John Pugh was a Quaker born in about 1738 in Pennsylvania. A prominent Regulator leader, in 1769 Pugh was one of several Orange County residents to sign Regulators' Advertisement No. 9 which called upon Governor Tryon and the North Carolina Colonial Council to intercede on their behalf regarding what they viewed as unreasonably high public fees. On 11 March 1771, Pugh was tried in New Bern for participating in the Hillsborough Riot. Later in 1771, several Guilford County residents signed a petition calling for Pugh's pardon. The petitioners garnered sympathy by alluding to John Pugh's wife, Elinor Pugh, and the "utmost Extremity for want" his execution would put her through. While Pugh's pardon has not been located, documents mentioning him after 1771 indicate he was pardoned. He died some time after 1810.