Hannah Barksdale

Born:      1732, London(?) England

Died:      4 May 1761, Charleston SC

Buried:   lost at sea

Born:     1732, Charleston SC

Died:      10 Mar 1780, Effingham Co, GA

Buried:   

    Nathaniel was presumably born in England, and came to Savannah with his family in 1734. His father was dead by 1737, and his mother remarried two times. She and her second new husband deposited Nathaniel at Bethesda Orphanage, and left for South Carolina. At Bethesda he was noted as destined to become a schoolmaster, for he was bright but had a withered arm. When grown, he remained at Bethesda, where he became George Whitfield’s principal assistant, administering the establishment and teaching Latin when Whitfield was away travelling, as he often was.

    Nathaniel and Hannah married sometime in the 1750’s, after the death of her first husband, John Miller. On May 4, 1761, he boarded the Polly and Betsy, anchored in Charleston Harbor.¹ A tornado came down the Ashley River and swept him overboard, where he drowned. Whitfield grieved the death of his assistant, writing to a friend:

“Blessed be God for supporting me so well under the news of dear Mr. Polhill’s sudden translation. In that respect I rather envy than pity him; to be carried to heaven in an instant, from a ship’s cabin into Abraham’s bosom. Oh, what a blessing! God sanctify and make up the loss! But we shall find few Polhills.”

After Nathaniel’s death, Hannah married twice more, first to Benjamin Stirk (d. 1770) and then to the Reverend Alexander Scott.

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¹ It has been written that Nathaniel had conceived the desire to become an Episcopal priest, and was on his way to England to be ordained. This is possible, but seems unlikely, given that both his father and his descendants were fervent Baptists.