Petitions from the Inhabitants South of the French Broad, 1789

Southwest Virginia Project

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The following are lists of signatories on petitions received by the Government of North Carolina in November of 1778, taken from transcriptions in Source:Kroeger and McCants, 2005. The signatories were living in the area then referred to as "South of the French Broad" in the area that eventually became East Tennessee. At the time the area had not be taken into the United States, and the settlers were in fact squatting on lands to which they had no legal right to settle. The petitions speak to their concerns, and were written in an effort to legitimize their presence in the area. Several separate petitions are included in Source:Kroeger and McCants, 2005; the lists of signatories for each are given separate, designated simply as "Signatories from Petition 1", etc. As the transcribers noted in their forward, these lists identify the earliest settlers of East Tennessee. In many instances, the individual signatories were never able to secure title to their land, and moved elsewhere. Nonetheless, many remained and eventually secured title. It is presumed that the signatories on each petition were living in the same local area; where possible, some indication of where they were living will be given.

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Original Order of Signatories by Petition
See Also Petitions from the Inhabitants South of the French Broad, 1789, Alphabetical Order