Original Lots
Granville Grant
1754
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After ascending to the throne in 1663, King Charles II rewarded eight of his supporters by endowing them as the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. At this time, Carolina extended from Florida to Virginia and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. However, problems soon arose in managing the expansive territory. Consequently, by 1729, all of the Proprietors except John Lord Carteret, second Earl Granville, had sold their interests in Carolina back to the Crown. After many years of negotiations, King George II and his Privy Council approved the partitioning of one-eighth of Carolina to Lord Granville. This land became known as the Granville District. It was administered through agents who sold parcels and forwarded the payments to Granville in England.
Seal of the Lords Proprietors from The Great Seal of the State of North Carolina published by the North Carolina Historical Commission.
One of Granville’s agents was Francis Corbin. (d. 1767) In 1754, Corbin granted 663 acres on the north side of the Eno River to William Churton (d. 1767) with instructions for Churton to create an administrative seat for the recently established Orange County. A surveyor, Churton was involved in many projects throughout Carolina, including supplying topographical information about the Granville District to Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson (father of Thomas Jefferson). This information was used in their 1751 and 1755 maps.
(L.) A section of the Fry-Jefferson map showing the Eno River, Trading Path, and Occaneechi village in the area that would become Hillsborough
(R.) A sketch by William Churton of the 663 acres he surveyed to create the town of Corbinton/Corbintown (1754-1759), later Childsburg (1759-1766), later Hillsborough (1766-present)
With the assistance of Enoch Lewis, Churton staked out approximately 120 one-acre lots. Each lot was rectangular with an average width of 165 feet and depth of 265 feet. The colonial legislature set the initial price for vacant lots at 20 shillings and decreed that every lot purchased must be improved within two years.
The numbering scheme that Churton assigned to the lots is unknown. Numbers currently used for the lots date at least to this 1863 map.
An 1863 map of Hillsborough owned by A.H. Graham and copied by S.T. Alderman. It records lot numbers.
Naming the Town
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The town was originally named Orange after the county; however, after Churton laid it out in 1754, it was called new town Corbin or Corbin Town. In early indentures (land deeds), Churton used the name Corbinton.
One of the earliest deeds for the sale of a lot in Corbinton. It is for the purchase of Lot 30 and is signed by William Churton. From the collection of the Orange County Historical Museum.
In 1759, the North Carolina colonial assembly passed an act officially establishing the town. However, this act named the town “Childsburg” after Dr. Thomas Child, also the Earl of Granville’s land agent as well as the current Attorney General of North Carolina. A few years later in 1766, the name was once again changed. The town was now officially recognized as Hillsborough to honor Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough, then the President of the British Board of Trade and Foreign Plantations and later Secretary of State for the Colonies.
One of the earliest deeds for the sale of a lot in Corbinton. It is for the purchase of Lot 30 and is signed by William Churton. From the collection of the Orange County Historical Museum.
​During the 1800s, the “ugh” was commonly dropped from the town’s name, first as Hillsboro’ with and apostrophe to denote the missing letters and then simply as Hillsboro. In 1965, State Senator Don Matheson, at the behest of history-minded citizens of the town, introduced legislation to restore the missing letters and on May 4 of that year, the NC General Assembly passed SL 1965-401, confirming “Hillsborough” as the lawful and correct name of the Town of Hillsborough in Orange County.
Naming the Streets
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The Scheme for Corbinton recommended six names for the streets of the town: Dobbs (for Governor Arthur Dobbs), Spring, Churton, Church, Bodley (for Joshua Bodley, another land agent), and Mill. However, it is not known if the names Dobbs, Bodley or Mill were ever used. Additionally, in 1768, presumably in conjunction with Governor William Tryon’s stay in the town as well as the townspeople’s overwhelming support for him against the Regulators, three of the streets became known as Tryon Street, Margaret Lane, and Wake Street for the governor, his wife, and her family.
A portrait of Margaret Wake Tryon, wife of the colonial governor, after whom two streets in Hillsborough are still named.
Lost Deeds
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In early 1781, General Charles Cornwallis occupied Hillsborough for nine days. When he left town, James Munro seized “the Records of the County with intention to hold them, in order to strengthen the influence of government until the contest should be decided.” Munro explained in an affidavit, “I had all the records above mentioned privately buried underground in the woods along with my own bonds, books, and most valuable papers, with strict directions not to touch them until I should return; consequently they were suffered to remain in that situation so long, that when they were taken up, many of the books were found quite destroyed, and almost all my own papers rendered entirely useless.”
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Of the several deed books which Munro buried, only one was able to be salvaged. However, the 18th century requirement for deeds to be proved in court has allowed historians to recover more information about land sales prior to 1781. Unfortunately, while these records include the names of the grantor, the grantee, the acreage conveyed and the name of the probate witness, they do not provide a legal description of the property.