Person:James White (125)

Moses White and Mary Campbell were the parents of Moses White, Rowan County, North Carolina, who married Mary McConnell and became the father of Gen. James White, whose wife was Mary Lawson, and who was the founder of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Previous to the battle of Alamance on the 16th May 1771, at length, Colonel Moses Alexander, a magistrate under the colonial government, succeeded in getting wagons by impressment to convey the munitions to Hillsboro to obey the behest of a tyrannical governor. The following individuals, viz. James, William, and John White, brothers; and William White, a cousin; all born on Rocky River and one mile from Rocky River Church, Robert Caruthers, their brother in law, Robert Davis, Benjamin Cockrane, James Ashmore, and Joshua Hadley, bound themselves by solemn oath not to divulge the secret object of their contemplated mission, and, in order to prevent section, blackened their faces preparatory to their intended destruction work. They were joined and led in this and other expeditions by William Alexander of the Sugar Creek Congregation, a brave soldier, and afterwards known and distinguished from others bearing the same name as "Captain Black Bill Alexander" and whose sword now hangs in Liberty Hall in Davidson College.

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

James White (1747 – August 14, 1821) was an American pioneer and soldier who founded Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1790s. Born in Rowan County, North Carolina, White served as a captain in the county's militia during the American Revolutionary War. In 1783, he led an expedition into the upper Tennessee Valley, where he discovered the future site of Knoxville. White served in various official capacities with the failed State of Franklin (1784–1788) before building White's Fort in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and White donated the land for a permanent city, Knoxville, in 1791. He represented Knox County at Tennessee's constitutional convention in 1796. During the Creek War (1813), White served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee militia.

White had a reputation for patience and tactfulness that was often lacking in his fellow Euro-American settlers on the Appalachian frontier.<ref></ref> As lieutenant colonel commandant of the Knox County militia, White managed to defuse a number of potentially hostile situations between the settlers and the local Native Americans. He donated the land for many of Knoxville's early public buildings, and helped establish Blount College (now the University of Tennessee). White's descendants continued to play prominent roles in the political and economic affairs of Knoxville into the twentieth century.<ref></ref>

http://joepayne.org/white.htm

James White was a soldier, public offical, Founder of Knoxville, born in Rowan Co., NC now part of Iredell Co. NC. His parents were Moses and Mary White. During the American Revolution, James White was a Captain of the N.C. Militia, he was entitled for his military services to a grant of land. In that year he with Robert Love, Francis A. Ramsey, Alexander McMillan and others made a tour of exploration to select desirable tracts of land in East Tennessee. They traveled as far down the Holston (Now the Tennessee) river as the present Lenoir City. The next year Capt. White moved from N.C. to Fort Chiswell, Va, whre he remained about one year. In 1785, he helped organize the State of Franklin, & was member of the General Assembly and its Constitutional Convention that met at Greenville. That same year he removed with his family to what is now Knox County and settled on the North side of the French Broad, near the present Riverdale, the same place that Alexander Campbell, who established Campbell's Station later, had lived on in 1790. The next year, 1786, Capt. White and some other families settled on White's Creek, built a cabin and cleared lands. 1789 he was representative from Hawkins Co. in the Legislature of N.C. and a member of the convention that ratified the Constitution of the U.S. In 1790 he was appointed by Wm. Blount Major of militia and Justice of the Peace of Hawkins Co. Oct 3, 1791 the town of Knoxville was laid out and Knox Co. created from Hawkins and Greene Co., and Major white was appointed lieutenant-colonal commendant. Was member of the territorial H. of R. and Knox Co. member of the Constitution convention & Senator & resigned his seat for William Blount, etc.

Genl James White departed this life on the 14th day of August, 1821.

(Note: The following added in a different handwriting, at a later date.)

Genl. James White & Mary Lawson were married April 14th, 1770
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Gen. James White died 14th Aug. 1821