USA > Georgia > The story of Georgia and the Georgia people, 1732 to 1860 > Part 7
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[CHAP. II.
Evans, lieutenant; Wm. Mckenzie; Jos. Johnson, J. P .; Wm. Candler, D. S. St. Paul's ; Alex. Thompson, J. P. Christ Church ; James McFarlane, J. P. St. Paul's ; Robert Baillie, D. S .; Andrew Way, D. S .; James Kitchings, collector ; Francis Paris, J. P. St. George's ; Wm. Harding, D. S .; Philip Young, solicitor ; Wm. Haven, naval officer ; Henry Yonge, solicitor; John Houston, solicitor ; Wm. Sims, deputy surveyor ; Alex Thompson ; Jeď Smith, deputy surveyor; Sanders Walker, deputy surveyor ; Thos. Pittman, deputy surveyor ; J. P. Romans, J. P. ; Thomas Carr, collector Sunbury ; Francis Lee, naval officer; Chas. Pryce, dep't reg. and examiner in chancery ; Jno. Simpson, clerk in the house; Wm. Brown, searcher for the port of Savannah ; John Thomas, John Mann, militia officers Burke; Wm. Graeme, attorney-general ; Mat. Roche, provost marshal ; Isaac Ford, J. P. St. George's; Moses Nunez, searcher port Savannah ; Alex. Findley, Jas. Seymour, schoolmasters ; Jared Nelson, Benj. Stirk ; D. M. Neal, Wm. Barnard, deputy surveyors; Jno. Oliver, J. P. St. Paul's ; James McFarlane, deputy surveyor ; R. Wylley, N. P. ; Wm. Harding, J. P. St. George's ; Wm. Mckenzie, comp. searcher and solicitor in chancery, Sunbury ; James Kitchings, collector Sunbury ; James Maxwell, J. P. St. Phillip's ; Elijah Lewis, D. S. ; Wm. Downs, D. S .; Jno. Stuart, councilor ; Leon Marbury, D. S .; Ben Lanier, J. P. St. Matthew's; John Chisholm, D. S. ; Wm. Ewen, J. P. Chatham ; Sam'l Elbert, captain, Chatham ; Thomas Skinner, captain, Chatham ; T. Netherclift, St. John's ; Alex Hogg, captain. The following were captains, of Chatham : Jos. Habersham, Henry Yonge, Geo. Houston, Philip Morn, Alex. Martin, James Roberson, Alex. McGorm, Jno. B. Randell, Peter Bard, John Lucina, Wm. Stephens and Thos. Ross.
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CHAPTER III.
REVOLUTION.
The Call for a Meeting of the Disaffected -Appointments of the Revolutionary Committee-Passage of Resolutions-Governor Wright's Counter Move- ment-Call of a Congress-Failure-Dissatisfaction of St. John's Parish- Lyman Hall-Increase of Excitement-Stealing Gunpowder-War Begun at Lexington-Call for a Congress-Members of the Congress-Archibald Bulloch the President-Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones, John Glen, John Hous- ton, Edward Telfair, Dr. Zubly, Wm. Gibbons, John Adam Truetlen, Geo. Walton-Organization of the Council of Safety-Governor Wright Virtually Deposed-The Formation of the Battalion of Georgia Troops-Lachlan Mc- Intosh, Samuel Elbert, John Habersham, James Jackson-Mr. Bulloch Elected Temporary President-Convention Called-Expedition to St. Augustine a Failure-Peaceful Condition of Affairs in the Colony 1776-1778 -Constitu- tional Convention-List of Members not to be Found-Constitutional Provi- sions-Formation of Counties-Act of Confiscation and Amercement-Truet- len Elected Governor-Gwinnett's Duel with McIntosh-Both Wounded- The War in Earnest 1779-Triumphant March of the British-Capture of Sa- vannah -- Flight of Legislature-Trouble with Tories-Capture of Augusta- Colonel Twiggs, the Fews, Wm. Candler, Elijah Clarke-Sir James Wright, at Home Again-Act of Proscription-The Battle of Kettle Creek-Defeat of General Ash-Exode to North Carolina-The Itinerating Capital-The Loy- alists and the Tories-Bloody Days-The War Drawing to a Close-Return of the Government to Augusta-Governor Brownson-Assembly in Session- Act of Confiscation and Amercement-Condition of Things in 1783-Religious Affairs-The Quakers-The Baptists-Marshall, Mercer, Bottsford-Charac- teristics of the People-General View of the Churches-Social Conditions just after the War.
Authorities : McCall, Stevens, Jones, White's Collections, Life of Wm. Can-
dler, Life of James Jackson, Gilmer's Georgians, Lee Memoirs Ramsay, History of South Carolina, files of Georgia Gazette in Georgia Historical Society.
As McCall, Stevens and Jones have each given such a careful account of the difficulties between Governor Wright and his Assembly and of the events of the Revolutionary war, I shall throw what it is necessary for my purpose into
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one chapter of moderate length, and refer those who are anxious to make a careful study of those times to these valuable works where, with painstaking care, and, as far as Jones and Stevens are concerned, with praiseworthy impar- tiality everything of importance is detailed. Major McCall was perhaps not free from the influence of personal resent- ment, and was, perhaps, not prepared to do strict justice to a people he so thoroughly detested as the loyalists.
Governor Wright had been very efficient as a governor, and was highly esteemed by all the people until the troubles resulting from the Stamp Act began. He was, while American born, an Englishman in every fiber of his being, and was in full sympathy with the Tory ministry and with its measures, but he found his Assembly sadly poisoned by what he thought was the virus of rebellion, and as we saw in the last chapter, he had at one time an open rupture with his Assembly, and went to England for a twenty months' stay. The storm, however, blew over; he returned to America and had good reason to hope there would be peace, but after a short respite from contention the Boston port bill was passed, and things began to look warlike in the northern provinces.
There was only one paper in Georgia at that time, the Georgia Gazette, and in that paper, on the 29th of July, 1774, only one year after Governor Wright had made the great purchase from the Indians and opened a new world to Georgia, Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones, Mr. Archibald Bul- loch, Mr. John Houston, and Mr. George Walton called a meeting of the citizens of Savannah to meet in Tondee's Long Room and consider the situation.
The governor and several of these gentlemen had been at outs for some time, and Dr. Jones had been especially offensive, and the governor's indignation against these re- bellious subjects, of whom Dr. Jones was one, rose high. The convention met in August and considered the condition
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of things, and a large committee was appointed, consisting of John Glen, John Smith, Joseph Clay, John Houston, Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones, Lyman Hall, of St. John's parish; Wm. Young Esquire, Edward Telfair, Samuel Farley, George Walton, Joseph Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Jona- than Cochran, Geo. McIntosh, Sutton Banks, Wm. Gib- bons, Benj. Andrew, of St. John's; John Winn, of St. John's; John Stirk, of St. Matthew's; Archibald Bulloch, James Screven, David Zubly, H. Bourquine, Elisha Butler, Wm. Baker, John Mann, John Bennefield, John Stacy, and John Morel, to prepare resolutions. The committee pre- pared resolutions which were all the Boston people could have asked, and another committee was appointed to secure contributions for the relief of the Boston poor, and it col- lected and forwarded five hundred and twenty-nine barrels of rice to Boston for their relief. The action of this con- vention did not meet the approval of the old and staunch friends of a king who had always been a kind friend to the Georgia colony, and when Governor Wright wrote a protest against these utterances, and sent his messengers through the parishes to secure signers to it, he had no difficulty in securing a large number who expressed most decidedly their dissent from the course of these Savannah agitators. Men who fought afterward long and bravely for the Amer- ican cause were found in large numbers among these signers.
The convention in Savannah could not see its way clear to the appointment of delegates to the Continental Con- gress, and much to the displeasure of the more ardent Sons of Liberty, and especially of those of St. John's parish, it adjourned and sent no delegates.
So another Congress was called to appoint delegates, but when the time came for its assemblage there were only five parishes represented. This meeting, insignificant as it was, still hoped to get the Assembly to appoint delegates to the
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Continental Congress, and it might have succeeded but that the shrewd old governor dissolved the Assembly and checkmated it. The convention went through the form of an election, however, and Mr. Noble W. Jones, Mr. Archi- bald Bulloch and Mr. John Houston were selected as dele- gates to Philadelphia, but as they had no proper authority, and as the Georgia colony had not complied with the con- ditions of membership in the association, the delegates did not go, but sent a letter. This conduct was displeasing to the people of St. John's parish, who accepted all the condi- tions prescribed, and they sent Lyman Hall, a Connecticut man who practiced medicine in Sunbury, as their delegate, and he went to Philadelphia and took his seat in the Conti- nental Congress, but did not vote.
Things were in a turmoil. The governor thought he had stamped out the fires of rebellion as they were kindled at Tondee's tavern, but to his dismay and disgust those irre- pressible rebels broke out again. Some of them were men of years, for there was Mr. Jonathan Bryan, a staid, pious, wealthy old man; Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones, who came to the colony forty years before a child, who was now a wealthy and well educated physician; Mr. Edward Telfair, a native Scotchman and a successful merchant, and among the young men were James Habersham and John and Joseph his brothers, whose father was one of the staunchest friends of the king; these, as well as that young madcap, James Jackson; the hot-headed youth, John Milledge, and that Virginia adventurer, George Walton, were all in the con- clave of rebels and were defying him. To crown all they broke open the powder magazine in Savannah and stole the gunpowder, and soon after this Major Habersham, in con- nection with the rebellious South Carolinians, captured a ship-load of gunpowder and turned it over to the rebels.
The brave old loyalist was powerless. Nominally he was. captain-general and commander-in-chief, but really he was
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a prisonor in his own home. The up-country parishes were, however, not disaffected, and he had good reason to hope this storm would blow over as the one raised by the Stamp Act had, and that he would be in power again, but matters, instead of getting better, grew worse. Men whom he thought he could rely on in the up-country were becom- ing disaffected.
After Lexington and Concord the whole colony was aroused, and a convention was called to meet in Savannah July 4, 1775, and there assembled delegates from all the parishes. The delegates were:
From Savannah: A. Bulloch, Noble Wimberly Jones, Jos. Habersham, Jonathan Bryan, Ambrose Wright, William X Young, John Glenn, Samuel Elbert, John Houston, Oliver Bowen, John McCluer, Edward Telfair, Thomas Lee, George Houston, Joseph Reynolds, John Smith, Wm. Ewen, John Martin, Dr. Zubli, Wm. Bryan, Philip Box, Philip Allman, Wm. O'Bryan, Joseph Clay, Seth John Cuthbert.
District of Vernonsburg: Joseph Butler, Andrew Elton Wells, Matthew Roche, Jr.
Acton: David Zubli. Basil Cowper, Wm. Gibbons.
Sea Island district: Colonel De Vaux, Colonel Delegal, James Bulloch, James Morel, John M. Giradeau, John Bar- nard, Robert Gibson.
St. Matthew's: Jno. Stirk, Jno. A. Treutlen, Geo. Walton, Edward Jones, Jacob Waldhauer, Philip Howell, Isaac Young, Jenkin Davis, John Morel, John Flerl, Charles Mc- Cay, C. Cramer.
St. George's: Henry Jones, John Green, Thos. Burton, Wm. Lord, David Lewis, Benjamin Lewis, James Pugh, John Fulton.
St. Andrew's: J. Cochran, W. Jones, P. Tarlin, L. McIn- tosh, W. McIntosh, George Threadcraft, John Wereat, Rod- erick McIntosh, John Witherspoon, Geo. McIntosh, Allen Stuart, John McIntosh, Raymond Demere.
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St. Philip's: Colonel Butler, Wm. Lecompte, Wm. Max- well, James Maxwell, S. Drayton, A. F. Brisbane, L. Mains, Hugh Bryan.
St. David's: Daniel Ryan.
St. Thomas's: J. Roberts.
St. Paul's: John Walton, Jos. Mattocks, Andrew Burns, Robert Rae, James Rae, Andrew Moore, Andrew Burney, Leonard Marbury.
St. John's: James Screven, Nicolas Brownson, D. Rob- erts, Jno. Baker, Jno. Bacon, J. Maxwell, E. Ball, William Baker, Wm. Bacon, Jno. Stevens, John Winn.
There had been very decided changes in the colony, and this Georgia congress had in it a number of able men of Georgia birth. Savannah was no longer a village. It had for the sixteen years of Governor Wright's governorship been continually advancing, and the South Carolina colony had given to Georgia some very valuable citizens, among them Archibald Bulloch, who was made president of this provincial congress. He was an ardent patriot, a man of great purity of character, and was so highly esteemed for his virtue and ability that he was chosen president of the Provincial Congress, and elected a delegate to the Conti- nental Congress, and when Governor Wright was deposed and fled the State, and a council of safety was appointed to take charge of things in the interim before the adoption of a constitution, he was selected as the president and com- mander-in-chief. He was in this position when the Declara- tion of Independence was made, and it was his office to. read the document to the assembly of citizens, who with due honors celebrated the event in Savannah. He called the convention to form a constitution, and would doubtless have been elected the first governor of the State under it, but was taken ill and died before its adoption, and John A. Treutlen was chosen. It was while Mr. Bulloch was presi-
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dent of the council that an abortive movement was made by General Lee on St. Augustine.
Mr. Jonathan Bryan, the son of Joseph Bryan, who had assisted Mr. Oglethorpe forty years before with his sawyers and carpenters, was himself a venerable man, a man of large means and a member of the council. His sympathies were with the Whigs and he became obnoxious to the gov- ernor, and when the governor threatened him with his dis- pleasure indignantly threw up his office and left the council. He was an ardent patriot to the last, and was captured by the British and imprisoned in a prison-ship until he was released.
Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones was the son of Noble Jones, one of Mr. Oglethorpe's emigrants and a trusted man in the colony. Dr. Jones was himself an Englishman and could not have been less than fifty years old at this time, as he is mentioned as one who received the grant of a lot in 1733. He was a man of means, intelligence and character, and was a physician by profession. He was an ardent Whig, much to the sorrow of his excellent father, who was loyal to the last. He was obnoxious to Governor Wright because of his liberal views, and when he was elected speaker, as we have seen, Governor Wright dissolved the Assembly, and when he was again elected on its reassembling, James Habersham, acting governor, did the same thing.
Dr. Jones was elected twice a delegate to the Continental Congress, but did not go on account of his great respect for his aged father, who was, like his friend James Habersham, near the end of his life, and who died during these troubles .*
John Glen was a prominent lawyer in Savannah. He was son-in-law of Noble Jones and brother-in-law of Noble Wimberly Jones. He was so obnoxious to Governor Wright that he was ostracized by his proclamation, and so moderate
* Stevens and Colonel Jones both pay a lofty tribute to this excellent man, and to his descendant, Mr. De Renne, to whom Georgia is much indebted for the recovery and reproduction of much bearing on her early history.
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in his Whigism that he was denounced by the Legislature of 1782 as a Tory. This censure was afterward, however, re- moved. Samuel Elbert, who rose to be a brigadier and governor, was the son of a Baptist preacher; born in South Carolina, he came to Georgia when quite young, married in Georgia, was captain of a volunteer company of grenadiers, and was selected as a field-officer in the first battalion of Georgia troops. He was captured at Briar creek, was ex- changed, re-entered the army and was at the surrender of Yorktown.
In 1785 he was elected governor of the State by an almost unanimous vote * and made a treaty with the Indians at Shoulderbone creek. Three years after he left the gov- ernor's chair he died.
John Houston was the son of Sir Patrick Houston, who was one of the first settlers in the colony. He was one of the leading patriots and was appointed as one of the first representatives to the Continental Congress, and in 1778 he was chosen as governor of the new state, and in 1784 was governor a second time. He was a commissioner for the settlement of the boundary line between Georgia and South Carolina. After a life of distinguished service he died in Savannah in 1796.
Edward Telfair was a Scotchman who came with his brother to Savannah when he was thirty-one years old. William, the brother, was a Loyalist, but Edward was a Whig. He threw himself fully into the ranks of the patriots, and was with Jones, Habersham, Milledge and Walton at the breaking into the magazine. He was governor for two terms and elected twice to Congress. He died in 1807. He was a man of fine business judgment, of large wealth, and of great intelligence and public spirit.
Wm. Ewen was an Englishman by birth and came to the colony a poor boy. He was a potter and became a man of
* White.
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substance and a lawyer. He took the side of the Ameri- cans, and was one of the council of safety and afterward president of the council .*
The Rev. Dr. Zubly was the first pastor of the Independ- ent Presbyterian church in Savannah. He sympathized, no doubt, sincerely with the first movements of the Whigs and was sent as a delegate to Philadelphia. While there he became satisfied that the independence of the colonies would be declared. He was bitterly opposed to going so far, and when he was assured that the Congress would be satisfied with nothing less than independence, he divulged that fact to Sir James Wright in a letter. When it was discovered that he had done this he left Philadelphia hurriedly and fled to Savannah. The story of his treachery, as his course was called, followed him, and he was driven into exile and a large part of his property confiscated. He died before the war was over in South Carolina.
Wm. Gibbons was a prominent lawyer, whose family were leading and wealthy people in Savannah. He was very famous in after time as a lawyer and a man of large wealth and great enterprise.
John Adam Treutlen, the second of the name, descended from one of the Salzburghers, and the name is found among the deacons of the church.+ He was possibly a son of the first Treutlen. He was elected governor at the first elec- tion by the legislature after the adoption of the constitu- tion of 1777. When Col. Wm. Henry Drayton was trying to arouse a sentiment in favor of a union of the Georgia and Carolina colonies, he said some things which irritated the fiery German, and he published a loud protest and offered $100 reward for the arrest of the "said Wm. Henry Drayton." He was killed by the British in South Carolina.t
* White, 2.
t See Strobel's History of the Salzburghers.
Į White.
6
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John Wereat was an Englishman of fine mind and exten- sive attainments. He was a leading man in the colony andi the patron of James Jackson, whose father had been his friend in England.
George Walton was a Virginian. He was a member of an old and highly respected family in that State, but having lost his father and his estate being small, his guardian put him as apprentice to a carpenter. When his time was out he came to Georgia, where he had relatives, and resolved to. study law, which he did with Colonel Yonge in Savannah, and began to practice there. He was heart and hand with. the Whigs from the first, and was with the Savannah coterie- in their daring measures. He was sent a delegate to the: Continental Congress, signed the Declaration of Independ- ence, was in the army tas colonel and was wounded and; taken prisoner. Was president of the council, governor,. chief justice, and six times elected to Congress. He died in Augusta while judge of the superior court, in the early part of the century .*
These were some of those who were in this memorable. convention of 1775. Few bodies of men have ever assem- bled in Georgia of more ability. The convention represented all parts of the young colony. At this time Georgia had. in it only 17,000 white people in all.+
The Assembly took charge of the government of the. colony as the Long Parliament had taken charge of English affairs in the days of Charles I., and Governor Wright. found himself powerless. He needed some troops to bring these recusants to order, and he wrote the British general and the British admiral to supply his needs, but the uncon -.. scionable rebels of South Carolina secured his letters and. substituted others for them, telling the general and the ad -. miral that all was well in the Georgia colony. The Assem --
* White.
t Jones.
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bly finally ordered his arrest, and Major Habersham did the work as gently as possible. The old governor was sub- jected to no indignity, but simply confined to his home. He was allowed to escape, and he left the colony, much to its relief and doubtless to his own, and went to England, where he was received with due honors. The Assembly appointed delegates to the Continental Congress, who were: Dr. Zubly, Dr. Jones, Arch Bulloch, John Houston and Dr. Lyman Hall; provided for the issuing of paper money, which soon became worthless, and proceeded to organize a battalion of State troops. The officers of the battalion were: Colonel, Lachlan McIntosh; Lieutenant - Colonel, Samuel Elbert; Major, Joseph Habersham.
First Company: Captain, Francis H. Harris; First Lieu- tenant, John Habersham; Second Lieutenant, John Jenkins; Third Lieutenant, Ensign Rae, Savannah.
Second Company: Captain, Oliver Bowen, commodore; First Lieutenant, George Hanley; Second Lieutenant, John Berrien (afterward treasurer of the State, and father of John MacPherson Berrien), Savannah.
Third Company: Captain, John McIntosh; First Lieuten- ant, Lachlan McIntosh; Second Lieutenant, Francis Archer; Ensign, J. Morrison, Darien.
Fourth Company: Captain, Arthur Carney; First Lieu- tenant, Benj. Odinsell; Second Lieutenant, John Eman; Ensign, DeLaplaine, Liberty.
Fifth Company: Captain, Thomas Chisholm; First Lieu- tenant, Caleb Howell; Second Lieutenant, Daniel Cuthbert; Ensign, Wm. McIntosh, St. Philip's.
Sixth Company; Captain, John Green, Burke; Lieuten- ant, Ignatius Few, Columbia.
Seventh Company: Captain, Chesley Bostwick, Rich- mond; First Lieutenant, John Martin, Jefferson.
Eighth or Rifle Company: Captain, Colson; First Lieu- tenant, Shadrach Wright; Second Lieutenant, George Wal-
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ton; * Chaplain, John Holmes, Episcopal minister, Wilkes county.
Lachlan McIntosh, who was to command the battalion, was one of that famous clan who settled at Darien, the son of John More McIntosh, the chief of the clan. He was himself born in Scotland, but had spent his early years in Georgia on the southern frontier at Darien, where his father kept the store of the trustees, and after that had a trading - post for the Indians and a rice plantation. In his youth he was in Charleston in a commercial house. He was a Whig from the beginning of the struggle, and when the First bat- talion was organized he was appointed to command it. He was a hasty, fearless Highlander, and became involved in a difficulty with Button Gwinnett in the early part of the war. There was a duel; both men were wounded, Gwin- nett fatally. Colonel McIntosh then went to Virginia and had a command under Washington. He returned to Geor- gia and was in command of a brigade at the siege of Sa- vannah, and was captured at the surrender of General Lin- coln in Charleston. He died in Savannah in 1806.
Joseph Habersham, the major of the battalion, was the son of James Habersham, the staunch Loyalist. He was a native of Savannah, and was not twenty-five years old when the troubles began. He was educated at Princeton, and when only twenty-three years old was one of the committee appointed by the Liberty Boys. He was connected with the group who broke open the magazine and who captured the ship-load of powder. He was often in the General As- sembly, and at one time was Speaker of the House; after- ward he was postmaster-general of the United States. He died in Savannah in 1815.+ The First company was com- posed of Savannah people and was commanded by Captain
* This George Walton was George Walton of Wilkes county, a relative of George Walton the signer.
+ White.
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Francis Henry Harris, the son of Francis Harris, who had long been in the colony, and was one of its trusted officers. Young Harris was at school in England when the war be- gan. He came home at once and entered the army. His career was a brief one. In 1782, when the victory was nearly won, while he was in the army in South Carolina, a Georgia refugee fighting against the common foe, he died .*
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