Chapter XII

JAMES HOUSTOUN, SURGEON IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY

JAMES HOUSTOUN’S second appearance in this history presents him as a young man of property. On October 2, 1770, he was one of the petitioners praying the Royal Council for one hundred and fifty acres of land in St. Matthew’s Parish, explaining he had long been in the province and had one slave. The tract of land he desired had been granted formerly to Michael Joyce, but James Houstoun stated it had lapsed in the surveyor general’s office. His petition was granted. However, he could not have acquired the land he coveted, because one year later, November 5, 1771, he again sent a petition to the Governor and council “setting forth that he was bred up in this Province had had no land granted him, that he was possessed of five slaves and intended soon to purchase an additional number, and being desirous of obtaining land for cultivation, therefore praying for 500 acres of land on Finhalloway Swamp.”¹ That application was also granted. Finhalloway Swamp was a desirable tract in the northern part of St. Andrew’s Parish, about ten miles from the coast, but again James Houstoun was disappointed in his choice of land. He had not reckoned on the fact that a large portion of cultivable land in that parish had been taken up by the Scottish settlers of Darien, particularly all available acres around Finhalloway Swamp.² He obtained the rights from the council, but during the month that followed he evidently discovered that the tract had been surveyed and granted to other persons, as on December 3 he “prayed in lieu thereof five hundred Acres of Land ordered to James Lucena on the Altamaha.”³ James Houstoun had reached that age when a man should support himself, and he decided, for the time being at least, to be a planter. The particular land which he at last succeeded in owning was in a district especially adapted to the cultivation of rice, a commodity then popular for trading with the merchants in foreign ports south of the colonies as well as in the colonies themselves. By the next year lot number 63 in the newly surveyed town of Brunswick had been added to James Houstoun’s holdings.

The next event in James Houstoun’s career demonstrates the predilection for political life that seems to have been the bent of all the Houstoun men of that generation, with the exception of George, since on December 9, 1772, James entered the Lower House of Assembly as an elector from St. James’s Parish, although he was a resident of Christ Church Parish. The qualifications for membership in the Commons House of Assembly were determined by an act passed on June 9, 1761. It was decreed that any person elected or returned to serve must be “a free born Subject of Great Britain or of the dominion thereunto belonging or a fforeign [sic] person Naturalized professing the Christian Religion and no other and that hath arrived at the Age of Twenty One Years and hath been a Resident of this Province for twelve Months before the date of the said Writ and being legally possessed in his own Right in this Province of a Tract of Land containing at least ffive [sic] hundred acres.”⁴

On the day he became a member of the house he pledged the oath of abjuration and took his seat, and his brother Patrick returned to the Royal Legislature as a delegate from St. Andrew’s Parish. Sir Patrick Houstoun, sixth baronet, was then living on his plantation near Darien. James Houstoun was frequently assigned to committees and often served with his brother Patrick. He continued a member of the assembly through the years 1773 and 1774.

As he was always referred to on those committees as “Dr. Houstoun,” it is evident he had already prepared himself for a later contribution to his state, that of surgeon in the Continental Army. In Georgia’s colonial period there was but one way for a man to obtain training as a physician, and that was under the instruction of a recognized doctor who acted as preceptor. “For reputable physicians the training period was a minimum of two years, and frequently, three to five years from European schools, or licenses from licensing bodies in England, Scotland, or Continental Europe. Not many physicians had attended the few medical schools then existing in America, and not all who did had medical degrees. The courses of lectures in the American medical schools were only four months long, and extended over two years. Physicians who took the regular courses of four months each for two years received degrees; those who attended only one course, did not. Often, for those physicians who took medical degrees from American schools, it was necessary that a period of preparation be spent with a preceptor.”⁵ When those who had been trained by a preceptor entered the Continental Army, they received a wider experience under the guidance of, for that day, more highly trained men, and those assistants were called “surgeons’ mates.”

There were several physicians living in Savannah in the 1770’s who might have been the preceptors of James Houstoun. Among them was Colonel Noble Jones, one of the earliest colonists and an associate of James Houstoun’s father. Colonel Jones was “bred to the profession of physic, which he practiced in England until he removed to Georgia.”⁶ Dr. Noble Wimberly Jones, son and pupil of the former, was by the year 1756 practicing medicine in Savannah. There were also Dr. Lewis Johnston, formerly a surgeon in the Royal Navy, and his brother Dr. Andrew Johnston, both trained in Scotland, who came to Georgia in the 1750’s. Among the medical contemporaries of Dr. Houstoun were Dr. William Martin Johnston, Dr. James Cuthbert, Dr. Charles Young, Dr. David Brydie, “Dr. Hazes,” Dr. George Fraser, and others. Dr. Houstoun entered into partnership with the latter, and was associated with him until Dr. Fraser’s death. The partnership of Houstoun and Fraser indicates that James Houstoun received his medical training before 1775.

James Houstoun was married on February 4, 1775, to Eliza Crooke Tannant,⁷ the daughter of Mrs. James Mossman by her husband Edmund Tannant, a Savannah merchant. Mrs. Mossman, the former Elizabeth Crooke was descended from distinguished families of St. Christopher’s, B.W.I. and South Carolina. She was born at St. Kitt’s, and her mother, Heriot, the daughter of Robert Cunningham, of South Carolina, was a widow when she married Clement Crooke in 1771.

The Crookes owned a house on Bay Street “adjoining the Honorable Noble Jones.”⁸ Their daughters intermarried with some of Savannah’s most prominent families. Frances became the wife of Lieutenant Governor John Graham; Susannah married Alexander Wylly, at one time speaker of the House of Assembly; Jane married Philip Young, Sr.; Elizabeth was Mrs. Tannant (later Mossman); and Jourdina was the wife of George Baillie. Their sons were Robert, who apparently died young, and Richard, who at the time of his death was a clerk of the Commons House of Assembly. Mrs. Tannant was left a widow with four children, three daughters and a son. The daughters were Mary, who married James Hume, Attorney General of Georgia; Eliza Crooke, who married Dr. James Houstoun, and Heriot Crooke Tannant. Edmund Tannant in his will, probated January 10, 1763, left a legacy to his daughter Eliza Crooke.⁹ A little over a year later, on April 7, 1764, Mrs. Tannant married James Mossman,¹⁰ a Savannah merchant, and later an ardent Loyalist.

By 1775, the town of Sunbury, beautifully situated in St. John’s Parish between the Midway and Newport rivers, had come into prominence as the rival port of Savannah. James Houstoun obtained a choice lot on King’s Square, known as number 70, and probably held it as an investment as later he offered it for sale.

Early in the following year Dr. Fraser died, and in January, 1776, his executors, one of whom was James Houstoun, advertised in the Georgia Gazette asking all persons indebted to Dr. Fraser to discharge their obligations immediately. In the same issue appeared another advertisement announcing the expiration of the Houstoun-Fraser partnership and urging both debtors and creditors to arrange for prompt settlements. Further, the same issue advertised the sale of the property of the late partnership, including the shop, medicines, utensils, and three Negro men.¹¹

The sale of the shop probably temporarily interrupted Dr. Houstoun’s practice, since war clouds were gathering and he must have felt he would soon be needed for hospital duty where-ever he might be called. At any rate, a year later he was making his plans for active service. Like his brother, John, there was no hesitation on the part of James Houstoun on which side he should throw his lot, and he made a prompt decision to espouse the cause of the Patriots.

2

In the spring of 1776, Dr. Houstoun played the part of intermediary for a Loyalist friend, James Hume, his wife’s brother-in-law, and a nephew of Governor Wright, who had gone to London in January.¹² The Council of Safety at its session on May 29, 1776, sitting in Savannah, decided that it was necessary to have the courthouse repaired and cleaned. It was thereupon ordered that the guard be moved from that building to the house of Hume, who had formerly held the office of attorney general under the Royal Council, but it was added to the resolution, “or any other house that may be agreeable to the gentlemen of the Batallion.”¹³ The news having reached the ears of Dr. Houstoun that same day, he immediately wrote to Archibald Bulloch, President of the Council of Safety, endeavoring to prevent the action against his friend. Bulloch presented the letter to the council at once. Dr. Houstoun, in his letter, informed Bulloch he understood from Mr. Langworthy, secretary of the council, that it was the desire of the latter to obtain the keys of Hume’s house as the president had ordered that it be used for a guard house during the session of the council. Dr. Houstoun commented: “The house has received very great damage from the companies that have been in it (during the alarm) such as ripping the whole of the paper, burning the chimney piece in the best room, etc.”¹⁴ Dr. Houstoun concluded by saying the attorneys were just preparing to renovate the house for “the reception of a family,” and courteously requested council to find another house for the purpose desired. The council, however, was not to be deterred from its first selection, and was of the unanimous opinion that Hume’s house should be commandeered for a temporary guard house. Bulloch thereupon wrote to the commanding officer of the guard, apprising him of the course decided upon by the council, stating that when application was made to Dr. Houstoun for the keys, none could be procured. He then issued the following order: “You will, therefore, endeavor by the best means in your power to enter the house and make use of it accordingly.” At five o’clock in the afternoon, President Bulloch answered the letter of Dr. Houstoun informing the latter he could not depart from the decision of the council, but expressing his regret for any loss that individuals might sustain, ending his letter with this terse sentence, “but the public good must be considered.”¹⁵

The letter to the commanding officer and the one to Dr. Houstoun evidently closed the matter, and James Houstoun’s efforts in behalf of his friend proved futile. James Hume was a member of the Royal Council in 1772, and for that reason was unpopular with the Patriots in control of Savannah. The rebels showed no mercy when they desired to heap indignities upon the King’s loyal subjects, but the tables were turned when the British reigned supreme in Savannah, because the Loyalists wreaked vengeance upon those Patriots who remained in the captured town.

Dr. Houstoun was in Savannah in March, 1777. He and his wife acted as sponsors at the baptism of Patrick, the oldest son of James’s brother George, but on April 14 Dr. Houstoun left Savannah with his brother Patrick and Major Raymond Demere for Charles Town. Major Demere recorded in his diary that he embarked with the above mentioned men “on his way to Philadelphia to join the Continental troops.” Unquestionably James Houstoun accompanied him to the northern city to make his own arrangements for entering the Continental Army, because in October he returned to Savannah bearing a letter from Henry Laurens, delegate to the Continental Congress (later in the year president), to Joseph Clay, who in August of that year had been recognized by the congress as deputy paymaster general in Georgia with the rank of colonel. The letter in which Joseph Clay referred to Dr. Houstoun was dated Savannah, October 16, 1777,¹⁶ and began: “Since my last to you I have received your several favours of the 20th August and 2d Ulto, the latter per Dr. Houstoun who arrived here last Saturday Evening, who gives us a very pleasing and Interesting Account of our Affairs Northerly —he mentions a very considerable detachment of Howe’s Army¹⁷ I think 2000 being killed or taken. . . .” Colonel Clay continued by elaborating on his high expectations. Indeed he had a hopeful view of the times, because, in a succeeding letter, he expressed himself to his friend Laurens thus: “I thank God I see a Dawn of Hope arising amidst all our distresses.”¹⁸ His concept of the situation was sadly premature; the disaster that was to overtake Savannah was not many months away.

In the spring of 1778, General Robert Howe, Governor Houstoun, and Colonel Elbert were making their plans for the fatal expedition to Florida, and by April the latter with his troops was on the march to Fort Howe. Dr. Houstoun was attached to the hospital department as a surgeon’s mate. By the time the troops reached Sunbury the army had many sick on its hands, and sometime in June Dr. Houstoun wrote to Colonel Clay “that twelve of the sick soldiers had died before he reached there, 117 were in a very poor way, and that there were 120 at Sapelo who were in a fair way of recovery.”¹⁹ Captain Morris, Commissary Coddington, and Dr. Houstoun were in charge of the sick at Sunbury, and the latter part of June Dr. Houstoun made a requisition upon Colonel Clay for money to purchase the many “necessarys the soldiers were in want of,” telling him that supplies could not be procured without cash and that the commissary of hospitals had no money to provide for the needs of the “Poor Unhappy People.” Colonel Clay reported the situation to General Robert Howe who was then with his Continental troops at Reid’s Bluff on the Altamaha River. In his reply to Dr. Houstoun, Colonel Clay informed him he was exceedingly sorry to learn of the situation of the soldiers, and, although it was entirely out of his province to send money in the manner proposed, “Nevertheless,” he wrote, “it must not on this occasion be wanted, Humanity & every other obligation forbid it. . . however I shall not hesitate to pay it in that way that will the most speedily & effectually relieve these poor people from their Distressed condition.”²⁰ General Howe evidently approved of Colonel Clay’s action, as the deputy paymaster wrote on July 3 to Deputy Commissary Purchaser Coddington that he had paid Dr. Houstoun one thousand pounds and had his receipt for “the same.”²¹ While Dr. Houstoun was at Sunbury his brother John, the Governor of Georgia, passed through the camp on his way to join General Howe at Fort Tonyn, and of course the two brothers met and exchanged news both of a family and of a general nature.

Neither the date of Dr. Houstoun’s commission as a surgeon’s mate in the Continental Army nor his separation from it has been located. His name first appears on the pay roll of the Continental Army covering the period from July 1 to November 1, 1779, which shows that his pay commenced May 1, and his name is last borne on the pay roll from November 1, 1779, to February 1, 1780, which indicates that he was paid to that date. He was a surgeon in the First Georgia Continental Battalion commanded successively by Colonel Robert Rae and by Major John Habersham.²² The date of Colonel Rae’s commission has not been recorded, only the fact that he was a colonel in the Georgia troops, but Major Habersham was mustered into the Continental service first as a lieutenant, January 7, 1776, then advanced to captain and finally was promoted to brigade major of the Georgia forces in the Continental establishment of which Lachlan McIntosh was the ranking officer and Samuel Elbert the second in command.²³

After Dr. Houstoun’s medical work at Sunbury his hospital duties continued. In August, 1779, he and General Lachlan McIntosh were in Augusta, conferring on a place to set up a hospital for the army’s sick soldiers. Their problem was solved when they appealed to the executive council of the state at its meeting in Augusta held on August 17. They requested the “use of the Church in Augusta as a hospital.” The council promptly granted the request, and appointed a committee to “. . . see that the proper care is taken of the pews and other matters belonging to the Church. . .”²⁴ The church referred to was St. Paul’s (Church of England Mission) which was built opposite to Fort Augusta about 1750. The town of Augusta was captured by the British in February, 1779, but it was evacuated by them in two weeks, when the American forces re-occupied it. Dr. Houstoun, of course, remained with the hospital corps. When General McIntosh united with Brigadier General Pulaski and was directed to move from Augusta to join General Benjamin Lincoln for the attempted but unsuccessful siege of Savannah, Dr. Houstoun was behind the lines engaged in his work of attending and relieving the wounded. Following that engagement Dr. Houstoun found his way to Charles Town and when General Lincoln, who was defending that city, was forced to capitulate to Sir Henry Clinton on May 12, 1780, Dr. Houstoun was taken prisoner. Not long after that disaster occurred he evinced a desire to visit his family in Savannah. He gave his parole to General Alexander Leslie, who was in command of Charles Town and obtained permission from Sir Henry Clinton to go to Savannah. To Dr. Houstoun’s surprise and chagrin, when he arrived in Savannah he was arrested by order of the chief justice and was kept in custody at the home of his wife’s step-father, James Mossman, where he was detained in close confinement. Houstoun was fortunate in the selection of his place of captivity. James Mossman owned a large brick house on the Bay, with eight rooms neatly furnished, six of them having fireplaces. There were several outbuildings built of brick, a kitchen, a stable for three horses, and a carriage house.²⁵

But in a few weeks Dr. Houstoun could contain his anger no longer. On June 21 he wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Sir Alured Clarke, commanding at Savannah, stating his position and asking for redress. Dr. Houstoun’s main grievance, according to his letter to Colonel Clarke, was that while he was a prisoner in the service of the United States and held a “commission as Physician and Surgeon to the Hospitals of the United States,”²⁶ he was being kept under guard by civil authorities for high treason because he had worked in the American hospitals during the time of the siege of Savannah. This, he said, “must appear to every unprejudiced Person Cruel and unprecedented.” If, he wrote, he had been arrested for any information of a private nature against him he would not expect to be protected by his parole. Dr. Houstoun had tried every expedient known to him, but without success. He had made application, without avail, to appear before a general court which had been held during his incarceration, and to appear and answer any charges if they were of a private nature, but his request had been refused. He was under the impression that another court would be held in December, and he had “offered security to appear at that time,” and again he was denied his request. As a prisoner of war he had, as a last resort, approached Colonel Clarke, adding, “In this situation I hold it my Duty to apply to You for Redress, and flatter my self you will not permit Your Prisoner to be insulted and confined without Cause contrary to the Articles of Capitulation entered into and ratified by the Commanding Officers of the two Armies before the Surrender of Charles Town.”

3

The arrest and letter of Dr. Houstoun commanded the attention of high officials in both Georgia and South Carolina, and his letter to Colonel Clarke even reached the hands of Lord Cornwallis. Readers of the correspondence may be quite puzzled to find where the truth really lies; and the insinuation in the letter which Attorney General Robertson wrote to Governor Wright the day following Dr. Houstoun’s to Colonel Clarke, might even appear that “the lie was passed” between the two men. All of the accusations on both sides merely show the temper of the times, and the sad but true tale of bitterness that existed between friends, Loyalist on one side and Patriot on the other. Attorney General Robertson wrote Governor Wright he had “been favored with the perusal of Mr. Houstoun’s letter to Colonel Clarke,” stating that his office gave him opportunity of being well acquainted with the case and also “privy to many of the Circumstances he alludes to.” He went fully into the details of the arrest of Dr. Houstoun and others, saying they were carried before the chief justice, adding that to the best of his knowledge “six or seven Informations were read charging Mr. Houstoun with being Active in Rebellion expressly which charges he made light of.” Both attitudes were perfectly natural in the light of the times. Dr. Houstoun, Attorney General Robertson alleged, was ready to give bail but the chief justice acquainted him with the fact that offences were not bailable, and called on the attorney general for an opinion. The latter, it seems, felt himself not at liberty to give his consent for the accused to take bail, but thought there would be no impropriety in committing the prisoners to a private house under the care of “special gaolers” if they would suggest an abode agreeable to themselves. Thus it was that Dr. Houstoun was committed to the home of Mr. Mossman, the former residence of Dr. Houstoun’s wife, and according to the attorney general a “Place of Resort for his most particular Friends.” Then followed what may be termed a conflict of statements. Attorney General Robertson assured Governor Wright that he did not recollect “to have exchanged one word with him [Dr. Houstoun] on the cause of his confinement, neither did he in person, inform me that he was desirous to be brought to trial,” adding that even if he had done so, he, the attorney general, believed it out of his power to comply with his request because several of the witnesses of “his Conduct during the Siege” lived too far from town to attend court. The next part of Attorney General Robertson’s letter contained information that redounds to the credit of Dr. Houstoun and shows his intention to be true and faithful to the cause of the American patriots. The other prisoners wished to solicit a pardon from the commander-in-chief. Two resolved to return to their former allegiance and requested that the state oaths might be tendered them. One had already taken the oath, and the other intended doing so the next day; “but,” wrote the attorney general, “Mr. Houstoun shows no such Disposition, on the Contrary I am informed is sullen and obstinate in his Aversion to the British Government. Yet he expects the same Favor with the others.” Three friends of Dr. Houstoun intervened for him and received the same answer from the attorney general, “let him do as the others had done and he was entitled to the same Indulgence.” Attorney General Robertson concluded his letter thus:

The next communication was from the attorney general of South Carolina, James Simpson, written to Governor Wright, dated Charles Town, July 6, 1780, in which the South Carolina official wrote that “Lord Cornwallis hath been pleased to refer to me a Letter from Doctor James Houstoun to Colonel Clarke,” and repeated the facts as stated in the previous letters. Simpson’s view of the case of Dr. Houstoun was that since it was of a military nature it could not be prosecuted in a court of justice. His charge of high treason antedated his capture in Charles Town and he held his parole under the terms of the capitulation. The attorney general informed Governor Wright that Lord Cornwallis and General Patterson were “both of Opinion that as long as D^r Houstoun remains a Prisoner under the Terms of Capitulation, he ought not to be called to answer for the Treasons he may have committed before that time.” He concluded with the assumption that the Georgia governor would give the necessary directions to restore Dr. Houstoun to the “relative Situation in which he was placed by the military commanders.” It would be much easier to explain if the matter had ended there, because the sequence is not so pleasant to relate.²⁸

In the interim between Attorney General Simpson’s letter and the answer communicated to him by Georgia’s attorney general, something happened to Dr. Houstoun which, if true, is not illuminating in the light of his professed allegiance to the Patriot cause. Attorney General Robertson answered for Governor Wright, under the date of August 8, when he informed Attorney General Simpson that “Dr. James Houstoun, who was before Your letter came to hand, admitted to Bail in consequences of Assurances that he means to return to his former Allegiance and obedience.” “Had he done that sooner,” Attorney General Robertson adds, in what would appear petulance or impatience, “he would have merited with the others the same Indulgence and saved us all much trouble. It is His Excellency’s Desire that I write You on this Subject, and he desires it may be made known to Lord Cornwallis and General Patterson, that he has a high Esteem for, and shall always shew every Respect and Attention to the opinions of these Gentlemen, and every Person employed in His Majesty’s Service in every other matter that may come properly under his Direction and lye within his Sphere.”

The Georgia attorney general went on to explain to South Carolina’s official that it was not in the power of the governor to order any person charged of high treason to be discharged when once apprehended, and explained Governor Wright’s inability to comply with Simpson’s request.

“It is to me a Matter of very serious concern,” he concluded, “and in my Opinion of a dangerous Tendency to see Notorious Offenders at large in this Province, under Military Passports. . . . In Regard of the particular Case of M^r Houstoun, I am of opinion the Commissioners’ Pardon will avail him much more in a Court of Law than the Articles of Capitulation on the Surrender at Charles Town. You acknowledge circumstanced as he is, at a future Day, that he may be amenable to Justice, for prior Offences I think so too, and that he is equally amenable at present.

“Yet granting that it be not improper to put the Law in force against him, I presume You will agree with me that it is both proper and expedient, to teach such Persons, that no Reasons of State can control the Decress of Law, when a civil Government prevails. And that for their own security they should at least, keep without Reach of the Influence of a Power, which pays no respect to Persons. . . . I am inclined to think General Leslie did not consider the Consequences when he enlarged M^r Houstoun’s Passport to Georgia before he had given full Assurance of his Intentions.”²⁹

While Dr. Houstoun was being kept a prisoner in Savannah, Governor Wright’s council passed the British Disqualifying Act on July 1, 1780, and James Houstoun was numbered among the “cream” of Savannah’s patriotic citizens as being incapable of holding any office of trust, but it affected him as little as it did the other “Rebels” who continued their activity in the Revolution. In spite of the fact that Dr. Houstoun was “admitted to bail” he apparently was still worrying the authorities in Savannah, because in August, 1780, he, together with the Patriot Chief Justice John Glen and John Sutcliffe, “Noted rebels,” were “boldly appearing in Savannah and defying the royal authorities.”³⁰

4

After that incident Dr. James Houstoun is lost sight of in records until the War of the Revolution was over. On February 17, 1783, he was listed among the applicants for the land bounty which was due them for their services in what was called the Georgia Continental Establishment. In 1785, under United States warrants but granted by the State of Georgia, he was awarded nine hundred and twenty acres in Washington County, for service in the Revolution.

When the war was over, the officers of the Revolutionary Army under the leadership of their commander-in-chief, General George Washington, established “The Society of the Cincinnati.” Dr. James Houstoun was one of the original members, and one of the founders of the Georgia society. The object of the society was to perpetuate the friendship of the officers and to raise a fund for relieving the widows and orphans of the men who had died during the war.

The “Institution Society” was formed at Newburgh, New York, on May 13, 1783, and in the months following societies were formed in each of the thirteen states. The Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Georgia was organized in Savannah on August 13, 1783, and the members then adjourned to meet the next day to elect their officers: President, Major General Lachlan McIntosh; vice president, Brigadier General Samuel Elbert; secretary, Captain Milton; treasurer, Lieutenant Colonel McIntosh; and assistant treasurer, Major Habersham.

On September 1, the society met again and Dr. Houstoun was appointed on a committee to draw up rules and regulations for the internal government of the society. The same day he was appointed on a committee to draft an address to be sent to the governor of the state, Lyman Hall, to inform him of the organization of the society. On January 12, 1784, a meeting was held in Savannah for the purpose of electing delegates to represent Georgia at a meeting of the general society. Dr. Houstoun was one of those chosen for that honor.³¹

On January 19, 1784, Dr. Houstoun was in the Georgia House of Assembly, re-elected from Chatham County with James Green, and they took the oath prescribed in the Constitution and took their seats immediately. At that session of the assembly three Houstoun brothers were simultaneously members of the body. At the time of James’s arrival, his brother John had been elected governor of the state just ten days previously. William Houstoun on the same day was elected for the second time a delegate to the Continental Congress, and was sitting in the house as such. From then on through the years 1784-1786 Dr. Houstoun was active in legislative work. The month following his admission to the state assembly, Dr. Houstoun’s name was added, with seven other members, to the list of justices of the peace for Chatham County. Dr. Houstoun held that office until the year 1790. Soon after he resumed his seat in 1784, the assembly “Resolved that James Houstoun, Joseph Habersham, Peter Bard and William Stephens Esquires, be commissioners to contract for building a market in the Town of Savannah, and the said Commissioners are hereby empowered to give the rent of the same as a compensation for the expense of erecting the Building, for such time as they may agree upon.”³² Three years elapsed before the market was built on the public slip of ground at the end of Bull Street below the bluff, and opposite the vendue house.

Another appointment which the legislature made to Dr. Houstoun in February, 1784, was that of commissioner of roads for the northwest road in Chatham County, with seven other members assigned to the commission. Dr. Houstoun held that office also through the year 1790. During that session of the legislature which lasted from January 9 to February 26, 1784, Dr. Houstoun was paid seventeen pounds, fourteen shillings, eight pence for his services as an assemblyman.

The northwest road was the highway to Augusta and had been so designated even earlier than 1775.³³ There was a definite reason for Dr. James Houstoun’s appointment as a commissioner of the “North-west Road,” because the road passed through the district known as Cherokee Hill where Dr. Houstoun was the owner of Colerain, his plantation eight miles up the Savannah River. It was “conveniently located for the residence of a gentleman owning tide lands,” contained pine sufficient for plantation use, that is, for building purposes such as barns and fences, and some part of the tract was “good provision land.” On the premises were a commodious dwelling house, kitchen, stable, and other buildings.³⁴ Other property owned by Dr. Houstoun was a tract of land containing nine hundred acres, part of the plantation known as “Nineteenth,” twelve miles from Savannah. In February, 1784, Dr. Houstoun memorialized the legislature for permission to sell his property there, but his memorial was referred to a special committee, which recommended that the sale be postponed until the next session of the legislature. The delay in granting Dr. Houstoun’s request was due to the fact that “Nineteenth” plantation was involved in the old subject of confiscated estates. General James Jackson had been one of the purchasers of lands under that category and owned part of “Nineteenth.”

Nine years after the death of Dr. Fraser, his estate and the estate of the firm of Houstoun and Fraser still remained unsettled. Dr. Houstoun, as executor of the former, and “surviving copartner” of the latter, advertised in The Gazette of the State of Georgia, March 24, 1785, that since he had moved into the country, he was placing his books, the books of the Fraser estate, and those of the Houstoun-Fraser partnership in the hands of Joseph Welsher, who had been authorized to “settle the same.” All persons concerned were urged to make a “speedy and final settlement.” It was in September of the same year, that James Houstoun offered his Colerain plantation for sale, “on credit,” but no purchaser appeared up to the time of his death.³⁵

5

When his brother George was Worshipful Master of Solomon’s Lodge, James Houstoun was an active member. In December, 1785, the various lodges in the city were notified through the newspaper that the Festival of St. John the Evangelist would be celebrated at Brown’s Coffee-house on Tuesday the twenty-seventh, “where the Masters, Wardens and Brethren of the different Constituted Lodges within this State, and all transient Masons, were invited and expected to join the Grand Lodge in due order at nine o’clock in the morning.” Tickets at two dollars each, it was stated, could be had “of Brothers James Houstoun and Joseph Habersham.” The notice was signed by “Ja^s Habersham, G. S. By order of the Grand Master.”³⁶

By an act of the Legislature of the State of Georgia, assembled in Augusta, February 13, 1786, provision was made for a health officer of the port of Savannah and surgeon of the Seamen’s Hospital, to be under the direction of James Houstoun and others, previously appointed commissioners, who were to have the hospital erected. The health officer was entitled to receive the sum of three shillings sixpence for “every Topsail Vessel and two shillings and four pence for every other Vessel, Coasters and Vessels in distress only excepted.”³⁷ The act further stipulated that of the money received on account of tonnage the sum of three pence for every ton was to be appropriated and set apart towards erecting a hospital for the reception of sick and disabled seamen in the town of Savannah. The commissioners had been appointed in February two years previously, and consisted of Dr. James Houstoun’s brother George, Joseph Habersham, Joseph Clay, William O’Bryan and Leonard Cecil. Civic movements of that nature progressed slowly in those days, and the intention of the legislature, although planned so carefully, did not come to fruition until the year 1809.

Dr. Houstoun was instrumental in promoting educational as well as medical and civic interests. When in 1788, the Georgia Legislature passed the Act appointing trustees for an academy of learning, he was one of the seven men named to establish the Chatham Academy.

On April 16, 1791, Dr. Houstoun’s wife died. They had been married only sixteen years. Her obituary appeared in the Georgia Gazette of April 21:

A few months after his wife’s death Dr. Houstoun went to Scotland, the home country of his father and mother. He visited his old Loyalist friend from Savannah, James Hume, at his place, Carolside, near Edinburgh. It seems likely that Dr. Houstoun took some of his children with him. The deduction is made from a letter written by his daughter Harriet to her first cousin Priscilla Houstoun, although there is no mention of her father. Undated, it was written from Carolside:

The Houstouns probably remained abroad nearly two years, but Dr. Houstoun was back at home in September, 1793. He was absent from the meeting of the Trustees of the Chatham Academy on September 12, “because of illness,” and died five days later, on September 17:

Besides his three brothers, he left four children, James Edmund, Mossman, Harriet Thompson, and Johanna.

His will, made on June 25, 1791, wherein he stated he was “About to depart for Great Britain,” was probated September 27, 1793, and his executors were his brothers, Sir George and John Houstoun; James Hume of Great Britain; and James Mossman. Legacies were left to his sons and to “each of his dear daughters.” He mentions his plantations, Greenwich on Argyle Island, and Colerain; land on Hog Island; and “lands purchased from Mary Warnack.”⁴⁰ Two years after his death his executors advertised for an experienced rice planter to “take over the management of James Houstoun’s plantation in Savannah River.”⁴¹

The saddest note in the life of Dr. James Houstoun was the item in the will of his brother Patrick which reads, “I give unto my brother James five shillings.”⁴² What animosity existed between those two brothers that caused Patrick, when making his will shortly before leaving his native land for the last time, to bequeath a mere pittance to his younger brother James? After a study of the life of Dr. James Houstoun the only conclusion that can be reached is that there existed a bitter personal feud between Patrick and James; the older brother at the end of his life was still strong in his allegiance to the King of England, and the younger one allied to the cause of freedom from British rule. It was a situation that existed in many families throughout the original thirteen states. No better illustration can be used to show how those were “the times that tried men’s souls” and caused brother to revolt against brother.

James, the oldest child, was only fifteen years old men his father died, and the three others were correspondingly younger. When he was twenty-eight years old James married Mary Ann Williamson and had six children. Two died in infancy and were buried in the Brampton cemetery,⁴³ on the plantation of Jonathan Bryan, later owned by the Williamson family. Four children lived to maturity: Eliza, Mary Williamson, John, and James Edmund, Jr.⁴⁴ The father died at Marengo, in McIntosh County, on September 15, 1819. His obituary described him as “possessing fine talents, great energy of mind and unshaken integrity—he represented Chatham County and M’Intosh in the Legislature, and was elected by that Body some years ago, as elector for President and Vice-president—he filled several honorary offices civil and military, and justly acquired the confidence of the state and of all who knew him. His political principles were those of a firm, liberal and decided republican. . .”⁴⁵ His widow married Major Jonathan Thomas, and they lived at the McIntosh County plantation. Harriet Thompson, adopted daughter of John and Hannah Houstoun, married first a Mr. Proctor, and after his death she was married again, on January 17, 1821, to Andrew Brown, by the Reverend Walter Cranston. The second daughter, Johanna, married George Baillie, and died prior to 1827. Their children were Harriet and Eliza.

6

Only the birth date of Dr. James Houstoun’s oldest child, James Edmund, is known. The second son, Mossman, never married. He followed a military career. On March 12, 1807, he was commissioned an ensign in the second company of militia of Chatham County. He was a young man, presumably in his late twenties, when he was made one of the managers of the Savannah assemblies. A short notice appeared in the Columbian Museum & Savannah Advertiser on Tuesday, March 24, 1807, announcing an assembly which was to be given at the Exchange. Mossman Houstoun’s name appeared as one of the three managers.

The next year Houstoun was elected recorder of Savannah on the death of Thomas W. Whitefield, and in a few months he was an officer in the United States Army, although he was never admitted to the United States Military Academy as a cadet.⁴⁶ The record of his advance to the rank of captain has not been found, but in May, 1808, when he was in Savannah he was captain in the Third United States Infantry. In July he received instructions from the Secretary of War, Henry Dearborn, “to open a rendezvous [in the city] for the purpose of recruiting a part of the army ordered to be raised by Congress.” Captain Houstoun’s advertisement, which had the caption “TO ARMS! TO ARMS!,” notified “those desirous of serving their country as regulars, or who prefer the glorious enterprises of the tented fields to the plodding cares of domestic life,” had the “excellent opportunity of indulging themselves.” Prospective recruits were admonished that they “must be sensible that advantages ever result in such cases from early application.”⁴⁷ By October Captain Houstoun was offering a reward of thirty dollars and expenses paid for information of one Stephen Lofetin, alias John Brown, who had deserted.⁴⁸

On Christmas Day, 1808, which fell on Sunday, Captain Houstoun was on duty with Captain Armistead, who was in command of the corps of “artillerists” stationed in Savannah, in pursuit of some British naval officers. The night before, the brig Sandwich, Lieutenant Foley commanding, coming from Nassau anchored off Tybee, and the lieutenant, with a mid-shipman, went up to the city. That was a violation of a proclamation of President Thomas Jefferson ordering that no British ships should enter the waters and harbors of the United States. When the infraction was reported to Captain Armistead, he dispatched Captain Houstoun in quest of the officers with a note ordering them to depart from the city. James Wallace, the British vice consul, got wind of the order and wrote to Captain Armistead that the Sandwich had brought official dispatches to him on His Majesty’s service. In the meantime Captains Armistead and Houstoun called on the collector of the port who informed them that the consul and a naval officer had been to see him that morning to apprise him of the arrival of the Sandwich, whose object in going to Savannah, they said, was to make inquiry concerning a Spanish felucca, which was a prize of the British brig Fire-fly, and which had put into the port in distress the previous August. The cargo, the collector informed the Savannah officers, had been forfeited for a breach of the revenue laws, and the felucca libeled for the seamen’s wages.

When Captain Armistead thought enough time had elapsed for Lieutenant Foley to conclude his business, he decided to enforce the law; so about three o’clock in the afternoon he sent a second note by Captain Houstoun, who was given a detachment order authorizing him to see the British officer on board his “barge.” The order commanded Foley to “leave the city without one moment’s delay,” and on arrival at his ship to “leave the river with all expedition.” Captain Houstoun was told to see that the officers “did not reland.”

After searching for Foley, Houstoun finally found him at George Anderson’s residence and requested an interview with him. Foley left the dinner table in response to the message and confronted Houstoun; he was informed of the nature of the mission and given Captain Armistead’s note. After reading it, Foley asked permission to finish his dinner, whereupon Houstoun told him that “the order was peremptory” and he “would not admit of it.” Before departing, Houstoun asked Foley if he had an answer for Captain Armistead. The Britisher replied he had no time to write, but he “wished Captain Armistead to be informed that his orders would be strictly complied with, and he would proceed to sea with all possible dispatch.”

Captain Houstoun saw to it that the British officers left town about half-past three o’clock, but a little after dusk he was informed that instead of going to his ship as he had promised, Lieutenant Foley had boarded a vessel which was at anchor at Five Fathoms. At midnight, Ensign McIntosh was dispatched down the river, where he found the two recreant officers preparing to “turn in” on the vessel at Five Fathoms. McIntosh “shipped them off a second time,” and supposed they went to their own ship. Although the wind was favorable, on Monday evening it was learned that the Sandwich was still at the mouth of the river, and “adding insult to injury” Lieutenant Foley committed an outrage on the pilot boat Malaparte, one of the vessels belonging to the port of Savannah. According to five of its seamen, who made an affidavit before John Pettibone, justice of the peace, their boat was proceeding to sea on Monday night when a British vessel lying off Tybee lighthouse fired on them with “a shot from a musket,” and they were ordered to come to anchor or be sunk.” When the seamen refused, their boat was “fired on from a cannon charged with a ball.” The men on the pilot boat, refusing a third order to stop, after a second charge from the Sandwich’s cannon, changed their minds, and they accordingly put about for Savannah, deeming it unsafe to go to sea.⁴⁹ The newspaper’s story ended there, and, presumably, the Sandwich left Georgia waters soon after the encounter with the Malaparte.

From Savannah, Captain Houstoun was ordered to New Orleans, to take charge of a recruiting office there. In April he was advertising in the newspaper of that city offering rewards for deserters.⁵⁰ In a year’s time he was back in Savannah where he remained for two years. In 1810 he made a map of the city. In the next two years he engaged in the city’s activities although he had not lost his commission in the army. He had previously studied law, and in January, 1811, he announced to prospective clients that he was returning to the practice of law.

In January, 1812, Mossman Houstoun was elected Captain of the Chatham Hussars, a corps, as published at the time, “recently to be raised in the County.” The other officers elected at the same time were Richard F. Williamson, first lieutenant; George W. McAllister, second lieutenant; George L. Cope, cornet. Another troop of cavalry was already in existence in Savannah, the Chatham Light Dragoons, and in 1823 the two united and formed the Georgia Hussars. Houstoun gave up his captaincy in the Chatham Hussars after a month to accept a majority in the new army for Georgia.

Major Houstoun was assigned to the Eighth Infantry as aide to Governor Mitchell, and in May he was dispatched to Augusta to be commandant in place of the Governor’s former aide, Colonel John A. Cuthbert. The garrison at Augusta was “supplied with Salt provisions, but much in want of bread.”⁵¹ Major Houstoun was soon raised to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Eighth United States Infantry, and served in that capacity until August 15, 1813. He was deputy adjutant general of the Southern Department when that office was discontinued.

Colonel Houstoun’s next place of residence, it was found, was in Philadelphia, in 1827. In February of that year he and his sister, Harriet Houstoun Brown, and the children of James Edmund Houstoun, and of Johanna Houstoun Baillie applied to the United States Government for bounty lands of Dr. James Houstoun for his services in the Revolution. The records of the Veterans Administration show that Warrant No. 1231, for four hundred and fifty acres was issued to them on March 14, 1827, but the files of the General Land Office fail to show that a warrant of that number issued by the United States was ever surrendered for location on the public lands.

Harriet Brown died in Savannah in 1833 and in her will, which was probated on March 4 of that year, she left legacies to her brother, Mossman Houstoun, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and to her nieces Eliza and Mary Houstoun.

In 1829, Patrick and Priscilla Houstoun, first cousins of Mossman Houstoun, and John Houstoun McIntosh were paying the expenses of their relative who was in a mental hospital in Philadelphia. Mossman Houstoun was quite old when he died, and he survived his sister by many years, but the year of his death has not been found. On November 4, 1882, Clifford Wayne Anderson, the grandson of Mossman Houstoun’s first cousin, Robert James Mossman Houstoun, applied for letters of administration for the estate of Colonel Houstoun “who died intestate in 1832”; but on December 27 he made a second application, stating that his cousin’s death occurred in 1876. Both dates are unquestionably wrong. The estate amounted to two hundred dollars, and land in Cherokee County, Georgia.

An unhappy episode in Mossman Houstoun’s life seems to have been the cause of his confinement in a mental hospital when he was in middle life. A broken engagement to Susannah Cunningham Wylly, of St. Simon’s Island, must have occurred some years prior to 1827. Susannah Wylly never married, and to the day of her death, it was said, she had never loved anyone but Mossman Houstoun. Circumstances point to his exhibiting the same loyalty. Susannah Wylly was the daughter of Alexander Campbell Wylly (1759-1833) and his wife, Margaret Armstrong Wylly (1769-1850), and she was the granddaughter of Alexander Wylly and his wife Susannah Crooke Wylly, the latter the great-aunt of Mossman Houstoun. Before coming to Georgia the Wyllys lived in the Bahamas, and their daughter Susannah was born at Nanan, New Providence, on August 29, 1788. Following the birth of three of their children, Alexander Wylly and his wife moved to St. Simon’s Island, and resided in what was then known as The Village. Susannah in her young ladyhood visited Boston and boarded in the same house with Gilbert Stuart and his family. While there a beautiful portrait of her was painted by Stuart, according to family tradition.⁵² Susannah Wylly often visited Savannah as the guest of “the Frasers” and it can be assumed it was there that the romance began between the young girl and the military officer Mossman Houstoun. No clue has been found to the reason for their broken engagement, but whatever may have been the cause, the breach was never healed. Susannah Wylly lived to be forty-one years old. She died on October 19, 1829, at the plantation of her brother-in-law, James Hamilton Couper, in Wayne County. He was the husband of her sister, Caroline. Susannah Wylly was buried in the cemetery of Christ Church, Frederica, St. Simon’s Island, not far from her home.

With the death of Mossman Houstoun and of the children of his brother James, the line of Dr. James Houstoun became extinct in this country. The two Baillie daughters, Eliza and Harriet, lived in England which they considered their home. There were no descendants of James Edmund Houstoun after the third generation. Three of the five Houstoun brothers, Sir Patrick, John and James, left no continuing line.

1. Colonial Records of Georgia, XI, 138; XII, 118.

2. Information from Marmaduke H. Floyd of Savannah.

3. Colonial Records of Georgia, XII, 130.

4. Ibid., XVIII, 467.

5. Information contributed by the late Dr. Victor H. Bassett, Health Officer of Savannah, (1936), Librarian and Past President of the Georgia Medical Society (Savannah).

6. Victor H. Bassett, A Medical Biography, (Extracts from Bulletin of the Georgia Medical Society, Savannah, 1936), 3.

7. The author is indebted to Mrs. Maxfield Parrish of St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, for clearing up the maiden name of Mrs. James Houstoun. In a family Bible examined some years ago by the author was an entry, “Dr. James and Eliza Crooke Houstoun.” It was natural to assume that the latter’s family name was Crooke. Mrs. Parrish’s research proved it to be Tannant. That, coupled with a reference in a letter of Robert Mackay written on February 5, 1775, indicating that the marriage took place the day before, was further evidence of the correct surname. The aforesaid Bible is not now (1949) available. Several issues of the Georgia Gazette for 1775 are lost, and it is possible that the marriage notices of both John and James Houstoun may have been in some of the missing issues.

8. The house was on the south side of Bay near Lincoln streets, and was offered for sale in the Georgia Gazette, June 8, 1768, and often thereafter. It happened in many instances that property offered for sale in the colony’s newspapers was not always disposed of, as in the instance of the Crooke residence, but remained in the family, at least until the year 1845, when it was owned by Miss Jane Young (died, 1883). The number was 33.

9. Georgia Colonial Wills, Telamon Cuyler Collection, numbers 57 and 63, in the State Department of Archives and History, Atlanta. Transcripts in Hodgson Hall, Savannah.

10. Georgia Gazette, June 14, 1764. Data on the Crookes supplied by Mrs. Maxfield Parrish and Walter Charlton Hartridge.

11. Georgia Gazette, January 10, 1776.

12. “Letters of Governor Sir James Wright,” in Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, III, 229. Governor Wright spoke of him as “a young man of Great Veracity.”

13. Revolutionary Records of Georgia, I, 133.

14. The “alarm” to which Dr. Houstoun refers occurred in the month of March, previously, when eleven merchant vessels laden with rice were lying at the wharves of Savannah, and British warships entering the harbor sailed up the river and succeeded in burning three ships. The patriots of the town, reinforced by troops from South Carolina, threw up breastworks on Yamacraw Bluff, a skirmish followed, and the British were frustrated in their attempt, but many Loyalists were forced to leave town. Jones, History of Georgia, II, 222-30.

15. Revolutionary Records of Georgia, I, 133, 134, 135.

16. Joseph Clay, Joseph Clay’s Letters, Merchant of Savannah, 1776-1793. . . in Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, VIII, 10, 46. (Hereafter cited as Clay’s Letters.)

17. Sir William Howe, British General under General Gage. Because of his indolence in Philadelphia, in 1777, 1778 when General Washington was at Valley Forge, he was superseded by Sir Henry Clinton. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1888), III, 280.

18. Clay’s Letters, 55.

19. Ibid., 94.

20. Ibid., 87, 88.

21. Ibid., 95.

22. Information received through the courtesy of Brigadier General Frank C. Burnett, Acting The Adjutant General, War Department, August 28, 1936.

23. Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution (Washington, D. C., 1893), 203. See also, C. C. Jones, Jr., Biographical Sketch of the Honorable John Habersham of Georgia (Cambridge, 1886), 14, 15. Privately printed. Also Jones, Biographical Sketches of the Delegates to the Continental Congress.

24. Revolutionary Records of Georgia, II, 160.

25. Royal Georgia Gazette, October 18, 1781.

26. Unpublished Colonial Records of Georgia, XXXVIII, 392.

27. Ibid., 480-483.

28. Ibid., 484-485.

29. Ibid., 485-487.

30. Jones, History of Georgia, II, 426.

31. Information received through the courtesy of Mrs. Marmaduke H. Floyd, formerly Librarian at the Georgia Historical Society Library, Savannah, who derived it from her research work in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress. Also from G. Noble Jones, president of the Society in the State of Georgia.

32. Revolutionary Records of Georgia, III, 571.

33. Marie E. Reddy, “Some Notes About Cherokee Hill,” (Savannah, 1936), unpublished manuscript in files of the Savannah Historical Research Association, 11. Quoted from Georgia Gazette, July 12, 1775. (Hereafter cited Reddy, “History of Cherokee Hill”.)

34. The Gazette of the State of Georgia, September 15, 1785.

35. Colerain later was merged in the large Potter tract on the Savannah River. Reddy, “History of Cherokee Hill.” (See map attached to paper.)

36. The Gazette of the State of Georgia, December 8, 1785. For description of a celebration of that festival see ante, 198.

37. Colonial Records of Georgia, XIX, Pt. 2, 513, 514.

38. Original letter owned by Miss Susan M. Kollock of Atlanta. On the back of the letter was scrawled “Housto Robert,” who in 1793 was five years old.

39. Georgia Gazette, September 19, 1793.

40. LaFar and Wilson, Abstract of Wills, 57.

41. Georgia Gazette, January 1, 1795.

42. See ante, 173 ff.

43. Jane, 1805-1806; James Edmund, 1809-1817 (From tombstone in Brampton cemetery, and the James Houstoun Bible formerly owned by the late Miss Nina Anderson Pape of Savannah, not now available).

44. Eliza (1810-1836) married, in 1834, Charles Spalding, son of Thomas Spalding; Mary (1815-1870) died unmarried at Bath, England; John (1817-1861) died unmarried, and was buried at Brampton; and James (1819-1852) died unmarried, and was buried at Darien.

45. The Georgian, September 21, 1819.

46. Certified in a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Purvis, Adjutant General United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, October 3, 1941.

47. The Republican; and Savannah Evening Ledger, July 7, 1808.

48. Ibid., October 28, 1808.

49. The Republican; and Savannah Evening Ledger, December 28, 1808.

50. Louisiana Courier, April 7, 1809.

51. The Republican; and Savannah Evening Ledger, May 26, 1812.

52. The portrait is owned by Miss Margaret Couper Stiles of Savannah, the great-niece of Susannah Wylly. It is thought now by experts that if Gilbert Stuart was not the artist, the portrait may have been painted by one of his daughters who were portrait painters also.