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The
Georgia Historical Society
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Dr. Lyman Hall When Lyman Hall signed the Declaration of Independence, he was 52 years old--twice as old as George Walton and over a decade older than Button Gwinnett. But Hall's passion in promoting American rights belied his age, for he was one of the earliest instigators for liberty.
Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, on April 12, 1724, Lyman Hall came from old Puritan stock that had lived there for several generations. He first studied theology at Yale and served briefly as pastor of a Congregational church. His main interest turned to medicine, however, which he actively practiced by the time he moved to South Carolina in 1756 or 1757. In 1760 he was granted land in Georgia in St. John's Parish, near Midway, where he established a rice plantation, Hall =s Knoll, and built a home in the adjacent port of Sunbury. Two years later he returned to South Carolina and practiced medicine in Pon Pon, but had returned to Georgia by 1774, actively promoting American independence.A zealous revolutionary leader in St. John's Parish, Hall proposed splitting from the rest of the colony and joining South Carolina, which was more committed to revolution. When the rest of Georgia refused to send delegates to the Continental Congress in the spring of 1775, St John's Parish sent him alone to Philadelphia. Hall abstained from voting, however, since he did not represent the entire colony. After Georgia =s Second Provincial Congress, meeting at Tondee's Tavern, elected him one of five delegates from Georgia in July 1775, Hall--along with Button Gwinnett and George Walton--signed the Declaration of Independence one year later. Hall labored to secure clothing, medicine and provisions for the army; and conferred with General Washington and his aides on military plans. Though re-elected until 1780, Hall left Congress in 1777, believing that Georgia needed him more than Philadelphia.After the fall of Savannah in December 1778, the British held Georgia (except the frontier), and they burned Hall's plantation house and his home in Sunbury. Accused of high treason, Hall fled to Charleston, and after that city fell the following spring, he took his family farther north. Following the British evacuation of Georgia in the summer of 1782, he returned to St. John's Parish--renamed Liberty County for its early role in gaining independence--and resumed practicing medicine. In January of 1783, he represented his county in the Georgia Assembly. He was elected governor by this assembly, and in that office he worked diligently for Georgia's growth and welfare. The establishment of "seminaries of learning" became his primary goal, and his emphasis on mental and spiritual education laid the basis for chartering the University of Georgia in 1785. Hall later moved his residence to Savannah, and served as a judge of the Inferior Court of Chatham County. In 1790 he retired to a plantation in Burke County overlooking the Savannah River, where he died in October 1790. After burial in a brick vault on the bluff of the river, the state removed Hall =s remains to Augusta in 1848 and reinterred him alongside his friend George Walton beneath the Signers' Monument. Hall County, which borders Gwinnett County in north Georgia, is named in his honor.Although he never bore arms, Dr. Hall served Georgia well. A champion of independence, he labored tirelessly in the national and state assemblies to ensure American victory, and, in the aftermath of war, served as governor of Georgia to secure a solid foundation for future generations.
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