Washington District, North Carolina

[1] The district was the bureaucratic successor to the Watauga Association, a group of Virginian settlers that colonized the area in 1769,[2] originally believing themselves to be in trans-Appalachian Virginia territory.

At the time of North Carolina's final cession of the area to the Federal Government (1790), it had grown to include the seven "Overmountain Counties": Washington, Greene, Davidson, Sullivan, Hawkins, Sumner and Tennessee.

In May 1772, several years after arriving in the area, the settlers created their own government charter, a "written association and articles for the management of general affairs", and elected a self-governing body (considered by The Crown to be an extra-legal entity at best, in light of the Royal Proclamation of 1763[4]) and set up a courthouse and jail.

Shortly after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (April 1775), the members of the Watauga Association organized themselves into the extra-legal "Washington District", a separate region "...loyal to the united colonies...".

After Virginia refused, the Committee drafted a similar petition (dated July 5, 1776) asking the North Carolina Assembly to annex the area.