James Hogg (1729–1804)
Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
James Hogg 1729 1804. Merchant. Left native Scotland, 1774. Partner in Transylvania Company; UNC trustee. Home 1/2 mi. E.; grave 2 blks. N.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
James Hogg left his native Scotland in 1774 and made a new life as a merchant in the North Carolina backcountry, arriving on the eve of the Revolution. He became a partner in the Transylvania Company, one of the era's bold speculative ventures to claim and settle vast western lands, and later served as a trustee of the new state university. His story braids immigration, frontier ambition, and the founding of public institutions.
Why it matters
Hogg's life captures the churn of the Revolutionary generation, when Scottish immigrants, western land schemes, and the birth of American universities all pushed against one another on the edge of a new nation.
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