George Walton was born in Virginia in 1741 and orphaned at a young age. After being adopted by his uncle, he became a carpenter before moving to Savannah in 1769 to study law. In 1774, he was admitted to the bar and became heavily involved with the patriot movement in Georgia. Walton served as Secretary and President of the Council of Safety in the Georgia provincial Congress, and later as Governor of Georgia, but his career was marked by political conflict and legal issues. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1776 and signed the Declaration of Independence, but spent much of the following years defending his state and battling with Button Gwinnett. Walton was commissioned as a Colonel in the Georgia Militia in 1778, but was injured and taken prisoner the following year. He gained his freedom in 1779 and was soon elected Governor, only to hold the office for two months. Walton was censured by the legislature for his involvement in a duel with Gwinnett and served in the US Senate for a brief period before retiring to farming. He died in 1804 at the age of 64.
