Edward Telfair

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Edward Telfair (1735 – September 17, 1807) was a Scottish-born American Founding Father, politician and slave trader who served as the governor of Georgia from 1786 to 1787 and again from 1790 to 1793. He was a member of the Continental Congress and one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Telfair was born in 1735 at Townhead,<ref>Historical Collections of the Joseph Habersham Chapter, Daughters American Revolution, Volume 2 (1902), p. 64</ref> his family's farm near Kirkcudbright in Galloway, Scotland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He graduated from the Kirkcudbright Grammar School before acquiring commercial training. He immigrated to America in 1758 as an agent of a commission house, settling in Virginia. Telfair subsequently moved to Halifax, North Carolina, and finally to Savannah, Georgia, where he established his own commission house.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> He arrived in Georgia in 1766, joining his brother, William, who had emigrated earlier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Together with Basil Cowper, Telfair built the commission house, and it was an overnight success.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Telfair married 16-year-old Sarah Gibbons in 1774 at her mother's Sharon Plantation just west of Savannah.<ref>Telfair Museum of Art: Collection Highlights – Telfair Museum of Art, Hollis Koons McCullough (2005), p. 10 Template:Isbn</ref>

Telfair was an enslaver and a consultant on issues related to slavery. His mercantile firm dealt in enslaved people, among other things, and contemporary correspondence of his included discussions of such topics as the management of enslaved people, the purchase and sale of enslaved people, runaway slaves, the mortality rate of enslaved people born on plantations, the difficulty of selling closely related enslaved people, and the relations between whites and freedmen.<ref>Edward Telfair Papers, 1764–1831; 906 Items & 5 Volumes; Savannah, Georgia; "Papers of a merchant, governor of Georgia, and delegate to the Continental Congress".</ref>

Revolutionary period

Telfair was a member of a Committee of Safety (1775–1776) and was a delegate to the Georgia Provincial Congress meeting at Savannah in 1776. He was also a member of the Georgia Committee of Intelligence in 1776.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Telfair was elected to the Continental Congress for 1778, 1780, 1781, and 1782. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation.

In 1783, during the Cherokee–American wars, Telfair was commissioned to treat with the Chickamauga Cherokee Indians. Telfair was the designated agent (on behalf of Georgia) in talks aimed at settling the northern boundary dispute with North Carolina in February 1783. The land in question was generally regarded as Creek land, so the Cherokees readily signed the treaty. The Creeks refused.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although the citizens of Franklin County begged him to retaliate,<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref> Secretary of War Henry Knox instructed Governor Telfair not to retaliate against the Creek Indians.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Telfair served three terms as governor of Georgia. During his second term as governor, he illegally granted thousands of acres of land to speculators as part of the Yazoo land scandal. Telfair was one of only 12 men who received electoral votes during the first election for President and Vice President of the United States,<ref>Journal of the Senate; Vol. 1; 1789; p8.</ref> receiving the vote of one unrecorded elector from his home state of Georgia. Telfair was a candidate in the 1794 United States Senate election in Georgia, finishing a distant second to incumbent James Gunn.<ref>Template:Cite web, citing Aurora. General Advertiser (Philadelphia, PA). December 13, 1794.</ref>

Death and legacy

Telfair died in Savannah in 1807, interred initially in the family vault at Sharon Plantation. Later in the 19th century, his remains were moved to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah.<ref>Johnson, Charles J. "Edward Telfair (1735-1807)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. May 26, 2015. Web. August 30, 2015.</ref> Three months after Telfair died, Georgia named Telfair County after the former governor.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Later in the 19th century, Savannah's St. James Square was renamed Telfair Square to honor the family.

Telfair Academy, 1818, family mansion of Mary Telfair

One of Telfair's sons, Thomas Telfair, represented Georgia in the U.S. Congress.<ref>Johnson, Charles J. "Telfair Family." New Georgia Encyclopedia. May 26, 2015. Web. August 30, 2015.</ref> The eldest of the Telfair daughters, Mary Telfair, outlived her siblings and became the benefactor of the first public art museum in the American South, now a complex of three buildings called the Telfair Museums. After she died in 1875, her will also provided for the founding of the Telfair Hospital for Females. Today, it is known as Mary Telfair Women's Hospital.<ref>Johnson, Charles J. "Mary Telfair (1791-1875)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. May 26, 2015. Web. August 30, 2015.</ref><ref>History of St. Joseph's/Candler at hospital website.</ref>

See also

• List of United States governors born outside the United States

External links

• Edward Telfair in the New Georgia Encyclopedia
• Template:CongBio
• Ga. Governor Edward Telfair at National Governors Association site
• Template:Find a Grave