Raleigh was named after Sir Walter Raleigh, and established in 1792 on 1,000 acres (4.0 km 2) purchased from Lane. Lane named Wake County in honor of Margaret Wake Tryon, wife of colonial Governor William Tryon. The next day, the vote went in Lane's favor. The commission members favored land owned by Colonel John Hinton across the Neuse River, but the night before the final vote, the committee adjourned to the home of Joel Lane for an evening of food and spirits. In 1792, a commission was appointed to select a site to build a permanent state capital. Fayetteville was the state capital in 1786, 1789, 1790, and 1793, when Raleigh became the permanent state capital in 1794. For several years during and after the Revolutionary War, there was no capital, and the General Assembly met in various locations. Parts were included in Franklin County in 1787, and in Durham County in both 18.ĭuring the colonial period of North Carolina, the state capital was New Bern. Wake County lost some of its territory through the formation of other counties. In 1771, the first elections and court were held, and the first militia units were organized. The first courthouse was built at a village originally called Wake Courthouse, now known as Bloomsbury. Wake County was formed in 1770 from parts of Cumberland County, Johnston County, and Orange County.

Prior to English colonization, present-day Wake County was part of the Tuscarora nation. It is also part of the wider Triangle J Council of Governments, which governs regional planning. It is governed by the Wake County Board of Commissioners, coterminous with the Wake County Public School System, with law enforcement provided by the Wake County Sheriff's Department. Eleven other municipalities are in Wake County, the largest of which is the town of Cary, the third-largest city of the Research Triangle region and the seventh-largest municipality in North Carolina. Its county seat is Raleigh, which is also the state capital. From July 2005 to July 2006, Wake County was the 9th-fastest growing county in the United States, with Cary and Raleigh being the 8th- and 15th-fastest growing cities, respectively. In the 2020 census, its population was 1,129,410, making it North Carolina's most-populous county.

John p lawrence, grissom township, nc