Bonaventure Cemetery Savannah, Georgia

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

Narrative statement of significance (areas of significance)

Bonaventure Cemetery is significant in art and architecture because of the numerous forms of burial monuments reflecting various eras and architectural styles in both the statues and obelisks as well as 25 historic/contributing mausoleums. The mausoleums date from the mid-19th century to the 1940s and vary in size and workmanship and are all finely built and most were probably designed by architects. The cemetery is also significant for having a rare Jewish Chapel built c. 1917 within the cemetery. The cemetery contains a large number of sculptures, over 100 that have been specifically inventoried, by John Walz (1844-1922), a sculptor of transcendent local importance, and are considered to be of high artistic value. One of these is the famous Gracie, one of the few funerary monuments in Georgia carved in someone's exact likeness. Many of the monuments were designed by known and noted architects, including Savannah-based Henry Urban and Henrik Wallin. Others are by other well-known local artisans. Collectively, the works of funerary art at Bonaventure Cemetery rank among the finest and most numerous in the state.

The cemetery is significant in landscape architecture and community planning and development because it was laid out to be a privately owned cemetery starting in 1846 and then purchased by the City of Savannah in 1907, incorporating it into the responsibility of a major urban center to have a publicly owned burial ground for its citizens. While the other city-owned cemetery, Laurel Grove, had sections for white and black burials, Bonaventure was for white burials only. The landscaping of live oaks was part of the original, natural-looking layout and has been continued by the city, maintaining the cemetery's beauty. The cemetery's siting on a river adds to its landscape significance. It was conceived and laid out as good local example of a cemetery in the style of and during the rise of the national Rural Cemetery movement which was gaining popularity in the United States in the early to mid-19th cemetery. It was created as a response to the overcrowding of the urban cemetery in the center of Savannah and was considered a place to visit, and it was often featured in early 20thcentury postcards as a place to visit and to send a postcard from. It is the final resting place of a number of notable figures of transcendent importance including governors, generals, judges, congressmen, diplomats, poets, clergy, military servicemen, and prominent business people. It is also the final resting place of many other citizens who contributed to the history of the city of Savannah and the region.

The cemetery is significant in Ethnic Heritage-Jewish because of the existence of the Jewish Chapel, the only one known to be in a public cemetery in Georgia. The Jewish Section also has a significant layout of graves, many of which are very close together resembling European graveyards where land is a premium. The Jewish graves also contain specific Jewish symbolism, most notably the Star of David, as well as, in many cases, Hebrew writing. The Jewish Section was sponsored by two local synagogues, one Reform and the other Orthodox, as well as several burial societies. It represents a united effort by the Jewish community, which started in Savannah in the summer of 1733, within the first year of the founding of the Colony of Georgia, to continue their burial practices in an area dedicated for Jewish burials. The Jewish population in Savannah has remained strong and active since the founding of the city and the colony.

National Register Criteria

Bonaventure Cemetery is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A as an excellent example of a cemetery, a basic need for any people. Beginning as a private development, and later becoming city-owned, it shows the progression of a city's need to expand its services for its residents, in providing a burial spot. The location and overall continued maintenance of the site follows the national trend of cemeteries in the mid-19th century of being a place for visitation, gatherings and meditations, and the park-like nature of this place continues to this day.

Bonaventure Cemetery is eligible for the National Register under Criterion C as an excellent example of a cemetery created in the "rural cemetery movement" tradition. In keeping with the concept of a Rural Cemetery, Bonaventure was laid out in the midst of a very picturesque setting, adjacent to a river. It became a major spot in Victorian times for visits and peaceful solitude. It broad avenues and moss-covered trees later became to subject of postcards. The cemetery contains a number of tombstones and monuments designed by some of the best-known architects of Savannah, including Henrik Wallin and Henry Urban, as well as statues and other carvings by some of the finest locally based artisans, such as John Walz, as well as others. Over 100 sculptures have been attributed to Walz. There are also 25 historic mausoleums although not attributed to specific architects or builders, were no doubt designed by prominent architects. They date from the mid-19th century to the 1940s and are finely Grafted using marble, among other stones. All of these works, the monuments, sculpture, and mausoleums, are certainly those of local masters with high artistic values.

Period of significance

Since the cemetery remains open and in use, the period of significance runs from the its beginning (1846) to the end of the historic period (1950).

Contributing/Noncontributing Resources

Buildings: 2 contributing, the Caretaker's House and the Jewish Chapel.

Sites: 1 contributing, the overall cemetery itself.

Structures: 25 contributing. These are the 25 historic mausoleums.

1 non-contributing: The Hinton Davis mausoleum was built c.1993.

Objects: 106 contributing, being the 106 works of John Walz that have been specifically inventoried by the cemetery. A list is on file.

Total contributing: 134 Total non-contributing: 1

Developmental history/historic context

When James Oglethorpe laid out the plan for the City of Savannah in 1733, he not only included places for public meeting and worship but also designated an area for public burial. Sited in Percival Ward, Savannah's first burying ground served the early colony for only 17 years. As Savannah expanded all evidence of its existence was lost until 1950 when several skeletons were unearthed during construction excavation on York Street.

In 1750, the City established a new burying ground outside the city walls. In 1758 the City transferred ownership of that burying ground to Christ Episcopal Church and it was maintained by the Church until it was sold back to the City in 1896. It was later known as Colonial Park Cemetery.

Urban development gradually surrounded this walled cemetery, and in 1846 plantings were provided specifically "to protect citizens from poisonous effluvia arising therefrom". Shortly before 1850, it was becoming obvious in the City of Savannah that more burial space was needed.

In 1846 Peter Wiltberger, a Savannah businessman, purchased the 600-acre Bonaventure Plantation from the last of the Tattnall family. The Tattnall family burial ground (E-1, photo 21) was among this acreage. He selected 70 acres, including the Tattnall family burial ground, in the northeastern corner of the Bonaventure Plantation tract, and dedicated them for use as a privately owned cemetery open to public use. This cemetery was several miles southeast of downtown Savannah in a very picturesque setting.

(Note: The early history of the Bonaventure Plantation can be found at the end of this narrative history.)

One of the earliest observers to write about the beauty and potential of Bonaventure as a cemetery site was James H. Rion who was hired early on to make a plan for the cemetery.

James Henry Rion, a young son of an employee at the Pulaski House (a Savannah hotel), made an impression on Captain Peter Wiltberger. Wiltberger engaged Rion to lay out Bonaventure Cemetery.

Rion's obituary written by Bernard E. Bee in the Journal of the South Carolina Bar Association in 1887 relates that "Rion was employed during his vacation (from college at Columbia, S. C.) by Captain Wiltberger to make a survey of the whole place."

In 1849, James H. Rion wrote of Bonaventure: "Long rows of venerable oaks meet the eye on every side...forming extensive avenues...The hand of man has done this much in planting these living colonnades...richly festooned...with a magnificent drapery of moss which hangs in all possible forms." He also noted that by that date (1849) some burials were taking place in Bonaventure when he observed "From what I observed around, active preparations are going on to fit this place for a cemetery. At the end of one of the avenues, I saw a neat monument, recently erected."

In 1850, Rion made a survey of the Bonaventure property. "His artistic eye at once seized the beautiful idea to transform the ground covered by the avenues into a cemetery. Wiltberger favored the scheme. The survey was made, the lots laid off within the four angles made by the two avenues crossing each other, and it has been ever since known as "the Cemetery at Bonaventure." [Quote from Rion's obituary, cited above.]

Rion went on to write "Bonaventure is indeed wonderfully adapted for a Cemetery. The only objection I have heard anyone urge against it, is its distance. This, far from seeming to me to be an objection, is in favor of it. Besides, being so much more in keeping with a burial place, to be removed from the hum and turmoil of life and the habitations of the living, it is advisable as a sanatory [sic] measure that it should be removed at a distance from the city. All experience shows the noxious character of the atmosphere in and around grave yards...I have no doubt that Savannah will soon have another added to her now many beauties...before many generations pass away Bonaventure will take its place by the side of Mount Auburn and Chapel Hill. I am confident that with the advantages which a more Southern sun gives for calling Nature to assist in the decoration, this Cemetery will yield to neither in melancholy beauty." In a letter to the editor written by James Henry Rion in 1849 he also notes the oak lined avenues, but goes on to say that "In the spaces, not occupied by these long lines of oaks, is seen the gloomy cedar, which, as if to give variety to the scene, is planted 'in orderly disorder,' while around are bunches of the low palmetto, and occasionally, Georgia's favorite tree, the stately Magnolia."

Savannah's need for new burial space, due to the filling up of the old 18th-century cemetery later known as Colonial Park Cemetery, was a major issue in the mid-19th century. Rion's opinion notwithstanding, in 1849 Savannah citizens petitioned the city government to establish a new cityowned burial ground outside the city limits. The city purchased Springfield Plantation tract and allotted 100 acres for the purpose of public interment. The first sale of lots in the new cemetery, known then and now as Laurel Grove (National Register, listed September 6,1978) took place in 1852 with the city offering free burials to those who would re-inter family remains from Christ Church burying ground (a.k.a. Colonial Park Cemetery) into Laurel Grove. As many as 600 burials were transferred between 1852 and 1888. Laurel Grove Cemetery is located 1 1/4 miles southwest of Savannah's City Hall, in the opposite direction from Bonaventure. It remains a city-owned and maintained cemetery.

At nearly the same time the Catholic Cemetery on Wheaton Street opened in August 1853, the year the Christ Church cemetery (Colonial Park Cemetery) was closed to burials. More remains were transferred from Christ Church/Colonial Park Cemetery to the new Catholic Cemetery.

Operated as the first for-profit cemetery in the city, Wiltberger's venture was slow to prosper because of its distance from the city (three miles). This attribute, however, was to become its greatest attraction, as its establishment coincided with the "rural cemetery" movement which began at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1831. Christ Church cemetery, located in the heart of Savannah, had become overcrowded and overgrown, an unpleasant place to visit and linger.

New burials were stopped in 1853. Burial space at the city-owned Laurel Grove Cemetery also eventually became limited, and families were given the option of choosing Bonaventure as a final resting place for their loved ones. The serene and picturesque landscape of Bonaventure provided a lovely view and an uplifting, park-like atmosphere for the living, and a suitably sublime, eternal resting place for the dead. An excellent example of a rural cemetery and the picturesque landscape aesthetic popular in the mid-19th century, Bonaventure represents a trend, born in the northeast and adopted into the unique historic and geographic context of the South. Eighteenth-century oak-lined avenues and a terraced bluff along the Wilmington River are further identifying features of Bonaventure.

In 1864 Jacob Ritner of the 25th Iowa U. S. Infantry, accompanying U.S. General William Tecumseh Sherman on his march through Georgia, wrote, "I went yesterday to see Bonaventure, which is an old cemetery used by the aristocracy of Savannah. It is one of the most picturesque, as well as gloomy places I was ever in! I wish I could describe it to you. It is planted with live oak and cedar, so thick that they make very dense shade. The trees are large and tall, and have very long branching boughs, which are hung thick with moss. I never saw it grow so long, or the trees so loaded with it before. This gives a gloomy spectral appearance to the place that seems very appropriate to the last resting place of fallen greatness. The vaults and monuments are of marble and very costly."

In 1868, Peter Wiltberger's son, William, formed the Evergreen Cemetery Company as the corporate body to operate the cemetery at Bonaventure. A map was drawn in 1869 by John Posted which is close to the present-day layout of Bonaventure. During this period Bonaventure consisted mostly of current sections B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. In 1869 the original 70 acres of Bonaventure Cemetery were sold by William Wiltberger, Peter's son, to the Evergreen Cemetery Company and an additional 70 acres, presumably the land between the original north oak drive and the road to Greenwich Plantation, were added for a total of 140 acres. The 1869 John Posted plan shows the extent of the cemetery at that time. This layout remained virtually unchanged until 1907 when the City of Savannah acquired title to the cemetery.

In 1880, the operation of Bonaventure passed to J. H. Estill when he became President of the Evergreen Cemetery Company. Estill (1840-1907) also owned the Savannah Morning News during this time. During his tenure, the idea of establishing a Jewish section in the cemetery first came to light:

"In 1888, members of Congregation Mickve Israel first proposed the idea of purchasing land adjoining Bonaventure for the site of a new Jewish cemetery. Space in Laurel Grove Cemetery was growing more limited and new options had to be pursued. Initial plans fell through and it was not until the city of Savannah became custodian of Bonaventure that negotiations for a Jewish section began again." [Quote from Wilson, p. 94; see Rubin, pp. 214-215, 254-255, for clarification.]

The Savannah Morning News in 1898 reported that age and recent hurricanes had destroyed a number of Bonaventure's famous live oaks. In December of that year, it was proposed to plant young live oaks to replace those that were missing. Also, additional live oaks were planted along the southern sides of the two avenues leading up from the entrance to the cemetery.

Upon the death of Estill in 1907, the City of Savannah acquired Bonaventure, and under the Park and Tree Commission the city operates both Laurel Grove and Bonaventure cemeteries, among others.

In 1909-1910, an additional 20 acres between the original southern boundary and the marsh were purchased, added to Bonaventure, and dedicated for Jewish burials. This purchase brought the size of the cemetery up to 160 acres, the current total. Both Congregation Mickve Israel and Congregation B'nai B'rith Jacob were involved in this purchase. An archway marked the entrance to the Jewish section.

Burial procedures for Orthodox Judaism were ordained in the holy Scripture's book of Genesis. In 1917, a Jewish chapel (photo 9) was built at Bonaventure to fulfill the Scripture's instructions.

Originally, the chapel served a dual purpose: for the preparation of the body for interment, and for funeral services which could be conducted immediately following the preparation. In Orthodox Judaism, preparation and service are more connected than in Christianity; therefore, having to use a funeral home for preparation and then move to the chapel for service impeded the interment process.

Adjacent to the chapel at Bonaventure are burial lots for Orthodox Jewish burials. In 1985, the chapel was renovated and became a site for memorial services during Jewish holy days. It is owned by the Holy Friends, a men's burial society.

There are two other cemeteries adjacent to Bonaventure which are not part of this nomination, although to the untrained eye they might appear as one continuum. The tract known as Greenwich, north of Bonaventure, but separated by Forest Lawn Cemetery, was acquired by the city in 1933 and is operated as a separate cemetery by the city. It was formerly the Greenwich Plantation whose main house burned in 1923. Between Greenwich and Bonaventure is Forest Lawn Memory Gardens, a privately owned cemetery that began in 1955.

While Bonaventure Cemetery is a very old public burial ground, it is not the oldest in the state. There are other large, city-owned cemeteries. Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta began in 1800 as a private family cemetery. The City of Augusta took it over in 1817 and although it predates Mt. Auburn and the rural cemetery movement it fulfills many of the precepts of that movement. Linwood in Columbus dates from 1828, when that city was founded. Rosehill Cemetery in Macon dates from 1840. Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta dates from 1853.

The distinctive development pattern of Bonaventure is that it has maintained the 18th-century plantation layout of avenues and built around it the curvilinear picturesque lane layout of the northern rural cemetery movement augmented by the lush southern natural landscape.

Bonaventure Cemetery remains owned and operated by the City of Savannah. Since its founding in 1994, the Bonaventure Historical Society has worked alongside the city to preserve the cemetery under its own mission, "Dedicated to the Evolution and Preservation of the Historical Significance of Bonaventure Cemetery." The society is membership-based, and publishes a newsletter as well as a brochure that gives the history and important burials.

Notable People Buried at Bonaventure

Bonaventure is the final resting place for many prominent persons and families. Their histories tell the story of Savannah and Georgia. Here are some of those people whose graves are included on tours of the cemetery for their historic and artistic importance. Others are listed in the cemetery's "Historical Society Guide."

Noble Jones (1702-1775): At the time of his death he was probably the last surviving head of a family of the 114 colonists who came to Georgia aboard the Anne with Oglethorpe. Credited with surveying the town of Savannah and the Salzburger settlement of Ebenezer. Owned Wormsloe (National Register listed). Experimented with the growing of plants. Body moved to Bonaventure Lot 13, Section D, having originally been buried at Colonial Park Cemetery. (Photo 17)

Conrad Aiken (1889-1973): Pulitzer Prize winning poet.

Henry R. Jackson (1820-1898): Superior Court Judge 1849-53, U. S. Minister to Austria 1853-1858, Brigadier General in Confederate Army. (Photo 28, rear.)

Alexander R. Lawton (1818-1896): President of the Augusta and Savannah Railroad, Member House of Representatives and State Senate, President of the American Bar Association, and Brigadier General in the Confederate Army. (Photo 30, the arch on the right.)

Johnny Mercer (1909-1976): Lyricist. (Photo 26) Josiah Tattnall (1764-1803): Governor of Georgia 1801-1802. (Photo 21, lotE-1)

Edward Telfair (1735-1807): twice Governor of Georgia 1786-1787 and 1789-1793.

Artists and Architects Whose Works are Found at Bonaventure

Bonaventure's monuments include work by a number of artisans. Research has provided details on the lives and careers of several of the most important ones. The sculpture and iron work of 26 other artists have been identified on 89 pieces, including iron fencing, stone tablets, crypts and sculpture.

Many were produced and signed by Savannah artists such as Robert Allan, G. B. Little, R. D. Walker and the Dixie Stone Company. There is a list available of the identified works of artists and artisans.

Below is information on those considered the most important:

John Walz. Sculptor (1844-1922)

Bonaventure contains a remarkable collection of 106 pieces (per the inventory) of sculpture, memorials, and tablets by local sculptor John Walz. Walz was born in Germany and studied art in Paris and Vienna, where he was a student of Victor Tilgner. While in Vienna, Walz was commissioned by Carl Brandt, the first Director of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in Savannah, to carve the figures of Michelangelo, Rubens, Raphael, Rembrandt, and Phidias which still stand around the rotunda of the Telfair Academy on Telfair Square, Savannah. Walz moved from Germany to Philadelphia where he was commissioned to carve sculpture and designs for several of Savannah's most prominent buildings, including the carvings on the Masonic Temple on Bull Street, the figures over the entrance of Chatham Academy on Oglethorpe Avenue, designs on the Wright Square Post Office, and the baptismal font at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. In the midst of these commissions, Walz came to Savannah in 1886 and never left. One of his most sought-out works at Bonaventure is the statue of a six-year- old girl, Gracie Watson, commissioned by the girl's father after she died in 1889 (photo 48). Other examples are the Hartman baby crypt, the Schafer stone (photo 43), and the Baldwin family memorial. In addition to the memorials at Bonaventure, Walz's funerary sculpture can be found in Laurel Grove Cemetery and the Catholic cemetery. The body of work by this master carver found in Bonaventure has been documented and indexed by the Bonaventure Historical Society and is considered to be of high artistic merit. The list is on file with the cemetery.

Antonio Aliffi. Sculptor (1888-1936)

Antonio Aliffi was born on July 19, 1888 in Italy. Three generations before him were sculptors. He was invited to come to Savannah by John Walz to carve for Walz. His known works include the carvings on the Liberty Bank Building (demolished), the Flood and N. Aprea monuments in the Catholic cemetery, the Orsini Monument in Bonaventure, the ceiling of the Lucas Theatre, and work on the Armstrong mansion. He also assisted in the carvings on Georgia's Stone Mountain as well as on Mount Rushmore. He also worked on Asa Candler's Atlanta mansion. His Savannah marble yard was located at the corner of 32nd and Paulsen Streets. He later worked for Milton J. Little at Oglethorpe Marble Company.

Henry Urban. Architect (c. 1833-1911)

Henry Urban, who is credited with the design of the Beth Eden Baptist Church (1893), the New School for Negro Children (1911), the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist spires after the 1889 fire, and supervision of the building of the Hotel DeSoto (demolished), designed the Lawton Memorial monument located in Section H (photo 30, right rear).

Henrik Wallin. Architect (1873-1936)

The memorials for the Hitch and Armstrong families have been attributed to Henrik Wallin, a prolific Savannah architect who was responsible for the design of the General Oglethorpe Hotel on Wilmington Island, the DeRenne Apartments, the Armstrong mansion, and the old City Auditorium among others.

Landscape Heritage at Bonaventure - Before the Cemetery

Bonaventure has a landscape heritage that predates the establishment of the cemetery in 1846.

The 1779 Antoine O'Connor map of Bonaventure indicates clearly a road flanked by trees leading to a settlement area. Here the road divides and a tree-lined road extends toward the River. The road plan is again depicted on the 1846 plat which clearly shows the tree-lined avenue which splits and three tree-lined roads extend toward the river.

In 1828 Mary Telfair described the landscape elements that remained at that time in a letter. "There is nothing remaining of the house but the wall, on the inside of which are cedar trees. The garden [presently the northeastern portion of Section H] was once a hanging one and descended to the river. It was walled with tabby, a species of mortar made of shell. It is white and very pretty."

The letter continues "Wild flowers and weeds almost cover it. The [Tattnall] graveyard is but a few rods from the garden. The wall around it is entire and the names of the silent inhabitants are engraved on slabs of marble surrounded with trees. But nothing struck me more strongly than the venerable old trees which everywhere adorn this desolate spot. They are covered with a species of moss, a light brown color which hangs about a yard from the branches. It waves with every breeze and reminded me of the gray hair of nature. We approached the place by an avenue of live oaks whose branches formed a complete arch where the roof waved in solemn grandeur."

Bonaventure Plantation - The History Before the Cemetery Began

Bonaventure had a rich heritage of historical activities as the site of war activities as well as being a major plantation in the years before it became a cemetery.

First settled by Englishman John Mullryne in 1753, the 600-acre plantation was named Bonaventure, meaning "Good Fortune." When Mullryne's daughter, Mary, married Josiah Tattnall in 1761, landscape gardeners were employed to create the monograms of "M" and "T" in avenues of live oak trees. Good fortune, however, was not long lived at Bonaventure, as in 1771 the plantation house burned. Rebuilt, it burned again in 1800.

During the Siege of Savannah in 1779, Bonaventure was the site at which the French troops under Count Charles d'Estaing established their hospital camp after a futile attempt to regain Savannah from British control. D'Estaing had sailed with his troops from Santo Domingo to arrive at Bonaventure Plantation in early September 1779. Many of the men had arrived ill with scurvy and fever. Two hundred soldiers and 12 officers were hospitalized at Bonaventure, unable to walk the three miles into Savannah, the site of the battle. The French, with the assistance of the American militia, attempted to regain Savannah from the British but were tragically defeated. More than 300 soldiers were killed and again that many wounded. The injured were transported from Spring Hill, the site of the battle on the west side of Savannah, to Bonaventure with the assistance of the British and the use of their carriages. Many of the wounded taken to Bonaventure died there and are probably buried in unknown graves. An article in the Savannah Morning News from 1929 reads,

"... In the early dawn of October 9, 1779 there was fought on the then western outskirts of Savannah what was unquestionably the most sanguinary battle of the entire eight years of the American War for Independence...In a single hour there fell within an area of a few hundred square yards more dead and wounded than are credited to any other battlefield in the struggle for American Independence." From Bonaventure, the remaining French troops and 545 Volunteer Chasseurs from Santo Domingo boarded their ships on October 13, 1779, to retreat from the British in defeat.

The plantation, which had been pillaged and damaged, was repaired, but the graves of the unknown French soldiers remain there, the locations unknown to this day.

Archaeological evidence of the plantation house has been discovered in Section F of the cemetery.

Burnt debris and old bricks have been unearthed here. Also discovered was archaeological evidence near the river, which might suggest the location of a pier. Antoine O'Connor's 1779 map of Bonaventure shows a pier existed in the area where the discovery was made. This data suggests that the site is likely to yield information on plantation life during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, although the site has never been excavated.

Having remained loyal to King George III through the Revolution, John Mullryne, Josiah Tattnall, and one of Tattnall's sons, John Mullryne Tattnall, were banished from Georgia forever and in May 1782, the Revolutionary government confiscated their property, which was sold a month later at public auction.

On June 13, 1782, John Habersham bought the plantation, but in 1785, the youngest of Josiah Tattnall's sons, Josiah Tattnall, Jr., was granted permission to return to Georgia. Upon returning to his birthplace and childhood home, he promptly bought back Bonaventure from Habersham. Here, he introduced to Georgia a new cotton plant which he imported from the Bahamas. In 1801 he was elected Governor of Georgia but due to ill health he resigned the following year. In 1803 he died in Nassau and was brought back to Bonaventure for burial, his wife having died in 1802. She was the first adult buried in the Tattnall Family Cemetery at Bonaventure, at what was to become Bonaventure Cemetery. (The Tattnall Family burial ground is now Section E, lot 1, photo 21.)

After Governor Josiah Tattnall, Jr., died in 1803, ownership of Bonaventure passed to his eldest son, Edward Fenwick Tattnall, until his death in 1832. The plantation then became the property of Josiah, Jr.'s, younger son, Commodore Josiah Tattnall III (1795-1871). It was he who sold the plantation in 1846 to Peter Wiltberger.