- William Christian (Virginia)
William Christian (c. 1743 –
9 April 1786 ) was a soldier and politician fromVirginia who served in the era of theAmerican Revolution .Christian was born in
Staunton, Virginia , a descendant of a Manx family which had settled inIreland . His parents,Israel Christian and Elizabeth Starke, had emigrated to Virginia in 1740, where they ran a general store. At about the age of 20, William served as a captain in theAnglo-Cherokee War under Colonel William Byrd. In the mid 1760s, he worked in the law office ofPatrick Henry , and married Henry's sister Anne.Christian resided in
Botetourt County, Virginia and thenFincastle County, Virginia . He represented Fincastle County in the lower house of theVirginia Assembly for three sessions, from 1773 to 1775. In 1774, he commanded a regiment of militia from Fincastle County inDunmore's War , but he and his troops arrived too late to participate in the decisiveBattle of Point Pleasant .In 1775, with the approach of the
American Revolutionary War , Christian served on the Fincastle Committee of Safety, and attended theMarch 20 andJuly 17 meetings of theVirginia Conventions . On13 February 1776 , he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the1st Virginia Regiment of theContinental Army , and was promoted to colonel in March. WhenCherokee s underDragging Canoe andOconostota went to war with Virginia in 1776, Christian resigned his commission in July 1776 and accepted a commission as colonel of militia from theVirginia Council of Defense . Christian led an expedition against the Cherokees which saw little action but compelled some of the chiefs to agree to peace. He served as a commissioner which negotiated theTreaty of Long Island with the Cherokees, which was signed on20 July 1777 . He was a commissioner in a second treaty with the Cherokees in 1781. William Christian and his wife established Fort William where he directed the defense of what is now Louisville from Indian attacks. [Kentucky Historical Marker Number 974, Kentucky Historical Society, Jefferson County Kentucky at Eight Mile House]After the Revolution, in 1785 Christian moved his family to the neighborhood of
Louisville, Kentucky where he had claims to 9,000 acres (36 km²) of land. He was killed in southernIndiana the next year in a battle with theWabash Indians . He is buried inJefferson County, Kentucky . Several places are named after him, includingChristian County, Illinois ;Christian County, Kentucky ;Christian County, Missouri ; andChristiansburg, Virginia .References
*McCormick, Thomas Denton. "William Christian" in the "Dictionary of American Biography", vol. III, p. 96, edited by
Dumas Malone . New York: Scribner's, 1936; revised 1964.External links
* [http://www.signsofhistory.com/kentucky/Jefferso/colwmchr.htm Historical marker] in
Jefferson County, Kentucky
* [http://www.nostalgiaville.com/travel/Kentucky/hopkinsville/image%20studies%202003/hop22.jpgHistorical marker] inHopkinsville, Kentucky , noting that Christian County was named for him in 1797.
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6942764 Find-A-Grave profile for William Christian] , which contains a supposed photograph of Christian, although he died decades before the invention of photography.ee Also
*
Fort William (Kentucky)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.