253rd Regulator Remembrance Day Event

The 253rd Annual Regulator Remembrance Day Event will take place Wednesday, June 19, 2024, at 6 p.m., at the Regulator Historic Marker site in Cameron Park, 200 East King Street, Hillsborough, NC, 27278.

This year’s event marks the 253rd anniversary of the date on June 19, 1771 when six early American patriots were executed at the site by English colonial Governor William Tryon on the charge of High Treason against the King of England for questioning English colonial authority as part of the Regulator Rebellion.

Since 1771, descendants and the general public have quietly visited the site to lay flowers there in remembrance of those brave patriots. That tradition has continued for over 250 years. A mammoth stone slab was placed at the site in the late 18th / early 19th century as a place for descendants and the public to lay flowers. In weathered stone, it silently pledges, “We will never forget, we will always remember.”

More formal commemoration events were revived again in 2013 by Scott Washington, former Assistant Director of the Orange County Historical Museum and Hillsborough Historian. The annual Regulator Remembrance Event is a way for descendants and all who care about this history to intentionally remember these early patriots.

The 253rd anniversary ceremonies will include introduction of special guests, historical remarks, reading of the names of those who were executed on this date, a tolling of the bell, followed by a chance for the public to bring and lay flowers at the Regulator Marker just as people have done for over 250 years.

Scott Washington, Hillsborough Historian, Representatives of Alamance Battleground Historic Site, elected officials, descendants of the original Regulators, and many others are expected to be present at this popular event, too.

The event is free and open to the public