Three primary documents from the Yale-educated Connecticut physician who signed for Georgia when most of Georgia was still Loyalist, lost his estate to the British occupation, and came back to govern the state.
Lyman Hall was born April 12, 1724 in Wallingford, Connecticut. He graduated from Yale in 1747, studied theology briefly, and then turned to medicine. He practiced medicine in Connecticut and South Carolina before settling in Dorchester, Georgia around 1756, where he joined a community of New England Congregationalists who had relocated to the Georgia frontier. He then moved to Sunbury, Georgia, where he farmed and maintained his medical practice.
Georgia was the youngest and most sparsely populated of the thirteen colonies, and the most Loyalist. Sunbury and St. John's Parish, where Hall lived, were more Patriot in their sympathies than the rest of the colony. Hall was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 representing St. John's Parish alone, before the rest of Georgia had committed to the Patriot cause. He was one of the few delegates at the Second Continental Congress representing a minority voice within his own colony.
HALL, Lyman, a Delegate from Georgia; born April 12, 1724, in Wallingford, Conn.; attended the common schools; was graduated from Yale College in 1747; studied theology; was ordained and preached for a time; studied medicine and practiced in Wallingford, Conn., and Dorchester, S.C.; moved to Sunbury, Georgia, about 1756; delegate to the Continental Congress, 1775-1778; signed the Declaration of Independence; member of the State constitutional convention in 1777; served as Governor of Georgia 1783-1784; died October 19, 1790.
Hall signed the Declaration of Independence alongside Button Gwinnett and George Walton on August 2, 1776. When British forces occupied Georgia in 1779, they confiscated Hall's estate at Sunbury. He and his family fled to Connecticut and then to the North, where he continued to support the Patriot cause.
When British forces were expelled from Georgia in 1782, Hall returned. He served in the Georgia legislature and was elected Governor of Georgia in 1783, serving until 1784. As Governor he worked to rebuild the state after the devastation of the British occupation and established the foundations of public education in Georgia, donating land and advocating for schools. He died on October 19, 1790. Augusta, Georgia's Hall County and the town of Lyman are named in his honor.