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Nathaniel Hall, Loyalist in Savannah and Bahamas
During the Revolutionary War, Savannah was under seige, however, when Cornwallis surrendered, the loyalist families remaining in Savannah were declared traitors. One, Nathaniel Hall, whose friends were Josiah Tattnall, Thomas Forbe and William Telfair, necessarily evacuated to New Providence, Bahamas. Hall, originally from Liverpool, had immigrated to Savannah before the war. He died in New Province in 1807, the 45th year of His Majesty's Reign. His friend, Charles Cameron, the Captain General and Governer in Chief, Chancellor, Vice Admiral and Ordinary of New Providence, attended to his Last Will and Testament. Nathaniel left a large plantation and many slaves in New Providence to his wife, Ann. Part of his estate was in the hands of his agents in England, Chambers Langston of London and Thomas and John Moss of Liverpool. This estate presumably consisted of funds received and held by these gentlemens accounting offices for goods which he transported from the Bahamas to England; he bequeathed this portion of his estate the children of his brothers and sisters. His sisters were Martha Hall McAllister of Savannah and Sarah Powell. Nephews, George Webb Hall and Samuel Hall of Liverpool. The Codicil bequeathed his Georgia estates to his wife's sister, Hannah McAllister, the wife of Matthew McAllister and to their children, viz: Harriett Hannah and Mathew Hall McAllister. Brother: Joseph of Bristol.
Nathaniel Hall married Ann, a daughter of Hannah and Joseph Gibbons of Mulberry Hill Plantation in Savannah. The Gibbons were probably the wealthiest families in Savannah during the 18th century as they owned thousands of acres of hundreds of slaves.
Other Loyalists who escaped to New Province were Thomas Starr, Michael Vernon and George Buffett of Savannah. Thomas Starr's merchant ship actively supplied the British stronghold in Savannah. In 1803 Starr wrote his Last Will and Testament before embarking "for some part of the continent in America to meet the Commissioners appointed under the Treaty between Great Britain and the United States for the purpose of adjusting and liquidating the goods due to the British Merchants by the subjects of the United States of America and to establish and recover the debts due by many of the said subjects to a co-partnership in which I was under the ____ of Story & Bed." Expecting to recover from the public funds of Great Britain, he left for America. His wife was Helen. Sons, John, Thomas and George Kincaid Starr.