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DART, Cyrus (1764-1817)

The oldest son of Joseph & Abigal (Brainard) Dart of Haddom, Connecticut, was born 11 June 1764.  Joseph was a commissary officer during the Revolution, a captain and a squire, a member of Capt. Comfort Sage's Militia Regiment.

Cyrus joined the Rev. Army and was said to have been a page to Gen. Washington when he occupied New York City.  Being under age, his father took him out of service; however, he seemed to have been determined to fight and ran away from home to joining the army as a private in Capt. Stillwell's Co., 1st Connecticut Regiment.  Cyrus Dart enlisted 1 April 1782 and was discharged 17 April 1783.

After the war, Cyrus returned to school to obtain a medical education, but later had a dispute over money with his father, left home, and settled in Glynn County, possibly at Frederica.  A purchase of two lots in the Old Town of Frederica from Thomas Spalding to Cyrus Dart occurred on 6 August 1792.  Four years later on May 7, Cyrus married Ann Harris, daughter of Lewellin and Ann Harris, natives of St. Simons Island.

Just a couple of weeks later on 1 June 1796, he was commissioned as a surgeon in the Army of the United States and stationed at Coleraine, the border of the Spanish province of Florida.  While stationed here, several of the Dart children were brought into the world.  Erastus, Horace, Urbanus, Ann Maria (married Dr. Dupree), Eliza Ann (married William Henry Payne first, and Schubert Burns second), Alfred, Theodore, and Edgar C.P. Dart (married Ellen Moore).  Horace, Alfred, and Theodore died young.  On 20 January 1802, Cyrus resigned his position and was appointed quarantine officer for the port in Brunswick, he moved back to St. Simons Island to live the rest of his days.

On 29 May 1817, a vessel anchored off of St. Simons, and requested Cyrus' services.  He, his son Urbanus, and a slave rowed out in a small boat to the ship, their boat capsized, sending everyone overboard, only young Urbanus was able to swim ashore.  Cyrus' body was never found.  His wife Ann passed away in 1858, and is buried at Christ Church near her parents.

Erastus Dart, eldest son, went to sea and while on a voyage to England had his portrait painted.  Yet fate would deal another blow to the Dart family, Erastus died upon the return trip.  The portrait was given to his family, where it has been passed down the generations.

Urbanus lived a long and prosperous life.  He was born 29 November 1800 in Coleraine, and died here in Brunswick on 26 February 1883.  He and his wife Eliza Moore (sister of Mrs. E.C.P. Dart) were the parents of 6 sons and 2 daughters, namely:  Horace, Frank, Urbanus, Jacob, William Robert, John, Sarah (married Benjamin Stallings), and Eliza Rebecca (married Wilfred F. Symons).

DEMERE, Raymond II (1750-1791)
by Patrick M. Demere

Raymond was named in honor of his uncle, Captain Raymond Deméré (1702-1766) who himself had a son in 1752 whom he also named Raymond Deméré. This cousin Raymond remained on St. Simons Island until his death in 1829.

Paul Deméré was a French Huguenot from Nérac, France, who had come to Georgia as a Lieutenant in Major William Horton’s Company of British Grenadiers under General Oglethorpe. Paul Deméré was stationed at Fort Frederica and commanded detachments on St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island, and Cumberland Island from 1748 to 1750. When the 42^nd Regiment of Foot was disbanded in 1749, Paul became a Lieutenant in the South Carolina Independent Companies serving at St. Simons Island in what became known as Glynn County, Georgia.

Raymond Deméré II would have had an interesting childhood: in September 1752, a disastrous hurricane struck Charleston; in 1754 his father traveled to England to present himself to King George II and to begin the purchase and appointment process for his commission as Captain; in July of 1755, Captain Paul Deméré survived the great massacre of General Edward Braddock’s expedition against the French in Pennsylvania; in 1756 a massive hurricane directly struck St. Simons Island; in late summer 1757, Captain Paul Deméré was ordered to command Fort Loudoun (now in Tennessee), which was the westernmost outpost of the British Empire; and when he was just 10 years old, Raymond Deméré’s father, Captain Paul Deméré, was killed in a massacre in August 1760 at Fort Loudoun.

Raymond Deméré II (1750?-1791), was married twice: first to Mary Elizabeth Milledge (1759-1783), who died childless at 24, and second to Mary Ann Miller (1744-1808). Their children were Raymond Deméré (1785-1788?), Ann Miller Deméré (b. 1786), Mary Elizabeth Deméré (1788-1863), Frances Anne Deméré (1789-1849), and Raymond Paul Deméré (1791-1885).

At 25 years old in July 1775, Raymond Deméré II was one of the forty-five deputies assembled at the Provincial Congress in Savannah. This Congress approved sending delegates to represent Georgia in the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

The following year, an incident that became known as the Battle of the Riceboats occurred near Savannah. In February 1776, seven British ships came up the Savannah River. On the night of 2 March 1776, British troops landed on Hutchinson’s Island and captured an American officer, Captain John Rice.

The next morning, Captain Raymond Deméré II and First Lieutenant Daniel Roberts went under the flag of truce to demand release of the captured officer, and the British took Deméré and Roberts prisoner. The Patriots took several prisoners and placed several prominent Loyalists under arrest. On 20 March 1776, all prisoners were released, including Raymond Deméré II.

In the subsequent April, 26-year old planter Raymond Deméré II left Savannah to join George Washington in Philadelphia. Promoted to Major, Raymond Deméré II became aide-de-camp to Major General Lord Stirling, William Alexander .

In just the first three months of his adventure, he was shipwrecked off Cape Hatteras and traveled disguised through Delaware, finally reaching Philadelphia. On 31 May 1777, he met and dined with General George Washington. Raymond Deméré II then participated in the Battle of Short Hills in New Jersey. They then participated in September 1777 in the Battle of Brandywine where Stirling’s brigade engaged in the fiercest part of the battle.

Shortly after the Battle of Brandywine, Major Raymond Deméré II was apparently sent back to Georgia as the British launched their campaign in the South. In October 1777, Congress authorized the establishment of the office of the Clothier General [quartermaster] of the Continental army. Major Deméré became the Deputy for the State of Georgia. His duties would have included receiving cloth being imported by Congress, having it made into uniforms, and forwarding the finished articles to the Continental Army.

Savannah was eventually captured by the British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell. On 29 December 1778, British forces met little resistance, and literally marched around the Continental flank into Savannah. The British quickly restored the Royal Assembly of Georgia.

It is assumed that Major Raymond Deméré II fled Savannah when the British captured it, but his actions of 1779 through 1782 are not certain, although he evidently acted in the capacity of Clothier General of Georgia until at least mid- 1780.

It is possible that he was with General Benjamin Lincoln when all of the remaining Georgia Continental troops and many militia in the Southern Theater of the War were surrendered at Charleston on 12 May 1780. As an officer, Raymond would have been offered parole by the British which, in exchange for his pledge not to fight again, he would be freed from prison.

Major Raymond Deméré II returned to Savannah and his Parnassus Plantation in Bryan County on the east bank of the Medway River after the War ended. On 20 May 1791, he was thrown from his horse at Major Hardee’s Plantation on the Great Ogeechee near Savannah, his neck was broken, and he died in about half an hour.

Raymond Deméré II, Revolutionary War Major and hero, only son of massacred redcoat Captain Paul Deméré, was only about 41 or 42 at his untimely death. Given his family lineage and prominence; his wealth, military experience, connections, and status as Revolutionary War hero, Raymond Deméré II could very well have had a second half of his life to rival the first. His next forty years could quite possibly have brought him statewide and perhaps even national successes as they did to James Monroe, his fellow aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling.

DEMERE, Raymond Jr. (1752-1829)
by Patrick M. Demere

Raymond Demere Jr. (1752-1829) was the only son of Captain Raymond Demeré (1702-1766) and was born and died on St. Simons Island in what became Glynn County, Georgia.

His father, Raymond Demeré (1702-1766), was a French Huguenot born on 17 July 1702 in Nérac, France. Sometime just before 1720, Raymond (1702-1766) and his brother Paul Deméré (d. 1760) emigrated to England where they purchased their commissions in the English army. Raymond Demeré (1702-1766) began service in the British Army, most likely from 1725-1735, as an aide to William Stanhope (1690-1756), the first Lord Harrington, when Stanhope was Envoy to Spain in Madrid.

After returning to England, Raymond Demeré (1702-1766) purchased his commission as a Lieutenant in Major William Cook’s Company of General James Oglethorpe’s 42^nd Regiment of Foot. Raymond Demeré left England to arrive in Georgia on 8 May 1738. He was sent in 1739 as an envoy to the Spanish in St. Augustine, participated in the 1740 siege of St. Augustine, and in 1741 was named Captain Lieutenant to Colonel Oglethorpe’s own Company. In July 1742, he was in command of three platoons that fled from the Spanish at the Battle of the Bloody Marsh. He remained on St. Simons Island after the disbanding of the 42^nd Regiment and served as Captain in the South Carolina Independent Company of Foot. He owned Harrington Hall and Harrington Plantation, and was granted thousands of acres by the King, ranging from Charleston to the Florida border. In 1754, at 52 years of age, Raymond Demeré oversaw the reconstruction of Fort Prince George at Keowee, and in 1756 oversaw the construction of Fort Loudoun (now in Tennessee), the westernmost outpost of the British Empire at that date. He retired from the Army in 1761. He lived his last days on St. Simons Island and on Jekyll Island, where he had been granted the house of Major Horton, one of the most significant tabby ruins remaining on the Georgia coast. He died on St. Simons in 1766, and is probably buried at the burying ground at Frederica.

Raymond Demere Jr. (1752-1829), son of Captain Raymond Demeré, “... was born and bred on St. Simons Island and knew no other home.”  It is, however, possible that he could have been reared partially in Charleston, since his father spent at least the first four years of Raymond Jr.'s life between Charleston, the frontier, and St. Simons. He married Ann of South Carolina (1744-1808). His only child was Raymond Demere III (1773-1832).

Raymond Demere Jr. was born a British subject and remained a Loyalist through the Revolution, while his first cousin, Paul Deméré’s son Raymond Demeré II of Savannah, became a Patriot and Revolutionary War hero.

On 9 September 1774, Raymond Jr. took an oath of allegiance to King George III when he was made an Ensign in Captain Arthur Carney’s Company of the Militia and Justice of the Peace for the four Southern Parishes. He was head of one of only fifteen families on St. Simons at the time of the Revolution.

During the course of the war, Raymond Demere Jr. apparently suffered from both the British and American forces. In early July 1781, “… an American boat commanded by one Frisby …” raided the Demere plantation on the Little Satilla [Harriet's Bluff Plantation in Camden County?] and carried off eight enslaved people. Raymond Demere Jr. and his family possibly later fled to East Florida, which was temporarily under the British

After the Revolution, the family of Raymond Demere Jr. (1752-1829) returned to St. Simons Island from their exile in Florida. During the War, the original Harrington Hall was evidently destroyed when the British landed on the island on 10 August 1777. They returned to St. Simons after the War to financial ruin; throughout the War the occupying Redcoats made no distinction between the properties of Loyalists and Patriots and destroyed everything.

Raymond Demere Jr. apparently moved the family seat to the south island acreage called The Grove or Mulberry Grove with the manor named Mulberry Hall. It was the only St. Simons plantation to survive and flourish from the eighteenth century to well into the nineteenth: through four generations of Demere planters.

Since he was a Loyalist, Raymond Demere Jr. was barred from residence and citizenship in Georgia, and his property was confiscated. Nevertheless, since he was apparently a noncombatant, on 21 February 1785 the name of Raymond Demere Jr. was taken from the Act of Confiscation [of Loyalist property] and placed under the Amendment Act. His rights of citizenship were restored but he was not to be permitted to vote or hold office for fourteen years. This punishment was mitigated for Demeré and he was soon holding office.

Raymond Demere Jr. returned to St. Simons Island to his 600 acres and rebuilt the Mulberry Grove and Harrington plantations. By 1794, he had increased his holdings to 1,165 acres in Glynn County alone, and became a pioneer in growing silkworms (hence the mulberry trees), rice, and Sea Island cotton (a species of cotton native to tropical America and widely cultivated for its fine, long-staple fibers) the demand for which exploded with the invention of the cotton gin in Savannah in 1793.

In addition to Harrington and Mulberry Grove, Raymond Demere Jr. owned a plantation of 1,150 acres in McIntosh County, Georgia called Martin’s Hill and lots 55, 57, and 58 in Frederica.

He was elected to the House of Representatives for Glynn County, Georgia in 1789. and Executive Commissioner of Glynn County (which he declined). He was commissioned Captain in the 3^rd, or Sea Island, Company of the Glynn County Militia on 10 December 1790 and elected Justice of the Peace the same year.

He served as the Commandant of Glynn Academy from 1791-1792 and again in 1812. Raymond Demere Jr. was Justice of the Inferior Court in 1791. The 1794 Tax Return for Glynn County shows him as owner of 1,165 acres of land in that county and that he had 13 people enslaved.

Raymond Demere Jr. was a member of the very first a Vestry of Christ Church, Frederica when it was established on 22 December 1808.

In a remarkable replay of the ravaging of St. Simons Island during the American Revolution by the British, the War of 1812 again brought destruction to the low country.

A British Navy contingent, under Admiral Sir George Cockburn captured St. Simons Island in early 1815 and held it for three weeks before it was abandoned. The Raymond Demere Jr. family was probably away from St. Simons during the 1815 occupation, evidently joining their Demere cousins in Savannah.

In his will, Raymond Demere Jr. noted that, during the British occupation of St. Simons, his enslaved man named Joy “…saved and protected a great part of my property … [and] buried and saved a large sum of Specie with which they might have absconded and obtained their freedom.”

As repayment for Joy’s loyalty, Raymond Demere Jr., not only emancipated Joy, his wife Rose, and her two children Jim and John but also gave them a cash annuity along with livestock and land. He directed that her son, John, be taught reading, arithmetic, and some mechanical profession and, upon reaching 21 years of age, be given $1,000. This required an act of the Georgia Legislature, and in 1830 it passed the necessary legislation freeing the enslaved family.

Raymond Demere Jr. was present at a dinner on 7 December 1821 of the St. Clair Club, a social club formed by the planters of St. Simons, where, as described by Charles Wylly:

Dr. [William] Fraser has been telling old Raymond Demere of the Mogul Empire, where diamonds, rubies, and pearls are the loot of the common soldier, and the eyes of the miserly man sparkle with covetousness.

Raymond Demere Jr. died 2 January 1829 at age 76 on St. Simons Island. He was buried at the Demere burying ground, and his tombstone was later removed to Christ Church Frederica, the second oldest Episcopal Church in Georgia.

His will named his only son Raymond Demere III (1773-1832), who outlived his father by only three years; his grand children Mary, Martha, and Caroline; and his grandsons Joseph, Lewis, John, and Paul.

His is one of eight stones in the Demere plot that was moved in the 1940’s by Raymond M. Deméré Sr. of Savannah because of the airport expansion. The stones are large slabs, roughly three feet by six feet, lying flat on the ground and are within a one foot high (previously four foot high) tabby wall with two foot tall corners.

HANDLEY, George (1752-1793)

George Handley was born in England on 9 February 1752. After arriving in America he was named 1^st Lieutenant of the 1^st Georgia Regiment on 7 January 1776, later named Captain in October of the same year. Upon his retirement in July of 1782 he was a Lieutenant-Colonel. He settled in Glynn County where he became prominent in local happenings as a representative of this county at the Convention of 1787 that met to ratify the Constitution; and as a member of the Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1789 as president of that body. In 1787 he was appointed Colonel of the Glynn County Regiment of Militia and in 1789 he was a Collector of the Port of Brunswick.

Handley also represented Glynn County in both Houses of the General Assembly of Georgia; he was a member of the House of Representatives from 1788 to 1789 and elected president of the Executive Council.

On 26 January 1788 George Handley became Governor of Georgia and served until 7 January 1789. He then returned to Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia where he was Sheriff of the county in 1790 and Tax Collector in 1792.

George Handley married Sarah Howe, niece of Gen. Samuel Elbert, together they had but one child, George Thomas Handley. On 17 September 1793, George passed away in Augusta. Upon his death, his wife and son received title to one half of Blythe Island that was confiscated from John & Hugh Poulson under the Act of Attainder and Confiscation [lands seized by the American Government from those who sided with England]. This land was purchased by Christopher Hillary and George Handley from the Commissioners of Confiscated Estates.

HART, Benjamin & Nancy (1730-1802)

Benjamin Hart and his wife, Ann, who was the daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Alexander) Morgan, at one time lived in Brunswick, Glynn County, Georgia.

Benjamin came from North Carolina to Georgia, and lived in Elbert County prior to the Revolutionary War, and at the outbreak he enlisted. While her husband was away, Nancy, as Ann was known, became a nationally acclaimed heroine by capturing several Tories on her property who were demanding food, this, according to "local lore".

At the close of the war they came to Brunswick, settling in the area now known as Wright Square. The earliest found record of Benjamin was in the Tax Digest of 1794 where he returned 15 enslaved people for taxes. The land he owned was a 50 acre tract located in the southeastern part of the city, beginning at a stake in the edge of the marsh (on the Boulevard) and running S 63 degrees E (line on the drain) to the corner of Cochran and First Avenues; thence down First Avenue to a "chinkapin" within a few feet of the corner of Carpenter Street; thence south S 19½ degrees E (being practically the line of Carpenter Street) along the side of a ditch to a cedar post in the edge of the marsh and, following the edge of the marsh, to the point of beginning.

It is assumed that Benjamin died about 1801 to about 1802 as his will was filed in this county in the latter part of 1801 and his estate appraisal was entered 29 February 1802. His wife presumably left with a son, John, to live in Clark County, Alabama. Other sons, Thomas and Benjamin Hart, Jr., may have stayed in Glynn County. Nancy and son John, and his family, moved from Alabama on the Tombigbee River to Kentucky. John Hart died in 1821 and Nancy continued to live with her daughter-in-law. Nancy was buried in the Hart graveyard in Henderson, Kentucky.

Benjamin Hart's grave is unmarked but he is believed to be buried in Wright Square, which was the public burying ground at that time, in the northwest corner directly in front of the J.M. Burnett home.

HILLARY, Christopher (1755-1796)

Born in 1755, he was a patriot to the American cause, and is believed to have lived in Glynn County prior to the outbreak of war. He served under Col. Elijah Clark as a lieutenant and was captured by the British on 15 May 1781 on 26 February 1782 he was exchanged at Ashley Ferry, South Carolina.

Mr. Hillary is another prominent person of Glynn County Government. He was surveyor of Glynn and Camden County in 1784; member from Glynn County in the Georgia House of Representative in 1787, 88, and 89; Lieutenant-Colonel of the Glynn county Regiment of Militia in 1787 and later Colonel of this Regiment in 1790; member from Glynn County in the Executive Council that met in Augusta in 1788; representative of the county in the Constitutional Conventions of 1788 and 1789; Justice of the Peace for Glynn County in 1787; and Collector for the Ports of Brunswick and Frederica. [Research by Margaret Davis Cate has not been substantiated].

Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, 18 February 1796, Christopher Hillary dies leaving a widow, Agnes, and daughter Maria. After his death, Agnes married Col. John McIntosh and her daughter married his son, William Jackson McIntosh.

McINTOSH, John (1748-1826)

Born around 1748, he was the son of William & Mary J. (MacKay) McIntosh and the grandson of John Mohr McIntosh who was the commander of the Scotch Highlanders at New Inverness, now known as Darien; their family coming over with Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe to help settle the state of Georgia.

John served throughout the Revolutionary War first as Captain of the First Georgia Regiment on 7 January 1776, then as Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the Third Georgia Regiment on 3 April 1778. On 3 March 1779, John was wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Briar Creek.

In recognition of his valor of defending Fort Morris in Sunbury, McIntosh was awarded a sword with the words "Come and Take It" engraved on the blade. These words were spoken by Lt.-Col. McIntosh when Lt. Col. Fuser of the British Forces demanded Fort Morris' surrender, and McIntosh told him to come and take it!  Fuser reconsidered his demand, and retreated.

John McIntosh married Miss Sarah Swinton in the year 1781; she was a native of South Carolina, and after the war was whisked away to Florida to establish their home on the St. John's River. On a visit to St. Augustine, John was arrested and sent to Moro Castle at Havana, accused of "designs against the Spanish Government". After a year imprisonment, he was freed with the help of President Washington and friends. [Click here to read some of his letters home]

After his "parole", John and the misses moved to St. Simons Island. Sarah, who had been blind for many years, died here on 9 May 1799. It is rumored that her grave is located in a secluded spot on what was once known as the "Village". After Sarah's death, John married Agnes Hillary, widow of Christopher Hillary, John's son William married Agnes' daughter Maria.

During the War of 1812, John served as a general and was in command of three regiments of infantry and a battalion of artillery for the protection of Savannah and coastal Georgia. During this conflict, McIntosh marched his troops over a thousand miles through wilderness to Mobile, Alabama, when the British threatened the Gulf Coast. He was honored with a letter of gratitude from the Mayor of Savannah, and the City Council adopted resolutions of thanks for his gallant service. John McIntosh died around 1826.

MACKINTOSH, William (1759-1799)

William Mackintosh was Commissioner of Glynn Academy in 1797,  served as Commissioner for the town of Frederica, and was Judge of the Inferior Court of Glynn County. The son of Lachlan McIntosh, and the grandson of John Mohr McIntosh, William died 1 December 1799. See listing for MackIntosh Cemetery

An old deed on file in the Glynn County Court House executed by Gen. Lachlan McIntosh in 1800, gives "to Martha MacIntosh, widow of the General's son, Major William McIntosh, the tract where she now resides, originally granted Donald Forbes, for her life time." The tract referred to was St. Clair (also know as Sinclair). William, and his two children, are buried on this land, side by side, under a canopy of trees. There are no living descendants of this branch of McIntoshes.

To defer your confusion on spelling, the tombstones for William and children were inscribed with the name MackIntosh and William also signed his name this way.

PURVIS, George (1755-1805)

George Purvis served in the Revolutionary War as a Second Lieutenant in Capt. Patten's Company, Col. Hall's Delaware Regiment, Continental Establishment starting on 5 April 1777, and was made First Lieutenant on October 15^th, and later Regimental Adjutant on 15 August 1778. This regiment saw service under Gates, Greene, Lee, Williams, and DeKalb.

Lieutenant Purvis was taken prisoner in 1780 along with Lieut.-Col. Vaughn and Major Patten, they were exchanged at Ashley Ferry, South Carolina on 26 February 1782. Later he was commissioned as a Captain and served till the war's end. By 1794, he shows up in the Glynn County Tax Digest. In 1796 he was County Surveyor and made a map of Brunswick, a copy of which can be found at the state archives in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to the above mentioned positions, George also served as the Glynn County member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1798; Justice of the Inferior Court from 1796 to 1799; president of the Board of Education in 1796, Commissioner of Town and Commons of Brunswick up to 1805 when he supposedly died.

George and wife Eliza had four children: Polly, Sarah A., Martha Eliza, and William G. Purvis. Polly Purvis married Benjamin Franklin (not the President of the United States), Martha married James Hatcher, Sarah married John Flinn, then later Philip Ulsch, and William married Martha Goodwin Bills, whose father, Jonathan Bills, built the first Glynn County Courthouse.