What began as an attempt to employ their constitutional rights as Englishmen, to assembly, and to petition their government for redress of grievances, was mischaracterized, intentionally or not, as an anti-government insurgency by Colonel Edmund Fanning, who held many official offices in the provincial government of colonial North Carolina, and whose personal relationship with Governor Tryon appears to have provided camouflage for him and his collaborators in corruption and extortion. On the other hand, Fanning is recorded in history as saying he believed he was right to take all he could take. This was in fact an English colony, and as such, the prevailing ‘social order’ in Great Britain favored the aristocracy of the ruling/political class over the layman of the working class. The records show that several attempts were made by Regulators in their respective counties to petition the governor, as well as, the Hillsborough District Court and the Salisbury District Court in attempts to open dialogue, and attain fairness, not as anti-government rabble-rousers, or traitors as they would eventually be condemned, but as men who saw injustice and sought to set it right.“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. ~ George Santayana
The refusal of officials to heed what was a clarion call for equality and evenhandedness according to the law provided the fuel that spread the fire in the belly of the backwoodsmen into a popular uprising involving several of the back counties of the Piedmont. As it escalated into intimidation on both sides, desperation grew on the part of the Regulators and sometimes pushed them into violent confrontations. And just when it appeared a compromise was in the works, fate took a cruel turn and the Movement became a War which ended with a showdown between about 2,000 Regulators gathered in the woods at Great Alamance Creek and 1,452 militia men, of which 1,068 were from eastern counties, in the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771 near Hillsborough in Orange County.
The next day, James Few, a twenty-five year old Orange County farmer, was hung without trial. His body was left swinging beside the road to Hillsborough as a warning to others. A few weeks later, fourteen Regulators were tried and twelve were convicted, of that, six were hung. The other six were released in an effort that North Carolinians would think the government generous and forgiving. All were accused as traitors and outlawed, when Governor Tryon issued amnesty to those who took an oath of allegiance to the King, the choices were 1) leave North Carolina, 2) be shot on sight, 3) swear allegiance. In two weeks, 6,409 swore allegiance. But, as we will see, the distrust of far away, centralized power of government over citizens only grew stronger.
To quote historian Milton Ready:
“Backcountry freeholders had become Jeffersonian long before Jefferson in their belief that a government that exercises the least control over its people governs best.”
Similarly, both colonies experienced rapid growth of the back counties between the 1750s and 1760s. As migration of the colonials from the New England, Pennsylvania and Maryland colonies, as well as, new immigrants looking for opportunities moved southward, the Appalachian Mountains on the western boundary of Virginia funneled them into the North Carolina Piedmont and the South Carolina Upcountry. At the time the Georgia colony was young and mostly settled around the lower Savannah River area. Most of the frontier fighting during the French and Indian War was north of the Virginia-North Carolina line up into Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York along this western colonial boundary. On the eastern side of the colonies, the fighting was mostly concentrated in the New England coastal area and along the Canadian border. The threat to the east coast of the southern colonies was from the Spanish in Florida which was comparatively insignificant. This is likely why Charleston was such a popular location for French prisoners of war. After the French and Indian War, Great Britain established the 1763 Royal Proclamation Line which reinforced this western boundary. So, North and South Carolina were appealing as the last of the unsettled land.
During the Anglo-Cherokee War which followed the French and Indian War, both the frontier of North and South Carolina became the front lines and many colonists fled the area to escape the slaughter. South Carolina, in particular, had passed legislation in 1752 to encourage settlement of the back counties with some positive results, so in 1761, after the end of the Cherokee War, they renewed the Act to encourage re-settlement. The response was a great influx of settlers, but along with them came roving bands of brigands and marauders, highway men who had free reign over the developing back settlements. Pleas for help from the population to the seat of government in Charleston went unanswered. The provincial government had encouraged settlement without plans for providing for the security that the taxpayers expected their government to provide. There were no peace officers, nor a court system, except in the area of Charleston. So about 1765, the local settlers developed vigilante groups and drove out the criminal elements. Over the course of the next few years, the government in Charleston continued to fail to respond to the needs of the settlers. These citizens, who recognized they had no representation in the Assembly, and believed they were not getting their fair share of return on their money, organized into an association with a wider focus including, not just law enforcement and courts, but also roads, schools and judicial districts. They gave themselves the name Regulators and threatened a march on Charleston. What resulted was the Circuit Court Act of 1768 which brought judicial districts to the back counties for the first time. The Regulators' voluntarily disbanded, but, two distinct cultural and social classes developed, the aristocratic class of the Low Country based on a plantation culture and slavery where the Church of England was the dominate tax-supported religion; and the class of the commoner in the Up Country above the Fall Line who were dominantly hard working small farmers, owned few slaves and were primarily Presbyterian and Baptist.
There are interesting similarities between what happened in South Carolina and what developed into the Regulators’ Movement in the North Carolina backcountry, with one big difference ... in North Carolina, the criminal element was represented by corrupt officials, appointed by the Governor and his Council, who were using their authority to extort unlawful fees for services, manipulating the tax collection system which often resulted in confiscation of property, and what taxes they did collect they mostly embezzled.
As in South Carolina, two distinct cultural and social classes developed between those who lived in the Coastal Plains region and the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Those in the eastern tidewater area mostly represented the ruling/political class of the province built on a plantation economy and slavery, the Church of England was the prevailing religion supported by a provincial tax. The area had already purged the Quakers during Cary’s Rebellion and tolerated the Scottish Presbyterians along the Cape Fear River. Those in the backcountry across the Fall Line represented the common man, hard working sustenance farmers who owned few slaves and were primarily non-Anglican Protestants, including Baptist, Anabaptist, Quakers, Lutherans, Moravians, Reformers and Presbyterians. By this time, The Great Awakening was in full swing.
The results of this type of government structure ensured that a certain number of men in each county were in control of all the offices. The effectiveness of government depended too much on the personal honesty of the office holders.
To quote Professor John S. Bassett, Trinity College, North Carolina “The Regulators of North Carolina 1765-1771”, page 149:
“In many of the eastern counties this state of affairs seems to have worked well. But in the remote sections there is much evidence that the officers were selfish and mercenary, and that they were mutually leagued together to forward their own selfish ends. It was to try to clean out this Augean stable that Regulation had its existence.”
The farmers in the backcountry grew and raised what they needed to support their families, often using the barter system among their neighbors, few kept hard currency on hand. If they need hard currency, they usually borrowed from neighbors and most areas had someone who was a lender. As I pointed out in a previous narrative, we saw this practice when Burlingham the father gave the deed to his land to John Red on October 12, 1750 for forty dollars proclamation money, then the deed was passed to James Stewart the same year for the same amount. Within six months, on April 15, 1751, Burlingham bought his land back. Apparently, Burlingham used his land for collateral for a loan. James Stewart bought Burlingham’s IOU from John Red, which is why Burlingham was a witness to the second transaction.
Professor John S. Bassett gives us an example of how dishonest county sheriffs took advantage of the situation and sometimes used the shortage of hard currency as a pretext to confiscate personal property for payment of taxes, page 151:
When the sheriff would come unexpectedly to the taxpayer, the latter would propose to get the money if the officer would accompany him to the home of this neighborhood banker. The officer usually refused to do this and proceeded to distrain on some property, taking a fee of 2s. 8d. for the same. The taxpayer would then hasten to his neighbor's, secure the needed money, and hurry after the sheriff. That officer would take a different route than the one he had promised to take, and the luckless pursuer would arrive in Hillsboro in time to see his property sold to some friend of the officer's for much less than its value. The Regulators charged that officers played into each others hands for this purpose, and that there were men in Hillsboro who had made large sums by dealing in such business.The first recorded incident that seemed to indicate things to come was in 1759 in Enfield, Granville District.
In January, 1759, a group of backwoodsmen seized Lord Granville's land agent, Francis Corbin, in Edenton and brought him to Enfield. There they forced Corbin to give bond to return illegal fees which had been collected. On May 14, 1759, a group of citizens in Enfield expressed the same sentiments against British tyranny. Several of the "rioters" were arrested and jailed. However, they were soon released when an irate group of citizens, broke into jail and freed them.Then in 1764, groups of citizens in Anson, Orange and Granville counties banded together to create a number of local disturbances which prompted a response from the Board of Trade and Plantations with orders to publish a proclamation forbidding the collection of illegal fees.
By the King—A ProclamationIn Mecklenburg County in 1765, there was an incident known as the Sugar Creek War. Farmers led by Thomas Polk attacked John Frohock and six surveyors on a tract of land said to be patented to Henry Eustace McCulloch and George A. Selwyn, who were partners in land speculation with former Governor Dobbs. The conflict arose when McCulloch and Selwyn assembled a team of surveyors to lay out the boundaries of the land so that the current settlers could begin paying the rent, but first they had to purchase the land. Many of them had been on the land for several years and felt McCulloch and Selwyn’s claim to the land was no longer valid, the patent was a couple of decades old. The cost was assessed at “current value” instead of the original value with back rents. The older residents objected, the newer ones agreed. The older ones intimidated the newer ones into backing down. A violent conflict ensued. Frohock was lashed across his face and another man was said to have daylight cracked in his head. Governor Tryon interceded and appointed a commission which determined the proprietorships were null and void because they had not met the requirements to settle the land according to the original patent. Therefore, they had to relinquish their claim. The history of the incident is recorded in Minutes of the North Carolina Governor's Council, May 07, 1765 - May 09, 1765, Volume 07, Pages 10-31
Whereas frequent complaints have been heretofore made, that exorbitant Fees have been demanded and taken in the publick Offices in several of our Colonies and Plantations in America for Business transacted in such Offices; And whereas it hath been represented unto us, that there is great reason to apprehend that such unwarrantable Demands and exactions are still continued in some of our Colonies, particularly on the survey and passing Patents for Lands; And, Whereas such shameful and illegal practices do not only dishonour our Service but do also operate to the prejudice of the publick interests, by obstructing the speedy settlement of our Colonies; Our Will and pleasure therefore is, that fair Tables of all fees legally established within this Province, be constantly affixed up in every publick office, And we do hereby strictly enjoin and require all public officers whatever, in their respective Stations, not to demand or receive any other fees for Publick Business transacted in their Offices, than what have been established by proper Authority, upon pain of being removed from their said office, and prosecuted with the utmost severity of the Law. Witness our Trusty and Well beloved Arthur Dobbs, Esquire, Our Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over our said Province at Wilmington the third day of November, In the fifth year of Our Reign.
On June 6, 1765, a school master by the name of George Sims in Granville District published what became known as the Nutbush Address describing the “deplorable situations” the people suffer. How a poor man without cash resources who tried to do the right thing, provide for his family and meet his obligations, was victimized by the system and those who manipulated it.
Professor John S. Bassett excerpts part of the address for us, page 160:
A poor man is supposed to have given his judgment bond for £5, and this bond is by his creditor thrown into court. The clerk of the county has to enter it on the docket and issue execution, the work of one long minute, for which the poor man has to pay the trifling sum of 41s. 5d. The clerk, in consideration he is a poor man, takes it out in work at 18d. a day. The poor man works some more than twenty-seven days to pay for this one minute's writing. Well, the poor man reflects thus: At this rate, when shall I get to labor for my family? I have a wife and parcel of small children suffering at home, and here I have lost a whole month, and I don't know for what, for my merchant is as far from being paid yet as ever. However, I will go home now and try and do what I can. Stay, neighbor, you have not half done yet. There is a d--d lawyer's mouth to stop yet--for you empowered him to confess that you owed this £5, and you have 30s. to pay him for that, and go and work nineteen days more; and then you must work as long to pay the sheriff for his trouble; and then you may go home to see your horses and cow sold, and all your personal estate for one-tenth part of the value, to pay off your merchant. And lastly, if the debt is so great that all your personal estate will not do to raise the money--which is not to be had--then goes your lands the same way to satisfy these cursed hungry caterpillars that will eat out the very bowels of our commonwealth if they are not pulled down from their nests in a very short time.In August 1766, in Orange County the Sandy Creek Association founded by Shubal Stearns, a Separate Baptists minister, joined with Hermon Husband and other Quakers to call for a meeting between taxpayers and county officials. Regulator’s Advertisement No. 1 was read at the Orange County Courthouse, inviting county neighbors to elect delegates to attend a meeting at Maddock’s Mill on the Eno River. The purpose of the meeting, the advertisement stated, would be...
"... to judiciously enquire whether the free men of this county labor under any abuses of power or not and let the same be notified in writing if any is found and the matter fully conversed upon and proper measures used for amendment; this method will certainly cause wicked men to tremble..."County officials were invited to attend, but Colonel Edmund Fanning, who had just been promoted from Attorney General to Assistant Judge of the Superior Court of Justice for the District of Salisbury, deemed the gathering “insurrectionary” and none attended.
As land, personal property, farm animals and implements, even clothing, continued to be taken from the people for payment of taxes, fuel was added to the growing fire when Governor Tryon secured a $15,000 appropriation from the Council to build a new combination statehouse-governor’s residence at New Bern to be paid for by an extra poll tax. The backcountry settlers gave it the name of “Tryon’s Palace” and many were furious … only to be made more furious when Tryon and his entourage undertook a very costly and luxurious march to survey the western boundary line of the Cherokee country, which would also be paid for by taxes. That was followed by an announcement by the Sheriff of Orange County that he would accept tax payment at only five locations in his huge county and that, if he were forced to visit the taxpayer to collect, he would levy the legal 2s8d additional fee for his "distress."
These things added to the feeling that the government did not care about the welfare of the citizens in the western counties and caused the unrest to spread. Soon the backcountry men of Orange County were joined by others who formed an association calling themselves “Regulators” and published their resolves. The Regulators in Anson County also took an oath:
Tension grew when the Regulators of Orange County published a new advertisement demanding the sheriff show his tax lists, collection records and fees table. Local officials became furious and Fanning wrote a frantic letter to Tryon encouraging him to call out the militia “and do battle” referring to the Regulators as “the mob” and declaring they thought themselves to be “the sovereign arbiters of right and wrong”.The Regulation in Anson County ~ Rules and Resolves
Whereas the Tax for the present year is very high part of which, unseen seem to many unlawful and unnecessary, that together with the great scarcity of Money that have put it out of our power to make payment of the same, and we the subscribers being in that circumstance and also willing to consider the Public, that we are sensible of oppressions and therefore have thought convenient to stay the payment of the Tax aforesaid, not but what we acknowledge ourselves true and lawful subjects to the crown of Great Britain and therefore have entered into a league with each other and have taken the following Oath & subscribed our name, being willing to pay four shillings for Kings Dues.
THE OATH I [A. B.] do promise and swear that if any Officer or any other Person do make distress on any of the goods or other Estate of any Person sworn herein being a subscriber for the non-payment of the said Tax that I will with other sufficient assistance go take if in my power from the said Officer and restore it to the party from whom taken and in case any one concerned herein should be imprisoned or under an arrest or otherwise confined, or his Estate or any part thereof by reason or means of joining into this Company of Regulators for the non-payment of Taxes, that I will immediately do my best endeavour to raise as many of the said subscribers as will be of force sufficient and if in my power set the said Person and his Estate at liberty and I do further promise and swear that if in case this our scheme should be broke or otherwise give out our intention, any of our Company should be put to any expence or be put under any confinement that I will bear an equal share with those in trying to pay and make up the sufferer, all these things I do promise and swear and subscribe my name.
In a day or two the powder keg was lit by an incident. The sheriff seized a Regulators’ horse, saddle and bridle for tax payment. On April 8, 1768, eighty angry Regulators marched on Hillsborough armed with clubs, staves and cloven muskets; they captured and bound Sheriff Hawkins, then "rescued" the horse and tack. On the way out of town, some in the group fired shots into Fanning's house. He was in Halifax at the time and when he was informed, he ordered the arrest of the "ringleaders". He then called out seven companies of the Orange militia, hurried back to Hillsborough to take command and wrote again to Tryon asking for more authority to deal with the "traitorous Dogs . . ." Tryon's Council declared the Regulators guilty of insurrection. Fanning was authorized to call up militia from the surrounding counties.
Meanwhile, terrified officials in Orange agreed to meet with the Regulators to discuss grievances. While this was happening, Fanning and a posse raided the Sandy Creek area, arrested William Butler and Herman Husband on a charge of "inciting to rebellion." The two prisoners were jailed in Hillsborough. When news reached the Regulators, they dropped plans for the meeting and 700 Regulators and supporters marched on Hillsborough. County officials released the two prisoners on bail. Isaac Edwards, the governor's private secretary, promised the Regulators if they would lay out their complaints in a petition to the governor, he would see that justice was done them. The Regulators agreed to the request. But on hearing this, Tryon stated that his secretary had exceeded his authority and refused to deal with the Regulators as an organization and demanded they immediately disband.
About three weeks later, on April 27, 1768, trouble erupted in Anson County when a “mob” marched to the Anson County Court House and disrupted the proceedings. They demanded the removal of local magistrates and clerk Samuel Spencer, Sheriff James Medlock and Anthony Hutchins. Samuel Spencer, a colonel for the Anson County militia, had purchased his position as clerk of the county court from Colonel John Frohock for one hundred and fifty pounds. Spencer wrote a letter to Tryon describing the scene and expressed that he believed the entire business had been instigated by someone trying to garner support for the next election. The Regulators had held a vote during the commotion and elected Charles Robinson to represent them in the lower house of the Assembly.
The Anson County Regulators also wrote to Governor Tryon concerning the incident. The document is known as the Regulator Protest Paper, April 28, 1768 and is signed by ninety-nine men. They say, “we blame ourselves” but “being long under the growing weight of oppression became rash, and precipitate” and decided they would make those who are abusing their offices “wary of their employments”. So they organized themselves into “the opposite Party called a mob of about five hundred men”. They say to Tryon, surely you as governor have the good of your people at heart and would not want them “oppressed to gratify the errors and ambition of any particular Persons, who are Anthony Hutchins, Colonel Samuel Spencer, Charles Medlock and their Assistants the Justices and Sheriffs &c.” They did not believe these persons were capable of performing the duty of their offices and their character was “extremely doubtful & precarious” because they arrest citizens, put them in jail, causing a great expense, then let them go without a trial to cover up their corruption. Then they listed examples of the “unusual manner” of taxing.
First Persons who commit capital offences are committed to the County Goal and there retained five or six months, a County Tax is laid to defray the expence when it is notoriously known it is a Province Expence, But Medlock the late Sheriff stop’t not there, but proceeded by Mr. Spencer the Clerk and Member for the County to have the same claim allowed by the Assembly, and were only prevented as we are informed by its being proved to the Committee of Claims that the Prisoners had made satisfaction themselves – These things were not unknown to Mr. Spencer when he laid Medlock’s claim before the Assembly. In the next place where the Justices are in possession of Public Ferries they establish them free at times pretending for the free passage of Courtiers a considerable Tax is laid for that Purpose. In the next place they tax considerable sums of money for particular Persons, who not having the right thereto, the Magistrates after receive back part, if not all to their own use. All these things can be made to appear, and we conceive that no People have a right to be taxed, but by the consent of themselves or their Delegates. But here the Magistrates assume it, then the Sheriffs who receive the Tax particularly Medlock and his Associates have made a constant practice to exact 2.8 for distress money, when no distress is made nor necessary to be made, and also have taxed different sums from the People according to their non acquaintance with the right Tax so that several different sums were received from the People in the same year surmounting the right Tax.They close by saying to Tryon, that if he will give then honest officials who are knowledgeable and capable of performing their duties, then it will ease the minds of the people who are willing to pay honest taxes for the support of their government. The names of those petitioners are at the above link. Burlingham Rudd’s name is not on this petition, but I think it likely these are representatives of “the mob” that “visited” the court house.
As to the Clerk his extortions are burthensome to all that fall in his power as he takes double and some times treble his due – And tho’ it is true he purchased his Office from Colonel Frohock and gave to the amount of one hundred and fifty pounds for it yet it’s unreasonable we should bear the expence by way of extortion, Please Sir, to enquire of Mr. Edwards, touching the connection of Hutchins Spencer and Medlock, and their unreasonable method of proceeding by means of their influence over the ignorant Magistrates as he had doubtless made some observation on their behaviour. This and much more are the causes of the present disturbances which we humbly pray your Excellency will please to reconcile by discharging the most of the Magistrates from their seats, & appointing better men, more capable and willing to discharge that Office, and also the Clerk if it seems right to you.
In May 1768, Governor Tryon wrote back to Spencer. He tells him that he has issued a proclamation “requiring the Rioters to disperse, and return to a dutiful obedience to the Laws of their Country” and he hopes it will be effective. Tryon gives Spencer the authority to raise the Anson Regiment of Militia if need be in order to apprehend the ringleaders of the mob so they can be brought to trial to discourage future outbreaks. Tryon acknowledges receiving from Spencer the copies of the “rules and Oath of the Insurgents” and calls it “rash, inconsistent and illegal”. Tryon then tells Spencer if the people of Anson have any real grievances they should put them in a petition to the General Assembly or to him so they can be redressed. Tryon assures Spencer he does not form his opinion of the people of Anson based on “a few Incendiaries who are more desperate perhaps in their Fortunes than in their Courage” but he will not allow “the most dissolute part of the inhabitants of this Province to pay off their Public Taxes by Insurrections”. Then Tryon tells Spencer, “This contagion and disaffection has spread from Anson to Orange County”, that a similar confrontation had transpired in Hillsborough but Fanning and his officers through their firmness and with the assurances of Tryon’s secretary, Mr. Edwards, dispersed them through the same strategy … put your grievances in a petition. What that last statement reveals is that Fanning, evidently, did not want Tryon to know that the bulk of the unrest was in Orange County because it would be poor reflection on him; it is a cover-up of personal responsibility that will fan the flames in Orange County.
On July 6, 1768, Tryon arrived in Hillsborough with two purposes. First, persuade the Regulators to disband, and second, protect the September term of the Superior Court – the court that was about to put William Butler, Herman Husband, Samuel Devinney and John Hartzo on trial charged with inciting the recent Hillsborough Riot. On July 21, 1768, Tryon issued a new "Proclamation Against Charging Exorbitant Fees", ordering that fee tables be posted and that illegal practices be stopped. At this point, he began to exchange messages with the Regulators in an attempt to get them to disband. He ordered the Attorney General to institute prosecutions against officers charged with taking illegal fees. One officer charged was Colonel Edmund Fanning.
The Regulators would not agree to disband, but they did agree to petition the Assembly for redress. They would not agree to make a bond to ensure their good behavior at the upcoming trials because it might limit their ability to restrain the more volatile members among them. Governor Tryon knew most of the backwoodsmen were sympathetic to the Regulators’ cause and he needed to raise county militias to protect the upcoming court session. He turned to the Presbyterian ministers for assistance and offered 40 shillings per volunteer.
Tryon did not respond to the Anson County Regulators’ Protest Paper of April until August 1768. Read it well. He tells them that the charges they make against county officials are so serious that it will require consultation of his Council at New Bern, but he’s away at Hillsborough at the moment. Anyone who feels they have been extorted should file a complaint with the Attorney General who will prosecute those who abuse the public trust. And by the way, nice of you to admit your guilt because there will be an investigation of the incident at Anson County Court House by the Salisbury District Superior Court and your acknowledgement of your rash and illegal behavior might bring you some leniency IF you behave yourselves and “dutifully submit to the law.”
On trial in the Hillsborough District Superior Court during the September term were four Regulators: Herman Husband, William Butler, Samuel Devinney, and John Hartzo. Husband was acquitted of the charge of inciting a riot. The other three were found guilty of the same charge, but Tryon suspended the fines and released the prisoners. Later, they received a full pardon from the governor.
Also on trial for extortion were three county officials: Edmund Fanning, Francis Nash and John Wood. About 800 Regulators were waiting outside Hillsborough for the outcome of the court trials. Also waiting were 1,461 militia members who had been raised from Rowan, Mecklenburg, Granville, and Orange counties with the help of the ministers. No Anson militia.
Fanning was found guilty on five counts of extortion, and fined one penny for each count. But the three judges, Martin Howard, Chief; Maurice Moore and Richard Henderson, Associates were unsure of the legality of judging Fanning guilty, and the case was referred to England. Fanning immediately resigned the office of Register and was never fined.
In Johnston County, about eighty Regulators unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the court, in Edgecombe County about thirty Regulators tried to rescue a fellow Regulator from the Halifax jail but were routed. In Rowan County, the Regulators attempted to prosecute Judge John Frohock and three other officers for extortion in the Salisbury District Superior Court. When the Regulators arrived at court they discovered the grand jury was stacked with their enemies, all but three of the men were officers. They later found out that those sitting on the jury were not the first chosen. Not surprisingly, the juries refused to return "true bills" on the cases.
There was not another election for Assembly representation until July 18, 1769 with the next session scheduled to convene in October 1769. This election demonstrated the strong feelings against the officers throughout the province by the results. Carteret, Beaufort, Anson, Halifax, Bladen, Edgecombe, Tyrrell, Orange, Granville, and Hyde changed their entire delegations. In Orange, Granville, Anson, and Halifax, where the Regulator sentiment was strong, the change was complete. In Rowan, a strong Regulator county, Griffith Rutherford, considered a moderate friend of the people, was retained, but his yokefellow, John Frohock, was dropped and in his place Christopher Nation, an ardent Regulator, was elected. Out of the 78 members of the new Assembly, 43 were new men. Professor Bassett explains the change in political thinking on page 183:
The next step taken by the Regulators was in the line of practical politics. Until recently no suspicion had been cast upon the members of the assembly. The people were accustomed to leaders and willingly trusted their affairs in their hands. With no widely circulating newspapers and no political aptness, they formed themselves into no parties, but usually accepted the candidate put forward by the officeholders, who was generally either a member of or closely associated with the officeholding class. When they first began their agitation the Regulators had been content to aim at the local officers. They were told to apply to the courts, where justice should be done them. They complied, and found that the laws were in favor of the officers. They concluded that the laws should be changed. At the same time, since the issue had been sharply defined, they saw that the assemblymen were ranged on the side of the county officers. They now determined to attack this office, and here they were more successful than they had been in any of their other undertakings.At the fall session of the new Assembly, the Anson County Regulators submitted their petition dated October 9, 1769. It was signed by approximately 250 men, many of whom who had signed the 1768 Protest Paper after “the mob” took the court house. Orange and Rowan counties united in another petition that contained some of the same issues as the Anson petition, although not as extensive. A very noteworthy petition came from the Presbyterians in Mecklenburg. They declared themselves a thousand freemen, "who hold to the Established Church of Scotland, able to bear arms." They told Tryon they were ready and cheerful to support him during the recent trouble in Hillsborough and then demanded that he repeal the vestry and marriage acts in the counties of Mecklenburg, Rowan, and Tryon so that the Scottish church has the same footing with "our sister church of England." It is true that freedom of non-Anglican worship was granted to colonials in America, the exception being the Catholic Church was banned in most all of them. But since the Church of England was the official church in the colonies and was supported by a vestry tax upon the people, it was the only Church allowed to perform legal marriages, register birth, baptisms, etc. For those who were not Anglican, their choice was something like Quaker-style where they announced their marriage to their neighbors, or “jumped the broom” as was an old-world tradition, or common law marriages. They wanted equal rights.
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This idea, as we have seen, had taken shape in Anson when the Regulators had nominated Charles Robinson as their candidate for the assembly, making, perhaps, the first political nomination in America.
The Assembly was working along, proposing legislation that addressed many of the problems that had been listed in the various petitions, when a situation developed between Tryon and the lower chamber, the freeholders that had come into the legislature during the last anti-establishment election, which resulted in Tryon dissolving the Assembly. The next election was set for March 1770.
Many of the same freeholders were returned to the next legislative session which was described as having the “Regulator spirit”, with an additional representative seat for Hillsborough created by Tryon, to which Fanning was promptly elected, and therefore, returned to one of his previous offices. Preparations for the coming session were underway when word came in September that there had been another riot at the Hillsborough District Superior Court. The Orange County Regulators had presented a petition to the justice requesting an investigation of extortion. Judge Richard Henderson was the only justice on the bench and deferred the petition to the following Monday. About 150 Regulators gathered outside on Monday; the crowd inside included Hunter, Howell, Husband, Butler, Hamilton, and Devinney. Jeremiah Fields asked for permission to speak. Granted, he rose and said that the Regulators understood that the judge had decided not to try their causes at that term but they were determined to have them tried, and if the court would do it, it would prevent “mischief”. They insisted that the jury that had been selected be changed. While the judge was trying to pacify them on the inside, the group gathered outside was restless. They were all carrying switches and sticks when a lawyer named John Williams started to enter the building. The crowd fell upon him, beating him severely until he made his escape. They rushed to the courthouse and found Fanning. They seized him by the heels and dragged him into the street and beat him mercilessly until he made his escape. They went after him, but allowed him to go home with the promise he surrendered himself the following morning. They also whipped several others that were there before they could make their escape. The next morning Fanning gave himself up to the Regulators and they told him they would release him if he agreed to take to the road running until he was out of sight. Which he no doubt did! Then they went to his pretentious new house, which represented to them all that Fanning had acquired with illegal fees. They tore it up, everything. Then demolished it.
The Regulators returned to the courthouse and allowed Judge Henderson to adjourn the court for the day on the promise he would take up their case the next day. He promised. About 10 o’clock that night the judge took a fast horse out of town. On November 12th, Judge Henderson’s barn and stables were burned to the ground, two nights later his house was burned to the ground. Regulators were suspected.
Tryon inquired of the attorney general if the Regulators involved in the second Hillsborough Riot could be tried for treason. The AG told him no, they could only be charged with rioting and the law required they be tried in their home district court. Tryon knew there would be too much sympathy for the Regulators in Orange County to raise a jury that would return his desired verdict. He ordered his officers to call for a muster of their militias to test the responsiveness of volunteers. Soon came rumors that the Regulators were going to march on the coming session of the Assembly in New Bern. The Council was panicked, offered rewards for the instigators and called the militias between Hillsborough and New Bern into readiness. The Assembly finally had a quorum on December 5th and a report came from Pitt County that the Regulators of Bute and Johnston were marching on New Bern to stop Fanning from taking his seat for Hillsborough. The Council fabricated some charges against Husband, expelled him from the Assembly and had him arrested by the chief justice in mid-December. At the end of December word came that another group of Regulators were at Cross Creek preparing to march on New Bern. With that the Johnston Riot Act was passed into law giving the governor and attorney general extensive authority in suppressing riots with a one year expiration date.
The Assembly was making great progress with legislation addressing the grievances of the Regulators, perhaps the rumors of gathering Regulators preparing to march on the government was having some effect. They passed a bill to amend the act for appointing sheriffs and to direct their duty in office; a bill to ascertain attorneys' fees; an act more strictly to regulate officers' fees; an act for the more speedy collection of debts under £5; an act to grant the chief justice a salary, and acts to erect the counties of Wake, Guilford, Chatham, and Surry, all lying in the region infected with the Regulator spirit. All these laws contained reforms sought by the Regulators. Many of them are listed in the 1769 Regulators’ Petition from Anson County that bears the name of Burlingham Rudd.
Tryon did not wait for the new laws to have effect on the unrest. The first law he signed was the riot law and at once had the leaders of the Hillsborough riot charged. He called for a special court at New Bern as the location of their trial. The new law gave the attorney general the power to change of venue, no longer was a sympathetic jury in Orange County an obstacle. On February 2, 1771, the grand jury took up the case of Hermon Husband who had been in jail since December 1770. The grand jury found “no bill” and Husband was released. Tryon was "unpleased with the discharge of Husband." He dismissed that term of the court and called another for March 11th. He instructed the county sheriffs to only select jurymen who were “gentlemen of the first rank, property and probity”. The witnesses were all one-sided and most were officers who testified before the grand jury which returned “a true bill” for all sixty-two counts. The riot law declared that the defendants would be considered outlaws if they did not appear for trial within sixty days.
Meanwhile, on March 7, 1771 in Rowan County, a committee of arbitrators had been formed to work out a resolution between the Regulators and representatives of the government including Hermon Husband, James Graham, James Hunter, and Thomas Person on the Regulators side and Matthew Locke, John Kerr, Samuel Young, and James Smith on the other side. Alexander Martin and John Frohock reported the progress to Tryon with great enthusiasm telling him the committee had planned to meet on the third Tuesday in May. Tryon wrote back that he did not approve of their entering into negotiations with insurgents and he was about to march with an army into the Regulators’ country. He believed this was a more effective resolution than a Rowan agreement.
On March 18, 1771, Tryon read to the Governor’s Council an intercepted letter from Rednap Howell to James Hunter:
Halifax Feb. 16th 1771.Tryon also read a letter to the Council from the chief justice of Hillsborough District Superior Court stating that he and his associates could not attend the March term of the Hillsborough court for fear of personal safety. Tryon’s strategy paid off. The Council resolved the governor should immediately raise a body of militia to march against the insurgents.
Respected Friend,
On my setting out for Hallifax my horse fell sick which detained me some time so that on my arrival here I had certain information that Herman was at liberty; so that I found it needless to raise the Country but I am satisfied it would be easily done if occasion required, however I have animated the people here to join the Regulation; on Saturday come 2 weeks they are to have a meeting for the purpose. If it once takes a start here it will run into the neighboring Counties of Edgecomb, Bute and Northampton and this will undoubtedly facilitate Justice to poor Carolina. I will now inform you of such things as I have learnt since I left home. At New Bern the Governor called a general muster of 1,100 men; after treating them at yours and my expence he tried to prevail on them to march against the rebels but on one man's absolute refusal he ordered him to turn out of the Ranks for a Traitor which he very readily did and all the Regiment followed or were following him; the Governor perceiving his mistake says Gentlemen you mistook me I only meant should they come down and destroy all your livings would you not fight them; they answered yes on which he dismissed them, they then gathered in Companys of 6, 8, 10 & 12 growling and swearing would the Mob come down they would join them. In Dobbs a general muster was called for the same purpose, but only seven men attended. I am informed the Clerk's places in the New Countrys are parcelled out among the Quality; one Cooper is designed for your Country but if you suffer any rascal to come there may eternal oppressions be your lot: as I cannot solely depend on the Irish ahead pray you will reserve that morsel for yours to serve; for as the whole province is in your favor you may do as you list in that respect. I understand Butler and you are to be outlawed; despise it laugh at it—We hear that the Governor has sent a proclamation to you importing as the French and Spaniards are now at war with us, it's a pity to breed a civil war among ourselves; that the Chief cause of the trouble was the counterfeit money for which the great men were to blame; artful V—n! if he could have raised the Province on us he would have told another tale. However if this be true the day is ours in spite of Lucifer—I give out here that the Regulators are determined to whip every one who goes to Law or will not pay his just debts or will not agree to leave his cause to men where disputes; that they will choose Representatives but not send them to be put in jail; in short to stand in defiance and as to thieves to drive them out of the Country. I leave the plan to your consideration from your sincere friend ~ Rednap Howell
The following day, March 19, 1771, Tryon began preparations for a military campaign against the Regulators. He gave orders to raise 2,550 men by April 20th. A bounty of 40 shillings was promised to each volunteer. Tryon would lead one column of eastern militias directly from New Bern to Hillsborough. General Hugh Waddell would take the Cape Fear militia and lead a second column to overcome the Rowan Regulators, raise the western militias, march to Salisbury, and then join Tryon at Hillsborough. Tryon’s regiment included 917 rank and file and 151 officers with detachments from Craven, Carteret, Orange, Beaufort, New Hanover, Onslow, Dobbs, and Johnston, and an artillery company. The Wake County militia showed up with no arms which appeared to have been a ruse to keep from having to serve in the conflict, but when a smaller detachment reported, Tryon ordered the sheriff to take the smaller detachment with him and collect taxes in Wake County.
Waddell’s regiment contained 236 rank and file and 48 officers and an artillery company. In addition to the Scots at Cape Fear, along the march he picked up militias from Anson. Rowan, Mecklenburg, and Tryon, but he met opposition along the way. First, on the way to Salisbury, his column was attacked by a group of Regulators who had disguised themselves with black-face, later they became known as “The Black Boys of Cabarrus”, they destroyed a power shipment coming from South Carolina by ambushing the wagons on Rocky River. Later, on the march to Hillsborough, Waddell’s camp was surrounded by about 2,000 Regulators in a daring and insolent attempt to push the regiment back, which they did without a fight. Waddell had no more than 300 men and he had his doubts they would be willing to engage, so he had no other option than to retreat over the Yadkin River.
On May 12th, Tryon and the Regulators received news of Waddell's rebuff. The Regulators issued a call for all men to assemble at James Hunter's plantation, to prevent Waddell and Tryon from linking forces. On Monday, May 13th, Tryon’s forces camped on the west bank of Great Alamance Creek. On the evening of May 15th, Tryon received a petition from the Regulators who were camped about five miles west of him. They asked if he was prejudiced against their cause and determined for bloodshed. They asked for a meeting to state their grievances. The next morning, May 16th, Tryon marched is column within a half-mile of the Regulator camp and dispatched his aide, Captain Malcom, and the Sheriff of Orange County with his response to their petition:
In answer to your petition, I am to acquaint you that I have been attentive to the true Interest of this Country, and to that of every Individual residing within it. I lament the fatal Necessity to which you have now reduced me, by withdrawing yourselves from the Mercy of the Crown, and the Laws of your Country, to require you who are Assembled as Regulators, to lay down your Arms, Surrender up the outlawed Ringleaders, and Submit yourselves to the Laws of your Country, and then on the lenity and Mercy of Government. By accepting these Terms in one Hour from the delivery of this Dispatch you will prevent an effusion of Blood, as you are at this time in a State of War and Rebellion against your King, your Country, and your Laws.The sheriff and aide returned to Tryon with the news that “the Rebels” rejected his offer with distain, saying they needed no time to consider his terms. About mid-morning, Tryon sent another message “cautioning the Rebels to take care of themselves, as he should immediately give the signal for action." According to traditional accounts, the Regulators' reply was "Fire and be damned". Tryon gave the order for the cannons to fire on the Regulators and the first line of militia fired a volley, kneeled to reload and the second line fired a volley. The Regulators scrambled for cover. They had no battle plan, officers, or discipline. They were crouching behind rocks and trees, each man waging his own private war against a unified militia. The militia began moving forward advancing through the trees, the Regulators began to flee. The battle lasted about two hours, fifteen Regulators were captured. Remarkably, only nine Regulators and nine militia were killed, many were wounded. Tryon took the prisoners and wounded back to his camp on Alamance Creek. The next day, May 17th, a captured Regulator named James Few was hung without benefit of military trial. His body was left hanging beside the road to Hillsborough as a warning to others. During the next few days, militia units scoured the countryside for Regulators. The main body of the army stayed at Alamance Camp.
Tryon offered a proclamation of pardon to all Regulators who would swear a loyalty oath to the government with the exception of those responsible for destroying General Waddell’s ammunition, the remaining fourteen prisoners and four others: Herman Husband, Rednap Howell, James Hunter, and William Butler, who had already fled the country. On May 21st the troops marched to James Hunter's farm at Sandy Creek were Tryon burned the dwelling and outbuildings. That evening he marched to Hermon Husband’s plantation and took possession of it.
After the hangings, Tryon hastened back to New Bern. Back in February he had been told his long sought for appointment as Governor of New York had final come true. He had proven his loyalty to the King and on June 30th he left for New York. Soon he sent for Edmund Fanning to come to New York as his personal secretary.
About two weeks after the hangings at Hillsborough ... 6,409 Regulators had taken the oath of allegiance.
In Anson County, the unrest seemed to be more temperate; in Orange County it was more extreme. No doubt that had a lot to do with the condescension of Edmund Fanning and the agitation by Hermon Husband, James Hunter and Rednap Howell. Even though the April 28, 1768 Protest Paper from Anson Regulators to Governor Tryon does not bear the name of Burlingham Rudd, there are several names of his neighbors on that document. The language in that document does read as though the signers were also among the participates of “the mob” that took over the court house. There is a significant passage in that document that gives insight into the emerging American idea of government of, for and by the people when they say “...we conceive that no People have a right to be taxed, but by the consent of themselves or their Delegates.”
The October 9, 1769 Anson County Regulators’ Petition is a well thought out list of issues to be addressed, as well as, proposed solutions. Here’s what Professor John L. Bassett says about the Anson County Regulators’ Petition, page 187:
The Anson Regulators prepared a petition to the assembly. It contained a remarkably well-prepared statement of their grievances, and to it were more than two hundred and fifty signatures. It recounted seven kinds of political hardships and proposed seventeen points of redress. The former are but the grievances we have seen alleged all along. The noteworthy items of the latter are as follows:I would only add ... “#15. That all taxes in the following Counties be paid as in other Counties in the Province (i.e.) in the produce of the County and that warehouses be erected as follows (viz), In Anson County at Isom Haleys Ferry Landing on PeeDee River, Rowan and Orange at Cambleton in Cumberland County, Mecklenburg at __?___ on the Catawba River, and in Tryon County at __?__ on __?__ River.” This item reaches beyond Anson County and indicates a participation by Rowan and Orange counties in this petition. The blanks for Mecklenburg and Tryon counties look to me like the committee was intending to receive some recommendations from those county Regulators. Therefore, we see a combined effort between Anson, Mecklenburg, Rowan and Orange counties to address the problems of the backcountry. If I was Tryon, that would have worried me.
At all elections the vote should be given by ballot;
Taxation should be apportioned on a property basis and not per capita;
Taxes might be paid in commodities;
Paper money should be issued and loaned on land;
Debts above 40s. and under £10 should be sued for without lawyers, and before a county justice and a jury of six;
The chief justice should have no fees, but should be given a salary;
The fees of the clerks should be restricted,
And the assembly should inform the King that the governor and council granted land without regard to the legal "head rights," by which means it had come about that all the best land was in the hands of a few people, and poor men were obliged to cultivate poor land. By this means, it was alleged, members of the council and their friends had gotten large tracts.
They asked for reforms in regard to quitrents, the issuing of land warrants, and the valuing of the improvements on land.
They also asked that all denominations have liberty to conduct the marriage ceremony according to their respective rites;
And, finally, that Dr. Benjamin Franklin, or some other known patriot, be appointed agent of the colony in London
This petition, it may be said, is the nearest approach of the Regulation to the Revolution. Several of its proposed reforms hinted at a decided change in government, and its hitting on Franklin for an agent looked toward bringing it into close relation with the larger movement, which it is well known that Franklin was then leading. The mention of this patriot's name was perhaps due to Husband, who, though not a Regulator, was doing all he could to spread among the people a greater love of liberty, and who was in frequent communication with Franklin.
It is a tribute to the wisdom of the Anson Regulators that many of these reforms were afterwards, when North Carolina had become a State, put into laws.
Be sure to read the entire document, it does provide quite a bit of insight into the conditions in the backcountry, as well as, the aptitude of the men who signed it. Among the signatures we find fathers and sons, signed as Sr. and Jr. We only find one Burlingham Rudd. The only way to know absolutely whether it was father or son is to see the original document. If it is signed with a signature, then that would be Burlingham the father, if it is signed with a mark, then that would indicate Burlingham the son. My best guess is that the signature is Burlingham the father and there are a few reasons I think that is the case. First, the signature doesn’t have a suffix and we know that both father and son are living in 1769. Could be that Burlingham the father signed without a suffix so there was no indication that Jr. existed. If Junior had signed the document, I think he would have been inclined to add the suffix, Jr. to his name to ensure his father was not in anyway held accountable if things turned for the worst. Second, and maybe more importantly, I think if anyone knew the dangers of standing up against the English ruling class, it was Burlingham the father. Burlingham had not only witnessed the "justice" system of the English, he had lived through it. He understood the consequences of adding his name to the list, especially in light of the fact that Governor Tryon had already told the first group that they would be brought up on charges in the Salisbury District Superior Court. Lastly, at the time this document was penned and signed, Burlingham Sr. was about sixty-five years old based on our previous calculations. The family had lived in Anson for about twenty-three years. They were part of the founding community on the Pee Dee River, the oldest part of the county. He was the patriarch of the family. Burlingham Jr. was about twenty-eight and George Lounsdell was about twenty-three. Even though both of them had started their own families by this time, I do think Burlingham Sr. had that much influence over his sons and forbade them from putting their names to that document. And in that light, all of the men who signed that document put themselves in danger. I really do believe there must have been a great feeling of despair on the part of the backcountry people striving to feed their families and hold on to their property that drove them to such desperate measures. I can also imagine the sense of superiority that was felt by the ruling class who had imposed their authority over the backcounty.
In just a few short years, the backcountry will once again fall into a civil war, but this time between the Whigs and the Tories. Old enemies become allies and old allies become enemies. It was a time for choosing sides in Anson.
Carolana ~ One Vision-Many Dreams!
Documenting the American South ~ Colonial and State Records
~The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
John Spencer Bassett, 1867-1928
~The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771): Electronic Edition
NCpedia
North Carolina History Project
North Carolina State Archives
North Carolina Digital History
Texas A&M University Archives: The Regulators and the Battle of Alamance
~Sons of DeWitt Colony of Texas
US History.org
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