Notes

Introduction

1. William MacKenzie to William B. Hodgson, Sept. 28, 1844, and Nov. 1, 1844, in William MacKenzie Papers, Georgia Historical Society.

2. The two names for the settlement have been misused in several accounts. Bessie Lewis in her “Darien, a Symbol of Defiance and Achievement,” Georgia Historical Quarterly, XX (Sept. 1936), 185-198 (hereafter cited as G.H.Q.), established beyond doubt the correct sequence of their usage.

3. John McIntosh Mor is often referred to as John Moore McIntosh. Mor (Moor, Mohr) was not a middle name; it signified “large” and was used to distinguish him from others of the same name, some of whom came to Georgia with him. He invariably signed his name John McIntosh M. Columbian Museum and Savannah Advertiser, Dec. 13, 1796, p. 3, col. 3; “Genealogy of the Georgia Branch of the McIntosh Family,” by Alexander Mackintosh, which was compiled for the Georgia Historical Society in 1844 and sent to the Society by William MacKenzie. It is now in the Keith Read Collection, The University of Georgia Library.

4. A. D. Candler, ed., Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, IV (Atlanta, 1906), 165. We ascertain that Lewis was the unfortunate victim, for Phineas was reported “Alive at Darien, 1741.”

5. The quotations, the list of the family which came to Georgia, and other genealogical data are from E. M. Coulter and A. B. Saye, eds., A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia (Athens, 1949); Georgia Gazette, Feb. 11, 1796, p. 2, col. 2; J. G. B. Bulloch, A History and Genealogy of the Family of Baillie of Dunain … With a Short Sketch of the Family of McIntosh, Bulloch and Other Families (Green Bay, Wis., 1898), 68-73, 83-86; William MacKenzie to William B. Hodgson, Sept. 28, 1844; McIntosh Genealogy by Alexander Mackintosh, cited above. There is so much confusion in accounts of the McIntosh family due to identical names in different branches and generations that the editor felt it necessary to include details of Lachlan McIntosh’s family.

6. Columbian Museum and Savannah Advertiser, Feb. 24, 1801, p. 3, col. 1.

7. Ibid., Dec. 13, 1796, p. 3, col. 3.

8. Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, XII (Savannah, 1957), 99 (hereafter cited as Colls. G.H.S.).

9. National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans (Philadelphia, 1836); George White, Historical Collections of Georgia (New York, 1854), 334-335; Sarah B. G. Temple and Kenneth Coleman, Georgia Journeys (Athens, 1961), 231.

10. National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans (Philadelphia, 1836).

11. For an account of McIntosh’s career in the Western Department see “A Revolutionary Journal and Orderly Book of General Lachlan McIntosh’s Expedition, 1778,” ed. by E. G. Williams, Western Pennsylvania Magazine, 43 (March-September, 1960), 1-17, 157-177, 267-288.

12. F. B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, rev. ed. (Washington, 1914), 371; Gazette of the State of Georgia, Feb. 27, 1783, p. 2, col. 2; Columbian Museum and Savannah Advertiser, Dec. 6, 1799, p. 3, col. 3, for obituary of William McIntosh.

13. The house numbered 110 East Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah has for many years been called “the McIntosh house” and has a bronze marker to that effect. This is incorrect. McIntosh’s home in Savannah was on the western half of Lot 0, Heathcote Ward facing St. James’s (now Telfair) Square. Travis Abstracts, Georgia Historical Society.

14. National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans (Philadelphia, 1836); Henry Laurens to McIntosh, Sept. 28, 1768, in the C. F. Jenkins Collection, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, as quoted by A. A. Lawrence in “General Lachlan McIntosh and His Suspension from Continental Command During the Revolution,” G.H.Q., XXXVIII (June, 1954), 105-106; William Bartram, Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida … (London, 1794), 15; Colls. G.H.S., XII (Savannah, 1957), 111, 149; C. C. Jones, Biographical Sketches of the Delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress (Boston, 1891), 139-154; W. J. Northern, ed., Men of Mark in Georgia, I (Atlanta, 1907), 246-256.

15. W. J. McIntosh to I. K. Tefft, Dec. 18, 1828, in McIntosh Papers, Folder L-30, Keith Read Collection, University of Georgia Library; “Having been from home for some time I did not reply to your last letter respecting the papers in the hands of Mr. Bevan: The letter which you mentioned, address’d by Genl. Washington, must have been to Genl. Lachlan McIntosh, my Father’s Uncle, whose Daughter Mr. Harris married; your letter is not before me, and writing hastily late at night, I cannot answer it properly. I saw Mr. Bevan however recently, who did not appear to like the idea of having his papers disturbed, fearing, probably, some disarrangement among them.”

Letters and Documents

1. McIntosh kept his papers folded with a notation as to contents written on a fold. The captions in quotations for the letters and documents in this collection are McIntosh’s notations. Unless otherwise noted the papers herein are in McIntosh’s hand.

2. Esther and John Cuthbert were the mother and step-father of Sarah Threadcraft. George Threadcraft, her father, probably died about the time he made his will in 1742. No record of the re-marriage of Esther Threadcraft to John Cuthbert has been found.

Despite the promise in this document, John Cuthbert, some thirty years later, changed his mind and made charges against Lachlan McIntosh and George Threadcraft, Jr., for the keep of Sarah and James Threadcraft as children, as shown by the letter below from the Conarroc Papers in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and here published with the permission of that Society. As a consequence, Lachlan McIntosh and George Threadcraft, Jr., were appointed administrators of the estate of George Threadcraft, Sr. Gazette of the State of Georgia, Oct. 5, 1786, p. 3, col. 1; and Apr. 17, 1788, p. 1, cols. 2-3; p. 2, col. 1. There is a certified copy of the will of George Threadcraft, Sr., dated 29 April 1742, in Chatham County Court House, probably obtained by the administrators. With this is a paper in the hand of Lachlan McIntosh, “Remark—on the Inventory” [of George Threadcraft’s estate]. The letter referred to follows:

Skidoway Tuesday 11th. July 1786.

Dear George.

This day Week I wrote to you, directed to the care of Mr. Strahacker —requesting you would come down here, as old Mr. Cuthbert is come from Carolina he says to Settle Accounts of your Father’s Estate with you & I—the old man is at his Son Seth John’s at the orphan House opposite to us—Your Sister contrived to get Sanko (Sancho) from him which brought him over here one day, & set him quite Crazy—he swears Vengeance against us in the Law way immediately—therefore it is absolutely Necessary you should come down immediately to give me every information you can, & to form some plan of our proceedings—if you have a Copy of your Father’s will,—Appraisement-Sales—or any other paper or Memorandums respecting the Estate, bring them with you but do not Stay. Your Sister sends Molly with this Letter—& I believe is on a plan of sending her farther, if you Let Sambo go with her, & a written Ticket to prevent their being taken up, from your House & back to you again, upon their way.

I got the particulars of the old Man’s Account against yourself & me, before he got Angry,—& he promised to Let me have your Brother Jammies also, but now refuses to do it.

Yr. Sister & the Family Join in Compliments to Mrs. Threatcraft & yourself & am Dear George

Yours Affectionately

[signed] Lachn. McIntosh.

George Threadcraft To John Cuthbert—Dr.

Lachn. McIntosh To John Cuthbert. Dr.

Mr. Cuthbert expects to recover Donas, Dolly, Bina, & Mingo, or their Value by these Accounts, and the Interest on them

There were eight known children of Lachlan and Sarah Threadcraft McIntosh. We have made no attempt to find all available information on them. They were:

John, the oldest; died in 1792, never married.

Lachlan, Jr., died 1783; never married.

William (1759-1799); no marriage record found.

George; living at time of father’s death in 1806.

Henry Laurens; living at time of father’s death in 1806.

Hampden; living at time of father’s death. He married Caroline Clifford Nephew and had one son who died young, and two daughters, one of whom married a Winston and the other a Bacon.

Hester (Esther); married (1) John Peter Ward and had a son and a daughter. She married (2) Dr. Nicholas Serle Bayard and had Jane Elizabeth (died 1885) who married the Rev. John Leighton Wilson of South Carolina, and another daughter who married an Eckard.

3. This paper is probably from one of a series appearing in the Georgia Gazette and The South Carolina Gazette after both papers published the Boston Port Bill on June 8 and June 3, 1774, respectively. They are signed by various pseudonymns. The letter from which this is extracted could not be found in available issues of the two newspapers. The Rev. Haddon Smith, rector at Savannah, is identified as Mercurious, W. W. Manross, comp., The Fulham Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library … (Oxford, 1965), p. 20.

4. This document, with some differences in words, phrases, capitalization and punctuation is in George White, Historical Collections of Georgia (New York, 1854), 554-556, (hereafter cited as White, Hist. Colls. Ga.), and A. D. Candler, The Revolutionary Records of the State of Georgia, I (Atlanta, 1908). 38-42, (hereafter cited as Candler, Rev. Recs. Ga.). White omitted the fifth resolution. This copy, a preliminary draft in McIntosh’s hand, is mutilated. The missing portions are supplied in brackets from the previously published copies.

Internal evidence points to McIntosh as the author of these Resolutions; according to White he was the first signer. Some phrases, crossed out in the original, have been retained in this transcription.

5. This letter is pasted on a sheet of paper which covers the name of the addressee. The name was read by holding the paper to the light.

6. Same in White, Hist. Colls. Ga., 90, and Candler, Rev. Recs. Ga., I, 111-112. This paper is in an unknown hand. For McIntosh’s letter to George Washington in regard to the affair of the rice ships, see Colls. G.H.S., XII (Savannah, 1957), 1-4.

7. This paper is a preliminary draft of the letter and barely legible. The missing portions have been supplied in brackets from the copy in Peter Force’s Transcripts of Georgia Records, Mss. in the Library of Congress.

8. In an unknown hand. See also John Wereat to George Walton, 30 August 1777, Colls. G.H.S., XII, 66-72.

9. In Baker’s hand. The letter is mutilated along the edge and missing words or part of words have been supplied in brackets.

10. This account sheet was used as a folder around other papers and bears note: “Accot. against the Public. wth. Vouchers for Visiting the Hospitals in April & May 1778.” See “Memorandums 15th. May 1778,” above.

11. In an unknown hand. The caption is in McIntosh’s hand.

12. In an unknown hand. It is mutilated and incomplete.

13. In the hand of Lachlan McIntosh, Sr. All that can be deciphered of the caption is “Copy from Major McIntosh from Valley forge March 78.” This letter was published in The Magnolia; or, Southern Appalachian, New Ser. II (June, 1843), 377.

14. Early in the Revolution the British considered using Russian troops as shown by the following extracts from the Head Quarters Papers: “Earl of Dartmouth to Maj.-Gen. William Howe, 1775, September 5. Whitehall—Secret. That their confident hope of having a large army in America in the spring rests on the ground of an assurrance from the Empress of Russia that she would give any number of infantry that might be wanted, and that a requisition has thereupon been made for twenty thousand men.” Same to same “1775, October 27. Whitehall … The prospects of troops from Russia doubtful.” Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, I (London, 1904), 7, 17.

15. In an unknown hand.

16. This portion is written on the same sheet as above, though upside down. It may be a separate memorandum. Lack (sometimes Lackie) mentioned in this and other papers was Major Lachlan McIntosh, Jr.

17. In an unknown hand.

18. In Brodhead’s hand; title note by McIntosh.

19. Only the salutation and date are in McIntosh’s hand.

20. This note, written on a scrap of paper, is barely legible.

21. The order of the Memoranda is not clear. The paper is only partly legible.

22. In the hand of John Irwin. The letter is badly mutilated.

23. In an unknown hand and badly mutilated. Has note on back: “A return of the strength of the Garrisons West of the Mountains January 1st. 1779.”

24. In an unknown hand.

25. McIntosh had returned to Georgia at this time, by his own request. He took part in the Siege of Savannah.

26. This is a printed form, filled in by McIntosh. The portions crossed out are crossed out in the original. The title is McIntosh’s.

27. Copies of the letters of Glascock and Walton to the Congress referred to in this Declaration are in Colls. G.H.S., XII, 78-80, 115-116. See also the letter of the Continental officers to McIntosh, Jan. 7, 1781, above. The paper is in an unknown hand, but the signatures of the officers are in their own hands.

28. In Cooke’s hand, with McIntosh’s title.

29. This is a copy in McIntosh’s hand and has his note on the back: “Ballingal & Mckinzie, Certificate, of Ben: Andrews.—with Augusta petition.” The certificate is not included.

30. See “The Names of Persons in the Georgia Disqualification Act,” Colls. G.H.S., XII, 92-96. This list was probably intended to be sent with this letter.

31. In an unknown hand with some notations by McIntosh. Where possible mutilated and blank spaces have been filled in with information from other sources.

32. The date of Cuthbert’s commission could not be found. There was a William Johnston of Virginia whose commission as a captain was dated Dec. 24, 1776, and a John Pitt of Virginia who was a Surgeon in the Hospital Department, 1780-1781. F. B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the Revolution, rev. ed. (Washington, 1914), 323, 443. Hereafter cited as Heitman, Hist. Reg.

33. This letter, in an unknown hand, from the Continental officers is another refutation of the slander against McIntosh by George Walton and Richard Howley. An account of the examination of these charges is in Colls. G.H.S., XII, 108-118. McIntosh’s title of this paper is “Letter to the Officers of Colo. Bland’s and Late Colo. Parker’s Regt. with their Answer. & Mr. Wereat’s Notes. Per Capt. Day.” For Wereat’s notes, see ibid., 96.

34. In Carleton’s hand.

35. A preliminary copy, in McIntosh’s hand. It is illegible in places which have been filled in from the copy in Peter Force’s Transcripts of Georgia Records, Mss. in the Library of Congress. Compare this with “Letter to Congress on the promotion of General Knox, 1782,” Colls. G.H.S., XII, 106-108. An incorrect date, 1779, has been added in a different hand. See also the discussion and votes on the promotions of William Moultrie, James Clinton, Lachlan McIntosh, and Henry Knox, March 1782, in W. C. Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1174-1789, XXII (Washington, 1914), 105, 143, 144, 147-148.

36. “Resolved, That such as are in the Continental Service, take rank according to the dates of their Commissions, and the rank they held in the Army at the time of their promotion; and that such as do not hold continental commissions, stand after them in the order in which they are elected.” Ibid., 142.

37. There are two copies of this letter in the collection, sent by different vessels. They are in different hands and vary slightly in words, spelling and punctuation, but not in sense. The copy given here, dated April 30, 1782, bears note in McIntosh’s hand: “Letter of Menzies Baillie to his Brother Robt. Baillie London 30th April 1782.” The other copy, dated May 1782, is incomplete, and has a note in McIntosh’s hand: “Menzies Baillie’s Letters to his Brother Alexander, dated London May & June 1782.” Robert Baillie was Lachlan McIntosh’s brother-in-law, and was a Loyalist.

38. In Bedford’s hand, with McIntosh’s caption. It is mutilated and a section is missing. McIntosh’s reply in his own hand is written on the back.

39. This document is not in Journal of the Transactions of Commissioners of Confiscated Estates in Candler, Rev. Recs. Ga., I, 413-607. It is in an unknown hand and badly mutilated. Some words, where the sense seems obvious, have been supplied in brackets.

40. In Wilkinson’s hand. This document is in Candler, Rev. Recs. Ga., Ill, 345-346. A copy of the Memorial, dated 27 June 1783 and in McIntosh’s hand, is in the New York Public Library Ms. Miscellaneous Papers. In it he tells of his losses in the war and the hardships his family endured during it.

41. In William McIntosh’s hand. There is a copy of this paper in Peter Force’s Transcripts of Georgia Records Mss. in the Library of Congress. No account or mention of the horsewhipping of George Walton by William McIntosh and the subsequent courtmartial of William McIntosh has been found in any publication, including contemporary newspapers.

42. From Gil Blas; prescribes warm water for every ailment.

43. Preliminary draft; see also Colls. G.H.S., XII, 126-129. This letter is probably in response to a proposal in the House of Assembly to vest in the Governor and Executive Council the powers exercised by the Board of Claims. Candler, Rev. Recs. Ga., Ill, 471-472.

44. In the hand of John Wereat.

45. In the hand of John Mackintosh, brother of Lachlan. He retained the Scottish spelling of the name. See also the letter of Charles Scrimsger on this hurricane in Colls. G.H.S., XII 134-135.

46. In Lutterloh’s hand; the printed advertisement referred to is not with these papers. Lutterloh was Deputy Quarter Master General of the Continental Army, 1777-1780. Heitman, Hist. Reg., 361.

47. In hand of John Mackintosh. The debt referred to in the letter was discharged; see “Deed Book A Liberty County, p. 63—John McIntosh, Jr. of Liberty County, to John McIntosh, Sr. of St. Thomas, County of Surry, Island of Jamaica. Deed dated Feb. 22, 1786, to secure debt, conveying 12 slaves, made in order to secure the mortgagee as endorser on a note of said John McIntosh, Jr., dated Jan. 30, 1784, payable to Allen & Campbell, Merchants, of Kingston, Jamaica.” Georgia Genealogical Magazine, No. 15, January 1965, p. 971.

48. The mother of Lachlan and John McIntosh was Margaret Fraser.

49. On the back of this paper is the beginning of another letter by McIntosh: “B The time has been, which I must say was the happiest as well as the greatest part of my Life, that I never was perfectly easy out of your Sight, nor altogether happy out of your Company.”

50. Lachlan McIntosh’s brother-in-law.

51. No record of a marriage of William McIntosh has been found. He died Dec. 1, 1799, aged 40. Columbian Museum and Savannah Advertiser, Dec. 6, 1799, p. 3, col. 3.

52. This was the town of McIntosh which shows on some old maps; the town of Oglethorpe, below, is not shown on a map of St. Simons Island, ca. 1787, at the Georgia Historical Society.

53. There is nothing on this letter to indicate who wrote it or to whom it was addressed. It is undated.

54. McIntosh’s note on the back of this paper: “List of 50. Lottery Tickets United States. 1776. which Colo. Barber is requested to enquire into at Philadelphia, and inform his Humb. Servt. Lachn. McIntosh.”

55. In Seagrove’s hand.

56. In Denison’s hand.

57. This document was published in G.H.Q., III (Sept. 1919), 131-144, under title, “The Case of George McIntosh,” by the editor. It apparently belonged to the Georgia Historical Society at that time. It is in an unknown hand, but the caption is in the hand of Lachlan McIntosh.

58. This letter was probably written to Lachlan McIntosh, son of William McIntosh, and not to Gen. Lachlan McIntosh.

59. Written by John Mackintosh, son of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh.

60. This journal is probably in the hand of George McIntosh. He was accused of traitorous correspondence with the enemy and of supplying rice to East Florida. He wrote a “full and true state of the matter” in The Case of George McIntosh, Esquire, a Member of the Late Council and Convention of the State of Georgia; With the Proceedings Thereon in the Hon. the Assembly and Council of That State … (N.p., 1777).

61. This paper is a fragment. It is not known who wrote it.

62. The three journals of the Siege of Charleston in 1780 which follow—McIntosh’s, John Habersham’s and an unidentified Subaltern’s—were first published, with some modifications, in The Magnolia; or Southern Appalachian, New Ser., I (Dec. 1842), 363-374. In that publication the McIntosh and Habersham journals are interspersed with no notations as to which was which. McIntosh incorporated much of the Habersham journal in his; in a few instances he indicated this by using the initials “J. H.” Mutilated places in this copy of the Habersham journal have been filled in, in brackets, from the McIntosh journal. Another copy of John Habersham’s journal of the Siege, March 28-May 16, 1780, is in Peter Force’s Transcripts of Georgia Records, Mss. in the Library of Congress.

William Moultrie in his Memoirs of the American Revolution …, II (New York, 1802), 65-85, quoted freely and almost verbatim from the McIntosh and Habersham journals without giving his source. Gen. Moultrie’s account continues through May 8, 1780.

The journal of the unidentified Subaltern is probably in his own hand. Most of it is given in footnotes in The Magnolia, cited above. It is incorporated in the copy of Habersham’s journal in Force’s Transcripts. This manuscript is in a very bad condition but it is almost as legible at it was when first published in 1842, for very few words had to be supplied from that copy.

63. The Summons and Gen. Lincoln’s answer are in Moultrie, Memoirs, 68-70.

64. The Lincoln and Clinton letters and terms of capitulation are in ibid., 73-78, 86-103.

65. Most of Col. Beekman’s notes are in a footnote in The Magnolia, cited above. Barnard Beekman, Capt. 4th S. C. (Artillery) 14 Nov. 1775; Major, 18 Nov. 1776; Lt.-Col. 24 Oct. 1778; Col. 20 June 1779; taken prisoner at Charleston May 1780; prisoner on parole to close of war. Heitman, Hist. Reg., 96.