Tondee’s Tavern historic marker, Savannah, Georgia. Photograph by Jeff Ball.
Edward Ball at Tondee’s Long Room — Savannah, July 4, 1775
Edward Ball of St. John’s Parish was among the delegates to Georgia’s Provincial Congress that assembled at Tondee’s Long Room in Savannah on July 4, 1775. Published Georgia history lists Edward Ball with the St. John’s Parish delegation alongside James Screven, Nathan Brownson, Daniel Roberts, John Baker Sr., John Bacon Sr., James Maxwell, William Baker Sr., William Bacon Jr., John Stevens, and John Winn Sr.
The July 1775 Congress marked a decisive stage in Georgia’s Revolutionary movement. Meeting at Tondee’s, the delegates joined the Continental Association, selected representatives for the Continental Congress, and helped establish the political machinery that would challenge royal authority in Georgia.
Tondee’s Tavern stood on Broughton Street in Savannah and became one of the principal gathering places of Georgia’s Liberty movement. The City of Savannah notes that Liberty Boys met in Tondee’s Long Room as early as August 1774, a Liberty Pole was erected outside the tavern in June 1775, and the Provincial Congress met there on July 4, 1775.
See Tondee’s Tavern at the DAR Museum
The DAR Museum’s Georgia period room is a 1770s tavern in Georgia based on Lucy Tondee’s tavern. The DAR notes that the tavern served as a meeting place for the Sons of Liberty and later the new state legislature, and that the Declaration of Independence was read aloud there publicly in Georgia.
Why This Matters for Edward Ball
This record documents Edward Ball not only in the military generation of the American Revolution, but also as a political representative of St. John’s Parish during the movement that brought Georgia into active resistance against Britain.
Published Sources
- Charles C. Jones Jr., The Dead Towns of Georgia and related published Georgia historical works preserving the St. John’s Parish delegation list and Tondee’s Long Room setting.
- City of Savannah, Savannah US250, Revolutionary War timeline.
- Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Museum, 1770s Tavern in Georgia period room.
- New Georgia Encyclopedia, “Peter Tondee” and “Royal Georgia, 1752–1776.”