Colonel Samuel Barton (May 1749 – January 1810) was a pioneer and Patriot of the American Revolution (1775–1783) but is remembered more for the exploration and settlement of what was to become Nashville, Tennessee.
Family tradition holds that Samuel, born in Virginia, was left bound as an apprentice while his father returned to England for business only to be lost at sea.
With the advantages of military training and leadership he returned to Tennessee, then part of North Carolina, and contributed to the settling and development of Fort Nashborough, what was to become Nashville.
His original home was called Barton Station and was located on Browns Creek where the Lipscomb University now stands.
As a testament to the American faith in written law Barton, General James Robertson and other prominent men of the area drafted and signed the Cumberland Compact in May 1780.