It is even more interesting to trace the history of the Hermitage tract back to the original grant made by the State of North Carolina to Nathaniel Hays, on April 17, 1786, and to see that the hickory tree still holds the initial place in defining the boundary line. This old grant reads:
“State of North Carolina. Know ye that we have granted unto Nathaniel Hays six hundred and forty acres of land in Davidson county including a spring which lies in the entrance into Jones’ bent on the South Side of Cumberland River, beginning at a hickory and a hackberry in Colo John Donelson’s line thirty-one poles South of his North East Corner, running thence along Samuel Hays line, East four hundred and eight poles to a white oak and mulberry, North two hundred and fifty one poles to a white oak corner to Hugh Hays line west four hundred and eight poles to a black walnut, South two hundred and fifty one poles to the Beginning. To Hold to the said Nathaniel Hays his heirs and assigns forever, dated the seventeenth day of April 1786.
“Rd. Caswell
“Daniel Smith Surveyor.
“J. Glasgow, Sec.
“James Buchanan Richd Jones.”
The Jackson deed to this tract, dated August 23, 1804, showing a lapse of eighteen years from the original grant, describes the boundaries as follows: “Beginning at a Hickory tree and Hackberry on Colo John Donelsons line, now Savern Donelsons line, thirty-one poles South of his North East Corner Runing thence along Samuel Hays line, now his heirs, East two hundred and fifty four poles Crossing Spring Branch three poles to a Gum Taylors Corner Thence north with Taylors line Ten poles to a Small Hickory thence North nine Degrees East along Taylors line to a Black Oak Standing on the South Boundary line on Hugh Hays premption now belonging to the heirs of Samuel Donelson Desd thence along Hugh Hays line West to a Black Walnut the South West Corner of Said Hugh Hays premption thence South two hundred and fifty one poles to the beginning it being a part of a Premption granted to the said Nathaniel Hays from the State of North Carolina by a patent bearing Date the Seventeenth day of April One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty six, and No twenty four to have and to hold the said Tract or Parcel of Land with its Appurtenances to the only use and behoof of the said Andrew Jackson his heirs and assigns forever and the said Nathaniel Hays doth by these presents Oblige himself his heirs Executors and Administrators to warrant and forever Defend the Right Title and Interest of the Said Tract or Parcel of Land with the Appurtenances thereunto Belonging to the said Andrew Jackson his heirs and assigns forever against the Claim or Claims of all and Every Person legally claiming the Same in Testimony whereof the said Nathaniel Hays has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal the day and date first above and for than purpose mentioned.
“Nathl Hays.
“Witness John Coffee
“Vance Greer & Alexr Donelson.”
When this tract was finally deeded to the State of Tennessee in 1856, the description of boundaries had become more technical. The surveyor began his measurements at a stake in Kerr’s line, and there is little in his description to remind the reader of the original boundary lines. The deed held by the State of Tennessee contains, however, a reference to the spring and the spring branch, but instead of being measured, in the picturesque fashion of the old-timers, from tree to tree, the distances are reckoned from stake to stake, and the symbolic hickory tree is dropped from the legal record of the boundaries.
This last recorded deed of the property, which appears on Page 149, Book 24, at the Davidson County Court House, reads in part: “... the following parcel of land situate in said county and State and being part of the late residence of Andrew Jackson deceased, containing by survey of Jesse B. Clements, Esquire, five hundred acres of land counted as follows, viz., Beginning at a stake on the northwest corner of A. H. Kerr’s formerly Col. William Ward’s land running thence East with his North boundary line, crossing the Lebanon Turnpike Road at one hundred and twenty-nine (129) poles in all two hundred and ten (210) poles to a stake in the West boundary line of A. J. Donelson’s land thence North six and a half (6½) degrees East with his line one hundred and fifty six (156) poles to the Road aforesaid Thence North four (4) degrees East with said line thirty (30) poles thence North one (1) degree still in the Donelson’s line East thirty three (33) poles to a Stake thence South eighty-eight (88) degrees West passing three poles North of the Spring and Stone spring house at one hundred and forty two (142) poles in all two hundred and thirty six (236) poles to a stake in William Donelson’s East boundary line thence South one and a half (1½) degrees East with his line ninety four 94 poles to a Stake one of his corners thence West with another line of said William Donelson one hundred and eighteen poles to a Stake on the East Side of a Small branch thence North fifty nine (59) degrees West crossing said branch sixty one (61) poles to a Stake thence South with another line of said William Donelson two hundred and twelve poles (212) to a Stake thence East one hundred and seventy five and a half (175½) poles to a Stake in said Kerr’s West boundary line, thence North (1½) one and a half degrees West with said line sixty five and a half (65½) poles to the beginning corner and including the late mansion, Tomb, Spring and Spring House, Barn and Stables of Genl. Andrew Jackson, deceased, as will more fully appear by reference to the plat at the head of this deed which is made part thereof....”
Before Andrew Jackson moved to the Hermitage, he lived on a near-by estate known as “Hunter’s Hill.” It is well, however, before going into the history of his home on this property, to trace briefly his residences from the time of his arrival in Davidson County in the fall of 1788.
We are legally informed of his presence and the beginning of his professional duties by the statement in Minute Book A, Davidson County Court, under the date of January 5, 1789, to the effect that “Andrew Jackson Esquire produced a licence to practice as an attorney at law in the Severall County courts in this State: and now in this court has taken the Oath of an Attorney.”
Young Attorney Jackson, then in his twenty-first year, had come West to make his fortune. With him was John McNairy, who had but recently been appointed judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina’s western district. John Overton, another young lawyer, had come West from Virginia by way of Kentucky, and it soon happened that he and young Jackson found common quarters at the home of the Widow Donelson. The young men were fortunate, for fare in such a home as Mrs. Donelson’s was far better than that in the few stations or military posts which offered the only other shelter for young unattached men. Many of the families still lived in the stations and, in the most severe periods of Indian hostilities, every home which was not a well-manned fortress was abandoned. Mrs. Donelson had come to the Cumberland settlement in 1780 with her husband, Col. John Donelson, commander of the pioneer flotilla which brought the families of the first settlers to the site of Nashville. They arrived April 24, 1780, with their large family and slaves, and settled on the now famous “Clover Bottom” tract on Stone’s River. Summer and autumn of that year, however, brought serious difficulties. Indians had attacked the settlement, food was scarce, crops had been lost in an overflow, and Col. Donelson was faced with the necessity of returning to the east on business for himself and other settlers. His large family was a serious responsibility and, rather than leave them without his protection he took them, in the fall of 1780, to the Kentucky settlement, where food was more plentiful, and where they would not be such a burden to the other settlers. The residence of the Donelson family until 1785 was in the neighborhood of Harrodsburg, but Col. Donelson, his older sons, and his sons-in-law, were engaged in various activities which kept them in motion up and down the western frontier from Natchez to the Cumberland and Harrodsburg. They were preparing, however, to take up a permanent residence in the Cumberland in 1785 when Col. Donelson, on his way from Kentucky to the Cumberland settlement, met a mysterious death, either at the hands of the Indians or two young white men who were, for a part of his journey, his companions.
Mrs. Donelson and her sons, however, had established themselves on lands in the Cumberland settlement. The home of Mrs. Donelson was on the opposite side of the river from Jones’ Bend, in which Jackson was later to own lands and at the entrance of which his Hermitage was to be located. About the time of Jackson’s arrival on the Cumberland, Mrs. Donelson was forced to send to Kentucky to bring her daughter, Rachel, who, in 1785, had been married to Lewis Robards, of Mercer County, to the protection of the parental roof. Young Mrs. Robards had been made desperately unhappy by the ill nature and unjust suspicions of her husband and he, in a fit of temper, ordered her to leave his home. No sooner had she been carried to Tennessee by her brother than the husband became repentant and John Overton, who had boarded at the Robards’ home in Kentucky and was familiar with both families, assumed the rôle of peacemaker. Consequently a reconciliation was brought about and Robards came to live at Mrs. Donelson’s, with the avowed intention of not repeating his unfair treatment of his young wife and the apparent determination to make his home in the Cumberland. At any rate, in July, 1788, he acquired two important tracts of land in the neighborhood. The first was a tract of something over a thousand acres, purchased from William Mabane. It was, according to the deed, “A certain tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in Green County and State aforesaid on the West fork of Big Harpeth River....” The consideration was “the sum of two hundred pounds current money.” (Davidson County was taken off of a portion of Greene County.)
The other tract, which by a peculiar turn of fate was to become the property of Andrew Jackson, was later known as “Hunter’s Hill.” This tract was granted to Lewis Robards by the State of North Carolina on the tenth day of July, 1788. It was sold by him for two hundred pounds to John Shannon on March 19, 1794—a significant fact, for on January 17, 1794, Andrew Jackson’s second marriage to Rachel, Robards’ divorced wife, took place. It is evident that Lewis Robards had no further interest in lands in Tennessee.