6/27/13

Colonial Daughter Raised In The Revolutionary War

From the day she was born until the day she married, Millicent 'Millie' Pittman lived in the turmoil of the Revolutionary War.   Born February 3, 1766 to John and Mary Polly Rowe Pittman, her birth coincided with the much anticipated Repeal of the Stamp Act.  Her father and brothers along with other Virginia colonists, were actively involved in the Sons of Liberty and the resistance to the British Taxation without Representation.

The following month of her birth  in March, the Stamp Act was repealed by the British Parliament.  The colonists victory was short lived, however, when Parliament  followed the repeal of The Stamp Act with the Declaratory Act of 1766.  This act provided the British with a broad mandate to impose laws, and taxes on the colonies as it had done with the Irish in 1719.  The Declaratory Act of 1766, along with other imposed tax acts in the following months drove the American Colonists closer to the Revolution.

In 1784 with the Revolutionary War officially over and the Treaty of Paris ratified by Congress, Millie married Private Jonathan Coleman of the Burke County Georgia Militia.  At thirty-four years of age, Jonathan was sixteen years older than young Millie when they married.  Her youth, however was in her favor as she gave birth to 17 children over a period of  30 years.  Of those births there were two sets of twins. 

Millicent and Jonathan lived most of their lives in Burke County Georgia where they were known for their devotion to their family and their church.  They were charter members of the Bark Camp Church organized in 1788, before George Washington was elected president. 

Both Jonathan and Millie are buried in the Bark Camp Church Cemetery.  Jonathan died at age 74 on January 13, 1825 and Millie at age 72 on December 30, 1838.  Their oldest son Charles is buried there as well.  He died in 1831.

Their son Elisha Coleman followed in his parents faithful Christian life and became a minister.  He was a member of the Bark Camp Baptist Church until 1832, when he moved to Emanuel County and began his ministry in 1841.  Some years later he built Hawhammock Church and remained there until his death in 1860.

He is buried in a cemetery named after him, Elisha Coleman Cemetery in Swainsboro , Emanuel County, Georgia.
 
Millicent 'Millie' Pittman Coleman was the only daughter of John Pittman NOT mentioned in his 'Will'.