James Robertson

James Robertson 1742-1814, American frontiersman, a founder of Tennessee, b. Brunswick co., Va. He was reared in North Carolina. After the failure of the Regulator movement , he led (1771) a group of settlers from Orange co., N.C., to Tennessee, where he became a leader of the Watauga Association . In 1779, Robertson explored the Cumberland River country for Richard Henderson and his Transylvania Company and in 1780 began the settlement of Nashborough, later renamed Nashville. Under the Cumberland Compact he became the chief civil and military officer of the community, and his wise leadership was largely responsible for its survival. When the state of Tennessee was organized in 1796, Robertson was prominent in drafting its first constitution. In his later years he served in the state senate (1798) and as agent to the Chickasaw.

Bibliography: See biography by A. W. Putnam (1859, repr. 1971).

Robertson, James (1742–1814) soldier and pioneer. The son of a Virginia planter, Robertson was an early settler in what became Tennessee. He arrived in 1771 near what is now Johnson City and became a leader in the “Watauga Association,” which assumed executive, legislative, and judicial functions for the community. In 1779 he moved 200 miles further east, recruiting others to help him establish a community on the Cumberland River, at “Fort Nashborough,” and again establishing a form of frontier government for the settlement. In 1783 North Carolina recognized the community as Davidson County and accepted Robertson into the House of Commons as its representative. Robertson was a member of the army during Tennessee's territorial period, reaching the rank of brigadier general. He served in the Tennessee Constitutional Convention (1796) and in the state senate (1798–99).