Here you'll find answers to the most common questions about Bonny Kate.

Q: Who was Bonny Kate?
A: Bonny Kate spends a lot of time in the story trying to figure out that one.  Was the origin of the name "Bonny Kate" a fisher maid of New Market from the naughty tavern song, or was she a Shakesperian shrew?  The author has spun a masterful tale of the girl who appeared at Watauga Fort one July morning in 1776, running, jumping, shooting, dancing, and horse racing across the written pages, and into our hearts as she tries hard to make herself helpful and useful to her family and to her neighbors.  What is real and what is made up in the legend of Bonny Kate?  The author claims it would take a college semester to "unravel the fabric of storytelling to separate the multicolored layers of truth."  He admits the book is a work of fiction, then in the same breath he quotes something Bonny Kate actually said, or states a fact about the Sevier family that cannot be denied.  The fact is Bonny Kate was the nickname John Sevier gave to Catharine Sherrill when he rescued her from attacking Cherokee warriors, at Watauga Fort on July 21, 1776.  Four years later she married the man who saved her.

Q: Who was John Sevier?
A: John Sevier was an early pioneer leader, soldier, farmer, land speculator, and politician who was born in Virginia, September 23, 1745.  He married Sarah Hawkins, the daughter of an innkeeper and store owner, when he was sixteen and she was fifteen.  They established a farm and began a family.  They founded the town of New Market, Virginia and sold lots to new settlers.  In 1772 John Sevier visited the Watauga Valley in what later became the state of Tennessee and became friendly with James Robertson, and Isaac Shelby.  The Seviers moved to the new territory in 1774 settling first at Holly Bottom on the South Holston River and two years later settling on the Watauga.  In 1778 the family settled in the Nolichucky Valley, at Plum Grove and then for a time at Sevier's Mill on Little Limestone Creek.  Sarah Sevier died in early 1780, and seven months later John married a near neighbor, Bonny Kate Sherrill, whom he had rescued in an Indian attack four years earlier.  John Sevier was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of Washington County, a position he held when he led the county militia on the Kings Mountain Campaign.  He distiguished himself as a very talented military leader and proved it time and time again whenever war broke out with the Indians.  He was elected Governor of the ill-fated State of Franklin, and when that didn't work, the people again elected him as the first Governor of Tennessee.  He also served in the North Carolina General Assembly and in the U.S. Congress.  His last residence was Marble Springs near Knoxville, TN.  He died at Fort Decatur, Alabama Territory on September 24, 1815, while serving as a commissioner to identify the boundary between the Creek Indian nation and the white settlers from Georgia.  His death occurred the day after he attained the age of seventy.

Q: What do we know about the real Bonny Kate?
A: Unfortunately, very little.  She was described as tall, slender, black-haired, blue eyed, and beautiful.  She was said to be endowed with the ability to out-run, out-jump, out-shoot and ride more gracefully than any female in the country or on the continent as a whole.  She was born at Sherrill's Ford, North Carolina, August 3, 1754, as the third child of Samuel and Mary Preston Sherrill.  She married Colonel John Sevier on August 14, 1780 and assumed responsibility for his ten children.  She had eight more children with him and lived to see them all grow to adulthood.  She died October 7th, 1836 at the age of 82.  Click on this link for a literary sketch of Catharine Sherrill Sevier compiled by the historian A.W. Putnam, towards the twilight of her life.

Q: Why is Bonny Kate important in American history?
A: She made it possible for Colonel John Sevier to leave his eight younger children with a responsible care provider, helpmate, and homemaker, while he planned and put into motion the military campaign that resulted in the American victory at Kings Mountain.  She was actively involved in the planning and preparations as well.  While engaged in this useful service she discovered a Tory plot to assasinate her husband and warned him in time to prevent it from being carried out.  During the Colonel's service on the campaign, she received and cared for 700 Georgia refugees who showed up unexpectedly at her door.  Her long career included the titles of First Lady of the State of Franklin, and First Lady of the State of Tennessee.

Q: Where in the world did Mark Strength find such a story as Bonny Kate?
A: We asked the author and this is what he told us: "I literally discovered her in a footnote in a history book.  In the fall of 1999 I was reading "Tennesse During the Revolutionary War," by Samuel Cole Williams and he introduced the story of Bonny Kate's rescue in a footnote, explaining who she was and her later relationship to John Sevier.  I was interested in writing sreenplays for motion pictures in those days and thought the rescue would be a great way for the two main characters to meet for the first time.  I intended to tell the story of pioneer struggles in the American Revolution culminating in the Battle of Kings Mountain.  The emotional depth of the story soon became too large for one movie so I wrote two screenplays and when I encountered difficulty selling them, I took some excellent advice and turned the two stories into two novels." 

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