Biography
Benjamin Merrill was a captain of the Rowan County militia and a leader of the Regulator movement — the backcountry farmers of North Carolina who rose up against corrupt colonial officials and extortionate fees in the years before the Revolution. After Governor William Tryon crushed the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance in May 1771, Merrill was among those tried for high treason at Hillsborough. He was convicted and, on June 19, 1771, hanged — one of six Regulators executed after the battle.