John Milledge was born in 1757. His father, John Milledge, was one of the passengers on the brig Ann, Capt. John Thomas, which brought Oglethorpe and his little band of colonists to the port of Charleston in January 1733. He is said to have enjoyed the advantage of friendship and close association with Oglethorpe, and later became one of the prominent citizens of the colony. In 1751, he was one of the four representatives of the Savannah district in the first Provincial Assembly held under President Henry Parker. Young John's mother was the daughter of Mrs. Frances Robe of Savannah. When he was about ten his father was married again, to Mrs. Anne Rasberry. The boy had the best advantages the little colony afforded.
Education
Probably the greater part of Milledge's education was gained at Bethesda, the school founded by the evangelist George Whitefield and still in existence as an institution for orphan boys. His intimate associates were the leading young men of the colony. He studied law in the office of the King's Attorney, but at the opening of the Revolution threw in his lot with the patriots.
Career
In the excitement caused by the news from Lexington and Concord, Milledge joined Joseph Habersham, Noble Wymberly Jones, Edward Telfair, and two others in breaking into Governor Wright's magazine and carrying off six hundred pounds of powder, some of which is said to have been used at Bunker Hill. A few weeks later, he aided in an attack on Governor Wright in person, making him a prisoner in his own home. After this episode, Milledge served gallantly in various capacities throughout the Revolution. He took part in the defense of Savannah, escaped with James Jackson to South Carolina, where they narrowly missed being hanged as British spies, and later served at the siege of Augusta and in Benjamin Lincoln's attempt to retake Savannah. In 1780, he became attorney-general, and was later a member of the General Assembly during several sessions. In 1792, he was elected to Congress, succeeding Anthony Wayne who had been ousted after defeating James Jackson. He also served in the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh congresses, resigning in 1802 to become governor. After two terms, in 1806, he was sent to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Jackson. Reëlected for a full term in 1807, he resigned while president pro tempore in 1809 and retired, respected and admired by all, to a life of elegant leisure. Milledge's service to the University of Georgia probably seemed to him a small and relatively trivial incident of his eventful life.
Achievements
Milledge is known as a founder of Athens, Georgia, and the University of Georgia. In 1785, a charter was granted by the General Assembly, and forty thousand acres of land in two newly created counties carved out of the wilderness were set aside as an endowment. The grant, princely in prospect, proved disappointing in product Gov. Wilson Lumpkin relates that his father once swapped four hundred acres of such land for a shotgun and the building of the university was deferred. In 1800, a renewed effort was made, and a committee appointed to select a site. Its members included Milledge, Abraham Baldwin, George Walton, John Twiggs, and Hugh Lawton, all prominent in local annals. The land upon which their choice fell lay outside the bounds of the state grant and had passed into private ownership, but Milledge now immortalized himself by buying it outright for four thousand dollars and presenting it to the university. The tract embraced more than six hundred acres, including land now occupied by the campus of the university as well as a large part of the city of Athens which gradually grew up around the college. The imagination of posterity, struck by the impulsive generosity of the gift, has identified Milledge with the origin of the state's highest institution of learning, and has honored his name in Milledgeville, the state capital from 1807 to 1867, in Milledge Avenue, the principal residence street of Athens, in the Milledge Chair of Ancient Languages at the University of Georgia, and in Milledge Street in the Sand Hills, the aristocratic suburb of Augusta where his declining days were spent and his mortal remains entombed.
Connections
Milledge was married twice. His first wife was Martha Galphin of Silver Bluff, South Carolina, daughter of George Galphin. She bore him one daughter and died in November 1811. In May of the following year, he married Ann, daughter of Thomas and Ann (Gresham) Lamar, by whom he had three children.
