A group led by James Robertson are considered to be the first permanent settlers to arrive in what is now Nashville/Davidson County, Tennessee. They came from the settlement at Watauga in what is now upper East Tennessee, walking overland. Along the way Robertson encountered John Rains, a former Long Hunter, and an assemblage of men and families headed from the New River area of Virginia to Kentucky. Robertson talked Rains and his group into joining him on his trek to the Bluffs of the Cumberland. Robertson and company arrived at the site in late December 1779.

John Donelson arrived in April of 1780 with a large group, aboard a flotilla of flatboats, which included the families of many of the men who had come earlier with Robertson from Watauga.

In May of 1780, 255 settlers endorsed a document called the Cumberland Compact. In many cases the settler did not sign his own name. The names are in groups, perhaps written by representatives from the forts in the area.

Most often referred to as French Lick fort, the main station at the bluff was formally called Nashborough, in honor of Gen. Francis Nash, a North Carolina officer who had been killed in the battle of Germantown in 1777. In 1784 the name was changed to Nashville by act of the North Carolina Legislature.

In addition to the fort at Nashville there were a number of other small communities in the area, some established before the arrival of the Robertson/Donelson group. Freeland's, a short distance north of Nashville was where James Robertson lived. Eaton's was across the river to the northeast. John Donelson's station was at Clover Bottom on Stones River. There were several stations in what is now Sumner County and a fort was located at Red River where the Renfroe's had settled.

Davidson County was officially established in April of 1783 by an act of the North Carolina legislature and named for Gen. William Davidson, an officer of North Carolina in the Revolutionary war.

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby Enacted by the authority of the same, that all that part of this State lying west of the Cumberland Mountain where the Virginia line crosses, extending westward along the said line to Tennessee River, thence up said river to the mouth of Duck River, thence up Duck River to where the line of marked trees run by the commissioners for laying off land granted the Continental Line of this State intersects said river (which said line is supposed to be in thirty-five degrees fifty minutes north latitude) thence east along said line to the top of Cumberland Mountain, thence northwardly along said mountain to the beginning, shall after the passing of this Act be and is hereby declared to be a distinct county by the name of Davidson."

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