John Watts was probably born about 1724/25. His birth place is unknown, though both Bowling Green, Virginia and Scotland have been suggested. He arrived in the Cherokee Nation about 1750 as a trader, and by 1752 was being hired as an interpreter and traveling companion by the Cherokee. ^[1]

He had both white and Cherokee families. In 1745 in Charleston, a man named John Watts married a white woman, Jossie/Joppie Stuart.^[2] It's uncertain if she was actually the wife of John Watts the trader, but other records show that John was the father of several white children including Thomas and John Watts, Jr. of Abbeville District, South Carolina.^{[citation needed]}

He was the father of a Cherokee man called John Watts, who was Chief of the Chickamauga Cherokee following the death of Dragging Canoe,^[3] and a Cherokee daughter (possibly named Wurteh), who married another white trader, John Benge.^[4]

His first major undertaking as an interpreter was a trip from the Cherokee Nation to Williamsburg, Virginia, with the Cherokee "Emperor" Amouscossite in 1752. ^[5]

John Watts also worked for the British, assisting Captain Paul Demere as an interpreter. ^[6] In 1757 the government of North Carolina paid him for goods needed by "47 Ingons on their way to Virginia to war against the French." ^[7] He was an interpreter at the Treaty of Augusta in 1763. ^[8] John Watts died between October, 1770 and April, 1771 He worked October 13 - 20, 1770 for a meeting between principal Cherokee Chiefs and John Stuart about a boundary line with Virginia. (Gage Papers #5317 137:10). Indian Agent Alexander Cameron wrote to Indian Agent John Stuart on April 29, 1771 stating that Watts had died. ^[9]

Following is a list of documented and possible children:

1. Barsheba Watts
2. Thomas Watts
3. Benjamin a Watts
4. Philip Watts
5. John Kunokeski Young Tassel Watts Leader of the Chickamauga/Lower Cherokee confederacy from 1792–1802^[10]
6. Nancy Watts
7. Thomas Watts
8. Wurteh Watts

John Watts is currently protected by the Native Americans Project for reasons described below. Join: Native Americans Project Discuss: NATIVE_AMERICANS

Research Notes

Arrived in South Carolina, date not given, indexed in "A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to the USA"^[11]

He worked for Christian Gist in the Virginia Land Company. They worked out of Olde Charleston, South Carolina. Both of these men became grandfathers of Sequoyah (George Gist).^{[citation needed]}

Research is still being conducted on John Watts who was born about 1720 in, some researchers say Scotland, some say Bowling Green, VA. Descendants of Trader/Interpreter John Watts, Ginny Mangum

The claims that he died in 1803 in Fort Payne, Alabama refer to John Watts Jr aka Young Tassel, not this John Watts who was dead by 1771. John, Jr., ca. 1853-1808 is buried at Willstown Mission Cemetery north of Fort Payne.^[12]1753: Lived at Ninety-Six District, South Carolina. This is the time and place of birth of Young Tassel. ^{[citation needed]}

The following refer to other men named John Watts:

1753, Residence: Prince William County, Virginia ^[13]1764, Residence: Culpepper County, Virginia ^[14]1787 Residence: Martin County, District #3, North Carolina ^[15] Has to be a different John Watts. There are many and this one is still living when the 1790 census is taken as well.

Possible source of claim that John Watts was part Native American. This quote is referring to Chief Young Tassel aka John Watts:

"During the summer and fall of 1792, General McGillivray secretly caused large meetings to be held over the Creek and Cherokee nations, at which he appeared to be only a visitor, while Panton and Captain Oliver, in speeches, forbid the running of the line between them and the Georgians, in the name of the King of Spain, and decreed that no American trader should enter the nation. Governor Carondelet was also active in endeavoring to defeat the provisions of the New York treaty. He sent to the Creek nation a large body of bloody Shawnees, armed and equipped, who took up their abode at Souvanoga, upon the Tallapoosa. McGillivray moved his negroes to Little river, gave up his house to Captain Oliver, whom he had so well established in the affections of his people, and was gone a long time to New Orleans and Pensacola. The Spaniards not only had in view the prevention of the advancement of the Americans on the east, but determined to oppose the settlements upon the Mississippi, to effect all of which they attempted to unite the four nations of Indians on their side. They strengthened all their forts, and authorized Captain John Linder, of Tensaw, and other active partisans, to raise volunteers. Carondelet gave Richard Finnelson and Joseph Durque passports to go through the Spanish posts to the Cherokee nation as emissaries to incite those Indians to make war upon the Cumberland people. John Watts, a half-breed of Willstown, was also an active agent. There was, suddenly, great excitement produced over the whole Indian country. One Chief declared at Willstown * that he had taken the lives of three hundred Americans, but that now he intended to "drink his fill of blood. " The Cumberland people fell victims on all sides, while the settlers upon the frontiers of Georgia shared the same fate. During all this time McGillivray and the Federal authorities at Rock Landing were engaged in fruitless correspondence--the former professing his willingness to carry out the provisions of the New York treaty, but never doing it. Everything conspired to defeat the hopes of Washington. Even Captain Oliver had become intimate with Willbanks and the rest of the adherents of Bowles, and used them against the American interests. McGillivray also carried on a correspondence with the Secretary of War, in which he displayed his usual powers of diplomacy.**"

Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 305-315-288-290-432.

Willstown, named for a half-breed Chief called Red Head Will, whose father was a British officer, was an important Cherokee village. The grave of Red Head Will is within two hundred yards of the residence of Jesse G. Beeson, who owns the entire site of Willstown, situated in Little Will's Valley, DeKalb county, Alabama.

Sources

1. ↑ McIlwaine, H.R., ed. Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia. Virginia State Library, 1925. Vol. 5, pp. 412-416 images at Council
2. ↑ "South Carolina Marriages, 1709-1913," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2XK-25K : 11 February 2018), John Watts and Joppe Stuard, 08 Apr 1745; citing Saint Philip,Charleston,Charleston,South Carolina; FHL microfilm 976.
3. ↑ Brown, John P. Old Frontiers. Southern Publishers Inc. Kingsport TN 1938. p. 353
4. ↑ Bob Benge and his brother “The Tail” are described as the nephews of John Watts, leading to the conclusion that their mother was the daughter of John Watts the elder and sister of John Watts the younger. American State Papers, James Carey to Governor Blount, March 19, 1793. pp. 437-438, image at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampagecollId=llsp&fileName=007/llsp007.db&recNum=438
5. ↑ An account of a visit to Williamsburg can be found in the Colonial Records of Virginia. McIlwaine, H.R., ed. Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia. Virginia State Library, 1925. Vol. 5, pp. 412-416 images at Council
6. ↑ Example letter, Journals of the Virginia House of Burgesses, Vol. 9, 1757-1761, p. 264, June, 1758. image at Watts
7. ↑ North Carolina General Assembly records cited in Byrd, William L. Villainy Seldom Goes Unpunished, Indian Records from the North Carolina General Assembly Session 1675-1789. Heritage Books, Westminster, MD, 2012. p. 73
8. ↑ Hoig, Stanley W. The Cherokees and Their Chiefs. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville. 1998. p. 79
9. ↑ General Thomas Gage papers (no. 5295) cited in Shadburn, Don & Strange,John. Upon Our Ruins, Cottonpatch Press, Cumming, GA. 2012. p. 517.
10. ↑ Wikipedia Contributors, John Watts (Cherokee Chief), (Wikipedia)
11. ↑ Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2012. Original: A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to the USA". Vol. 1. Baltimore: Magna Carta Book Co., 1972. 504p. 2nd pr., 1981"
12. ↑ Shadburn, Don L., Upon Our Ruins, A Study in Cherokee History and Genealogy, The Cottonpatch Press, 2012, p. 517
13. ↑ Virginia, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.
14. ↑ Virginia, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1607-1890. State or colonial census, NC Early Census Index
15. ↑ North Carolina, Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1790-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 1999.

See also:

• Rickey Butch Walker, Doublehead, Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief
• rHistory of Alabama an Incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the Earliest Period. By Albert James Pickett, Chapter 26