James Vann - Vann's Family Background

Vann's Family Background

John Vann was a Scots trader recorded as active with the Cherokee Nation as early as 1745. He operated a trading post in partnership with Bernard Hughes on the Saluda River near the frontier fort "Ninety Six" in South Carolina. In 1770 after the interpreter John Watts died, British colonial officials hired John Vann as the official interpreter for their negotiations with the Cherokee.

John Vann each joined independent Chickamauga war parties led by Oconostota and his son Terrapin. This John Vann is believed to have married a Cherokee woman and fathered Wah-li and John Vann, Jr.

The Cherokee woman married a second time, to Bernard Hughes. They had three children: James, Charles, and Sarah Hughes. Later she married a third man named Roe or Rowe. Their children were David and Richard Roe. (The latter became one of the executors of his half-nephew James Vann's estate in 1809). The Cherokee matriarch was known as "Old Mrs. Roe" in her later years.

In 1796 U.S. Agent Col. Benjamin Hawkins traveled through the Cherokee Nation and recorded encountering Sarah Waters (née Hughes) and her uncle Sourmush. He also met "Old Mrs. Roe," nearly 80 years old, and her sons David Roe and John Vann. Hawkins also noted meeting Richard Roe and a chief named Terrapin nearby.

The following family data is derived from the Moravians' daily journals and list of students: Wah-li was baptized by the Moravians as "Mary Christiana" Vann. Her brother was baptized as John Vann. John married a daughter of Terrapin (she was also a granddaughter of the "Great Warrior," Oconostota).

Wah-li married Joseph Vann, with whom she had three children: James, Nancy and Jennie. Wah-li Vann married a second time, to a white man named Clement Vann. He became the stepfather to her children.

Clement Vann had a sister Jennie and brother Avery Vann. (Avery also married a Cherokee wife and had a large family, so there are many Vanns in local records). Clement, Jennie and Avery were likely siblings of Joseph Vann. The British Indian agent Alexander Cameron recorded Joseph Vann and John Vann, men he classified as white (European), as living with the Cherokee in 1779.