In my previous post (Paper Trail: the Cox Family and the Regulator Movement of Colonial Orange County, NC), I note that disgruntled Regulators descended upon the Orange County Court in Hillsborough on September 24, 1770. The docket included a number of cases affecting backcountry settlers who had signed multiple Regulator petitions seeking relief from the colonial government. When the court opened on that Monday morning, it quickly filled with angry people, some of whom carried clubs and whips. Presiding Judge Richard Henderson was not sympathetic to the plight of farmers in debt.

Henderson later wrote there was “shouting” and “halloing” by those assembled. A lawyer pursuing cases against several Regulators was confronted and roughed up. The hated Edmund Fanning was hauled from the courthouse, but the Regulators let him go. Judge Henderson was urged by Regulator leaders to hold court as planned and promised he would not be harmed. They added, however, that the Regulators insisted they would ensure “justice impartially done.”

The court record includes comments from the Regulators (far right column) illustrating their frustrations.

Sources of note:

• The Colonial Records of North Carolina