Sunbury

Now numbered among the Dead Towns of Georgia, old Sunbury was once a great seaport, said to rival Savannah in commercial importance. Laid out in 1758, on a tract of 350 acres conveyed by Mark Carr for the purpose to James Maxell, Kenneth Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott and John Stevens, as Trustees, the town contained 496 lots and embraced three squares – King’s, Church and Meeting. The first session of Superior Court in Liberty County was held in Sunbury, Nov. 18, 1783, and it remained the County Seat until 1797. Sunbury Academy, established by the Legislature in 1788, with Abiel Holmes, James Dunwody, John Elliott, Gideon Dowse and Peter Winn as Commissioners, was for many years the most famous school in South Georgia. For nearly 30 years its Principal was the Rev. Dr. William McWhire, friend of George Washington and a former principal of the Academy of Alexandria, Va. Among other teachers of Sunbury Academy were: the Rev. Thomas Goulding, Uriah Wilcox, the Rev. A. T. Holmes, the Rev. S. G. Hilyer, Major John Winn, W. T. Feay and Oliver W. Stevens.