Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

256 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
William Moore Elijah Dix
Kiehard Curton Thomas Red
Philip Helveston William Whethers
Ephraini Odom William. Godbe
Thomas Gray William Curton
Jolm Greene Eiiaa Daniel
Starling Jordan Benjamin Brautley
Zaehariah Wimbeiicy Jeremiah Brantley
Benjamin Warren John Bumsides
John Gray • Patrick Dickey
Pleasant Goodall Stephen Lamb
Wado Kitts Seth Slocknmb
John Roberts Charles Golightly
Nathan Williams Bud Cade
John Stephens John Whitehead
Moses Davis Thomas Odom
AmosDavis ' John Thomas, Sr.
Alien Brown Caleb Whitehead
James Douglas
Despite tho foregoing protest, delegates were sent to the Provincial Congress
which met in Savannah on July 4, 1775, at which time the tie of allegiance to
England was severed; and throughout tho Revolution the Parish of St. George was
the abode of tho most intense loyalty to the patriotic cause and the theater of some
of tho most tragic engagements.
WRIGHTSBOKO : 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 AVrightsboro, 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 public-spirited chief-magistrate." At the out
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 s,eat 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 highbaek 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 cluster thick in God's Acre. Fragments alone
remain of some; while over most of them the weeds have grown, and into the deep-
cut epitaphs have crept 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 haonlet 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 Lexirtg-
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. -Edward Hill
John Stubbs John Hill
Isaac Vernon Joshua Hill
Josias Pewgate John Davis