[1] For a time he worked as United States Navy surgeon.
[2] Claiborne married Sarah Terrell Lewis in Davidson County, Tennessee in 1801.
[3] He was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives from Davidson county in 1803.
[1]: 47 Claiborne was secretary for the Treaty of the Chickasaw Nation signed near the Duck River, on July 23, 1805.
[4][5] In 1811, Claiborne served as "surgeon" on George Poindexter's side of the duel that killed Abijah Hunt in Mississippi.