Representative Robert Weakley

Robert Weakley (July 20, 1764 – February 4, 1845) was an American politician and landowner who represented Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives from 1809 to 1811. A member of the Republican, or Democratic-Republican, Party, he served one term in Congress during a formative period in the early republic, participating in the legislative process and representing the interests of his Tennessee constituents.

Weakley was born in Halifax County in the Colony of Virginia on July 20, 1764. As a youth he attended schools in Princeton, New Jersey, receiving an education that prepared him for both military and civic life. At the age of sixteen he joined the Revolutionary Army and served until the close of the American Revolutionary War, taking part in the battles of Alamance and Guilford Courthouse. On April 18, 1782, he left his home in Halifax County with a horse, bridle and saddle, and $1.75, traveling to Rowan County, North Carolina, where he studied surveying under General Griffith Rutherford, an experience that would shape his later activities as a land speculator and community founder.

During the winter of 1783, Weakley moved to the Cumberland settlements in what was then western North Carolina and later became Tennessee, settling on Whites Creek in Davidson County. By 1785 he was firmly established in the region and engaged in agricultural pursuits, building the plantation base that underpinned his public career. In 1791 he married Jane Locke of Salisbury, North Carolina; they had four children: Mary, Narcissa, Robert Locke, and Jane Baird. Around 1800 he moved to his Nashville estate, “Lockeland,” in what is now East Nashville, which became both his family residence and the center of his extensive landholdings.

Weakley quickly emerged as a political and military leader on the Tennessee frontier. He was a member of the North Carolina convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States in 1789, participating in the critical debate over the new federal government. In 1791 he was appointed brigade inspector of the militia of the Mero District in the Southwest Territory, reflecting his continued involvement in regional defense and organization. After Tennessee achieved statehood, he was elected to the first Tennessee House of Representatives in 1796. By 1798 he held the rank of colonel in the 2nd Regiment of the Davidson County Militia, and he went on to serve multiple terms in the Tennessee Senate in 1799, 1803, 1807, and 1819, helping to shape the laws and institutions of the young state.

In addition to his legislative work, Weakley played a significant role in the physical and economic development of Middle Tennessee. He was a cofounder of the town of Jefferson in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Together with fellow land speculator Thomas Bedford, he received, as an assignee, a North Carolina land grant and by 1803 had laid out 102 town lots and a public square at the junction of the East and West Forks of the Stones River. Jefferson became the first county seat of Rutherford County and contributed substantially to the area’s early economic growth. The Stones River provided direct access for timber and other cash crops to be shipped by flatboat to the Cumberland River and Nashville, and from there to distant ports such as New Orleans and Pittsburgh. Later, in 1819, Weakley joined other prominent Nashville residents, including Dr. John Shelby, in petitioning the Tennessee General Assembly to establish the Nashville Bridge Company. He and Shelby served as commissioners of the new company, which by 1823 completed the first covered bridge to span the Cumberland River near the Public Square in Nashville at a cost of $75,000. This bridge, a major improvement in regional transportation and commerce, remained in use until its demolition in 1851 to accommodate larger steamboats at Nashville’s commercial wharves.

Weakley was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Eleventh Congress, serving in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1811. During his single term in Congress he represented Tennessee at a time of rising tensions with Great Britain and France and ongoing debates over trade restrictions and national defense. As a member of the Republican Party representing Tennessee, he contributed to the legislative process and the broader democratic experiment of the early nineteenth century, giving voice to the concerns of a frontier state within the federal legislature.

After leaving Congress, Weakley continued to hold important positions in state affairs. In 1819 he was appointed a commissioner to treat with the Chickasaw Indians, participating in negotiations that affected land cessions and the expansion of white settlement in the region. That same year he again took a seat in the Tennessee Senate and was chosen Speaker of the Senate, serving in that capacity from 1819 to 1821 and again from 1823 to 1825. His leadership in the upper chamber placed him at the center of state policymaking. Later, in 1834, he was a member of the Tennessee state constitutional convention, contributing to the revision of the state’s fundamental law and further cementing his long-standing influence on Tennessee’s political development.

Robert Weakley died near Nashville, Tennessee, on February 4, 1845, at the age of 80. He was originally interred in the family vault at “Lockeland” on his estate in what is now East Nashville. In 1947 his remains were reinterred at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, a burial ground for many of the city’s leading figures. In recognition of his service as a soldier, legislator, and community builder, Weakley County, Tennessee, was named in his honor.