Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 265
the eyes of the graybeards whose legs were crossed under the king's
mahogany, and as soon as Governor Wright called the council together
some one moved to expel Mr. Bryan. The old man arose.
'' If such is the feeling which the council entertains,'' said he, '' I
will retire at once. It is unnecessary to put the motion.''
Thereupon he withdrew to engage no more in the service of King-
George.
Included among the heirlooms of the Bryan family in Georgia, there
is still preserved an. old silver piece of priceless value inscribed to the
sturdy patriot for espousing the liberties of the people of Georgia at
the sacrifice of high official position. Joseph Bryan, the father of the
old patriot, was living in South Carolina when. General Oglethorpe
landed on the bluffs of the Savannah River; and, being in sympathy with
the philanthropic spirit of the colonial enterprise, he crossed over into
Georgia and helped to clear the wilderness in which the colony was
planted. He then returned to South Carolina. But Jonathan Bryan,
when he was old enough to shift for himself, came to Georgia to live.
Joseph Bryan, his son, afterwards represented Georgia in the United
States Senate, and his descendants are still numbered among the best
citizens of the state.
Though past the patriarchal limit of years at the time of the Revo
lutionary outbreak, Mr. Bryan participated in the defense of Georgia
soil; and, upon the fall of Savannah, was captured, sent to New York
and imprisoned on Long Island. The circumstances of the old man's
arrest are too interesting to be omitted. Three nights after the reduc-.
tion of Savannah, a party of armed men were secretly dispatched from
the Phcenix, a man-of-war lying in the harbor, and given instructions
to take the old man a prisoner. He was supposed to have sought refuge
on his plantation across the Savannah River, and the arresting officers,
moving stealthily up Union Creek, under cover of darkness, found him
at the place indicated, and with his son, James, placed him on board
one of the prison ships.
In vain his daughter, Mrs. Morel, sued for the release of her aged
father. She even went down on her knees, it is said, to the British com
mander. But Commodore Hyde Parker was obdurate. The old man
liad been too great an offender against the British Crown. Consequently,
feeble though he was with advanced years, Mr. Bryan was sent North;
and, after being transferred from one prison ship to another, he was
eventually incarcerated on Long Island. However, an exchange was
effected in the course of time, and, returning home, he survived the
Revolution, witnessed the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and died
in 1788: Georgia's Pylean-Nestor of Independence.
Another conspicuous landmark among the early patriots whose name
must now be mentioned again was Noble Wymberley Jones. He was the
son of Noble Jones, one of the pioneer settlers who came to Georgia with
the illustrious founder; and, although the elder Jones at an advanced
age still held the office of colonial treasurer and espoused the king's side
to the very last, the younger Jones was an uncompromising "Whig. The
first of Georgia's long line of patriotic physicians, Dr. Jones had for