Europeans began settling in Orange County around 1740. However, the migration pattern in North Carolina was different from the other twelve British colonies. In the other colonies, Europeans landed on the coast and moved westward as they required more land to satisfy the needs of their growing population. North Carolina’s geography inhibited this pattern of expansion. The coast was inhospitable, resulting in many shipwrecks. European settlers typically landed in the northern and southern parts of Carolina and moved inward along the Tidewater rather than westward. Additionally, travel to the west was difficult because rivers were shallow and rocky and they flowed more in a north/south direction than east/west. Therefore, the European settlers who moved to central North Carolina, traveled from the north, moving southward down the Piedmont.
These settlers chose to move to Orange County because it was the frontier. The government of the colony was located in the Tidewater. Piedmont North Carolina was essentially autonomous. This situation afforded three important advantages: 1). freedom from government interference in matters of faith, 2). cheap land, and 3). essentially no behavioral prescriptions and restrictions.
Accordingly, the first European settlers in this area were religious separatists – people whose beliefs and customs were different from the established religions of their countries. They were pilgrims who wanted to worship according to the dictates of their own consciences. Most of these people had originally arrived in Pennsylvania and Virginia and sought greater religious freedom in North Carolina. The earliest of these groups were Quakers. There were also Moravians. But the largest group of separatists were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who did not want to attend or pay taxes to the Church of England…