Edward Langworthy: Rags to Riches Patriot

Savannah’s colonial history of course is the shortest of the original colonies in lieu of the fact we were the last of the original thirteen colonies. This of course leads to us not having as much about the origins and information on some of our Georgian Revolutionary heroes. It also is the reason that Georgia was often the last to join with the other colonies in participation in the Revolution. Afterall the first settlers of the colonies had only been on these shores forty- three years before the Declaration of Independence was signed. But be sure that we were on board. The British tired of the standstill in the Northern sphere of the Revolutionary developed a Southern strategy to change the pace of the war. They thought the newness of the colonies would mean the more colonists in the South would be Loyalists. They were proven wrong. They quickly found a hornet’s nest and themselves in retreat once the South organized their resistance.

One of Savannah’s patriots and founding fathers was Edward Langworthy (1738-1802). His story would start at Bethesda Orphan House of Savannah started by George Whitefield as an orphan. It is the oldest orphanage in the United States. He was educated in the school there. He would also stay to teach in the school. Some propose that his parents were some of the residents of the poorhouses in England that Oglethorpe would recruit for the original colonists of Georgia. As the Revolution progressed cities formed Committees of Safety to monitor the boycotts and other resistance to England. Langworthy became the secretary of this committee. He made such an impression that they sent him to the Continental Congress in 1778. He missed signing the Declaration of Independence in 1776 but was there to sign the Articles of Confederation in 1777 the precursor to the Constitution. He would serve the Congress meeting in Independence Hall of Philadelphia for two years. In 1785, looking to broaden his horizons he moved to Baltimore. He became involved by writing for a local paper for his first two years. 1787 became a big year in his life. He bought a part interest in a newspaper called The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser. He would also become the editor of the paper. That same year he began to teach the classics at the Baltimore Academy. He would do this for the next for the next four years. Along the way he would marry a lady named Wright and the two would have four children.
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At the end of his time at the Academy he moved to Elkton, Maryland in 1791. It was here he began to write his history of Georgia his home state. He would return to Baltimore to become the clerk of customs until his death by Yellow Fever in 1802. He would publish before his death one of the earliest memoirs of a founding Father. He wrote the biography/memoir on General Charles Lee from Virginia a controversial figure to some. This biography/memoir would make him one of the early historians of the Revolutionary History. Because he was buried at the Old Episcopal Church that was later demolished, we no longer know where he is buried.
 
The boy who was raised and taught in an orphanage would rise from nowhere to become a leader of the new country. His life resembled a true character of a novel from a Horatio Algier’s story. He would become a man of letters and prominence in both Savannah and Baltimore leading the country forward from its beginnings. The founder is now also an orphan in death as no one knows his burial place.  He may have been forgotten except for a signature on The Articles of Cofederation. But we do know he lived a life that helped create our new nation and opened the doors for others to have a chance as he once had.  

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