Georgia Loyalist Banishments and Confiscation
Contributed by: J. G. (Jerry) Braddock Sr.; Charleston, SC.
Author of Wooden Ships - Iron Men; Web site

Format by C. W. Barnum
Return to Georgia Military Index
229 Names

The Georgia Assembly passed an Act of Attainder and Banishments and Confiscation on August 19, 1783. This meant in effect that property of British Loyalist would be taken for the State Treasury. The individuals would be banished from Georgia. Their Civil Rights under the law were attained or voided. The list was published The Assembly of the State of Georgia in the Savannah newspaper, (Georgia Gazette). See newspaper story at the bottom of the page.

The List of names has been placed in alphabetical order for easy research
as opposed to how it originally appeared in the public notice.

Georgia Revolutionists were fierce in keeping the British at bay in Georgia. My 4th great-grandfather, Capt. John Cutler Braddock, as a galley commander was one of the fiercest. There were many other Georgians, however, who, by dictate of conscience, chose to remain Loyal to the Crown.

You may be surprised to learn that Benjamin Franklin's son was a staunch Loyalist. They paid dearly for their loyalty.

On August 19, 1783, the Assembly of the State of Georgia passed an Act of Attainder, Banishments and Confiscation that took from all known Loyalists, property they held in Georgia and banished them from the state. Most fled to the British province of East Florida and from there to England and to British held islands in the Caribbean, primarily the Bahamas. Notice of the Act was published in the Georgia Gazette followed by a list of 229 names of Georgia Loyalists.

The list included the last Royal Governor of Georgia, Sir James Wright, Lt. Gov. John Graham, and members of their council along with all other officials of the displaced government. Many on the list went on to become successful leaders in their places of exile. One such man was William Lyford Jr., uncle to the aforesaid John Cutler Braddock. He received several large grants in the Bahamas for his service to British naval operations in the Southeast and for being one of the planners and participants of Col. Andrew DeVeaux's famous raid that drove the Spanish from Nassau in 1783. The exclusive residential resort Lyford Cay, home of international best-selling author Arthur Hailey and actor Sean Connery, is located on one of the Grants.

List of Loyalists Banished from Georgia-1783

GEORGIA,House of Assembly, 15th July, 1783
ORDERED,  That his Honour the Governor and Council be recommended and requested to transmit to the Executive and Legislative Powers or Departments,
in every State on the United States, a List of Persons named in their Laws so that, by this correspondence, each State may know,  or be informed from Time
to Time, what is done by each State relative to those Persons so proscribed.
Extract from the Minutes,

(Signed)  JOHN WILKINSON, Clk. G. A.
In Council, Savannah, 19th August, 1783.

PURSUANT to the foregoing order of the Honourable the House of Assembly, passed at Augusta on the Fifteenth July last past, the following Persons are named within our Act of Attainder, Banishments and Confiscation, and stood proscribed on that Day.
By Order of his Honour the Governor in Council,
D. REES, Sec'y. Ex. Council

A LIST of Persons on the Bill of Attainder, Banishment and Confiscation, passed at Augusta, in the State of Georgia, on the Fourth Day of May, which was in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and Eighty Two, and of our Sovereignty and Independence the Sixth, to wit:

End of Exhibit. The material presentation was edited for this format style.

This webmaster is grateful to receive this data from Mr.  Braddock .
To learn more about this historic period please read his book,  Wooden Ships - Iron Men