Mark Cole
George Walton was truly a self-made man. An orphan, he was apprenticed to a carpenter as a young man and worked his body incredibly hard by day but still found the strength and resolve to work his mind and to educate himself at night.
Eventually he would enter the bar and move to Savannah, Georgia.
Though Georgia was a loyalist stronghold, Walton’s legal career brought him into contact with the leading patriots of Georgia and it was not long before Walton, too, identified with the cause of independence. George Walton was one of four people who called a public meeting at Savannah on July 27, 1774 for the purpose of hearing public grievances against the crown. He was also one of a committee appointed to correspond with the other colonies opposed to British rule.
Not surprisingly, then, in 1776, Walton was chosen as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. He arrived only a few days before the vote on the resolution for independence. And together with Button Gwinnett and Dr. Lyman Hall, George Walton of Georgia signed the Declaration.
Georgia rapidly descended into a battleground, invaded by sea and land. The legislature was determined to defend its citizenry and their land, so it raised a militia, called Walton home from Philadelphia and appointed him as a colonel.
In the battle for Savannah, Walton was shot from his horse and taken prisoner. Thus Walton, together with Thomas Heyward, Jr., Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge, and Richard Stockton, holds the distinction among the signers of the Declaration of having been held as a prisoner of war by the British.
Fortunately, his release came swiftly and in response to the British, the legislature appointed Walton as the wartime governor of Georgia.
With independence and peace, Walton was able to play a key role in the formation of the Georgia state government. He lived until 1804 and never ceased serving the people of Georgia, holding the office of Chief Justice of the state for many years, and even serving in the United States Senate.
Patriot, colonel, governor, judge and senator. Not bad for a man who started as an orphan and a carpenter’s apprentice.
Check out Mark’s book: Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor: The Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
