John Tipton, (1730-1813)
American frontiersman and statesman who was active in the early development of the state of Tennessee. He is best remembered for leading the opposition to the State of Franklin movement in the 1780s, as well as for his rivalry with Franklinite leader John Sevier. He served in the legislatures of Virginia, North Carolina, the Southwest Territory, and Tennessee, and was a delegate to Tennessee’s 1796 constitutional convention. Tipton’s homestead still stands and is managed as the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site.
Early Life
John Tipton was born in 1730 in Baltimore County, Maryland, one of eight children of Jonathan Tipton, a farmer, and Elizabeth (Edwards) Tipton. His ancestors hailed from England, and his paternal grandfather migrated to Maryland from Jamaica. In 1747, his family moved to the Shenandoah Valley, then on Virginia’s western frontier.
Tipton married Mary Butler in 1751, and they had nine sons: Samuel, Benjamin, Abraham, William, Isaac, Jacob, John, Thomas, and Jonathan. By the late 1750s, Tipton as a young man owned a 181-acre (73 ha) farm along the Shenandoah River in Frederick County, where he raised crops and livestock and produced whiskey. In 1761, he supported George Washington’s campaign for the House of Burgesses.
When Dunmore County (modern Shenandoah County) was created from Frederick in 1772, Tipton was appointed justice of the peace in the new county by Governor Lord Dunmore. In June 1774, Tipton was elected to the county’s Committee of Safety and helped craft the Woodstock Resolutions, which denounced the British Crown’s actions in closing the port of Boston. He was also elected to the county’s seat in the House of Burgesses. During Dunmore’s War later that year, Tipton served as a captain under Andrew Lewis and saw action at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October.
In the spring of 1776, Tipton, who had aligned with the growing Patriot cause, represented Dunmore County at the Virginia Conventions. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates that year, where he served from 1776 to 1777, and from 1778 to 1781. In 1777, he was reappointed justice of the peace by Governor Patrick Henry. Two years later, he was appointed recruiting officer for the Continental Army’s Virginia line. In 1780, he was appointed Commissioner of the Provision of Law by Governor Thomas Jefferson. As principal officer of the Shenandoah militia during the war, he obtained the title of colonel.
During the course of the American Revolution, Tipton suffered a number of personal tragedies. His wife, Mary, died in 1776 while giving birth. He married a widow, Martha (Denton) Moore. His son, Abraham, was killed while fighting under George Rogers Clark. When Tipton and his second wife had a son together, they named him Abraham, for the son who had died. His son, William, was badly wounded during the Siege of Savannah.
Family and Legacy
Tipton-Haynes House in 1936
Tipton’s eldest son, Samuel (1752–1833), is considered the founder of Elizabethton, Tennessee. He deeded the land on which the city was founded in the 1790s as Tiptonville. Tipton’s son, Jacob (1765–1791), was killed at St. Clair’s Defeat in 1791. He was the second son to die in war. Tipton County, Tennessee, is named in Jacob’s honor.
In the early 19th century, Tipton’s son, William (1761–1849), known as “Fighting Billy,” acquired much of the land in Cades Cove, in the Great Smoky Mountains. Tipton’s in-law, Joshua Jobe, convinced John Oliver to become the Cove’s first white settler in 1818. The Tipton Place, built by Tipton’s descendants in the 1880s, still stands along the Cades Cove Loop Road.
Tipton’s great-nephew, John Tipton (1786–1839), fought at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. He was elected by the Indiana state legislature as a U.S. senator in the 1830s. He was a great-grandson of Tipton’s uncle, William (1696–1726). Tipton County, Indiana; Tipton, Indiana, and Tipton, Iowa, are all named for him.
Tipton’s farm, the Tipton-Haynes Place in Johnson City, is now designated as a state historic site. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When the state acquired the farm in 1945, historian Samuel Cole Williams spoke at its dedication.
For years after Tipton’s death, the leader was criticized by historians, most of whom held favorable views of his rival, Sevier. Sevier’s early biographer, James B. Gilmore, was particularly hostile toward Tipton, and historian James Phelan, in his 1888 History of Tennessee, describes Tipton as a temperamental and jealous individual who “lacked intellectual force.” Later historians, among them Theodore Roosevelt (Winning of the West), gave more nuanced accounts of the Tipton-Sevier feud.
Lineage
Relationship: great-great-great-grandfather
William Henry Tipton
father
George Washington Tipton
father
George Washington Tipton
father
Martin William Tipton
father
Jonathon R Tipton
father
William “Fighting Billy” Tipton
father
John Tipton
