of North Carolina: Being an Account of the Revolution of the Regulators
Fitch, William Edward · 1905 · Neale Pub. Co.
William Edward Fitch's account of the Regulator movement and the Battle of Alamance of 1771, which his subtitle calls the first battle of the American Revolution, published by Neale in 1905 in a second edition. Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, was the scene of the Regulators' 1770 courthouse riot and of the hangings that followed Alamance. 307 pages with nine leaves of plates, folding maps and a portrait.
An Historical Address Delivered in Saint Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, N.C., on Sunday, August 24, 1924
Cheshire, Joseph Blount · 1925
Address by Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough on 24 August 1924, marking the parish's hundredth anniversary. Printed in Durham in 1925 at the vestry's order, with a foreword by the rector. Cheshire discusses George Micklejohn, William Mercer Green and Moses Ashley Curtis.
Letters and Dispatches from Josiah Martin to the Earl of Hillsborough and the Lords Commissioners
2019 · Adam Matthew Digital
Dispatches from Josiah Martin, the last royal governor of North Carolina, to Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, the secretary of state for the colonies for whom the Orange County seat is named, and to the Lords Commissioners in London. Adam Matthew Digital reproduced the file, Colonial Office CO 5/303 part 1, in 2019. Topics include women, medicine and health, land grants, the courts and litigation, German and Protestant migration to the frontier, the Regulators, riot and treason, salt and alcohol imports, Spanish shipping and crime.
Letters from William Tryon to the Lords Commissioners, enclosing legislation and accounts of the ship 'Brigantine Fox'
2019 · Adam Matthew Digital
Letters from Governor William Tryon to the Lords Commissioners in London, with enclosed legislation and the accounts of the ship Brigantine Fox, reproduced by Adam Matthew Digital in 2019 from Colonial Office file CO 5/300. They show the range of a governor's business: council appointments, judges and courts, assembly acts, cotton manufacturing, poverty, naval stores, rice, tobacco and indigo, currency, the Tuscarora, education, marriage, debt and customs. Hillsborough is among the places named, and people include William Johnston, Richard Henderson, Cornelius Harnett and Samuel Strudwick.
