William Christian (Virginia politician)

William Christian (c. 1742 – April 9, 1786) was a military officer, planter and politician from the western part of the Colony of Virginia.

He was killed in 1786 at the outset of the Northwest Indian War, leading an expedition against Native Americans near what is now Jeffersonville, Indiana.

[1] He was the son of Elizabeth Starke and her husband Israel Christian, immigrants from Ireland who settled in Staunton, Virginia, in 1740, where they operated a general store.

[2] Israel Christian represented Augusta County in the Virginia House of Burgesses multiple times between 1758 and 1765, and helped found the towns of Christiansburg and Fincastle.

[4] In 1774, Christian commanded a regiment of militia from Fincastle County in Dunmore's War, but he and his troops arrived too late to participate in the decisive Battle of Point Pleasant.

[5] As relations with Britain soured, Christian became one of the signers of the Fincastle Resolutions, the earliest statement of armed resistance to the British Crown in the American colonies.

The expedition involved little combat, but Christian and his men destroyed Cherokee towns, compelling some of the chiefs to agree to peace.