The Campbell family of Holston was one of the most prominent Whig families of Virginia’s southwestern frontier during the Revolutionary era. Descended from a Scottish family that had settled in Ireland, the Virginia Campbells established themselves first in Augusta County and later near the headwaters of the Holston River. Their descendants included soldiers of the Revolution, county officers, judges, and governors in Virginia and Tennessee.
The following account brings together the Campbell family references in William Henry Foote’s Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical, Second Series, arranging them by generation and family relationship.
John Campbell, the Immigrant Ancestor
John Campbell, identified by Foote as the ancestor of the Campbells of Holston, belonged to a family originally from the Highlands of Scotland. The family had moved to Ireland near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
In 1726 John Campbell came to America with a large family and settled first in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Foote’s two descriptions differ slightly in detail: one refers to ten or twelve children, while the other describes five grown sons and several daughters. About 1730 John moved to the part of Virginia then included in Orange County and later organized as Augusta County. He remained there until his death, and many of his descendants continued to live in the region for years afterward.
The principal Holston branches described by Foote descended from John’s oldest son, Patrick Campbell, and his youngest son, David Campbell.
The Family of Patrick Campbell
Patrick Campbell, the oldest son of John Campbell, was the grandfather of General William Campbell, the Revolutionary officer associated with the Battle of King’s Mountain.
Charles Campbell and His Children
Patrick’s son Charles Campbell died in Augusta County. His widow and children later moved to the Holston settlements.
The children of Charles Campbell identified by Foote were:
- General William Campbell, a Revolutionary officer and the grandfather of the woman Foote called “Mrs. Governor M’Dowell.”
- Elizabeth Campbell, who married John Taylor. Their descendants included Judge Allen Taylor of Botetourt County and members of the Taylor family of Montgomery County.
- Jane Campbell, who married Thomas Tate.
- Margaret Campbell, who married her cousin, Colonel Arthur Campbell, a son of David Campbell and Mary Hamilton.
- Ann Campbell, who married Richard Poston.
Foote states that all four daughters had families.
Patrick Campbell of Kentucky
Charles Campbell had a younger brother, also named Patrick Campbell. This Patrick, an uncle of General William Campbell, moved from Augusta County to southern Kentucky and left numerous descendants.
David Campbell and Mary Hamilton
David Campbell, the youngest son of the immigrant John Campbell, married Mary Hamilton in Augusta County. Foote states that they had thirteen children—seven sons and six daughters.
David and Mary raised their family within the Presbyterian tradition. Foote wrote that John Campbell and his descendants were educated according to the strict practices of the Presbyterian Church and that many became members of the church.
The Royal Oak Settlement
In 1765 John Campbell, the eldest son of David and Mary, explored the western country in company with Dr. Thomas Walker. John obtained for himself and his father an older survey near the headwaters of the Holston River known as the Royal Oak.
John and his brother Arthur went to the Holston country before the rest of the family. Their sister Margaret, then about eighteen years old, accompanied them and managed their household while the brothers began making improvements. Foote states that she lived there for nearly three years without seeing another female friend.
A few years later David and Mary followed with their sons James, David, Robert, and Patrick. Their married daughter Mary and her husband, William Lochart, also moved to Holston, as did the unmarried daughters Martha, Sarah, and Ann. The youngest child was eleven years old when the family moved.
Sons of David Campbell and Mary Hamilton
John Campbell
John Campbell, born in 1741, received what Foote described as a good English and mathematical education. Raised as a farmer and accustomed to frontier warfare, he reached Holston when he was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old.
John served as a lieutenant in William Campbell’s company in Colonel William Christian’s 1774 campaign against the Shawnee. In July 1776 he commanded a company and served as second in command at the Battle of the Long Island Flats of Holston. His men held the center during a determined charge led by the Cherokee leader Dragging Canoe, whom Foote called “Dragon-canoe” and whose name also appears in historical sources as Draging-Canoe. John again commanded a company under Colonel Christian during the campaign against the Cherokee towns in October 1776 and remained in nearly constant service through 1781.
In 1778 John was appointed clerk of Washington County. He held that office for forty-six years, retiring in 1824. He spent his later years on a farm, where Foote remembered him as a frequent host to acquaintances, educated travelers, and young Presbyterian ministers. John Campbell died in December 1825, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
Arthur Campbell
Arthur Campbell, the second son of David and Mary, was among the first members of the family to settle on the Holston. Foote described him as talented and distinguished. Arthur became a prominent militia officer and commanded the campaign against the Cherokee towns in December 1780.
Arthur married his cousin Margaret Campbell, daughter of Charles Campbell. He died in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
James Campbell
James Campbell lost his eyesight after contracting smallpox. He died at about fifty years of age.
William Campbell
William Campbell died as a young man and did not accompany the other members of the family to the Holston settlement. He should not be confused with his cousin General William Campbell, the son of Charles Campbell.
David Campbell
David Campbell was educated for the law and practiced for several years in Washington County. After marrying, he moved into the country that became Tennessee. He served as the first federal judge of the territory and, after Tennessee achieved statehood, became a judge of the state supreme court.
A year or two before his death, David was appointed federal judge for the territory that later became Alabama. He died of fever in 1812, in the sixty-second year of his age, before he could move his family to the new territory.
Robert Campbell
Robert Campbell came to Holston in 1771 at about nineteen years of age. He volunteered for the 1774 campaign against the Shawnee and served in Captain John Campbell’s company at the Battle of the Island Flats in 1776. Foote credited him with courage and presence of mind during the action. Robert also participated in Colonel Christian’s October 1776 campaign.
In 1780 Robert served as an ensign under Colonel William Campbell at the Battle of King’s Mountain. That December he joined another campaign against the Cherokee under his brother, Colonel Arthur Campbell.
Robert later served as a Washington County magistrate for more than thirty years. He eventually moved near Knoxville, Tennessee, where he died in 1831, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.
Patrick Campbell
Patrick Campbell, the youngest son of David and Mary, volunteered at the Battle of King’s Mountain. He remained with his father at the Royal Oak farm and inherited the property after his father’s death.
Patrick married and raised a large family. Late in life he moved to Williamson County, Tennessee, where he died at about eighty years of age.
Daughters of David Campbell and Mary Hamilton
Margaret Campbell
Margaret Campbell accompanied her brothers John and Arthur to Holston when she was about eighteen years old. After the remainder of the family arrived, she married David Campbell, the pioneer who established Campbell’s Station about fifteen miles below Knoxville, Tennessee.
In 1781 Margaret moved with her husband into the country that became Tennessee. Three years later they settled at the place where he first built a blockhouse and later established Campbell’s Station.
Foote preserved an account illustrating Margaret’s composure during frontier danger. While her husband and a hired man were working in a cornfield, a party of Indians fired upon them. Hearing the shots, Margaret gathered her children inside the house, secured the door, took down a loaded rifle, and waited calmly for the men to return. That night the family withdrew to White’s Fort, approximately fifteen miles farther within the settlements.
Margaret died of breast cancer in 1799 at the age of fifty-one and was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard near Campbell’s Station. Her grandson was William B. Campbell, who became governor of Tennessee.
Mary Campbell
Mary Campbell married William Lochart. She and her husband accompanied the Campbell family to the Holston settlement.
Martha and Sarah Campbell
Martha Campbell and Sarah Campbell were unmarried when they moved to Holston with their parents. Foote provides no additional information about them in this family sketch.
Ann Campbell
Ann Campbell, identified as the youngest daughter, married Archibald Roane, a Pennsylvania-born lawyer who practiced in the territory that became Tennessee. Roane became one of the first judges of the Tennessee Supreme Court. He was elected governor of Tennessee in 1801, served one two-year term, and afterward returned to the bench. He died in 1814.
Ann and Archibald Roane had at least four children—two sons and two daughters—who reached adulthood but died of consumption. Ann survived her husband and these four children. She died in 1831 at the Nashville home of her eldest son, Dr. James Roane, in the seventy-first year of her age.
Genealogy Notes
Foote gives two descriptions of the immigrant John Campbell’s household, referring in one place to ten or twelve children and in another to five grown sons and several daughters. The source identifies six sons elsewhere but provides detailed information only for the branches of Patrick and David.
Although Foote states that David Campbell and Mary Hamilton had thirteen children—seven sons and six daughters—the family sketch names only twelve: John, Arthur, James, William, David, Robert, Patrick, Margaret, Mary, Martha, Sarah, and Ann. The sixth daughter is not identified in the passage and should not be supplied without evidence from another record.
Several men in the family bore the names William, David, and Patrick Campbell. General William Campbell was the son of Charles Campbell and grandson of the elder Patrick Campbell. He was therefore a first cousin of the seven sons of David Campbell and Mary Hamilton.
The surname of Mary Campbell’s husband appears as “Lochart” in Foote’s account. Contemporary land, probate, marriage, or church records should be consulted before adopting a modernized spelling.
Foote’s account is especially valuable for family relationships and migration patterns, but its dates and name spellings should be compared with land, probate, court, church, and military records before being treated as conclusive.
Source
This family genealogy was compiled from references appearing throughout William Henry Foote’s Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Foote’s scattered biographical, family, church, and settlement references have been brought together here and arranged by generation to make the genealogical relationships easier to follow.
Foote, William Henry. Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Second Series. Second edition, revised. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1856. Available online at AccessGenealogy, Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical. Accessed 10 August 2026.