William Ferebee, Sr. was born 13 April 1722, a son of Thomas Ferebee and Fenford, and reared at the Poplars, Currituck County, North Carolina.  He and his wife, Elizabeth, had many children, including their fourth child and first son, Joseph Ferebee (b. 31 May 1754 – d. 20 November 1820). In 1761, William Sr. sold his 100 acre property he inherited from his mother, and purchased the 160 Culong plantation near Indian Ridge, where he built the Indian Town Academy, supported by area residents.  His home became an overseer’s house when William Sr. built a new house for his growing family in the 1770s.  In 1762, he became head of a committee for new roads in Currituck.  He was a Currituck County delegate to the North Carolina State Assembly in 1760, 1762, 1778, and 1779.  He was a Senator in 1782 and 1783.  In the 1770’s Currituck County was a hotbed of pro-revolutionary sentiment.  In 1775, the Ferebees and their neighbors assembled and raised the first American flag in the county.  In 1776, William Sr. was appointed Justice of the Peace for Currituck County, and that same year, he and General Isaac Gregory were commissioned to sell Loyalists’ properties in Currituck and Pasquotank Counties.  On 9 December 1775, William Sr. and sons Joseph and William Jr. served in the Militia at the Battle of Great Bridge in southern Norfolk County, Virginia – the first battle of the Revolution in the South, called the second Bunker Hill.  The battle lasted less than an hour and resulted in 102 British dead or wounded and one patriot injured.  During the battle, William Sr. shot and killed Captain Charles Fordyce, commander of the British grenadiers.  The Economist Weekly (Elizabeth City, NC) – Friday, March 11, 1898 reported:

“Tradition says that the shot by which FORDYCE, who committed the British troops at the battle of Great Bridge, was killed on the 9th of December 1775, was fired by a Currituck FEREBEE who was with the Currituck Militia at the battle.  Sammy FEREBEE who died in 1845 when much over 80 years, said he was a small boy when the battle was fought.  He had two brothers in the battle.  After it was fought his father sent him from Currituck to Great Bridge to know how his boys had come out and he heard the soldiers talking to one of his brothers about his killing FORDYCE.”

For his service in the American Revolutionary War, Captain William Ferebee, Sr. was granted 3,062 acres of land that was allotted to officers and soldiers of the Continental Line by Law, October 14, 1783.  In his will, he bequeathed almost 3,000 acres to his children.  In the Currituck County tax list of 1779, his assets were appraised as the tenth highest assessment in the county at £10,996 ($1,307,291 US dollars in 2019).  He died at Culong, July 9, 1783, at the age of 61, and his will is recorded in Currituck Will Book 1, pages 263-264.  His wife Elizabeth died at Culong, December 29, 1794 at age 66.