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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
October 25, 1768
Volume 07, Pages 859-860

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

Brunswick the 25th October 1768

I returned from the back county to Brunswick on the 17th instant, in so weak and reduced a state of health, that it is at present out of my power to transmit to your Lordship the particulars of the conduct of the insurgents in those parts: I have hitherto by raising a body of upwards of one thousand militia stopt the violence they threatened against the Superior Court and town of Hillsborough. I have great expectations by some prudent regulations at the next General Assembly (which I am to meet at Newbern on the third of November next) these insurgents will be deterred from collecting again in such tumultuous meetings. The great fatigues I was obliged to undergo in the very hottest of the summer and the heavy weight of anxiety I was under for the success of my attempts to stop the progress of these insurgents which was spreading through most counties in the province, threw me down in a bloody flux and putrid fever the 19th of last month luckily only the day before I marched into Hillsborough a detachment of militia from the counties of Rowan and Mecklenburg. These with some militia from Orange and Granville counties kept possession of the town and prevented the obstruction and insults intended to be offered to the Superior Court and town. If Captain Collet, Commander of Fort Johnston, should depart this province before I am able to send to

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your Lordship the details of the occurrences and transactions of these mad people, he will wait on your Lordship at my request on his arrival in England and inform you of the particulars, as he was my aid de camp, and well acquainted with the general conduct of these insurgents as well as the steps I pursued.

I must beg leave here to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's letters from No 1 to 14 inclusive, excepting Nos 9 and 10 which have not yet come to hand. Those I have received shall be duly honored upon the earliest reestablishment of my health, and the important matters contained therein obeyed to the best of my abilities.

His Majesty's approbation of my conduct in my station, is the best cordial I could have received in my present infirm state of body and mind and hope that in a short time I may reestablish my health so as to exert my success that duty and zeal shall ever profess for his Majesty's service.