Born in Ireland, George McNutt immigrated to Virginia and then relocated to the Territory South of the River Ohio. In 1794 the territorial legislature named him as one of the trustees of Blount College in the charter for the institution. He served as a member of the first Knox County Court and a commissioner of the town of Knoxville. He was also named a charter trustee of Hampton-Sidney Academy in Knoxville. At the close of the Revolutionary War, he was one of the pioneers who formed a settlement in the Irish Bottom on the French Broad River. He was one of the elders of Lebanon Presbyterian Church during the time Samuel Carrick was its pastor.