In the following discusion the summary of evidence is mine, but all of the research has been done by Lavonne Ketchum and Harold Hopkins.

The first evidence a Hopkins in the area of Orange County NC is the name of a John Hopkins on a "Granville grant" to James McGowin on the Eno River in May 1752. John Hopkins was listed as a chain carrier, along with Andrew Mitchele (probably Mitchell).

The following are land and court records for John Hopkins of Orange County NC in the years between 1752 and 1762.

Eno River Documents

John Hopkins along with Andrew Mitchele is a chain carrier for the survey for James McGowin on the Middle S Fork of Enoe River . /s/ (mark). Granville Grants 2013, patent book 12, p. 5 Granted 26 April 1753.

I found the following reference to Quakers in early Orange County : Mary Claire Engstrom, "Early Quakers in the Eno River Valley, ca. 1750-1847," Eno, Vol. 7, Nr. 2 [1983?/1989], pp. 1-73 (Eno is the Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley [commonly, Eno River Association], 4015 Cole Mill Road, Durham, NC 27712). I was able to get this on Interlibrary Loan from Eton College in North Carolina. The following paragraphs provide some information on the Quaker settlements, but I suggest that anyone who is truly interested in these early Quaker settlements in North Carolina order the item for themselves.

In the early 1750s an almost solid community of predominantly Irish Quakers, now nearly forgotten …settled in northern Orange County (est. 1752) on the fertile, rolling hills of the Eno River Valley. They were the eastern prong or segment of the successive waves of Quaker migration that in the late 1740s and early 1750's had penetrated the Province of North Carolina as far southward as Cane Creek where, on Oct. 7, 1751, was convened the "first sitting" of the Cane Creek Meeting. [p. 3]

Most of the migrant Friends [of Eno] came from a cluster of a dozen or so established Meetings in the general vicinity of Philadelphia -- Exeter, New Garden, Lampeter, Kennet, Maidencreek, Newark, Bradford, etc. A few came directly from Meetings in Ireland.…It might be months or even years before even a conscientous Friend could conveniently leave his new Eno Valley grant to make the trip by horseback or wagon to Cane Creek to present his certificate of release from his former Meeting. Further it is known that various Friends lived within the "verge" of the Eno Meeting for lengthy periods of time and moved on without their names ever appearing on the rolls at Cane Creek; there were also a number of lapsed or "sometime" Friends at Eno. [p.6]

I quote from the Autobiography of William Few Jr. who came from a background of English Quakerism, but who himself was not a Quaker, nor was his father who made the exploratory trip to this area in about 1757. This is what they saw and experienced [William Few Jr. was about 10 years old at the time of the move to the Eno River Valley. The account was drawn from memory much later in life.] [p.7]:

"…being pleased with the soil and climate, [they] purchased land on the banks of the river Eno, in the couty of Orange. those lands were in their natural state. Not a tree had been cut. The country was thinly inhabited, and the state of society was in the first state of civilization. My father employed a man to build a house on his lands, and returned to remove his family."

"…the remainder [of our movable goods and chattels] were placed in a wagon drawn by four horses and in a cart drawn by two horses…We found a mild and healthy climate and fertile lands, but our establishment was in the woods and our first employment was to cut down the timber and prepare the land for cultivation. My father had taken with him only four servants…and every exertion was made to prepare for the ensuing crop…In that country, at that time, there were no schools, no churches or parsons, or doctors, or lawyers; no stores, groceries or taverns…Those people had few wants, and fewer temptations to vice than those who lived in more refined society, though ignorant."

The following reference to McGowan [McGowin] is found in Engstrom's paper [p.19]:

Almost the first move of the incoming settlers after providing simple shelter was to dam the rivers and larger streams and build their indispensable water grist mills, and the Quakers of Eno built fully as many grist mills as the Quakers of Cane Creek. Joseph Maddock's forsight and planning had enabled him to get his grist mill in operation in the summer of 1755, but it is difficult to hazard a guess as to whether Isaac Low(e) and his sons built Low(e)'s Mill(later known as Faucett's Mill) on Big Branch of Eno above McGowan's Creek about September 1758…

Engstrom has this to say about the significance of names on Quaker wills and deeds:

The early Quakers of Eno were as cohesive a group as the Moravians of Bethabara in the handling of their own worldly affairs. A close reading of the Minutes of the Orange County Inferior Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions and of the Wills of the period is extraordinarly illuminating. Friends almost invariably witnessed each other's deeds, wills, agreements, indentures, and legal instruments; they administered each other's estates afterdeath…[p. 20]

Thus Hermon Husband was a purchaser of a lot in the town of Corbinton, the first county seat of Orange County, along with other known Quakers. Hermon Husband was disowned from the Cane Creek Meeting in Orange County. William Aldridge (Allred) had a survey done for 256 acres in Orange County on a branch of Sandy Creek (waters of the Deep River) called Mount Pleasant "joining Hermon Husband"…Thomas Allred and Harmon Husband were sworn chain carriers for John Allred. John Allred was a sworn chain carrier for a survey of a grant for Hermon Husband in 1759. Hermon Husband witnessed the survey of the grant for John Hopkins in 1762 which joined Solomon Alred [Allred]'s land. Thus, whether or not he was an active Quakr, John Hopkins is associated with known Quakers in Orange County in the 1750's.

Deep River Documents

Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions -- "Ordered that tythables between Orange New Road and the Trading Path be equally divided and a list delivered the clerk:" On Orange Road: 2 John Hopkins, 1 William Hopkins, 1 James Hopkins. July 1754.. This meant that John Hopkins had two tythables. A tythable was any male over the age of 16. Which of John's sons this might have been is unknown, but by 1755 John Hopkins is listed with one poll so if the second tythable in the 1754 tax list was a son, he must have moved out on his own or into another household. On an Orange County tax list for 1755, p. 106: James Hopkins, 1 poll no blacks, William Hopkins, 1 poll no blacks, John Hopkins, 1 poll no blacks. On the same page, Solomon Alred, and two William Alreads. On page 107: Lawrence Bankson, Esq. and sons 5-0...

The following is a transcription of the order for the survey of John Hopkins land in Orange County NC date d 3/02/1756, entered 29/?/1755. 5 Nov 1756.

North Carolina No. 40

Francis Corbin, Esq; one of the Agents, and Commissioners, of the Right Honourable the Earl Granville, &c. &c. &c. sole Lord and Proprietor of a certain District, Territory, or Parcel of Land, lying in the Province of North-Carolina, &c.

No. 136 To Mr. William Churton..............His Lordship's Deputy-Surveyor for the County of Orange You are forthwith to admeasure and lay out, unto John Hopkins........a Tract of Land, containing Three Hundred Acres, lying in Orange County, within the said District; Lying on the North Side of Deep River, about a Mile above Solomon Aldridge's including William -------- improvements. Observing my Instructions, for running out of Lands; Three just and fair plans whereof, certified under your Hand, you are to return to me, within Six Months from the Date hereof: Which Survey of the above-mentioned Lands, to to be returned aforesaid, shall be good and valid for the siad John Hopkins........provided he the said John Hopkins................do, within Twelve Months after such Return, take out a Grant of the same Land, to compleat his Title: Otherwise this Warrant, and such your Return thereof, shall be void, and of no Force, and the said Lands be deemed vacant, and free to be taken up by any other Person that shall apply for that Purpose.

Signed the Third.....Day of February..........1756.

Entered in the Office of the Right Honorable the Earl Granville, the 29th Day of ----Anno Dom 1755.

Fra: Corbin.

The following is a transcription of the survey done for John Hopkins which was ordered on 3/2/1756.

N: Carolina 
Orange County

This plan represents a tract of land Surveyd for John Hopkins on both sides of Deep River beginning at a black Oak Saplin Then running South -----ye sd River 48 cha: a hickory. Then West 46 chs.52 links to a black oak. Then North 43 cha to a black Oak saplin. Then past crossing of River by ye lower end of a little island 46 chains.52 links to the first Station containing Two hundred acres of land Surveyd ye 5th day of Novemb 1756.

Sworn chain carriers

William Allred Junr Wm Churton

Lambeth Hopkins.

John Hopkins:

Deed 12 Jan 1761. Granville Propritary Land Office Abstracts of Loose Papers. Cover for land grant records.

John Hopkins was executor to the will of James Hopkins in 1759 in Orange County NC.

In the May 1763 term of the Orange County Court:

Ordered that a Road from Peter Noweys to William Wiley's be Laid out and Opened the best and most Convenient way and that the following Jurors be Appointed to lay out the same towit: John Mccomb, Walter Murry, Alexander Mebane Junr., Robert Irwin, John Butler, John Armstrong, Paul Harmon, Peter Nowie, John Whitman, John Oliver, John Hopkins, and John Barker who are required to Quallify agreable to Law.

The following is a transcription of a survey for 206 acres of land in Orange County. The survey is dated July of 1762.

This plan represents a tract of Land Surveyd for John Hopkins on Deep river. Beginning at a Red Oak on Solomon Allred's line and runs thence South 43 chains crossing the River with Hercules (?) Ogle's line to a hickory then West 48 chains to a red oak then N 43 chians to a Stake then East with Alred's line: crossing the river 48 chains to the first Station: Containing 206 acres . Surveyd the 30th day of July 1762.

----Chain Carriers

Dennis Hopkins Wm Churton

Thomas Hopper.

This is a transcription of the land grant to John Hopkins dated 11 Dec 1762.

This Indenture Made the eleventh day of December in the year of our Lord One thousand Seven Hundred and sixty two -- Between the Right Honorable John Earl Granville, Viscount Carteret,and Baron Carteret, of Hawnes in the County of Bedford, in the Kingdom of Great Britain, Lord President of his MajestyÆs Most Honourable Privy Council, and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, of the one Part; and John Hopkins of Orange County in the Province of North Carolina Planter -- of the other Part. WHEREAS His Most Excellent Majesty Kng George theSecond, in and by a certain Indenture bearing Date the Seventeenth Day of September, in the Eighteenth Year of his Reign, and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty Four, and made between His said Most Excellent Majesty of the one Part, and the said John Earl Granville, by the Name, Stile, and Title of the Right Honourable John Lord Carteret, of the other part; DID, for the considereation therein mentioned, Give and Grant, release, ratify, and confirm, unto the said Earl (by the name, stile, and title of John Lord Carteret, as aforesaid) and his Heirs and Assigns, for ever, a certain District, Territory, or Parcel of Land lying in the Province of North-Carolina in America, and all of the Sounds, Creeks, Havens, Ports, Rivers, Streams, and other Royalties, Franchises, Privileges, and Immunities, within the same, as they are therein set out, or decribed, allotted, granted, and confirmed, to the said John Earl Granville, as aforesaid, for one Eighth Part of the Charters granted by King Charles the Second, in the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Years of his Reign to eight Lords Proprietors of Carolina; as by the said Indentureduly Enrolled in the High Court of Chancery in Great-Britain and in the SecretaryÆs Office of the Province of North-Carolina, Reference being thereto had, will more fully appear. NOW THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH That as well for and in Consideration of the Sum ofTen Shillings Sterling Money to the said John Earl Granville in Hand paid, by the said John Hopkins at or before the Sealing and Delivery of these Presents, the Receipt whereof he the said Earl doth hereby acknowledge; as also for and in Consideration of the Rent, Covenants, Exceptions, Provisos, and Agreements, herein after mentioned, referred and contained, and by, and on the Part and Behalf of the said John Hopkins his Heirs and Assigns, to be paid, kept, and performed; He, the said Earl Hath given, granted, bargained, sold, and confirmed, and by these presents Doth give grant, bargain, sell, and confirm, unto the said John Hopkins his Heirs and Assigns, for ever, all that tract or Parcel of vacant Land situate, lying, and being in the Parish of --- in the County of Orange in the said Province on Deep River beginning at a red oak on Solomon Alred's Line and runs thence South 43 chains crossing the River with Hercules Ogles Line to a Hiccory then West 40 chains to a red oak then North 43 chs. to a Stake then East with Alred's Line crossing the River 40 Chains to the first Station.-------- containing in the Whole Two hundred and six Acres of Land: All which Premises are more particularly described and set forth in the Plan or Map thereof hereunto annexed; together with all Woods, Underwoods, Timber, and Timber-Trees, Water-Courses; and the Privilege of Hunting, Hawking, Fishing and Fowling, in and upon the Premises, and all Mines and Minerals whatsoever therein to be found, (excepting, and always reserving out of this present Grant unto the KingÆs Most Excellent Majesty, His Heirs and successors, one Fourth Part of all the Gold and Silver Mines to be found in and upon the Premises; and also excepting, and always reserving unto the said John Earl Granville, his Heirs and Assigns, one Moiety or half Part of the remaining Three-Fourths of all such Gold and Silver Mines; To Have and to hold the said Tract or Parcel of vacant Land, and all and singular other the Premises with their Appurtenances, (except before excepted) unto the said John Hopkins his Heirs and Assigns, for ever; Yielding and Paying therefore Yearly, and every Year, unto the said John Earl Granville, his Heirs or Assigns, the Yearly Rent or Sum of Eight Shillings and three pence --- which is at the Rate of Three Shillings Sterling for every Hundred Acres, and so in Proportion for a less Quantity, at or upon the Twenty-fifth Day of March, and the Twenty-ninth Day of September in every Year, by even and equal Portions, and to be paid at the Court-house of the said County of Orange unto the said Earl, his Heirs or Assigns, or to his or their lawful Attorney or Receiver for the Time being; the first Payment thereof to be made on such of the aforementioned Days of Payment, as shall first happen after the Date hereof. And the said John Hopkins - for himself his Heirs and Assigns, and for either and every of them doth hereby covenant, promise,and agree, to and with the said Earl, his Heirs and Assigns, shall and will yearly, and every year forever, well and truly with either and every of them, by these Presents, in manner and form following: That is to say; that John Hopkins his heirs and assigns, shall and will yearly, and every year forever, well and truly pay or cause to be paid unto the said Earl his Heirs or Assigns, or unto his or their lawful Attorney or Receiver for the Time being, on the days, and at the place aforesaid,the aforesaid Yearly Rent or Sum of Eight Shillings and three pence by half Yearly Payments, as aforesaid: Provided always and this present Grant is hereby expressly declared and agreed, by and between the said Parties, to be neverthelsss upon this condition, viz: That if it shall happen that the said Yearly Rent of Eight Shillings and 3 or any Part thereof, shall, at any Time hereafter, be behind or unpaid for the Space of Six Months, next over or after either of the afore-mentioned Days of Payment (and no sufficient Distress can be found on the Premises whereon it shall be lawful to levy such Rent and Arrears, with the full Costs, Charges, and Expences in making the same) That then this present Grant, and all Assignments thereof, shall be utterly void and of none Effect: And it shall be lawful for the said Earl, his Heirs or Assigns, to re-enter into the said Lands,and to re-grant the same to any other Person or persons whomsoever, as if this Grant, and such Assignments, had never been made. IN WITNESS whereof, the Parties above-named have to these Presents interchangeably set their Hands and Seals, the Day and Year herein first above written.

Examd by ?? Blount Wm Churton

Stated and Delivered in the Presence of us

his

John Hopkins [handwritten -J+ with loops forward instead of backward]

mark

CCB

Stated and Delivered in the Presence of us

Hermon Husband

his

Dennis D Hopkins

mark.

Immigration to North Carolina

The follwing are parts of a speech given to the Fisher/Brown reunion in Salisbury/Rowan County NC by Kevin Cherry, Rowan County Library Historian in 1998 and posted to the Quakers-Roots mailing list on Rootsweb by Janet Hunter. His remarks deal with the conditions of those who immigrated to the new lands in North Carolina from such places of origin as Pennsylvania.

When the crops were in, they started. Early in the morning-even early for farm people, they'd set out.
During the first years, they walked, leading five or six pack animals laden with supplies: tools, seed, fabric.
In places, the famous path they trod was only three or four feet wide. The wilderness literally crept right up
to their feet and brushed their faces as they walked. In later years they marched alongside oxen as these
oversized beasts pulled two-wheeled carts heaped to overflowing, crossing rivers that licked high
about their animals' flanks and often soaked every single, individual piece of their worldly possessions.Finally,
when the path had been worn clear by thousands and thousands of previous travelers, they rode in wagons that,
themselves, grew as the path widened into an honest to goodness road. These Pennsylvania- German-built wagons
(Conestogas) at their largest would be twenty-six feet long, eleven feet high and some could bear loads up to ten
tons. It took five or six pairs of horses to pull them. These big vehicles, the eighteen wheelers of
their day, were called "Liners" and "Tramps." Ships would later gain their nicknames.

No matter if they walked or rode, in the mid afternoon, they stopped to take care of the animals, prepare food,
and put up the defense for the night. The cries of wolves in the distance and the pop of twigs just outside of the
firelight sounded danger. Bands of Indians in the early days, bands of thieves later,, chased away deep sleep-no
matter how tiring the day, how bone-weary the traveler. The fastest loaded wagon could go about five miles
a day. The trip took a minimum of two months. Wagons broke down, rivers flooded, supplies gave out, and there
was sickness but no doctors. Wagons were repaired, floods ceded, the wilderness supplied, and the sick were buried or stumbled on.

This is the first great interior migration in our nation's history. It's the story of a road, the Great Pennsylvania Wagon Road.

The Road -- Only a few trails cut through the vast forests, which covered the continent between the northernmost colonies and Georgia, the southern tip. The settlers, as they moved inland, usually followed the paths over which the Indians had hunted and traded. The Indians, in turn, had followed the pre-historical traces of animals. Who knows why the animals wandered where they did, but some of those early travelers on that road, the Scots-Irish Presbyterians, would have assured us it was certainly predetermined. Even so, few paths crossed the Appalachians, which formed a barrier between the Atlantic plateau and the unknown interior. In his 1755 map of the British Colonies, Lewis Evans labeled the Appalachians, "Endless Mountains." And so they must have seemed to the daring few who pierced the heart of the wooded unknown. But through this unknown, even then, there was a road. The Iroquois tribesmen of the North had long used the great warriors' path to come south and trade or make war in Virginia and the Carolinas. This vital link between the native peoples led from the Iroquois Confederacy around the Great Lakes through what later became Lancaster and Bethlehem, Pa through York to Gettysburg and into Western Maryland around what is now Hagerstown. It crossed the Potomac River at Evan Watkins' Ferry, followed the narrow path across the backcountry to Winchester, through the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to Harrisonburg, Staunton, Lexington, and Roanoke. On it went into Salem, NC, and on to Salisbury, where it was joined by the east-west Catawba and Cherokee Indian Trading Path at the Trading Ford across the Yadkin River. On to Charlotte and Rock Hill, SC where it branchedto take two routes, one to Augusta and another to Savannah, Georgia. It was some road, but it was just a narrow line through the continuous forest… Who were the Wagon Road's Travelers? For 118 years, the English and Dutch settled the New World, lining the harbors and pointing their cities, their eyes, their hearts to the east, across the Atlantic. They were on the fringes of a vast continent but, for the most part, they forever more turned away from it and toward home. They were certainly colonists, even those stem- faced few who came to these shores for religious reasons, and most of the other settlers, you see, had come to expand the business opportunities of home establishments. Their ties to those establishments were strong. It took a different kind of settler, someone who had cut his ties altogether, someone who didn't really have all that much to lose, to look west at a wilderness and there see something more than raw materials ready for exploitation. It took folks like the Germans and the Scots Irish to put their backs to the ocean and see home in front of them. Escaping devastating wars, religious persecution, economic disasters, and all of those other things that still cause people to come to these shores, the Scots Irish and the Germans had no intention of returning to their native lands. They were here to stay. They didn't look east but to the south and west-toward land. They didn't see wolves and Indians. They saw opportunities. And as different as the Germans and the Scots Irish were,they had what it took to flourish in the backcountry. Not possessions that could be lost in the fording of a river, not personal contacts and the sponsorship of powerful men, but rough and tumble ability and a heavy streak of stubbornness. They knew slash and bum agriculture, they knew pigs, they could hunt and forage, they knew hard work. They built their cabins the exact same way. And eventually, they traveled together in that same heavy stream southward along the Great Pennsylvania Wagon Road… What they Found When those Scots Irish and Germans got here "the country of the upper Yadkin teemed with game. Bears were so numerous it was said that a hunter could lay by two or three thousand pounds of bear grease in a season. The tale was told in the forks that nearby Bear Creek took its name from the season Boone killed 99 bears along its waters. The deer were so plentiful that an ordinary hunter could kill four or five a day; the deerskin trade was an important part of the regional economy. In 1753 more than 30,000 skins were exported from North Carolina, and thousands were used within the colony for the manufacture of leggings, breeches and moccasins." In 1755, NC Gov. Arthur Dobbs wrote to England that the "Yadkin is a large beautiful river. Where there is a ferry it is nearly 300 yards over it, [which] was at this time fordable, scarce coming to the horse's bellies." At six miles distant, he said, "I arrived at Salisbury the county seat of Rowan. The town is just laid out, the courthouse built,, and 7 or 8 log houses built." Most of Salisbury's householders ran public houses, letting travelers sup at their table-and drink, too. In 1762, there were 16 public houses. There was also a shoe factory, a prison, a hospital and armory all here before the Revolution. [This description also fits the town of Hillsboro, site of the Eno Quaker immigration -- including the public houses.] Even so, it was still only an outpost in the wilderness. Salisbury was for twenty-three years the farthest west county seat in the colonies. And through this outpost the wagon road ran, and on that road the immigrants continued to travel even after the area was settled. Governor Tryon wrote to England that more than a thousand wagons passed through Salisbury in the Fall and Winter of 1765. That works out to about six immigrant wagons per day. Summary In the last sixteen years of the colonial era," wrote historian Carl Bridenbaugh, "Southbound traffic along the Great Philadelphia Wagon Rowan was numbered in tens of thousands. It was the most heavily traveled road in all America and must have had more vehicles jolting along its rough and tortuous way than all the other main roads put together." When the British captured Philadelphia, the Continental Congress escaped down the Pennsylvania Wagon Road. Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett traveled it. George Washington knew it as an Indian fighter. John Chisholm knew it as an Indian trader. Countless soldiers-Andrew Jackson, Andrew Pickens, Andrew Lewis, Francis Marion, Lighthorse Harry Lee, Daniel Morgan, and George Rogers Clark, among them-fought over it. Both the North and South would use it during the Civil War. And down this road, this glorified overgrown footpath through the middle of nowhere leading to even greater depths of nowhere, came those people looking for a better life for themselves and their children,, down it came those settlers, those hardworking stubborn Scots Irish and Germans: the preachers, the blacksmiths, and farmers. Down it came the Holshousers and the Barringers, the Alexanders and the Grahams, the Millers and the Earnhardts,, the Catheys and the Knoxes, the Blackwelders and the Halls, and the Cherrys and the Brauns and the Fishers. [Down it also most probably came the Hopkins, the Langstons, the Husbands, the Maddocks and the Allreds.] When the crops were in, on a day like today, they started.

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1. William D. Bennett, Granville Grants & Surveys, 1751-1760, vol. V, p. 4 of Orange County, NC Records, Vols. I-XIX. (Raleigh, NC: Author, 1987+). Original in NC Patent Bk, vol. 12, p. 5.

2. Ruth Herndon Shields, Abstracts of the Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of Orange County, NC, Sept 1752-Aug 1766, (Chapel Hill, NC: Author, 1965), p. 22.

3. The North Carolinian: Quarterly Journal of Genealogy and History, June 1956.

4.North Carolina. Secretary of State. Land Grant Office. Granville Grant. No.40.

5. Ibid.

6. J. Bryan Grimes. North Carolina Wills., p. 172.

7. Weynette Parks Haun, Orange County, NC Court Minutes, 1762-1766 [Book II], (Durham, NC: Author, 1991, 1992), [585] 30..

8.North Carolina. Secretary of State. Land Grant Office. Crown Grants. 92-1.

9.North Carolina. Secretary of State. Land Grant Office. Crown Grants. v. 14, p. 415.