Author: Scott Campbell
David Campbell 1750-1812
 
David Campbell, Major in the Virginia Militia, fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain along with several members of his family under the command of General William Campbell, a cousin.
 
David was appointed Judge in 1797 by George Washington to be one of three Federal Judges for "The Territory South of The Ohio River"...constituting the as-yet unborn states of Tennessee and Kentucky.
 
David was arrested by the local military commander in 1801 and held overnight in the stockade.  His arrest prompted a huge outraged cry from men such as John Sevier, Gov. of the new State of TN, William Anderson and his, David's, associate Jurist Andrew Jackson.
 
He was active in the movement in 1796 to create the "State of Franklin" which became the State of Tennessee.
 
Judge David Campbell, State of Franklin official and early territorial and state judge, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1750. He served in the Virginia Militia during the American Revolution, attaining the rank of major. After the war, circa 1783, he moved to present-day Greene County, Tennessee, where he practiced law and served as a judge on the newly declared Supreme Court of Franklin. He is credited as being one of the authors of the Franklin constitution along with being a member of the First Franklin Convention in 1784 and the Third Franklin Convention in 1785. But of the major Franklin leaders, Campbell "was the least wedded to the separatist movement." (1) In 1787, in fact, he became a member of the North Carolina assembly, and later that year he was elected judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina, Washington District, where he served until 1790. However, Campbell refused to abandon his Franklin friends entirely. When John Tipton and others attempted to have John Sevier arrested for treason, Campbell refused to issue the arrest warrant.
With the establishment of the Southwest Territory, Territorial Governor William Blount appointed Campbell as territorial judge in 1790; he served in that position until Tennessee's statehood in 1796.
 
Success and controversy marked Campbell's career as a Tennessee state judge. From 1797 to 1809 he served as a judge of the Superior Court, but early in his term, Campbell became embroiled in a heated, bitter dispute with William Blount, John Sevier, and others over the boundary of the Treaty of Holston. The survey of the treaty completed in 1797 placed the home of Judge Campbell and others in Cherokee territory, and state officials did nothing to prevent federal troops from evicting Campbell and the other settlers. A furious Campbell lashed back at Blount and Governor Sevier. When Campbell refused to even consider a suit Blount wanted the court to adjudicate, Blount asked Sevier to reply in kind. Sevier convinced leaders in the Tennessee House to bring impeachment charges against Judge Campbell.