McIntosh, Lachlan (1727-1806)

Born in Iverness. Scot­land, and emigrated with his parents to Georgia at the age of nine. His father, John Mohr Mclntosh, led the Scottish Highlanders who established New Inverness (Darien) in Me­Intosh County, Georgia. He was captured by the Spanish in 1740, imprisoned in Spain, and eventually returned home in such ill health that he died soon afterward.

Lachlan Mc­Intosh commenced his military career as a cadet in the armed forces of James Edward Oglethorpe. After Oglethorpe returned to England for the last time, Lachlan McIntosh worked in a counting house operated by Henry Laurens at Charleston, South Carolina. It was there that he married Sarah Threadcroft. They had several children, three of whom were officers in the Continental Army during the Revolution­ary War. Lachlan McIntosh resumed his military career dur­ing that war, and eventually was promoted to the rank of major general. He died in Savannah and is buried in the Colonial Cemetery there.

Lachlan Mclntosh, his nephew, was the son of William and Mary Mclntosh. He was a resident of Sunbury, an attorney, and an officer in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He married more than once. One of his sons was Commodore James McKay McIn­tosh of the U.S. Navy, who served during the War of 1812, and is buried in the Midway Church cemetery. One of his daughters was Maria Mclntosh, the authoress, who was born at Sunbury and is buried at Morristown, New Jersey.

John Mclntosh, another nephew of Major General Mclntosh, commanded Fort Morris during its attack by British forces during the Revolutionary War. He relocated in Florida after the war, was accused by Spanish forces there of espionage, and was imprisoned in Morro Castle in Havana, Cuba, for one year. He died in 1826 and was buried on his Fairhope Plantation, one mile from Mallow Plantation at Pine Harbor in McIntosh County, Georgia. The latter plantation was the home of his brother, William Mclntosh, who married two Creek Indian women and had two sons, Roderick and William McIntosh, who became Creek Indian chiefs.

From “Sweet Land of Liberty, A History of Liberty County, Georgia” by Robert Long Groover; Appendix Number 36, Page(s) 226; Used by the permission of the Liberty County Commissioners Office