Henderson, Richard

Henderson, Richard, 1735–85, American colonizer in Kentucky, b. Hanover co., Va. An associate justice of the North Carolina superior court (1769–73), Henderson was long interested in Western lands and was the chief promoter of the Transylvania Company. He followed (1775) Daniel Boone, an agent for the company, to the company's first settlement at Boonesboro on the Kentucky River and in 1779 employed James Robertson to settle the Cumberland River area. Virginia and North Carolina voided the company's land grants, and Henderson and his associates were left with a very small portion of the vast territory they had claimed. Although primarily a land speculator, Henderson was one of the most important figures in the early expansion of the frontier.

Bibliography

See A. Henderson, The Conquest of the Old Southwest (1920); W. S. Lester, The Transylvania Colony (1935).

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Henderson, Richard (1735–85) promoter, colonizer; born in Hanover County, Va. He was a lawyer and an associate justice of the North Carolina Superior Court (1768–73). He retired as a judge to form a land development company, the Richard Henderson & Company, and sent Daniel Boone as his agent to explore Kentucky. He organized the Louisa Company (renamed Translyvania company) in 1774 and tried to set up a proprietary colony on land between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers (present day Kentucky) he had bought from the Cherokee Indians. He himself established the settlement of Boonesborough, but the American Revolution cost him the support of England necessary for legalizing his colony. In 1779–80, he established a settlement at French Lick (now Nashville), Tenn.