Individual Details

John was killed by Indiana on the trail from Kentucky to Tennessee. He was a Colenel in the Rev. War. He served in Virginia House of Burgesses.

22 DEC 1779 On the "Adventure" led a flotilla of more than 300 people down the TN River on Flatboats to found the city of Nashville. And kept a diary of the adventure which still exists.


Find A Grave Memorial# 6639237
Colonial Frontiersman. One of the two founders of Nashville, he joined with James Robertson to lead the first settlers to began a new settlement on the Cumberland River at the French Lick. A land speculator and surveyor, he had served in the Virginia House of Burgesses before moving to the Watauga settlements on the Holston and Watauga rivers in East Tennessee. where he met James Robertson. While Robertson led a group of mostly men and boys overland with pack horses and livestock, John Donelson organized and led a flotilla of approximately thirty boats from the Holston River to the Tennessee River,up the Ohio River,and then up the Cumberland River to the present site of Nashville, approximately 1000 miles. Most of his passengers were the wives and children of the men who went with Robertson. John Donelson was mysteriously killed on the trail between Kentucky and Nashville in 1785. His tenth child (out of eleven) was Rachel Donelson Jackson, the future wife of Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States.

Birth	7 Apr 1725
Marriage	Ca 1749	Rachel Stockley
Death	11 Apr 1786

Spouse	Rachel Stockley (1730 - 1794)
Child	Alexander Donelson (1751 - 1834)
Child	Catherine Donelson (1752 - 1834)
Child	John Donelson (1755 - 1830)
Child	Mary Donelson (1756 - 1823)
Child	William Donelson (1758 - 1820)
Child	Stockley Donelson (1759 - 1805)
Child	Jane Donelson (1766 - 1834)
Child	Severn Donelson (1763 - 1818)
Child	Leven Donelson (1765 - 1833)
Child	Rachel Donelson (1767 - 1828)
Child	Samuel Donelson (1770 - 1804)