a, is recorded in the Register's office of
Knox county, Tennessee. It purports to have been made at a
council held at Tennessee River, on the 1st of March, 1757.
The consideration is four hundred dollars, and conveys to
Capt. Jack _fifteen miles square_ south of the Tennessee
river. The grant itself, confirmatory of the purchase by
Jack, is dated at a general council, met at the Catawba
River, on the 7th of May, 1762, and is witnessed by
Nathaniel Alexander."

Upon this speculative transaction it is proper to make a few
explanatory remarks. About 1750, East Tennessee was beginning to be
settled by adventurous individuals, principally from western North
Carolina, south-western Virginia, and occasionally from more northern
colonies. The Indians were still regarded as the rightful owners and
proper "lords of the soil." At the date of the council held at the
Tennessee River in 1757, only that portion of the country north of
that stream had become sparsely settled, but soon thereafter purchases
of land were sometimes made directly from the Indian chiefs
themselves, as in the above instance, and settlements of whites
speedily followed. Matthew Toole, one of the parties named, had lived
among the Cherokee Indians, and taken to "bed and board," as a wife,
one of the swarthy damsels of that tribe--hence his qualification as
interpreter. He lived on the eastern bank of the Catawba river, in
Mecklenburg county, giving origin to the name of the ford which still
bears his name. Nathaniel Alexander, the subscribing witness, was then
an acting magistrate of the county, and a man of extensive influence.

Colonel Patrick Jack, the father of Judge John F. Jack, died in
Chambersburg, Pa., on the 25th of January, 1821, aged ninety-one
years. His daughter, Jane Stewart, died in 1853, also aged ninety-one
years. His daughter Mary (never married) died on the 29th of May,
1862, aged eighty-five years.

The family of Judge John F. Jack consisted of eight children, of whom,
at the present time (1876) only four are living, viz.: Martha Mariah
(Mrs. Dr. Rhoton), of Morristown, East Tennessee; William Pinkney
Jack, of Russelville, Ala.; John F. Jack, of West Point Mississippi,
both worthy and eminent lawyers in their respective locations; and
Sarah Anne (Mrs. Dr. Carriger), of Morristown, Tenn. Few persons, in
the early history of East Tennessee, were held in as great estimation,
and filled with universal