Fort Boonesborough and the Transylvania Colony

Last spring (2025) was not only the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution, but it was also the 250th anniversary of the founding of Fort Boonesborough and the colony of Transylvania in Kentucky. 

Richard Henderson, who had worked as a lawyer and judge, came up with a plan to begin the 14th colony in what is now Kentucky. The Iroquois had ceded their claims to the land south of the Ohio River to the British in the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, and the Shawnee had ceded their claims to that land after Lord Dunmore’s War in the 1774 Treaty of Camp Charlotte. And so on March 17, 1775, at Sycamore Shoals (present day Tennessee), Henderson and his Transylvania Company concluded treaty negotiations with the Cherokee and purchased the land from them. At the same time, Daniel Boone, working with Henderson, led a party to blaze the wilderness trail through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. Henderson caught up with Boone along the Kentucky River around April 20th. The settlers began surveying and allotting the land. On April 29th, construction began on Fort Boonesborough.

On May 8th, in response to some disputes with and among other parties of settlers, a plan for government was proposed that was agreeable to the several groups. On May 23rd, eighteen delegates from four settlements assembled at Boonesborough to form the House of Delegates. On May 24-27, the first legislative assembly of the colony was held under a very large elm tree.

The assembly adopted a committee’s recommendation to name the colony Transylvania (which means “beyond the forest”). Daniel Boone served as a delegate and proposed bills for “Preserving Game &c” and “Improving the breed of Horses.” His brother, Squire Boone, proposed a bill to “Preserve the Range.” Rev. John Lythe had opened the meeting in prayer. He was a minister of the Church of England, possibly the one who had baptized Daniel Boone and his family a few years earlier. He also served as a delegate and proposed a bill “to Prevent Profane Swearing and Sabbath Breaking.” These and other laws (a total of nine) were passed on the third reading by that assembly. A functioning government was established with courts, laws, and militia. The assembly also produced a compact between the proprietors (members of the company) and the people (who were represented by their delegates). You can read the minutes of the assembly here. 

On the following day, Sunday, May 28th, divine service was led by Rev. Lythe before the delegates returned home. On the next day, May 29th, a letter arrived at Boonesborough with an “account of the battle of Boston” (i.e. the battles of Lexington and Concord). 

While Henderson thought the legality of this colony would stand, it was disputed by the governors of North Carolina and Virginia, both of which claimed the lands west of them. Transylvania sought recognition by the Continental Congress, but it did not receive that recognition and was soon incorporated into Virginia.