Robertson, James definition of Robertson, James in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Robertson, James, 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 Regulator movement, designation for two groups, one in South Carolina, the other in North Carolina, that tried to effect governmental changes in the 1760s. In South Carolina, the Regulator movement was an organized effort by backcountry settlers to restore law and
..... Click the link for more information. , he led (1771) a group of settlers from Orange co., N.C., to Tennessee, where he became a leader of the Watauga Association Watauga Association, government (1772–75) formed by settlers along the Watauga River in present E Tennessee. Virginians made the first settlements in 1769, and after the collapse of the Regulator movement in North Carolina, citizens from that colony under James
..... Click the link for more information. . In 1779, Robertson explored the Cumberland River country for Richard Henderson 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 .
..... Click the link for more information. and his Transylvania Company Transylvania Company, association formed to exploit and colonize the area now comprising much of Kentucky and Tennessee. Organized first (Aug., 1774) as the Louisa Company, it was reorganized (Jan., 1775) as the Transylvania Company.
..... Click the link for more information. 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) frontiersman; born in Brunswick County, Va. The "Father of Tennessee," he led the first group of settlers to present-day Nashville in 1780. He proved to be an excellent Indian fighter and a maker of peace treaties with the Chickasaw (1781) and Cherokee (1798, 1807) tribes. He impressed both whites and Indians with his fairness and personal integrity.