William Churton was a white colonial surveyor and cartographer. Born in England, he arrived in colonial North Carolina in 1748 and began working for the Granville Land Office in Edenton. From then until his death in 1767, Churton played a significant role in surveying and mapping the land of colonial North Carolina, contributing to the development of the colony and its geographical boundaries.
Churton participated in a number of surveying and cartographical projects in colonial North Carolina. These included the westward extension of the Virginia-North Carolina colonial boundary line in cooperation with Virginia’s colonial surveyors; the surveying of the Wachovia District for the Moravians as a place where that group could establish their community; and the establishment of the towns of Salisbury and what is now Hillsborough (then called Childsburgh). Churton also served in public office as the first public register in Orange County and as a county register and justice of the peace; as a town commissioner in Childsburgh; and representing Orange County in North Carolina’s colonial General Assembly.
In 1766, Churton completed a map of colonial North Carolina, based partly on his own surveying work, and was compensated £155 for the map by the General Assembly. Churton had surveyed much of the colony himself except for the southern and coastal areas, and he began to survey these areas in 1767, but died unexpectedly before he could complete his work.
Churton was an enslaver, and stipulated in his will that he wished for the person he enslaved, named Joe, to be set free. The site of Churton’s property in Hillsborough (believed to be his home and/or office) is now the location of the current Orange County Courthouse.