Thomas SPALDING, Congress, GA (1774-1851)

SPALDING Thomas , a Representative from Georgia; born in Frederica, St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Ga., March 26, 1774; attended the common schools of Georgia and Florida and a private school in Massachusetts; studied law; was admitted to the bar about 1790, but did not practice; engaged extensively in agricultural pursuits; member of the State house of representatives in 1794; member of the State constitutional convention in 1798; moved to McIntosh County, Ga., in 1803; served in the State senate; successfully contested as a Republican the election of Cowles Mead to the Ninth Congress and served from December 24, 1805, until his resignation in 1806; trustee of the McIntosh County Academy in 1807; one of the founders of the Bank of Darien and of the branch in Milledgeville, Ga., and president for many years; engaged in the planting of sea-island cotton, residing on Sapelo Island, Ga.; commissioner on the part of the State of Georgia to determine the boundary line between Georgia and the Territory of Florida in 1826; commissioner from the Federal Government to Bermuda to negotiate relative to property taken or destroyed in the South by the British in the War of 1812; president of the convention at Milledgeville, Ga., in 1850 which resolved that the State of Georgia would resist any act of Congress abolishing slavery and died, while en route home, at the residence of his son, near Darien, Ga., January 5, 1851; interment in St. Andrew's Cemetery.

Bibliography

Coulter, E. Merton. Thomas Spalding of Sapelo. University, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1940.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present