Ormond, Wyriot (or Wyriott), Sr.

ca. 1707–ca. 1758

See also: Ormond, Wyriot (or Wyriott), Jr.

Sr. Ormond, Wyriot (or Wyriott), colonial official, perhaps the son of William Ormond, longtime clerk of court of Beaufort County, was one of Beaufort County's most prominent residents during the mid-eighteenth century. His birthplace is unknown, but the family was of English descent and noted for its "wealth and distinction."

Ormond was a member of the colonial Assembly when it met in Bath in 1744. Also in that year he was granted 940 acres of land in Beaufort County. The family home, located two miles north of Bath, was reported standing early in the twentieth century. Ormond represented Beaufort County or Bath in the Assembly for a number of terms and was a member at the time of his death; he was succeeded by his son. In 1746 he was a member of the committee to "settle the seat of government," and three years later he was appointed an agent for Bertie, Chowan, Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Tyrrell counties in a dispute over representation. Also in 1746 Ormond was identified as an attorney-at-law in Beaufort County, and the next year his commission as "King's Attorney" was read in the Bertie County court. In 1754 he became one of three special tax receivers for Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Hyde, and Johnston counties. The following year he was appointed the receiver of tonnage duties for the port of Bath.

Ormond had at least three sons: Henry, Roger, and Wyriot, Jr. Henry, a bachelor, was murdered in his sleep by a group of the people he enslaved in about 1770, and Wyriot, Jr., died in 1773. Roger, who served in the colonial Assembly and the Provincial Congress and on the Committee of Safety for the New Bern District, died in 1775.