The Treaty of Lochaber was signed in South Carolina on 18 October 1770 by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

representative John Stuart and the

Cherokee people The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

, fixing the boundary for the western limit of the colonial frontier settlements of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

.Ramsey's Annals, page 111.
/ref>

Lord Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (2 May 17377 May 1805), known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Anglo-Irish Whig statesman who was the first home secr ...

in London was determined to settle disputes along the western frontier in order to avoid more conflict between colonists and various Native American nations. Although he lost his office as Southern Secretary in October 1768, negotiations progressed with tribal chiefs (usually representing towns in their decentralized society) regarding the North American colonial frontier. The

Treaty of Fort Stanwix The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed between representatives from the Iroquois and Great Britain (accompanied by negotiators from New Jersey, Virginia and Province of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania) in 1768 at Fort Stanwix. It was negotia ...

in November 1768 fixed the boundary lines between tribes and colonists to the north of Virginia. The border variances from the

Treaty of Hard Labour Treaty of Hard Labour is one of the two treaties signed by the British representative John Stuart with the Cherokee tribe. In an effort to resolve concerns of settlers and land speculators following the western boundary established by the Royal Pr ...

led to negotiations where 1000 Cherokee leaders were hosted by Alexander Cameron (d. 1781) at Lochabar Plantation in Ninety-Six District, South Carolina. Based on the terms of the accord, the Cherokee relinquished all claims to land from the previous North Carolina and Virginia border to a point six miles east of Long Island of the Holston River in present-day

Kingsport, Tennessee Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It lies along the Holston River and had a population of 55,442 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, ...

, to the mouth of the

Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its watershed has been a significant industrial region of th ...

at present-day

Point Pleasant, West Virginia Point Pleasant is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Kanawha River, Kanawha Rivers. The population was 4,101 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 censu ...

, in Mason County. The North Carolina-Virginia border at this time was along the 36° 30' parallel in present-day Tennessee, because both colonies believed their charters extended to the west. In this treaty, the Cherokee surrendered their rights to most land in present-day southern West Virginia not included in the

in October 1768.

Donelson's Indian Line

A subsequent survey of the Treaty line by John Donelson of Virginia in 1771 placed the northern terminus of the line at the mouth of the

Kentucky River The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River in Kentucky, United States. The river and its tributaries drain much of eastern and central Kentucky, passing through the Eastern Coalfield, the Cumberland Mountains, and the Bluegrass re ...

, substantially west of the Kanawha River, cleaving what is today extreme western Virginia, a wedge of western Virginia and a large part of northeastern Kentucky to Virginia colony, which lands were then part of newly organized trans-Appalachian Virginia's Botetourt County extending to the Mississippi River. The survey also moved the southern line from the North Carolina (today Tennessee) boundary south to the Holston River because settlers didn't know how to locate the North Carolina boundary without landmarks. This left three settlements, at Watauga, Nolichucky and Carter's Valley south of the surveyed line, hence in Cherokee land and not authorized by either the Crown or the Cherokee. These would later become separate purchases from the Cherokee and land grants from North Carolina during the organization of the Transylvania Colony in 1775.

References

External links

"Treaty of Lochaber 1770"
Envisaging the West. University of Nebraska–Lincoln. 2009. Accessed on 24 April 2023. {{Cherokee 1770 in the Thirteen Colonies British colonization of the Americas Cherokee and United Kingdom treaties History of the Thirteen Colonies

Lochaber Lochaber ( ; ) is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig. Lochaber once extended from the Northern shore of Loch Leven, a distric ...

1770 treaties Treaties involving territorial changes William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne