George Walton: A Man for all Duties

The signatures of the three Georgian signees on the Declaration of Independence.

Georgia had three signers of the Declaration of Independence. All of them spent significant parts of their life in Savannah. Button Gwinnett is buried here.  Lyman Hall and George Walton were the other two. For this blog entry we will be exploring the life of George Walton.

George Walton was born in 1749 in Virginia. His parents died when he was an infant, resulting in his adoption by an uncle with whom he entered apprenticeship as a carpenter. Walton was a studious young man, but his uncle actively discouraged all study, believing a studious boy to be an idle one. At the age of twenty when his apprenticeship had ended, he moved to Savannah in 1769 to study law. He was accepted into the bar in 1774. He quickly became one of the most successful lawyers in Georgia. He also became one of the leaders in the newly forming American Revolution. He served on the Provincial Congress and was the President of the Council of Safety in Georgia in 1775. In 1776 he was chosen along with Gwinnett and Hall to serve as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. It was here that on July 4th he signed with the other two Georgia representatives the Declaration of Independence.

Returning to Savannah he was in the battalion of General Robert Howe. On January 9, 1778, Walton received a commission as colonel of the First Georgia Regiment of Militia. During the Battle of Savannah in 1778 led by Archibald Campbell, Walton was hit in the thigh by a ball that threw him from his horse. He was subsequently captured by the British, who allowed his wound to heal before sending him to Sunbury Prison.

The colonists eventually made an exchange for him. This was done in time to allow him to be elected Governor of Georgia in 1779. He served for only two months before he was forced out because of his progressive controversial views. But his views did not prevent him from being to Congress to serve in the government in another capacity.

Walton after the Revolutionary War would serve as Chief Justice of Georgia. He would also serve as delegate to the state constitutional Convention in 1788 that would ratify the Federal constitution. When James Jackson left during his term as US Senator he was appointed to serve as the US Senator for Georgia.

Walton was a leading force in the education movement in Georgia. He was a founder and trustee of the Academy of Richmond County in Augusta and of Franklin College (now the University of Georgia) in Athens.

Walton retired to his Meadow Garden home in Augusta in the 1780s. He would die at this home on February 2, 1804. In 1848 he was reinterred from his original burial place on his nephew’s home (Rosney) to be reinterred beneath the Signer’s Monument in downtown Augusta.
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Walton was one of those remarkable men of his period who served in what ever position he was needed. He saw the country through from the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution. He saw Savannah and Georgia through the Revolutionary War to the ratification of the Georgia Constitution. He also led our state to establish the predecessor of University of Georgia, the first public university, in the United States. Although he is not as known as other founding fathers but he was a remarkable leader in the establishment of our State and Country.

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Signer's Monument in Augusta

Walton's home Meadow Garden