Reminiscinces on the Regulator Movement
From Colonial Records from N.C. Archives
At the Battle of Alamance on 16 May 1771, the militia under the command of Royal Governor William Tryon defeated approximately 2,000 Regulators.
It may never be possible to identify all of the Regulators. Many have been lost to history. Of the six who were hanged at Hillsborough after the battle, the names of two are no longer known.
Capt. Benjamin Merrell, one of the North Carolina “Regulators” (colonial patriots opposing British tyranny) was hanged by colonial North Carolina Governor Tyron, June 19, 1771, helping plant seeds for the Revolutionary War of 1776. He was thus ahead of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and others in striking a blow for freedom. He went to the gallows with a song of liberty on his lips. He said he had been converted 15 years earlier, but had backslidden, yet now felt he had been truly forgiven and would not change places with anyone on the grounds. He then faced Governor Tyron’s sentence:
“You are to be hanged by the Neck; that you be cut down while yet alive, that your Bowels be taken out and burnt before your Face, that your head be cut off, your Body divided into Four Quarters, and this be at his Majesty’s Disposal; and the Lord have Mercy on your Soul.” His wife and eight children were forced to watch, including his youngest, Jonathan, 6, our continuing direct ancestor.
“In a few minutes,” he said on the gallows, “I shall leave a widow and eight children. I entreat that no reflection be past on them on my account and, if possible, I shall deem it a bounty, should you gentlemen petition the Governor and Council that some part of my estate be spared to the widow and fatherless.”
One of Governor Tyron’s militiamen, deeply moved by his speech, was heard to say, “If all men went to the gallows with a character such as Captain Merrell’s, hanging would be an honorable death.” Today at Alamance National Battlefield Park near Alamance, NC, off
Interstate 85, a granite monument marks his contribution to freedom,
near the spot he yielded up his life for it.
(By Jesse H. Merrell, for his nephew, Samuel David Brasher)
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Posted by BACfrom4th on September 8, 2008 at 6:29 pm
It is kind-of sad to see all these inhumane things that they did to traitors, and yet thousands still stood up in spite of the punishment and founded a new country.