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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from William Tryon to Wills Hill, Marquis of Downshire
Tryon, William, 1729-1788
June 16, 1768
Volume 07, Pages 791-792

[From Tryon's Letter Book.]
Letter from Governor Tryon to the Earl of Hillsborough,

Brunswick 16th June 1768.

The disturbances that have happened in the counties of Orange and Anson are for the present subsided, and as I am informed the persons concerned in them who stiled themselves regulators, for the purposes of correcting pretended abuses of power, intending by an address, to lay the state of their grievances before me by petition, which when received I shall be better able to inform your Lordship of the particular causes of their commotions, in which however, no mischiefs hath hitherto been done. In the mean time I shall take every measure in my power to secure and punish some of the ring leaders. In Anson county the mob turned the Justices off the bench during the sitting of the inferior court. In Orange county they, to the number of five hundred, came to the outskirts of the village of Hillsborough with a determination to release two of their party who were concerned in insulting a sheriff in the execution of his office; These two Colo Fanning with admirable good conduct and spirit, had taken with a detachment of thirty men from within the heart of their settlements. The mob however were disappointed by the most resolute behavior of Colo Fanning, who with one hundred and thirty men, all he could muster from his regiment made so good a disposition, and my proclamation getting up the day before the mob reached Hillsborough, they gave up their design and coming to a resolution to lay their imagined grievances before me they dispersed themselves. These regulators declare, I am told, among other things, they are not satisfied with the public and county taxes, and that it is not in their power to procure specie or currency, from its scarcity, to discharge them. Under such circumstances they have associated themselves together

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by solemn oath, to prevent the sheriffs levying on their goods and chattles; However I shall be better informed of the genuine causes of the restless disposition that prevails among the inhabitants of several other counties in the province, tho' they have not yet shewed themselves openly, when I go up into the back country among them, which I purpose to do next week for the hot months.

If his Majesty in his wisdom shall grant the address of this colony for a currency, I persuade myself the public taxes would be collected without any obstruction.