Named in Blount College’s 1794 charter as one of the college’s trustees, Charles McClung was a lawyer, surveyor, soldier, and merchant. In 1788 he came to White’s Fort from Philadelphia and in 1790 married James White’s eldest daughter, Margaret. In 1791 he was commissioned by his father-in-law to make a plan for the new capital of the Territory South of the River Ohio. He was the first to survey the terrain, then to divide it into lots to be drawn for at a public lottery. He laid out a grid pattern of 10 streets enclosing 16 square blocks and 64 half-acre lots. It was bounded on the south by the river and on the east by First Creek.
He and William Blount were the two Knox County representatives appointed to the committee to draft the Tennessee constitution, and McClung designed the Great Seal of the State of Tennessee as part of the process of developing the constitution. Since statehood had not been granted, the original Great Seal of the State of Tennessee bore the date upon which the state constitution was signed: February 6, 1796.