Wake Wednesday 250: The NC Regulator Movement

Source

The Regulator Movement in North Carolina (mid‑1760s to 1771) grew out of everyday frustrations that many backcountry families experienced with taxes, courts, and local officials. After the French and Indian War, the British Empire tightened control and raised revenue, but in North Carolina the most pressing issue for ordinary settlers was how provincial and county officers applied those taxes and fees on the ground. For many small farmers in counties like Orange and the areas that would become Wake, the problem was not abstract British policy so much as very concrete abuses at the courthouse and in the sheriff’s office.

Inequality: East vs. Backcountry

A sharp divide separated wealthy planters and officeholders in the eastern counties from the poorer settlers in the Piedmont backcountry. Eastern elites dominated the Assembly and high offices; they set policies and often backed their own network of appointees. Backcountry farmers, working thinner soils and living far from coastal towns, felt that they bore similar tax burdens without equal influence. This imbalance of power made each new levy, fee, or lawsuit feel like part of a broader pattern in which government served the rich and well‑connected first.

Corrupt Local Officials

At the county level, corruption made that inequality painfully visible. Sheriffs, tax collectors, court clerks, and lawyers exercised wide discretion over how much they charged and how they enforced the law. There were no clearly posted fee schedules in most places, so ordinary people often had no way to know whether what they were being charged was legal or inflated. Common abuses included collecting more tax than the law allowed and keeping the difference, padding accounts, falsifying records, and seizing property when people could not pay in scarce cash. Those seized goods were then auctioned, sometimes under conditions that allowed insiders and friends of officials to buy property at a fraction of its value. In several Piedmont counties, including Orange, small “courthouse rings” of allied officials and lawyers effectively controlled local government, protected each other from complaints, and turned officeholding into a source of personal profit.

The Regulators Wanted ... Regulation!

Settlers who began calling themselves “Regulators” believed that government itself needed to be regulated. They were not, at least at first, arguing for independence from Britain or the overthrow of the colonial order. 

Instead, they demanded clear and public laws on taxes and fees, honest enforcement, the removal or punishment of corrupt officials, and better representation in provincial decision‑making for backcountry communities. The tools they first chose were conventional and legal: petitions to the governor, public meetings, and attempts to work through the courts. Only when these avenues seemed blocked, and when abuses continued, did some Regulators turn to more confrontational tactics. They started  refusing to pay disputed taxes and fees, disrupting court sessions, and assembling with arms.

Loyal but Angry

Throughout this period, most Regulators described themselves as loyal subjects of the king who were seeking redress and reform, not separation from “king and country.” In that sense, their movement differs from the later American Revolution, even though both involved resistance to arbitrary or unjust power. The Regulators’ quarrel focused on how power was used in North Carolina—by sheriffs, clerks, and provincial officers—rather than on whether the British crown had any authority at all.

Orange County Support

Support for the Regulation was especially strong in Orange County. Contemporary estimates and later accounts suggest that out of roughly 8,000 inhabitants, perhaps 6,000–7,000 were sympathetic to or supportive of the Regulators, though these numbers are based on observers’ claims and cannot be verified precisely. Even so, they capture the sense that in Orange County the movement was not a fringe rebellion but a majority feeling among small farmers and tradespeople. 

Grievance Ends in Armed Conflict

The conflict culminated in the Battle of Alamance in May 1771, when Governor William Tryon led a provincial militia that defeated the largely unorganized Regulator forces. In the aftermath, several captured leaders were executed, many others accepted pardons and swore loyalty oaths, and royal authority appeared restored. Yet the grievances that fueled the Regulation—corruption, unequal representation, and resentment of distant elites—did not disappear. They lingered into the 1770s and helped shape how many North Carolinians, including future Wake County families, understood and responded to the broader American Revolution.

source

Explore more:

The Case for James Hunter of Stinking Quarter and Sandy Creek: Regulator Leader, 1765 - 1771 * -Vearl Guymon Alter's account of the Regulator movement in The Journal of Rockingham County History and Genealogy, Vol.2, Number 2, October 1977.

While this is largely a genealogical study of James Hunter and family, Ms. Alter does a masterful job of setting up the environment and feelings of the settlers in this time and place. Click through to read a very detailed account of the key players, their thoughts and actions including some first person accounts of the time period up to and including the Battle of Alamance.

Reckoning With The Regulators -A Deeper Look at the Battle of Alamance -

A website featuring the Regulator Movement from the perspective of expert, Dr. Carole Troxler and the Battle of Alamance State Historic Site. Include images of historical re-enactment at the Alamance Historic Site.

Regulator Documents from NC Colonial State Records  -
Includes all the Regulator "Advertisements"  (their petitions of grievances) as well as letters between Regulator Leaders and British officials. Many Regulators signed the Advertisements. It's a genealogical bonus if you find an ancestors name there!

Regulator Movement at NCPedia

Regulator War - American Battlefield Trust

The Battle of Alamance - American Battlefield Trust

Wake County's History - Joel Lane Museum House

Carolina Regulator Movement - EBSCO

Notable Regulators (with profiles of leaders) - Wandering Through the Piedmont 

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Cleanup Day for Free Black Family Cemetery located at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church

There is a Black cemetery section at Pleasant Grove Church Cemetery in Raleigh. This cemetery is the resting place for several members of a Chavis family who lived on the land adjacent to the Pleasant Grove Church. The family were Free Persons of Color.  Graves within the Chavis cemetery appear below. 

Click image to view larger
Headstones read left to right - Richard, son of Anderson and Tabitha Chavis, Mar.15, 1842-Jan.8, 1914;
Rhoda, Wife of Richard Chavis, (B&D are illegible); Small stone marked ACR (no dates)

A committee of PGUMC church members intend to clean and preserve this portion of the cemetery with an eye to restoration and historical significance.  They are seeking volunteers to help with their efforts.

Seeking descendants of this Chavis family, 
willing hearts, 
and helping hands for
a cleanup day.

Saturday, April 25, 9 am to 1 pm.

at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church

4415 Pleasant Grove Church Road, Raleigh 27613

Direct questions to 
Email: pgumcchurchsociety@gmail.com

If you are or know of descendants of this family, please get in touch with the cleanup group or share quickly so those interested can participate. 

This Chavis cemetery appears in the Wake County Cemetery files on our website at this link.

The survey form for the Black cemetery at Pleasant Grove Church Cem. shows "about 12 graves in an abandoned Black Family Cemetery.  There are 2 marked stones."

• Richard Chavis (15 Mar 1842 - 8 Jan 1914), Son of Anderson and Tabitha Chavis.
• Rhoda, Wife of Richard Chavis (8 Aug 1842 - 8 May 1926) note that this date is worn beyond recognition in the photo above. About 30-40 years have elapsed between the survey and photo above.

The rest are recorded as unmarked. (Anderson and Tabitha Chavis had a large family, these other graves could be members of their family.)

This cemetery also appears on these websites:

https://cemeterycensus.com/nc/wake/cem256.htm

http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/wake/cemeteries/pleagr02.txt

An Ancestry Search for Anderson (1810-1875?) and Tabitha (Hinton?) Chavis (1817-1916) reveal that they were Free People of Color*. They had 12 children in total (including Richard) and others of their children may be buried here. 

*The fact that Anderson and family are recorded in the 1840 and 1850 census indicate that they are Free People of Color. 

There is much more to learn about Anderson and Tabitha Chavis and their descendants. Their story is still being discovered.

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Wake Wednesday 250: Salutary Neglect and the Road to Revolution

For most of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Britain governed its American colonies with a notably light hand. The policy known as "Salutary Neglect" — never formally declared but consistently practiced — allowed the colonies to grow, trade, and govern themselves with a degree of freedom rarely seen in the imperial world of the era. Colonial assemblies passed their own laws, merchants traded with whomever they pleased, and a distinctly American sense of self-reliance took root. Britain looked the other way not out of generosity, but out of practicality: the colonies were profitable, distant, and largely self-sustaining. Why fix what wasn't broken?

But that comfortable arrangement rested on a fragile foundation. It took only one enormously expensive war to shatter it. When Britain emerged from the Seven Years War in 1763 as the world's preeminent imperial power, it also looked towards its future buried in debt and suddenly very interested in what its colonies could contribute to the bill. 

The hands-off era was over. In its place came a cascade of acts, taxes, and regulations that struck the colonists as not merely burdensome, but as a fundamental betrayal of the relationship they believed they had with the Crown. A people who had grown accustomed to running their own affairs did not take kindly to being told, quite abruptly, that they never really had.

The Seven Years' War and Britain's Precarious Victory

Historians generally treat the French and Indian War as the North American campaign within the Seven Years’ War. The end of the French & Indian War in the American Colonies marked the end of the larger global conflict for Britain. Primarily fought against France and its coalition -- Austria, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Saxony, the conflict included global struggles for colonial and maritime supremacy in Europe, India, the Caribbean, and West Africa as well.

The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763 ending the long war. Britain had gained sizable land across the globe. Those gains included all the French Territory east of the Mississippi River (except New Orleans), the formerly Spanish Florida, several Caribbean islands and additional territories on the continent of India.

This win for Britain placed them in a precarious situation financially. They were facing a "be careful what you wish for" moment. After the war, Britain stood as the leading global imperial and naval power, but one with very little funds to forge the empire. They were cash poor. War debts amounted to hundreds of millions of British Pounds and the need for colonial government and military support only added to the burden.

From Policy to Practice: Acts, Taxes, and Growing Resentment

Britain started taking steps to prevent further frontier wars. They build a permanent standing army in the colonies and took steps to regulate land and sales commerce. They began to see the American colonies as a source of ready cash to bring down their massive debt. The previous hands off approach to colonial rule was a thing of the past.

The shift in British policy played out through a rapid series of acts and taxes in the years following the war. Each one proving more restrictive than the last. While these measures were the same for all the colonies, they affected North Carolina colonists in particular as scentiment was already primed for resistance. That growing resistance set the stage for the rise of the Regulator movement that organized and grew in lock step with each new act imposed by London.

Here is a brief overview of those acts and how the colonists experienced them.

The Proclamation of 1763

This British law drew a line along the spine of the Appalachian mountains that colonists were forbidden to cross. The Brits sought to stabilize the size of their new empire, cut costs, and quell Native uprisings. The colonists felt blocked and angry. Many who had already settled beyond the mountains were forced to return east leading to overcrowding and disease as was mentioned earlier. Many others ignored the law and pushed west further inflaming new clashes with the Native groups settled there. The colonists saw this law as an intrusion on their freedom and opportunities. 

The Sugar Act of 1764
This law was enacted by Britain to end the smuggling trade of nonessential food items and recoup some of the cost of the war. Britain took stricter control over trade in the colonies by limiting purchases of items like sugar, molasses, coffee and others to British suppliers only. This all resulted in higher costs, uncertain supply chains, required inspections on receipt of cargo. The colonists felt used as a revenue source by Parliament. They showed their resentment by organizing non-importation efforts and boycotts of British luxury goods.
 
The Currency Act of  1764
This law restricted the use of colonial paper money. Parliament wanted to assert imperial controls on the economic rules in the colonies and  protect British merchants and creditors,  This law declared  that only hard money based on the pound sterling was valid. This created an uncomfortable shortage of money for the colonists. Gold and silver tended to flow back to Britain. Banning paper money resulted in less circulating currency. The resulting inflation that was particularly hard on farmers and small merchants. This law was particularly disliked in NC. Colonists saw it as proof that Britain cared more about its pockets that their well-being.
 

Source

The Quartering Act of 1765
British leaders hoped to cut defense costs and assert control. They enacted this law requiring colonial governments to provide housing and supplies for British soldiers. Placing economic support of their "protectors" squarely on the backs of the colonies themselves. This economic burden fostered resentment and noncompliance as they struggled to grasp the need or meaning of supporting a standing‑army presence in peacetime.

The Stamp Act of 1765
This law enacted a direct tax on printed paper of all kinds including legal documents, newspapers, licenses, and playing cards. Britain hoped that this tax applied to common, trackable items would prove a successful way to collect revenue inside the colonies and assert parliamentary authority over internal taxes. This tax affected most colonists daily and was met with much resistance. The colonists experienced this as an unprecedented internal tax imposed from afar. It provoked mass protest as seen earlier and lead to the formation of the Sons of Liberty, a united and confrontational stance against British actions without direct representation.

The Declaratory Act of 1766
The Brits saw the repeal of the Stamp Act as an appeasement to soothe the anger of the colonists, but they wanted it crystal clear where where the power lay. London on top, colonies subordinate.  This act passed the same day that the Stamp Act was repealed. Parliament wished to assert that they had the right to rule and tax the colonies "in all cases whatsoever."  The colonists viewed this act with mixed emotions. The odious Stamp Act was repealed, but this new blanket act opened the door to "who knows what." They felt increasingly chafed at the lack of representation in the law making process. 

The Townshend Acts of 1767-1768

This group of laws addressed just about every aspect of colonial life.

 

The Revenue Act of 1767 put import duties on tea, glass, lead, paper, and painters’ colors, aiming to raise money to pay royal governors and judges to garner loyalty to London over the colonists interests. 

The Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767 created a customs Board in Boston to enforce trade laws, and fight smugglers and tax evasion.

The Indemnity Act of 1767 cut taxes on the British East India Company tea to protect the company against smuggled tea and collection of duties on the cheaper tea. 

The New York Restraining Act of 1767 suspended New York’s assembly from passing new laws until it complied with the Quartering Act, using punishment of one colony to assert parliamentary authority over all.

The Vice-Admirlaty Court Act of 1768 expanded jury-less naval courts for customs cases. It was easier to convict accused smugglers and enforce new rules, but again there was a lack of representation.

The colonists experienced the collective Townshend Acts as a renewed assault on their wallets and their political rights. The mistrust of British rule and the rebellious spirit deepened throughout  the colonies. 

This was by no means the end of the harrasment by law inflicted on the colonies by Britain, but this is the set of laws that parallels the rise of the Regulator movement here in NC. This overview serves as perfect context as we examine the Regulators next.

Explore more:

https://www.americanrevolution.org/

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/seven-years-war

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/french-and-indian-war-1754-1763-causes-and-outbreak

https://www.jyfmuseums.org/learn/research-and-collections/essays/what-was-the-proclamation-of-1763

https://www.jyfmuseums.org/learn/research-and-collections/essays/what-factors-finally-pushed-the-second-continental-congress-to-declare-independence-in-july-1776

https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/petition-from-regulators-of-north-carolina/

The following "petition concerning public fees" from the Regulators contains names of Orange County members (remember portions of Wake were in Orange County at this time).
https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.php/document/csr07-0289

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Raleigh Trolley Tour - March 28, 2026. Recap and Photos from our Meet-up.

Saturday, March 28 2026 was a lovely sunny, breezy day and a perfect day for a trolley tour of historic Raleigh. The WCGS group gathered at Mordecai Park to embark on our Historic Raleigh Trolley trip. We tiptoed through a crowd of 2 foot tall tiny humans participating in an Easter Egg on the grounds of the Mordecai House (it was a busy day for the park). The mini-crowd was colorful, squeaky and fun. We arrived safely at the trolley stop and caught up on everyone's latest adventures. 

Photos upper right, left and lower right - Steve Deal
Photo lower left - Esther Moore

click image to view larger

Our tour guide Melissa shared tons of information about Raleigh through the ages as our trolley rolled past buildings from every century since the mid 1700's. The discussion was an interesting blend of local history and architecturals styles through the ages. 

All photos - Esther Moore
Clockwise from upper left: Melissa tells all, Briggs building views through trolley window,
Dr Manassa T. Pope House Museum, Joel Lane House Museum

click image to view larger

We covered quite a bit of ground around town and saw many more buildings than shown here. We witnessed roughly three and a half centuries of Raleigh's notable citizens, locations and lore. After our ride, we reconvened for lunch at High Park Grill. It was a fun afternoon and left me wanting to revisit the route sometime to take in all the details we were processing as the buildings and parks rolled by our window.

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Wake Wednesday 250: 250th Anniversary of the Halifax Resolves - Observe Living History, April 10-12, 2026

April 12, 1776 marks an important day in American and NC history. In the small eastern town of Halifax, North Carolina's Fourth Provincial Assembly gathered and authorized its three delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence. Their thoughts and "resolves" were added to the minutes of their meeting. This was the first official action by any of the thirteen colonies on the road to independence and self-determination. This is how North Carolina became "first in freedom".

It is one thing to read about the history it is another all together to watch in unfold "as if" in real time. Halifax, NC is very close to Raleigh and this makes a nice day trip or weekend getaway.  Do youself a favor and make plans to attend this special living history event. I promise you will be touched by the history of the experience. Halifax is like our own little pocket sized Williamsburg!

Halifax Days 2024
photo by C. Deal

The 250th anniversary of the Halifax Resolves will be celebrated from April 10–12, 2026, at Historic Halifax State Historic Site in North Carolina. This "Prelude to Revolution" event commemorates the 1776 adoption of the first official action by a colony calling for independence from Great Britain. The event features three days of living history, reenactments, and military drills, including a major ceremony on April 12.

Key Event Details (April 10-12, 2026):

Significance: 250th Anniversary of the Halifax Resolves, marking North Carolina's role as the first colony to officially call for independence. Link to 3 day schedule is here.

Activities: The weekend features "Halifax Resolves Days" with living-history demonstrations, militia encampments, building tours, and colonial-era, interpreters.

Highlights: A military parade is scheduled for Saturday, April 11, at 11 a.m..

Main Ceremony: The annual wreath-laying ceremony and Halifax Day ceremony take place on Sunday, April 12.

Location: Historic Halifax State Historic Site, 25 St David St, Halifax, NC. 

Updates:  contact www.visithalifax.com; phone - 252-583-7191

Get in the mood for the day. Get inspired by the full text of the Halifax Resolves: 

"The Select Committee taking into Consideration the usurpations and violences attempted and committed by the King and Parliament of Britain against America, and the further Measures to be taken for frustrating the same, and for the better defence of this province reported as follows, to wit,

It appears to your Committee that pursuant to the Plan concerted by the British Ministry for subjugating America, the King and Parliament of Great Britain have usurped a Power over the Persons and Properties of the People unlimited and uncontrouled; and disregarding their humble Petitions for Peace, Liberty and safety, have made divers Legislative Acts, denouncing War Famine and every Species of Calamity against the Continent in General. That British Fleets and Armies have been and still are daily employed in destroying the People and committing the most horrid devastations on the Country. That Governors in different Colonies have declared Protection to Slaves who should imbrue their Hands in the Blood of their Masters. That the Ships belonging to America are declared prizes of War and many of them have been violently seized and confiscated in consequence of which multitudes of the people have been destroyed or from easy Circumstances reduced to the most Lamentable distress.

And whereas the moderation hitherto manifested by the United Colonies and their sincere desire to be reconciled to the mother Country on Constitutional Principles, have procured no mitigation of the aforesaid Wrongs and usurpations, and no hopes remain of obtaining redress by those Means alone which have been hitherto tried, Your Committee are of Opinion that the house should enter into the following Resolve to wit,

Resolved that the delegates for this Colony in the Continental Congress be impowered to concur with the delegates of the other Colonies in declaring Independency, and forming foreign Alliances, reserving to this Colony the Sole, and Exclusive right of forming a Constitution and Laws for this Colony, and of appointing delegates from time to time (under the direction of a general Representation thereof) to meet the delegates of the other Colonies for such purposes as shall be hereafter pointed out.” - source

Halifax Days 2024
photo by C Deal

 Or if you prefer, here is the modern English text of the Resolves paraphrased by Claude Sonnet 4.6 (AI):

"The Select Committee, having reviewed the abuses and acts of aggression carried out by the King and Parliament of Britain against America, and considering what further steps should be taken to stop them and better protect this province, reports the following:

Your Committee finds that, as part of the British government's plan to bring America under its control, the King and Parliament of Great Britain have seized unlimited and unchecked power over the lives and property of the American people. Ignoring repeated peaceful requests for peace, liberty, and safety, they have passed various laws threatening war, famine, and every kind of suffering against the colonies as a whole. British naval and military forces have been, and continue to be, actively used to kill colonists and cause widespread destruction across the land. Colonial governors have promised freedom to enslaved people who take up arms and kill their masters. American ships have been declared enemy vessels, and many have been seized and taken by force — leaving countless people dead or driven from comfortable lives into desperate poverty.

Given that the restrained and good-faith efforts of the United Colonies to reach a peaceful reconciliation with Britain on fair constitutional terms have produced no relief from these wrongs and abuses — and given that there is no longer any realistic hope of fixing these problems through the means already tried — your Committee believes the house should adopt the following resolution:

Resolved that the delegates representing this Colony in the Continental Congress are hereby authorized to join with the delegates of the other Colonies in declaring independence and forming alliances with foreign nations — while reserving to this Colony the sole and exclusive right to create its own constitution and laws, and to appoint delegates as needed (guided by its general representative body) to meet with delegates from the other Colonies for purposes to be determined going forward."

Go have some colonial fun and touch history!


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2026 Wake County Genealogical Society Virtual Meetings - next - April 28, 2026

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 @ 6:30pm – Virtual

Topic: Researching Your Mom: Don't overlook researching your immediate family!

Speaker: Diane L Richard

Think you know your mom?  Our research skills aren't just for researching the long-ago deceased; they can be used for 20th-century research into a loved one.  By the time one is an adult, we often assume that we know all there is to know about, say a mother, father, or grandparents.  How wrong we might be. As genealogists, we sometimes get so focused on researching the long-ago deceased that we kind of skip over the individuals we lived with or frequently visited.  Don't wait!  This talk shares Diane’s research into her mother after she died relatively young and before grandchildren, and bereft of memorabilia.  It yielded some fun surprises about her youth; this research is a work in progress. 

 

 Join us!  Free and virtual!

*Please register by 4pm day of meeting.

*Please save your passcode and link for ease of entry at start time.

*Presentation starts promptly at 6:30 pm.


Link to register at the Wakecogen website events page. 

Registration is now open!

**Get the video recording to watch on-demand for 30 days and access to our webinar handout library with your WCGS membership!**

        ** At presenters discretion.

Upcoming Events 

View events page for details 

Tuesday, May 26, 2026 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Preserving Small Family Cemeteries
Presented by Joel Hobby 

Tuesday, Jun 23, 2026 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Fishing in Every Pond: Cousin Baiting
presented by Christine Cohen

Tuesday, Jul 28, 2026 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Early Migration and Settlement Patterns 
presented by J. Mark Lowe

Tuesday, Aug 25, 2026 @ 6:30pm - Virtual
Doing European Research when you don't speak the language 
presented by Jessica Conklin

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources |  Donate | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Wake Wednesday 250 - North Carolina Widows' Pensions

A fitting topic for the last week of Women's History Month is a study of widows' pensions claimed against their husbands service after the end of the Revolutionary War. These pensions contain first-person testimony that often provide clues about location, circumstances, associates and family. 

Source

 

I want to direct your attention to a fantastic collection that has been curated on the MosaicNC website.  (Mosaic is a digital dublishing venture of the North Carolina Office of Archives and History.) The series of profiles explores several roles filled by women as the men went to war including farmers, nurses, refugees, and family guardians. There are also special focus sections on Free Women of Color and Pension History. 

Read the full story: In Their Own Words: North Carolina's Widows of the American Revolution

I was excited to find that the Free Women of Color section includes two women familiar to me through my recent research.  The first is Nelly Taburn, who applied for a pension based on her husband William's service record. Nelly and William were the parents of  Judah Tabon Harris, wife of Jesse Harris Rev War Patriot featured at the Shiloh Day in October 2025. 

The second is Rachel Locus, who applied based on her husband Valentine Locus' war service. The MosaicNC feature has unearthed some interesting details about the family as well as a tragic story that ultimately had a happy ending. The story also details a common problem of  black pension widows of the era. Rachel's agent was pocketing the money she was entitled to, and she needed federal intervention to finally receive what she was owed.

Read about the war experiences of Nelly and Rachel: Free Women of Color 

Don't miss the section on Pension History. It not only lists dates of the pension acts, but also offers a good survey of how to read a pension file and what you might find there.

Pension History

I encourage you to explore the full study. Click through and read the first person accounts captured in these pension files. That is well in keeping with the Wake 250 theme and I promise you will find insight and fascinating reading. You may even find one of your own ancestors.

Other Places to Search for Widows' Pensions:

FamilySearch.org Full Text Search where pension files are searchable by names, location and keywords. Free.

FamilySearch Wiki has a wide variety of rolls and applications that are free to search.  See online rolls for 1813, 1818, 1820, and 1835.

Revwarapps.org is a free site that offers summaries of pension apps. Search surname and +widow and select “all search terms” as in the example at this page.

Fold3 — a subscription site that you can access for free with your State Library of NC card.

 

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources |  Donate | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org

Wake Wednesday 250 - Margaret Wake Tryon - Mother of Wake

It is very fitting to include this previous post in the Wake 250 series. Margaret and her husband"s (William Tryon Colonial Governor of NC colony) very presence and actions were pivotal in the events leading up to the Revolution. I am sure sentiment about them was mixed at the time.

March is Womens' History Month!

Let's start it off by recognizing the woman of  Wake - Margaret Wake Tryon. She may or may not have been the "Mother of Wake County", but our county was certainly named for her in 1770, by none other than Joel Lane, according to Wikipedia.

source

Margaret was reported to be a "fine accomplish'd lady" in her day, possessed of skills and interests not usually adopted by women of her era. This description at Wikipedia certainly supports that notion.

Wake was described as an "accomplished" and "learned" woman who had a talent for playing the organ and spinet.^[3] She was known to avoid women's company and preferred to engage in men's conversation, particularly on the topics of government and military fortifications, which was considered unconventional at the time.^[3] She was also interested in military strategy and religion, and kept a large library at Tryon Palace.^[12] Wake reportedly insisted on being addressed as Your Excellency, her husband's form of address.^[3] 

You may enjoy this story about Margaret at the Norwich Castle Blog. 

Hats off to Margaret! Huzzah! 

 

Visit Wake County Genealogical Society's Website - Homepage | WCGS Events | Join WCGS | Publications | Wake Cemetery Survey Images | Society Surnames | Digital Resources | History Resources | More Links and Resources |  Donate | Contact - info(at)wakecogen(dot)org