- continued -

Dismayed by the defeat and unwilling to pledge loyalty to the Crown, Robertson gathered like-thinking families together and set out over the mountains toward the promise of freedom in the West.

The "Party of 16" were joined by other dissenters along the way. Soon after their arrival, Robertson and his friends joined with John Carter, John Sevier and other frontier settlers to organize their community.

They elected delegates and formed the first free and independent government on the American continent.

Carter, Robertson and Sevier, along with fellow frontiersmen Zachariah Isbell and William Bean, were selected by their fellow citizens to form the commission that would oversee the new government.

Robertson also served as a representative of the new government to the Cherokee Nation, visiting a number of villages and negotiating treaties with the chiefs of the nation.

A stone marker in Wake County, North Carolina commemorates the Robertson Family:

"... led a delegation across the mountains and founded Watauga, the first independent self government in America."