Richard Henderson (jurist) - The Transylvania Compact

The Transylvania Compact

Henderson followed Boone to a site that came to be called Boonesborough, located on the southern bank of the Kentucky river, Henderson encouraged the few settlers there to hold a constitutional convention. In May 1775, under the shade of a huge elm tree, a compact organizing a frame of government was drafted. The intended government entailed executive, legislative, and judicial branches. After concluding the Transylvania Compact, Henderson returned to North Carolina and on behalf of his fellow investors in the land scheme petitioned Congress seeking to make Transylvania America’s fourteenth colony. Despite those efforts, Congress was unwilling to act without the consent of Virginia and North Carolina, both of whom claimed jurisdiction over the region in question. In June 1776 the Virginia General Assembly prohibited the Transylvania Land Company from making demands on settlers in the region and in December 1778 declared the Transylvania claim void.

Henderson and his partners instead received a grant of 12 square miles (31 km²), on the Ohio River below the mouth of Green River. In 1779, Judge Henderson was appointed one of six commissioners to run the line between Virginia and North Carolina into Powell's valley. He settled in North Carolina, where he practiced farming on a large scale. He served as a militia colonel in the Revolutionary War and was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly from Granville County. One of his sons was Leonard Henderson.