Edward Telfair: An American Patriot

Edward Telfair who was rated the sixth hottest Founding Father

The Scots have made significant contributions to the city of Savannah. One of the most important was the Scot, Edward Telfair. He was born in the Scottish village of Kirkcudbright in 1735. After only an elementary education he took a job with a firm of merchants. In 1758 with the dream of America in his heart he sailed to America with his brother William.
After a stint in North Carolina he joined his brother William in Savannah in 1766. The two brothers formed a partnership with a Scotsman named Basil Cowper. This would lead Edward Telfair to become one of the most successful merchants in colonial Georgia.
Telfair held land in Burke County in Georgia. He became a planter with slaves and operated a sawmill there. His land in Burke County offered all he needed in timber to keep his sawmill going and his pockets full.
In 1768 after only two years in Savannah he was elected to the Commons House of Assembly. And when the American Revolution started he was involved in the struggle along with his other colonists. This was seen in his involvement with the Sons of Liberty. In May 1775, when news of the New England battles of Lexington and Concord reached Savannah, Telfair joined Joseph Habersham, Noble W. Jones, John Milledge, and other Liberty Boys in breaking into the royal magazine and making off with 600 pounds of powder. He was elected in June 1775 to the Council of Safety, a body formed to supervise the enforcement of boycotts of the British Stamp Act and other Acts that followed.
Because of his leadership skills and loyalty to the Revolutionary cause Telfair was elected to the Continental Congress in 1778 and remained a member until 1783. While he was there he was one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation (predecessor to the US Constitution). In 1780 he was on a list of colonists, a list I am sure he was proud to have his name, who were guilty of high treason against the Crown.
Telfair took part in the convention that met in Augusta on Christmas Day 1787 for Georgia to ratify the new U.S. Constitution that had been signed in Philadelphia. He voted in favor of its ratification. Telfair was one of only 12 men who received electoral votes during the first election for President and Vice President of the United States, receiving the vote of one unrecorded elector from his home state of Georgia.
Although Telfair would not serve as President he would serve three terms as governor of Georgia. As governor he would host President George Washington on his southern tour of the new nation at one of his plantations in Augusta.
Telfair died on September 17, 1807, at his Savannah house. He was buried at yet another of his plantations (called Sharon) near Savannah. In the year of Telfair's death, Telfair County was created and named in his honor. Years later, his remains would be removed to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, where in 1860 his surviving daughters erected a memorial to their father's memory. Later in the 19th century, Savannah's St. James Square was renamed Telfair Square to honor the family.
His daughter Mary Telfair would use his vast fortune to become one of Savannah’s greatest philanthropists. She would leave money and her mansion in Savannah to create the oldest art museum in the South (Telfair Museum of Art), she would use her money to build a woman’s hospital, and give money to erect Hodgson Hall, home of the Georgia Historical Society, to name three of her notable charitable works.
Edward Telfair was a testimony to the chance that even a poor Scotsman could come to America and make his fortune. He also would repay this new found home with service to its new government and risk his fortune for its independence. He was a true American patriot.

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Telfair Museum of Art