Henry Timberlake
| Henry Timberlake | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1730 or 1735 Hanover County, Virginia |
| Died | September 30, 1765 |
| Occupation | Officer, journalist, and cartographer |
| Known for | Emissary to the Overhill Cherokee |
Henry Timberlake (1730 or 1735 – September 30, 1765) was a colonial Anglo-American officer, journalist, and cartographer. He was born in Virginia and died in England. He is best known for his work as an emissary from the British colonies to the Overhill Cherokee during the 1761–1762 Timberlake Expedition.
Timberlake's account of his journeys to the Cherokee, published as his memoirs in 1765, became a primary source for later studies of their eighteenth-century culture. His detailed descriptions of Cherokee villages, townhouses, weapons, and tools have helped historians and anthropologists identify Cherokee structures and cultural objects uncovered at modern archaeological excavation sites throughout the southern Appalachian region. During the Tellico Archaeological Project, which included a series of salvage excavations conducted in the Little Tennessee River basin in the 1970s, archaeologists used Timberlake's Draught of the Cherokee Country to help locate important Overhill village sites.
Henry Timberlake was born in Hanover County, Virginia to Francis and Sarah Austin Timberlake. The Dictionary of American Biography states that Timberlake was born in 1730, though Timberlake's age on his marriage license implies that he was born in 1735. Timberlake was a third-generation American; his grandfather had emigrated from England. Although he inherited a small fortune when his father died, Timberlake still had to support himself, and sought a military career. In 1756, at the outset of the French and Indian War, he joined a Virginia militia company known as the "Patriot Blues." It had embarked on a campaign to expel French and Native American raiders from the western part of the colony. Shortly thereafter, he applied for a commission in the Virginia regiment—then commanded by George Washington—but was denied due to a lack of vacancies.
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