LIBERTY COUNTY, GA - History  Georgia's First Provincial Congress  -Dr. Lyman Hall

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: lat@wayxcable.com  Bob Hurst


Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/liberty.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm


DR. LYMAN HALL BROUGHT A PURITAN VIEW TO GEORGIA'S COASTAL POLITICS

MEDWAY RIVER ENCOURAGED THE SUNBURY SETTLEMENT
Area Presented A Potential Utopian Society

By Robert Latimer Hurst

(EDITOR'S NOTE: As we move closer to July 4 and as we
further realize that we are now into a war on terrorism,
patriotism should be something foremost in our hearts and
minds. It might be interesting to review some area events
that underscored that earlier patriotism.)


Signs guided the wanderer to Sunbury on the Medway River.
"Old Sunbury Road" was still advertised as the colonial
trail to a thriving coastal city. But it was all a ruse. It
became a journey of the imagination. Sunbury disappeared
from coastal Georgia long ago. It faded slowly "not with a
bang but a whimper" to become one of those vanished towns of
Georgia. 

From Mark Carr's land grant the town was laid out. This
Georgia colonist and soldier, together will his neighbors,
imagined a town completed with a port and wharves, lots and
three town squares. It would rival Savannah a short distance
to the north. Shipping would become a major industry
bringing wealth to all of its citizens. 

The location was perfect --at the mouth of the Medway River,
which had a deep harbor on the intracoastal channel. High
bluffs allowed a good view of the river and any approaching
problems. The marsh would draw residents. All the interior
traffic would come this way, and what better place was there
for anyone who wanted to do business with Caribbean ports
and the northern colonies? The imagination painted the
picture of an Utopia on the Georgia coast. 

Because even a perfect society needs protection,  the
Continental Congress, in 1776, ordered  that a fort be
constructed to protect the coast from the powerful British
Navy. They noted that a low bluff on the Medway (not Midway)
River at Sunbury would be the location for the fortification
and a garrison for the patriots. It came as a defensive
measure just at the right time to safeguard Georgia in both
the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. 

Now, the scene was set for Sunbury, Midway and Fort Morris,
which would become Fort Defiance during the War of 1812. But
we need to go back a few years.

On August 28, 1754, near what would become Sunbury, an eager
group arrived from Dorchester, South Carolina, and quickly
organized the Midway Society. Their meeting was held in a
log cottage on what is called "Midway Neck." Some of these
people held firmly to an old belief in Puritanism. Their
ancestors had been those strict Puritans from New England,
and they had selected to come with their minister, the Rev.
Joseph Lord, from near Dorchester, Massachusetts, to this
"wilderness." They would simply continue their lives in
Georgia as they had in Massachusetts. They imagined living
in the South would be the same as living in the North. Their
belief in their God's looking over them was strong.

Actually, their ancestors had hoped for something different.
Those earlier Puritans, in 1695, living by that disciplined
religious code, wanted to create a church-centered community
in the vicinity of the Ashley River in South Carolina.
"Midway," as it would be called, would be a continuation of
their Dorchester Society, "a Congregationalist community in
which Christianity and daily living were closely inter-
related."

But South Carolina's overcrowded settlements and worn-out
lands were said not to be "capable of supporting the
Gospel." So representatives checked out the Georgia area,
which gained a favorable report and which presented the
settlers with 31,950 acres of land, as petitioned by the
Society and approved by the Council of Georgia. So the
Articles of Incorporation of the Society were placed before
the pilgrims. They would be required to join the Society but
not the Church.

Rice, indigo and other crops became their livelihood, and
their intense feelings about the politics of St. John's
Parish, which had been created in 1758, became their
passion. "They further colonized the entire parish, forming
settlements whose congregations were served by associate
pastors from the main meeting house at Midway," report
historians. St. John's Parish included Sunbury, Midway and
Fort Morris. 

This parish's citizens, for the most part,  now became
stalwart believers in independence from Great Britain.
However, Georgia's First Provincial Congress disappointed
many here when little interest was shown in expressing a
desire for this freedom from tyranny; only five of Georgia's
twelve parishes were represented at this body. Appointed
delegates would be sent to the Second Continental Congress,
meeting in May of 1775 in Philadelphia. Maybe a different
attitude would prevail there. But the delegates exhibited a
negative attitude about their selection. "We do not
represent the majority of Georgia's citizens," they
asserted. And they did not plan to attend the meeting. 

Failure to send representatives brought great criticism from
the other colonies. Good will with her neighbors became
severely injured, and St. John's Parish, ashamed of the rest
of Georgia's actions and their own situation, curtailed
trade with other sections of the colony and requested that
St. John's be annexed to South Carolina. Of course this
entreaty was denied, and the parish rallied by finally
sending Dr. Lyman Hall to the Continental Congress.

Dr. Hall was one of those who came from that old Puritan
stock. A student of theology at Yale University, he had, at
one time, pastored a Congregational church. He, however,
nursed a desire to study medicine and made his dream a
reality when he moved from South Carolina in 1760 to land
granted him in Georgia. 

And it was in Midway where Lyman Hall built his rice
plantation, Hall's Knoll; a little further down that old
colonial road, he also built a home in Sunbury. He would
actively promote American independence as a leader in St.
John's Parish. He, like those earlier patriots, became angry
with his fellow Georgians when their spirit did not favor
the coming rebellion. He urged, as his earlier neighbors had
done, splitting the colony and joining South Carolina, a
territory that showed a stronger desire for revolution.

Hall represented Georgia in Philadelphia, but he did not
vote because he did not represent the entire colony. This
inactivity would change when Georgia's Second Provincial
Congress, meeting in Tondee's Tavern in Savannah, elected
Dr. Hall one of the five delegates in 1775. One year later
he, along with Button Gwinnett and George Walton, would sign
a document that became known as the Declaration of
Independence. These men were not really part of the original
design; but, from that earlier plan, it was discovered that
one, Rev. Joachim Zubly, who favored remaining loyal to the
king, was dismissed from the delegation; and another, Noble
Wymberly Jones, could not go to Philadelphia because of
illness in his family. John Houston, a third, returned to
Georgia and did not cast a vote.

Savannah fell in December, 1778; the British took over
Georgia, except for the frontier.  Hall's Midway plantation
and his home in Sunbury were objects for burning. Dr. Hall,
now accused of high treason, escaped to Charleston; after
that city fell the following spring, he and his family went
northward, only to return to St. John's Parish, now named
Liberty County, after the British evacuation in 1782. St.
John's had received the new accolade for its "early role in
gaining independence."

This Declaration signer continued his work in medicine and
the legislature, becoming governor and laying the base for
the chartering of the University of Georgia in 1785.

(Watch for the second installment that will investigate
George Walton's role in these events.)