CHARLES ROBERTSON, of Washington county, was one of the leaders of the
Watauga Association. He acted as trustee for the early settlers, taking
the title to the lands purchased of the Cherokee Indians in March, 1775;
and the records of Washington county show that he faithfully executed
the trust by conveying tens of thousands of acres of land to the various
settlers. By an ordinance of the constitutional convention of North
Carolina of 1776 he was named as one of the justices of "Washington
District." Robertson was one of the four delegates from Washington
District admitted to membership in the Provincial Congress of 1776. By
that body he was appointed first major of the district militia. On the
establishment of Washington county he was continued in that office; and
by an act of Assembly the court was to be held at his house then on
Sinking creek, near the present Johnson City, until a court house should
be built. In 1777 he marched a body of troops to Long Island of Holston
to act as a guard while a treaty was being there negotiated with the
Cherokee Indians.
He was in the Carolina senate of 1778 and 1779. The
Assembly of 1778, in an effort to keep the Cherokee Indians quiet,
appointed Robertson to go to the Overhill Cherokees with a friendly talk
from the governor. By the Assembly of 1780 he was appointed
lieutenant-colonel in command of two hundred men of Washington county
to coöperate with Colonel Evan Shelby's forces on an expedition against
the Cherokee Indians. Washington county sent him to house of commons in
1784, where he voted in favor of the firs cession act.
Charles Robertson, having had previous experience in legislative bodies
was honored with the speakership of the senate of the State of
Franklin. To him was awarded also the colonelcy of Washington county. He
continued to serve as a magistrate under the new State government. His
daughter had married Robert, the brother of John Sevier, and Colonel
Robertson stood by the fortunes of the governor of Franklin until the
last; he participated in the Sevier-Tipton engagement of 1788.
On the
organization of the county of Washington, as a part of the Territory
south of the Ohio River, Colonel Robertson was commissioned a justice of
the peace.
Robertson had an honorable military record in the Revolution. He
was sent in command of a part of John Sevier's regiment in July, 1780,
to the relief of the Carolinians. His troops aided in the capture of
Thicketty Fort where ninety-three loyalists surrendered; and in the
battle of Musgrove's Mill.
In his later years Colonel Robertson lived south of Jonesborough, on Cherokee Creek. He died about 1800.
Source: Samuel Cole Williams, History of the Lost State of Franklin, 306-307.
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