Archibald Roane (1759/60 – January 18, 1819) was the second governor of Tennessee, serving from 1801 to 1803. He won the office after the state's first governor, John Sevier, was prevented by constitutional restrictions from seeking a fourth consecutive term. He quickly became caught up in the growing rivalry between Sevier and Andrew Jackson, and was soundly defeated by Sevier after just one term. Roane served as an attorney general in the Southwest Territory in the early 1790s, and later served as a judge on the state's Superior Court of Law and Equity (1796–1801) and the Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals (1815–1819).

Early life

Roane was born in 1759 or 1760 in Derry Township (then a part of Lancaster County) in the Province of Pennsylvania. He was the son of Andrew and Margaret Walker Roane. Andrew Roane, who was born in Northern Ireland, was one of four sons of Archibald Gilbert Roane, a Scotsman who had been awarded land in Ireland in return for his British military service. All of the sons of Archibald Gilbert Roane emigrated to America. After Andrew and Margaret Roane both died when young Archibald Roane was about eight years old, he was raised by an uncle, John Roane, a Presbyterian minister, who provided him with a good education. and was present at the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.

In the 1780s he settled for a time in vicinity of Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, where he studied and later taught at Liberty Hall Academy, a predecessor institution to Washington and Lee University. In Virginia, he married Ann (or Anne) Campbell, whom he had met there, in 1788. The Great Seal of Tennessee was adopted during the Roane Administration in 1801, and Tennessee was divided into three Congressional districts. He served on that court until his death on January 18, 1819. In June 1918, the state placed a monument on his grave, which was previously unmarked. Archibald Roane's wife, Ann, was a sister of Colonel Arthur Campbell (1743–1811) and Judge David Campbell (1750–1812), an aunt of Governor David Campbell (1779–1859) of Virginia, and a great-aunt of future Tennessee governor William B. Campbell (1807–1867).

References

  • Portrait of Archibald Roane , Tennessee State Museum
  • Governor Archibald Roane Papers, 1801-1803, Tennessee State Library and Archives

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