USA > Georgia > A standard history of Georgia and Georgians > Part 35
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Nothing of special interest occurred for the next two years. But in 1768 Parliament again asserted its right to tax the colonies by levying a duty upon certain articles of British manufacture including paint, paper, glass, etc. Massachusetts again took the initiative by calling for united action against these oppressive measures of Parliament. The Legislature of Georgia was not in session when the Massachusetts circu- lar arrived but Speaker Wylly, who presided over the late House, sent a sympathetic response, stating the facts. The new House, on assem- bling, evinced its strong whig sentiments in the election of Dr. Noble Wymberley Jones to the speakership. This gentleman, a son of Capt. Noble Jones, was an ardent patriot, though his father remained to the end of his days a pronounced royalist. The business of the session hav- ing neared its conclusion, Mr. Wylly brought the Massachusetts circu- lar to the attention of the House, together with one from Virginia; and both were entered upon the journal. Moreover, the assembly passed resolutions endorsing the resistive measures taken by the other colonies. This action provoked an indignant message from Governor Wright who thereupon dissolved the Legislature in short order.
During the month of November, 1769, the merchants of Savannah passed resolutions agreeing not to export any of the articles subject to tax. Still later a mass-meeting of citizens was held at which similar action was taken. Over this meeting, Jonathan Bryan, a member of the king's council, presided, on hearing of which the king signified his dis- pleasure by ordering Mr. Bryan's removal. But more will be said of this later. Governor Wright found the house of assembly a difficult problem with which to deal. The Upper House was usually ready to adopt his suggestion but the Lower House almost invariably crossed his purposes. In 1770, Doctor Jones, "a pestiferous Whig," was again elected speaker. But Governor Wright refused to sanction this action of the House and ordered another election. Incensed at this outrage upon its dignity, the House not only refused to recede but passed resolu- tions complimentary to Doctor Jones. Again the House was dissolved.
Thus matters stood in the midsummer of 1771 when Governor Wright, having obtained a leave of absence, set sail for England. To discharge the duties of governor until his return to Georgia, the king
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appointed Hon. James Habersham, president of the council. Through- out a trying ordeal, Mr. Habersham remained true to his trust. He was one of the people. His sympathies were with the colonists. Three of his sons, James, John and Joseph, were zealous whigs. But he remained a faithful officer of the Crown of England. Though he filled the executive office, he retained the title of president.
Twice Mr. Habersham vetoed the election of Doctor Jones as speaker of the Lower House. Such were the king's orders. When elected for a third time, Doctor Jones declined the honor, whereupon Archibald Bulloch was elected; but this substitution of patriots was only exchang- ing a Roland for an Oliver. The House insisted upon putting into its minutes these various items showing its opposition to the king's wishes; and for this offense again incurred the penalty of dissolution.
Governor Wright returned to Savannah in the spring of 1773 having been created a baronet while in England. The difficulties surrounding him at this time were fully realized but his management of affairs in the province had excited the greatest respect for his abilities among the English people; nor was he without many sincere and loyal friends among the colonists. Even those who differed with him respected his fidelity to the Crown interests of the realm.
One of the first matters to engage Governor Wright's attention on his return to Georgia was a treaty with the Indians for which purpose he left at once for Augusta where, in satisfaction of certain debts due from the Indians to English and Seoteh traders he obtained a large body of land-containing some 2,100,000, ont of which in 1777 was carved the original County of Wilkes. The consideration involved in this transfer was $200,000.
Finding the colonies stubborn in refusing to submit to unjust meas- ures, the British Parliament finally repealed the obnoxious tax on all artieles except tea. Yet, in this single exception, lay the future un- doing of England. It was chiefly to show that she still retained her right to tax the colonies that she permitted the duty on tea to remain. But the Americans were firmly resolved to outlaw tea. Ships bringing it to New York and Philadelphia were sent back to England unloaded. In Charleston it was taken ashore but permitted to rot in cellars. In Boston a company of men disguised as Indians went. on board the tea ships and dumped the chests into the sea. Thereupon Parliament retali- ated in 1774 by passing the famous Boston Port Bill, the effect of which was to close the harbor. But Massachusetts having offended in other counts, her charter as a royal colony was revoked. To make bad matters worse, a sweeping law was enacted which required all persons charged with erime in the English colonies to be sent to England for trial.
These multiplied outrages fast goaded the colonies to action. On August 10, 1774. at the call of four patriots, Archibald Bulloch, John Honstoun, John Walton and Noble Wymberley Jones, a meeting was held in Savannah at which strong resolutions were passed, sympathizing with the people of Boston and condemning the arbitrary acts of Great Britain. Six hundred barrels of rice, besides a handsome subscription in eash, was forwarded to the Boston sufferers. This was done largely through the instrumentality of the Puritan settlers of the Midway Dis- triet, who were kinsmen. Jonathan Bryan had been re-instated as a
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member of the king's council ; but, having been present at this meeting, he once more incurred the royal displeasure, and once more came an order for his dismissal. Georgia was not represented in the Continental Congress of 1774, due largely to her own conservatism and to the per- sonal influence of Governor Wright. However, an effort was made to send delegates in 1775. At this time, three delegates were actually chosen, Noble W. Jones, Archibald Bulloch and John Houstoun; but, since only five parishes out of twelve had been represented in the provincial Congress at Savannah, these delegates did not repair to Phila- delphia but addressed a letter to John Hancock, its president. The parish of St. John, resenting this failure of the province to send dele- gates to Philadelphia, held a separate meeting at which Dr. Lyman Hall was elected a delegate to represent the parish of St. John in the Conti- mental Congress : and he repaired at once to the seat of government, where he sat until the close of the session. Since he only represented a parish he was not allowed to vote; but he was there nevertheless to rep- resent the uncompromising stand for liberty taken by the Georgia Puri- tans. At the outbreak of the revolution, St. John's Parish was erected into a separate county and called Liberty in honor of the zealous sup- port given by its inhabitants to the cause of American independence. These events will all be discussed more at length in a subsequent chap- ter. IIere they are merely summarized. Georgia's conservatism was slow to yield. She was the only province of England unrepresented by a full delegation in the Continental Congress of 1775. But an event soon occurred which was destined to swing her into line. This was the battle of Lexington.
BONAVENTURE: THE ANCIENT SEAT OF THE TATTNALLS .- Four miles from Savannah, on the road to Thunderbolt, lies Bonaventure, today one of the most beautiful burial places of the dead in America. Its majestic live-oaks, more than a century old, interlock their rugged branches and trail their pendant mosses over an area of consecrated ground, beautifully kept by the care-taker in charge, and the scene presented to the eye by these gnarled and twisted Druids is at once both weird and fascinating. Bonaventure is today thickly sown with the historie dust of Savannah; but, in former times, it was the abode of life; a place where hospi- tality expressed itself in the most delightful rounds of entertainment and where loyal subjects pledged the health of the king.
Originally it belonged to John MnlIryne, who purchased the estate in 1762. His attractive daughter, Mary, an only child, having been wooed and won by Josiah Tattnall, it became the home of the successful snitor, with whose name its wealth of associations was afterwards to be entwined. Tradition has preserved a bit of romance in connection with the old estate, for there still abides an unwritten legend to the effect that the avenues of magnificent trees were planted in the form of a monogram combining the letters "M" and "T", the initials of the two aristo- cratic families. The Tattnalls came originally from Normandy, in France. They afterwards settled in Cheshire, England, where the name first appears among the gentry as far back as 1530. In the beginning, it was spelt De Taten, afterwards Taten-hall, borrowing the added syllable, no doubt, from the ancestral manor; and finally it was contracted into Tattnall. The earliest bearer of the name came to South Carolina in 1700, where he married the grand-daughter of an Irish peer. It was his son, Josiah Tattnall, who, in the staid old city of Charleston, sued for the hand of John Mullryne's daughter; and soon after the nuptials were celebrated the family abode was established at Bonaventure.
On the approach of hostilities with England, both John Mullryne and Josiah Tattnall remained steadfast loyalists. The latter was a fighter, whose sword flashed in the Colonial wars. He could not antagonize the mother-country, however, even
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though he declined a commission in the royal army, nor could he shed the blood of kinsman at home. He was poised between two painful extremes; but the situation was soon simplified by banishment. With John Mullryne, he suffered the penalty of expatriation; and, taking his two sons, John and Josiah, he embarked for England. The family estate was confiscated by the whigs; and thus were these
BONAVENTURE: THE OLD HOME OF THE TATTNALLS, NEAR SAVANNAH, NOW A BURIAL PLACE OF THE DEAD
staunch partisans of the royal house rewarded for the conservatism which kept them loyal to the Crown.
The boys were put to school abroad; but young Josiah, making his escape, returned to America. He felt the lure of Bonaventure, the home of his birth. Joining the American army at Purysburg, he took an active part in the closing scenes of the Revolution in Georgia. Ile was honored in many ways by the state, was finally made governor, and before his death was reinvested with the titles to Bonaventure, within whose soil his ashes today sleep. Ile died in the West Indies,
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an exile in search of health, and his last request was that he might repose in Bonaventure, under the guardian oaks of his boyhood.
His son, Commodore Josiah Tattnall, became an illustrions commander. He served the United States Government with emiuent distinction upon the high seas. It is a coincidence, however, of the most singular character that eighty-four years after his grandfather's property was confiscated by the state government his own personal property was confiscated by the Federal Government because he refused to remain in the service after Georgia seceded; and among the effects thus appropriated were some of the identical belongings which his grandfather forfeited to the state and which were subsequently restored .* L. L. Knight in Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, Vol. I.
RESOLUTIONS OF PROTEST ADOPTED BY FRIENDS OF THE KING .- At the instance of Governor Wright, there was held in Savannah soon after the famous meeting of the patriots, on August 10, 1774, a gathering of loyal citizens, whose purpose was to check the growing sentiment of hostility to the crown. Among those who attended the meeting were quite a number of conservatives, who were not prepared for radical action at this time but were later found on the side of the colonies. To counteract the influence of the patriots, resolutions were adopted protesting in very strong terms against the rash and impulsive action taken by the "Sons of Liberty" and seeking to discourage any future assemblages of like character. The need of protection, the weakness of the province, and the uniform kindness shown by the mother country to the youngest of her offspring, were among the various arguments set forth. The list of dissenters is herewith reproduced because it contains the names of some of the first families of Savannah at this time and throws an important side-light upon the history of the period: +
James Habersham
Lachlan MeGillivary
Josiah Tattnall
James Hume
John Jamieson
Thomas Johnston
John Simpson
James Robertson
Alexander Thompson
Lewis Johnson
John Irvine
Alexander Stokes
Edward Langworthy
Joseph Butler
James Mossman
William S. Kenner
Henry Youngs
Philip Younge
Thomas Moodie
Philip Moore
Joseph Ottolengie
George Fraser
John English
David Montaigut
James Read
William Moss
Henry Younge, Jr.
James Farley
James Nicol
Thomas Ross
James Thompson
Richard Wright
John B. Garardiau
Abraham Gray
John Patton
John Hume
James E. Powell
Leonard Cecil
Moses Nunes
Andrew Robertson
Henry Preston
Robert Bolton
Noble Jones
James Habersham, Jr.
James A. Stewart
Peter La Vein
John Mullryne
Robert Walt
Alexander Wylly
David Gray
William Moore
Quinton Pooler
Francis Knowles
George Finch
William Ross
John Parkerson
John Graham
E. Jones
Thomas Reid
William Brown, Jr.
Jolın Storr
John Herriott
John Lowery
N. Wade
Matthew Stewart
Charles Younge
Consult: "Life of Commodore Josiah Tattnall," by Charles C. Jones, Jr., Savannah, 1878.
+ Consult : White's "Historical Collections of Georgia, " Savannah, 1854.
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Robert Gray Samuel Shepherd William Thompson Stephen Britton James Low Jonathan Holden John Mills
James Dixie William Strother George Henly John Spence D. MeInes Henry Forest
ST. GEORGE'S PARISH: A NEST OF LOYALISTS .- It was not until the battle of Lex- ington that the Scotch-Irish settlers at Queensboro in the Parish of St. George renounced allegiance to the Crown of England. The reasons for the strong royalist sentiment which prevailed in this part of the province were numerous. In the first place, the settlers lived on the frontier belt, where they were constantly exposed to attacks from the Indians. They needed the protection of England. Not a few of them were wealthy planters, who possessed large estates. Moreover, they resented a condition of affairs which they laid at the doors of the meddlesome Puritans of Boston and they did not see why Georgia should become a party to New England's quarrel. So following the famous meeting at Tondee's Tavern, there was entered, on September 28, 1774, a protest from the Parish of St. George, in which the resolutions adopted at Savannah, on August 10, 1774, were condemned as "reflecting improperly upon the King and Parliament of England." It was signed by the following freeholders, who were the earliest settlers of what afterwards became the County of Jefferson :
George Wells, afterwards lieutenant- governor.
Robert Douglas, Sr. Henry Mills
Peter Shand
Amos Whitehead
Ezekiel Brumfield
Clement Yarbrough
Joseph Gresham James Róe William Doyle
Barnaby Lamb
Lewis Hobbs
John Howell
Joseph Tilley
James Moore
Daniel Thomas
John Sharpe
Giden Thomas
William Hobbs
Robert Henderson
Jacob Lamb
John Red
Joseph Allday
James Williams
Landrum Ashbury
Alexander Berryhill Charles Williams John Rogers Drewry Roberts James Red
Joseph Moore
John Robinson
John Kennedy Paul McCormick
Robert Cade
John Thomas
John Greenway Hugh Irwin James Brantley
James Warren
John Catlett John Pettigrew John Frier William Milner
Samuel Red
Edmond Hill
Thomas Pennington
Samuel Berryhill John Bledsoe Solomon Davis
William N. Norrell
Francis Stringer
Francis Hancock
Humphrey Williams
Myrick Davis Daniel Logan John Forth
John Anderson
Edward Watlers Frederick Francis Arthur Walker
Robert Blaishard
Thomas Carter
David Greene William Catlett James Davis
Jesse Seruggs
Jacob Sharp
James Hunt
John Tillman
Francis Lewis Feyer
Job Thomas Joel Walker
James Doyle Shadrach Barrow
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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
William Moore Richard Curton Philip Helveston Ephraim Odom Thomas Gray John Greene Starling Jordan Zachariah Wimberley Benjamin Warren
Elijah Dix Thomas Red William Whethers William Godbe William Curton Elias Daniel Benjamin Brantley Jeremiah Brantley
John Burnsides
John Gray Pleasant Goodall
Patrick Diekey
Stephen Lamb
Wade Kitts John Roberts Nathan Williams
Charles Golightly
John Stephens
John Whitehead
Amos Davis
Thomas Odom John Thomas, Sr.
Allen Brown
Caleb Whitehead
James Douglas
Despite the foregoing protest, delegates were sent to the Provincial Congress which met in Savannah on July 4, 1775, at which time the tie of allegianee to England was severed; and throughout the Revolution the Parish of St. George was the abode of the most intense loyalty to the patriotic cause and the theater of some of the most tragie engagements.
WRIGHTSBORO: THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT .- It was in the year 1770 that Joseph Mattock, a Quaker, having obtained from the royal governor a grant of 40,000 acres of land in this vicinity, undertook to revive the old settlement of Brandon. He called the new town Wrightsboro, in honor of Governor Wright. Here, in 1773, he enter- tained the celebrated naturalist, William Bartram, who afterwards wrote of him in most complimentary terms as "a publie-spirited chief-magistrate." At the ont- break of the Revolution, the Quaker Colony at Wrightsboro embraced some 200 families. Joseph Mattock was elected a member of the famous Provincial Congress which was called to meet in Savannah, on July 4, 1775, but on account of his pro- nounced Tory sentiments he declined a seat in this body, the membership of which was hostile to England.
The little church in which the Quakers worshipped still stands in Wrightsboro, surrounded by tall dark cedars. Equipped with highback pews, with an old-fashioned pulpit, and with long narrow windows, it represents a style of architecture severely simple, but characteristic of the pious sect whose weakness was not for outward show. Yellow with age, the tombstones here eluster thiek in God's Acre. Fragments alone remain of some; while over most of them the weeds have grown, and into the deep- ent epitaphs have erept the green moss. It is worth a visit to Wrightsboro, if only to wander among the grim memorials of the little church yard, where-
"Each in his narrow cell forever laid The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."
GEORGIA 'S QUAKER COLONY FILES A PROTEST: SOME OF THE SIGNERS .- From a protest signed by most of the inhabitants of Wrightsboro, repudiating the resolu- tions passed on August 10, 1774, by the hot-headed patriots of the coast, almost a full list of the early settlers can be obtained. There was comparatively little hostility to England in this part of the province, at least until the battle of Lexing- ton. The district had just been purchased from the Indians by Governor Wright, who had promised the settlers every protection against the savages, and they were less exercised over the Boston tea party and the revocation of the charter of Massachusetts than they were over the perils of the frontier. On the list appear the following names :
John Oliver, J. P. John Stubbs Isaac Vernon Josias Pewgate
Edward Hill John Hill Joshua Hill John Davis
Seth Slocknmb
Bud Cade
Moses Davis
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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
John Jones Thomas Watson, Sen. David Baldwin Henry Ashfield Samuel Hart Alexander Ottery Jesse Morgan Ellis Haines
Isaac Greene
Samuel Sinquefield
William Sinquefield
Reuben Sherrill Morris Callingham
Joel Cloud John Stewart, Jr.
John Lang
James Ryan
Henry Walker
Peter Perkins
James Oliver John Greason William Daniel Silas Pace
Uriah Odom
Richard Hokitt
Edward Hagan
Gereiom Woddell Absalom Beddell William Foster
Abram Hilton
William Mitchel
John Evans
John Evans, Jr.
Peter Williams
Oliver Matthews
John Stewart
Edward Greene
Jonathan Sell
Joseph Jackson
William Welden
Joel Phillips
John Thompson
Joseph Millen
William Penton
Alexander Oliver
Ambrose Holiday
Richard Webb
Nathaniel Jackson
George Waggoner
Robert Walton
Walter Drummond
Charles Dunn
Ezekiel Millar
John West
Robert Cowin
John Hodgin
Lewis Powell
Peter Cox
Jacob Collins
Joseph Brown
William Childre
Henry Jones
John Dennis
Francis Jones
John Moor
Timothy Jourdan
Joshua Sanders
Watkin Richards Abraham Davis
John Davis
Isaac Davis
John Pirks
Jacob Davis
.Jonathan Sell, J. P. Thomas Pace
The foregoing list is most important. Among the early settlers of Wrightsboro were the progenitors of some of the oldest and best families of Georgia. Not a few of the names above mentioned are still prominent throughout the whole middle helt. These men were Quakers-most of them at least-inclined to the arts of peace rather than to the pursuit of war. But tho subsequent history of Georgia proves that they could fight like lions at hay when the necessity for resistance arose; and from these gentle molds of ancestry has sprung the Ajax Telemon of modern state politics: Thomas E. Watson. L. L. Knight in Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, Vol. I.
Vol. 1-17
Aaron MeCarter Stephen Bigshop Abram Londers
Thomas Gilliland
Joseph Kallensworth
John Clower Abraham Parker James Jenkins
Matthew Hobbs Joseph Haddock, J. P. Thomas Ansley John Lindsay Abram Dennis
Abraham Johnston
Benjamin Ansley John Watson Robert Day Drury Rogers James Anglin Jacob Watson
Robert Harper Jacob Dennis Nicholas White
Peter Weathers
Robert Jenkins Robert Nelson
Hillery Gray James Bishop John Fairchild .Jolın James Zachariah Phillips
SECTION II THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, OR GEORGIA IN THE STRUG- GLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 1775-1789.
CHAPTER I
FOLLOWING THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, GEORGIA'S FIRST SECESSION CON- VENTION MEETS IN SAVANNAH, JULY 4, 1775-ARCHIBALD BULLOCH IN THE CHAIR-GEORGE WALTON AT THE SECRETARY'S DESK-DELEGATES CHOSEN TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS-TONDEE'S TAVERN-EVENTS NARRATED IN THE LAST CHAPTER AGAIN RECITED BY WAY OF RECAPIT- ULATION-JONATHAN BRYAN-NOBLE WYMBERLEY JONES-THE COM- MITTEE OF SAFETY-CONSERVATISM MARKS THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS OF JULY 27, 1774-BUT THE ADJOURNED MEETING ON AUGUST 10TH ELECTS DELEGATES TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS-DUE TO A MINORITY REPRESENTATION OF THE PARISHES, THESE DO NOT REPAIR TO PHILADELPHIA, BUT ADDRESS A LETTER TO JOHN HANCOCK-DR. LYMAN HALL IS SENT BY THE SINGLE PARISH OF ST. JOHN TO THE CON- TINENTAL CONGRESS-THIS PARISH AFTERWARDS ORGANIZED INTO THE COUNTY OF LIBERTY-ON MAY 11, 1775, WHEN NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON REACHES SAVANNAH, A RAID IS MADE ON THE POWDER MAGAZINE-SOME OF THIS POWDER USED AT THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL-AT THIS CRISIS, GEORGIA'S FIRST SECESSION CONVENTION MEETS AS ABOVE INDICATED-ALL THE PARISHES REPRESENTED- DELEGATES CHOSEN TO TIIE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS-THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL IN CONTROL-OLIVER BOWEN AND JOSEPHI ILABERSHAM PUT IN COMMAND OF THE FIRST NAVAL VESSEL COMMISSIONED IN THE REVO- LUTION-CAPTURE 9,000 POUNDS OF POWDER-THE FIRST PRIZE OF WAR-GEORGIA EQUIPS A BATALLION WITHI LACHLAN MCINTOSH AS COLONEL-THE ARREST OF GOVERNOR WRIGHT-IIOW THE DECLARA- TION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS RECEIVED IN GEORGIA-DEATII OF ARCHI- BALD BULLOCH-WHILE PRESIDENT OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL HE BECOMES THE FIRST DE FACTO HEAD OF THE NEW STATE-READS THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TO TIIE ASSEMBLED POPULACE IN SAVANNAH.
NOTES: GEORGIA'S FIRST SECESSION CONVENTION-GUNPOWDER FOR BUNKER ILILL-GEORGIA COMMISSIONS THE FIRST WARSHIP-THIE FIRST CAPTURE OF THE REVOLUTION-TONDEE'S TAVERN.
Soon after the news of the battle of Lexington, traveling by slow stages, reached the lower spurs of the Appalachian chain of mountains and spread toward the Southeast, Georgia's first secession convention was held at Tondee's Tavern, in Savannah, on July 4, 1775, exactly one year to the hour before the Declaration of Independence was signed at. Philadelphia.
Archibald Bulloch was called to the chair and George Walton was stationed at the secretary's desk. These were two of the boldest Liberty
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Boys in the colony; and the unanimous vote by which they were sum- moned to official positions in the historic assembly served to foreshadow the radical action which was about to be taken by the determined body of patriots. Seized with alarm, the loyalists sought to disguise the fears which they secretly entertained by ridiculing the quarters in which the convention met. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth ?" was asked in the mildewed accents of an old sneer. But Tondee's Tavern was not an inappropriate birthplace for the cause of liberty; and it was not the first time in the history of the world that an humble wayside inn was called upon to furnish the rude cradle of emancipation.
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