Histories

James McNeil was born aboard a ship bound for America in 1757. His father was a Colonel in the British Army. The family settled in North Carolina and supported England against the colonists. Young James became a rebel of the family by siding with the colonists and moving to Augusta as a “Refugee Patriot”. He joined the colonial army there and was soon promoted to the rank of Colonel, commanding the 1st Battalion of the Georgia Militia in Richmond County. After the Revolution he was one of the Georgians who ratified the federal constitution. Patriot McNeil was one of only nine state representatives who voted against one of Georgia’s biggest political scandals of all time, the Yazoo Land Act of 1795. He died in 1853 at the age of 96.