Col. John Luttrell
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John Luttrell from Westmoreland County, Virginia, son of "Old John" and Katherine Sanford was born around 1734. He served as a trooper in the Virginia Militia of Prince William County, Virginia on March 29, 1756. He moved from Virginia to Hillsborough, Chatham County, North Carolina. By 1770 he held the responsible position as Clerk of the Crown.
Through his marriage to Susannah Hart, the daughter of Nathaniel Hart, Colonel Luttrell became a man of great financial means and social status. He was associated with Colonel Richard Henderson and other men of "capital" who founded the Transylvania Company at Hillsboro, North Carolina on January 6, 1775.
From 1778 - 1781, Col. Luttrell served as a soldier in the Revolutionary War in the ninth North Carolina regiment. In September 1781 he was mortally wounded in a battle with the Tories at Lindley's Mill. His body was laid to rest in Gray Cemetery, Knox County, Tennessee.
Thomas Luttrell (also listed as one of the "first residients of Boonesborough), brother of Col. John, was killed by Indians in 1786 in Lincoln County, Kentucky.
from LUTTRELL - KENTUCKY ANCESTORS, by The Rev. Terril D. Littrell, Ph.D.
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America's Fourteenth Colony
http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr10-0109
Translyvania Company
September 25, 1775
Volume 10, Pages 256-261
(Shows intent on becoming 14th colony)
From the generous plan of liberty adopted by the Congress, and that noble love of mankind which appears in all their proceedings, the Memorialists please themselves that the United Colonies will take the infant Colony of Transylvania into their protection; and they, in return, will do everything in their power, and give such assistance in the general cause of America as the Congress shall judge to be suitable to their abilities.
Therefore the Memorialists hope and earnestly request, that Transylvania may be added to the number of the United Colonies, and that James Hogg Esq. be received as their delegate, and admitted to a seat in the honourable the Continental Congress.
By order of the Proprietors.
Resolved, That the united thanks of this Company be presented to Colonel Richard Henderson, Captain Nathaniel Hart, and Captain John Luttrell, for their eminent services and publick spirited conduct, in settling the aforesaid Colony.
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Transylvania: Fourteenth American State
Hanover County Virginian Was First and Only Head of 'Free Colony'
Which Afterwards Became Kentucky;
To Be Celebrated October 12
By Archibald Henderson, Litt. D., D. C. L., LL. D.
University of North Carolina
The loyalists, John and Samuel Adams, are amazed at the efforts of these forerunners of the American Revolution, Richard Henderson, James Hogg, and their associates, to found an independent state in the heart of virgin West. "They are charged with republican notions"--words written by Adams with evident lack of sympathy for republican notions! The effort to found a free state beyond the mountains, on the other side of the forest barrier, as Transylvania means, is suspected by John Adams to be an Utopean scheme."
The Compact beween the Proprietors and the People
"Whereas, it is highly necessary, for the peace of the Proprietors and the security of the People of this Colony, that the powers of the one and the liberties of the other be ascertained, we, Richard Henderson, Nathaniel Hart, and J. Luttrell, on behalf of ourselves, as well as the other Proprietors of the Colony of Transylvania, of the one part, and the Representatives of the People of said Colony, in Convention assembled, of the other part, do most solemnly enter into the following contract or agreement. . ."
Creator: Transylvania Colony. House of Delegates
May 23, 1775 - May 27, 1775
Volume 9, Pages 1267 - 1279
(a google eBook)
TREATY OF WATAUGA.
(copied with permission from McNally family)
from The conquest of the old Southwest :
The Romantic Story of the Early Pioneers into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky, 1740-1790
by Archibald Henderson, 1877-1963.
Woodrow Wilson Collection (Library of Congress)
New York : The Century co., 1920.
Tennessee Historical Magazine
published by the
Tennessee Historical Society
The text is in the public domain.
(from the excellent website of Glenn D. Littrell - LittrellFamily.net)
To place the above information in Context to Col. Luttrell the Reverend Caruthers describes the death of Colonel John Littrell and the battle:
"Several of the highest officers on both sides were killed and nearly an equal number of each. These were men of much merit as officers, and their death was a great loss to their respective parties. On the Whig [American] side Major John Nalls and Colonel Lutteral were among the slain...."
"...Colonel Lutteral was also killed about the close of the battle and was a great loss to the country. He is said to have been a brave and valuable officer; but his men thought him too severe in his discipline… Having advanced at the head of his men within pistol shot of a Tory from Randolph, by the name of Rains, who was in the act of loading his rifle, and fired at him with his pistol but without effect. He then wheeled his horse and dashed off, to get out of reach before the other would be ready to fire; but Rains, having finished in time, leveled his gun at him, when at full speed, and shot him through the body. He did not fall but rode to a house about half a mile distant, where the good people took him upstairs and furnished him with a bed and every comfort in their power. While lying there bleeding and dying, he dipped his finger in his own blood and wrote his name upon the wall. The house stood there as a Monument of the Cane Creek Battle and of Colonel Lutteral's death until about seven or eight years ago; and the Colonel's name retained its color and brilliance until the last. There were two men belonging to Fanning's troop by the name of John Rains, father and son, and McBride says that John Rains, Sen., was killed at the battle of Cane creek…"
