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Theme

Colonial Orange County

The Regulators, the Revolution, and the county’s first century.

In briefOrange County was created in 1752 with Hillsborough as its seat, rose against its courthouse officers in the Regulator crisis of 1766 to 1771, hosted the Provincial Congress and the General Assembly during the Revolution, was occupied by Cornwallis and raided by David Fanning in 1781, and declined to ratify the Constitution in 1788. The storylines follow those events from the Occaneechi town to the founding of the university.

566 works about Colonial Orange County are indexed here. 14 held at OCPL →

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Petition of Orange County to Governor Tryon, 1768
Petition of Orange County to Governor Tryon, 1768

Events and storylines

Named events and storylines the index follows in detail. Each has its own page.

Occaneechi Town and the Great Trading PathThe village on the Eno that John Lawson visited in 1701, and the trading path that ran through it Creation of Orange County and Hillsborough, 1752–1766The county formed in 1752, its seat surveyed by William Churton in 1754 where the Great Trading Path crossed the Eno, and the town’s names in turn: Orange, Corbinton, Childsburgh, and from 1766 Hillsborough The Regulator crisis, 1766–1771Orange County’s backcountry uprising against courthouse corruption, from Maddock’s Mill to the Hillsborough riot and the 1771 executions Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775The August 1775 congress that organized North Carolina for war General Assembly sessions at Hillsborough, 1778–1784The five sessions the state legislature held at Hillsborough, in 1778, 1780, 1782, 1783 and 1784; its other sessions of these years met at Halifax, Smithfield, New Bern and Wake Court House Cornwallis at Hillsborough, February 1781The British army’s six-day occupation and proclamation at Hillsborough
Show all 13 events and storylines
David Fanning’s raid on Hillsborough, September 1781The Loyalist raid that seized the town and its Patriot leaders; David Fanning is not Edmund Fanning Hillsborough ratification convention, 1788North Carolina’s first convention on the federal Constitution, which declined to ratify without a bill of rights (the Fayetteville convention of 1789 ratified) The founding of the University and Chapel Hill, 1789–1795The 1789 charter, the trustees’ 1792 choice of New Hope Chapel Hill at their Hillsborough meeting, the Old East cornerstone of October 1793, and the first students of 1795 How Orange County’s boundaries changed, 1753–1881The original county cut down in turn to help make Guilford, Wake, Chatham, and Caswell, then Alamance in 1849 and Durham in 1881: why an “Orange County” record may belong to a place now in another county Hillsborough as the southern army’s base after Camden, 1780How Hillsborough served as the southern army’s base in 1780: de Kalb’s halt, Gates’s regrouping of the army after Camden, the General Assembly and its Board of War, the courthouse and church turned to army use, the crowded town, the march to Salisbury and Greene’s arrival Samuel Strudwick’s claim to the Haw Old Fields, 1754–1788How Samuel Strudwick tried to hold the Haw Old Fields against the people living on them: Burrington’s mortgage of 1754, the 1766 meeting with the settlers, the tenants’ association of 1768, the state patents taken on his land, his appeals of 1780 and the lawsuits that ended in 1788 The test of allegiance in Orange County, 1775–1782How Orange County’s Revolutionary authorities used the oath of allegiance: the 1775 efforts to win over former Regulators and people of scruple, Michael Holt’s oath, the Loyalist estates inventoried, the county court’s citations of suspects and merchants, the sixty-day orders to leave and the 1782 commissioner of confiscated estates

More storylines

Other storylines that include this theme, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineSt. Matthew's Parish and Hillsborough's old church, 1752–18241752–1824 · 26 events · From 1752 St. Matthew's Parish was Orange County's established Anglican church, with chapels at New Hope and St. Mary's and, from about 1768, a church in Hillsborough. Its rector, George Micklejohn, preached to Tryon's troops in 1768 and stayed loyal to the Crown in 1776. Its church served as an army hospital, an academy and the meeting place of the 1788 convention, and in 1797 the Assembly ordered the ruinous building sold. Episcopal worship came back through St. Jude's and St. Mary's in 1818 and 1819, and in 1824 the reorganized parish left the old lot to the Presbyterians. StorylineHugh McAden, Henry Pattillo and the first Presbyterian congregations, 1753–17901753–1790 · 19 events · Orange County's Presbyterian settlers had congregations before they had ministers. Hugh McAden preached on the Eno and at the Hawfields in 1755 and 1756, and the settlements asked Hanover Presbytery for preachers, but none came regularly until Henry Pattillo became pastor of the Hawfields, Eno and Little River churches in 1765. Pattillo and his fellow ministers condemned the Regulators in 1768 and he preached to Tryon's troops; in 1770 they formed Orange Presbytery, which first met at Hawfields. In 1775 the Provincial Congress sent Pattillo to win former Regulators to the American cause, and about 1790 the old Pattillo field was split into two pastoral charges. StorylineThe Hillsborough district superior court, 1767–18061767–1806 · 18 events · The district superior court made Hillsborough a court town, and in the Regulator years it became the place where the Regulators' quarrel with the county officers was fought out. Set at Hillsborough by an act of 1767, it first sat in March 1768. Its September 1768 term tried William Butler and Herman Husband and found Edmund Fanning guilty; later terms threw out the Regulators' bills, and in September 1770 about 150 Regulators broke up the court. Shut by the court-law quarrel after 1772, it sat again on March 24, 1778, and Hillsborough kept its hold on the circuit until the act of 1806. StorylineBattle of Alamance, May 1771 (site now in Alamance County)April–May 1771 · 17 events · In the spring of 1771 Governor William Tryon marched militia against the Regulators, raising Orange County companies, buying supplies at Hillsborough and camping across the Eno from the town. After the Presbyterian minister David Caldwell went between the camps, Tryon's army defeated the Regulators at Alamance Creek on May 16, 1771. StorylineThomas Burke of Hillsborough, 1772–17891772–1789 · 15 events · Thomas Burke went from a Hillsborough law practice to the Continental Congress and the governor's office, and Orange County sent him to each stage of the Revolution. Douglass credits him with drafting Orange's 1776 instructions to the Halifax Congress, and he sat on the committee whose report empowered the delegates to join in declaring independence. The Assembly at Hillsborough cleared him in 1778 in his quarrel with Congress. Elected governor in 1781, he was captured in David Fanning's raid, broke his parole to return, and died near Hillsborough in 1783. In 1789 the court let his executor sell four people the estate held in slavery.

Indexed works

Works about Colonial Orange County from library and archive catalogs. The most widely held appear first; novels are not shown here. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Histories 430Letters & correspondence 128Historical sources 34Genealogy 13Biography 9other types 19

Period

Colonial era (to 1775) 8317th century 8918th century 417Revolution (1775–1783) 30619th century 87Civil War (1861–1865) 220th century 1World War I era 1

Place

North Carolina (statewide) 543Hillsborough 473Orange County 453Granville County (neighboring) 38Alamance County (neighboring) 34Chatham County (neighboring) 34

Widely held

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Regulators -- North Carolina -- History.

Reviewed in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2003).

✓ Held at OCPL · 975.602 KAR Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL NCCU Library of Congress

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Wake Forest record: North Carolina -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 NAS NC Cardinal UNC Durham Library of Congress Wake Forest Davidson DPLA

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OCPL record: Regulators -- North Carolina -- History.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 CAM UNC Duke Durham Davidson CH Historical Society Library of Congress

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: North Carolina -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.602 TROXLER NC Cardinal Durham Chapel Hill PL CH Historical Society Library of Congress

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: North Carolina -- History -- Regulator Insurrection, 1766-1771 -- Sources.

Reviewed in The American Historical Review (1972), The Journal of Southern History (1972).

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham NCCU Library of Congress

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.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Reviewed in The Journal of Southern History (1963).

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 285.175 TUR NC Cardinal UNC Durham CH Historical Society Library of Congress
Show 2 more

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: North Carolina -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783.

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham UNC Library of Congress

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.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC Duke Durham DPLA

Recently indexed: Address by Edwin A. Alderman ... on the life of William Hooper, "the prophet of American independence" : Guilford Battle Ground, July 4, 1894 (1894) · Biographical sketch of Lieut. Col. "Hal" Dixon (1895) · Correspondence in 1834, between John C. Hamilton, Esq., of New York, and Judge Gaston and Governor Swain : in relation to interesting events in the history of North Carolina (1861) · General William R. Davie (1893) · The life and times of Richard Caswell : the first governor of North Carolina (1857) · Officers of the North Carolina line on the continental establishment (1894)

Search all 566 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this theme. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this theme itself.

  • Start here · NC 975.602 TROXLER 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.

  • Start here · 975.602 KAR Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-revolutionary North Carolina Kars, Marjoleine · 2002

    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.

  • Foundational · NC 975.656 CAM Hillsborough and the Regulators Cameron, Annie Sutton · 1964

    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.

Show 6 more
  • Start here · NC 975.602 COL The Colonial Records of North Carolina, 1963

    The second series of the Colonial Records of North Carolina, the documentary edition begun in 1963 to follow William L. Saunders's ten volumes of 1886 to 1890. Its first volume, Mattie Erma Edwards Parker's edition of the charters and constitutions of 1578 to 1698, came from the Carolina Charter Tercentenary Commission; later volumes, starting with the colony's higher-court records of 1670 to 1696, were issued in Raleigh by the state's archives and history agency.

  • Start here · NC 975.656 BOYD Collective History: Stories of the Colonial Inn Boyd, Amanda · 2021

    Amanda Boyd's stories of the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough, gathered as anecdotes of the inn and of the town's social life. The inn on West King Street is one of Hillsborough's landmarks. Published in Durham in 2021, 120 pages with illustrations, facsimiles, maps and portraits, many in color.

  • Foundational · NC 975.6 LEF Colonial North Carolina: A History Lefler, Hugh Talmage · 1973

    Hugh T. Lefler and William S. Powell's history of North Carolina in the colonial period, written for Scribner's A History of the American Colonies series and published in 1973; 318 pages, illustrated, with a bibliography and index. Lefler taught the state's history at Chapel Hill from 1935; Powell, curator of the North Carolina Collection at the university library from 1958, later edited the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography.

  • Wider context · NC 975.602 RAN The Pirates of Colonial North Carolina Rankin, Hugh F. · 1960

    Piracy on the North Carolina coast in colonial times, including the career of Stede Bonnet, told in 71 illustrated pages by Hugh F. Rankin. The State Department of Archives and History first issued it in 1960, with a bibliography, and the state's archives office reprinted it many times, with a third printing in 1965 and another as late as 2008.

  • Foundational · NC 975.602 FEN Natives & Newcomers: The Way We Lived in North Carolina Before 1770 Fenn, Elizabeth A. · 1983

    Elizabeth A. Fenn and Peter H. Wood wrote this illustrated social history of North Carolina before 1770, covering its Native peoples and the newcomers who arrived among them, with research and marginal notes by Jean B. Anderson and pointers to historic sites. It opens the five-book series 'The Way We Lived in North Carolina', edited by Sydney Nathans and published for the Department of Cultural Resources by UNC Press in 1983.

  • Foundational · NC 911 MER Colonial North Carolina in the Eighteenth Century: A Study in Historical Geography Merrens, H. Roy · 1964

    Eighteenth-century North Carolina seen through historical geography, with particular attention to the colony's economy, in a study by Harry Roy Merrens. The University of North Carolina Press published it in 1964, 293 pages with maps, charts and a bibliography, and reissued it in 2012.

In the chronology

A selection of 12 events from the 343 chronology entries for this theme, including highlights and examples from different years. See all 343 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Occaneechi settle on the Eno near Hillsborough After leaving the Roanoke River valley in 1676, the Occaneechi built a town on the Eno River near present-day Hillsborough and lived there from about 1680 to 1710. It was a small stockaded village of ten or twelve houses and probably fewer than 75 people, and it was the town John Lawson visited in 1701. Archaeologists dug the whole village between 1983 and 1986 at a place they named the Fredricks site, and they call this period of Occaneechi life on the Eno the Fredricks phase. People: John Lawson Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Eno RiverAncient North Carolinians — Historic period
  2. Enoe Will agrees at Occaneechi Town to guide John Lawson to the English settlements Within two hours of John Lawson's arrival at Occaneechi Town on the Eno, Enoe Will came into the king's cabin and agreed to guide Lawson's party to the English, leaving his pay to their discretion. The next morning they set out for Adshusheer, his town about 14 miles east, which Lawson described as Shoccories mixed with Eno and Adshusheer people with Will as their chief man. People: Eno Will, John Lawson Place: Occaneechi Town, on the Eno near Hillsborough · Also named: Enoe WillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: John Lawson, A New Voyage to Carolina (1709), pp. 55-57
  3. The Assembly finds Sheriff Thomas Hart's tax account short and orders the omitted poll tax collected Hart had not collected the poll tax, and on May 10, 1765, the Assembly at Wilmington found his account short through error. On May 15 it passed a bill requiring the omitted poll tax to be collected. Hart settled with the colony, and in 1770 a petition of 174 Orange inhabitants to Chief Justice Martin Howard against fees called him the only sheriff that ever settled. People: Thomas Hart, Martin Howard Place: Orange CountyInternet Archive: Durward T. Stokes, "Thomas Hart in North Carolina", North Carolina Historical Review 41 (1964), p. 327
  4. Herman Husband is jailed in Hillsborough's new stockaded prison during the superior court By Husband's account, soldiers in town for the court harried him with bayonets and once stood him on a tavern table to jeer at him until Colonel John Ashe pulled them off. When the court sat on the Monday, Fanning charged him with new crimes touching his life and he was committed to a newly built, higher prison fortified all round, crowded with nine or ten prisoners, most of them Regulators, under a gallows-like beam. He and William Butler were bailed that night. People: Herman Husband, William Butler (Regulator), Edmund Fanning, John Ashe Place: Hillsborough jailInternet Archive: Hermon Husband, An Impartial Relation (1770), ed. William K. Boyd, North Carolina Historical Review 3 (1926), p. 261
  5. Battle of Alamance Governor William Tryon's militia defeated the Regulators at Alamance. James Few, captured on the field, was hanged at Tryon's camp the next day. People: William Tryon, Herman Husband, Robert Palmer, James Few Place: Present-day Alamance County; then Orange CountyNCpedia
  6. Morgan Edwards reports 1,500 families have left since Alamance The Baptist preacher and traveler wrote that many more were waiting to sell their farms and follow. The book says many former Regulators went to the Tennessee country. Place: Orange County · Also named: Morgan EdwardsLefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 38
  7. General Assembly holds its August 1778 session at Hillsborough The second session of the 1778 General Assembly met at Hillsborough, elected Whitmell Hill and Thomas Burke as additional delegates to the Continental Congress, and authorized 850,000 pounds in bills of credit to pay the state's war debts. The House adjourned to meet next at Halifax in January 1779. People: Thomas Benbury, Allen Jones, Thomas Burke Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Whitmell HillColonial and State Records of North Carolina: Minutes of the North Carolina House of Commons, Aug 08 to Aug 19, 1778 (vol. 12, pp. 816–880)
  8. Cornwallis occupies Hillsborough After driving Nathanael Greene's army across the Dan River, Lord Cornwallis reached Hillsborough on February 20, 1781, and issued a proclamation calling loyalists to join him. The ceremony of raising the King's Standard, ordered for one o'clock on February 21 with a salute of 21 guns, was put off that noon until the next day. Short of food and forage, and told that Greene had recrossed the Dan, he left on February 26, crossing the Haw toward Alamance Creek. People: Charles Cornwallis, Nathanael Greene Place: HillsboroughJournal of the American Revolution: Ian Saberton, Cornwallis and the Winter Campaign, January to April 1781 (April 28, 2020) · Also: Internet Archive: "A British Orderly Book, 1780-1781", IV, North Carolina Historical Review 9
  9. A British court of enquiry at Hillsborough clears a Guards private of desertion A brigade court of enquiry ordered on the march on February 19 and reconvened at the president's tent at Hillsborough on February 22 found that Edward Horman, a soldier of the 3rd Company, 2nd Battalion of the Guards, held on suspicion of desertion, was innocent, and brigade orders of February 23 released him from confinement. Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Edward HormanInternet Archive: A British Orderly Book, 1780-1781, part IV, ed. A. R. Newsome, North Carolina Historical Review 9 (1932), p. 374
  10. David Fanning raids Hillsborough and captures Governor Burke Fanning’s Loyalists captured Governor Thomas Burke during a surprise raid on Hillsborough. People: David Fanning, Thomas Burke Place: HillsboroughNCpedia — David Fanning
  11. Hillsborough Convention declines to ratify the Constitution Meeting at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough, delegates defeated a motion to ratify the Constitution 184 to 84 on August 1, 1788. On August 2 they voted to neither ratify nor reject it until a declaration of rights and amendments went before Congress. People: Samuel Johnston, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Willie Jones, James Iredell Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: St. Matthew's ChurchColonial and State Records of North Carolina, vol. 22, pp. 1-35: Minutes of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention at Hillsborough
  12. Hillsborough marks the bicentennial of the 1788 convention with a reenactment Hillsborough celebrated two hundred years since the 1788 state convention that declined to ratify the U.S. Constitution with a reenactment in which the Antifederalists sharply criticized the Federalists, a day of music, dancing, food and crafts on the court house square, and the play The 12th Lantern at Orange High School. A ceremony to dedicate a historical marker on the convention site was scheduled that afternoon at the Orange County Museum. Place: Old Court House square and Orange County Museum, Hillsborough · Also mentions: Orange High SchoolThe Daily Tar Heel, August 29, 1988, p. 6

See all 343 dated events in the chronology →

Places in this theme

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 16 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

Show 8 more

All places and the county map →

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this subject. Research guide: How to research with Orange County Indexed.

Background 7

Show all 7

National Register files

  • National Register: MoorefieldsNational Register nomination Nomination (4/25/1972), Hillsborough vicinity: history, description, and sources for the property

Historic sites, markers, and maps

Records of the time 10

Show all 10

Collections and databases 7

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Local help

Background reading at OCPL

Books from OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection that provide broader context. They may not discuss Colonial Orange County directly.

  • Background reading · Rebecca Wall Collection Notes on Colonial North Carolina, 1700-1750 Grimes, J. Bryan · 1905

    J. Bryan Grimes, North Carolina's secretary of state from 1901 to 1923, who also chaired the North Carolina Historical Commission, wrote these notes on the colony between 1700 and 1750 for the North Carolina Booklet. The North Carolina Historical Association reprinted them in 1905 as a 69-page pamphlet with references to sources.

    Subjects in the Library of Congress catalog record: North Carolina -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 OCPL call number: NC 975.602 GRI
  • Background reading · Rebecca Wall Collection The Correspondence of William Tryon and Other Selected Papers Tryon, William · 1980

    The letters and papers of William Tryon, royal governor of North Carolina until 1771, edited by William S. Powell in two volumes, 1758 to 1767 and 1768 to 1818. They cover the Regulator troubles, from the riots at Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, to the battle of Alamance in 1771 and the hangings that followed. Tryon, builder of the New Bern palace, later governed New York. Division of Archives and History, 1980; indexed.

    Subjects in the Library of Congress catalog record: North Carolina -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources; North Carolina -- History -- Regulator Insurrection, 1766-1771 -- Sources; Tryon, William, 1729-1788 OCPL call number: NC BIO TRYON POW

Search the Wall Collection for related books →

Related themes

Politics & Government →Wars & Military Service →Law, Courts & Justice →Families, Land & Genealogy →

Picture: Petition of Orange County to Governor Tryon, 1768. Public domain. [Governor William Tryon: Petition of Orange County, 1768.] 1768. Colonial Governors' Papers, State Archives of North Carolina.

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