GEORGIA BIOGRAPHIES: WILLIAM T. BRANTLY, D. D. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Barbara Walker Winge , courtesy of Oldbuck Press, Inc. obsales@aol.com Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm SOURCE: GEORGIA BAPTIST: HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, Jesse H. Campbell, (1847) 1993, published by Oldbuck Press, Inc., PO Box 1623, Conway, Arkansas 72034, pp. 56-76. A copy of this book can be purchased for $21.00 postage paid from the publisher. WILLIAM T. BRANTLEY, D. D. For forty years he was known as one of the most laborious, gifted, and successful ministers of the gospel connected with the Baptist denomination. Monuments of his usefulness, incalculably more durable than brass, are found in various parts of our Union… Dr. Brantley was born in January, 1787, in Chatham County, North Carolina. Being one of a numerous family of children, but scantily provided with this world’s goods, he was deprived of the benefits of liberal instruction at that age when the mind is most docile, and when the most permanent impressions are produced… Shortly after professing Christ, a wealthy friend, impressed with his talents, gave him the assistance to prepare for college. He entered South Carolina College…He graduated with distinction in 1808… He took the rectorship of the Richmond Academy in Augusta, Georgia. He remained there for two years, teaching at the school and preaching every Sunday to any destitute congregation. In 1811, he became the pastor for the Baptist Church in Beaufort, S. C… He remained there for eight years and while there became the president of the Beaufort College and contributed many articles to the American Baptist Magazine… His wife Anna McDonald, sister of Governor McDonald, died in 1818 and he wrote a heartfelt tribute to her which is included in this biography… In 1819, the trustees of Richmond Academy in August, Georgia requested that he return to resume the rectorship… He was able to greatly influence the Baptist denomination throughout Georgia. He was active in organizing the Georgia Baptist Convention… After living several months with a paralysis that also afflicted him with mental imbecility, he died in Augusta, Georgia, in March, 1845…