Richard Lang: #7 Georgia Years - 1795 Onwards
The Life and Times of Richard Lang (1744-1817), His Family and Other Related Matters
Much of what I know about Richard Lang and his family comes from secondary sources which is not ideal. Both information and evidence are incomplete in places.
This post is the seventh in a series of posts about Richard Lang, his family and other related matters. If you would like to read from the beginning, you can find Part #1 here:
As told in previous posts (Part #5 and Part #6), during 1794, Richard’s family, after being displaced from their home in East Florida, went to Georgia and, it was there, in the Coleraine area of Camden County, Georgia, that Richard went after his release from prison the same year. It was also there that the 1795 East Florida rebellion was planned and instigated by Richard alongside others who were similarly aggrieved.
The rebellion didn’t last long. In the face of Spanish reinforcements, the rebels had to retreat. Richard was amongst those who escaped across the St Marys River back to Georgia.
Camden County, Georgia
It seems that Richard’s earlier history as a 'most notorious Offender’ who escaped from Justice somewhere between Chatham County, Georgia and South Carolina in 1784 (Part #2), was either forgotten, not known, or not associated with him. At least, there don’t appear to have been any further repercussions from that event during his time in Camden County, either before or after the East Florida Rebellion.
Richard and his son Isaac, are recognised amongst the earliest settlers in Camden County, Georgia. Both get mention on the Camden County marker erected by the Georgia Historical Commission at U.S. 17 and 4th Street, Woodbine, Georgia. In part, the marker reads:
… Some of first and early settlers of the county were: Talmadge Hall, James Woodland, Thomas Stafford, David & Hugh Brown, John King, John Hardee, Henry Osborne, Jacob Weed, John Webb, Abner Williams, Charles & John Floyd, Nathan Atkinson, Isaac & Richard Lang, Joseph Hull, William Berrie, Thomas Miller, John Bailey, Sr., and nephew, John Bailey, and Lewis DuFour …
On 7 March 1799 in the Camden County Superior Court, Richard took the oath of American citizenship:
“I RICHARD LANG do Solemnly Swear in the Presence of Almighty God that I have resided within the United States five years at least and Within the State of Georgia One Year at least, that I will Support the Constitution of the United States and that I do Absolutely and entirely Renounce and Abjure all Allegiance & fidelity to every Foreign prince potentate State or Sovereignty Whatsoever and particularly to the King of Spain.”1.
Still in the mood for Rebellion
At some point Richard was approached by William Augustus Bowles. It is likely that he would have been well aware of William Bowles and his activities. Bowles was active in East and West Florida between 1788 and 1803.
In 1795, the year of the East Florida Rebellion, Bowles, along with the Seminoles, had formed an independent state in northern Florida (part of Spanish East Florida) which he called the State of Muskogee. Bowles was the State’s self-appointed ‘Director General’. The State of Muskogee was intended to be an independent state, aligned to Great Britain. After designing a flag and constitution for his state, Bowles raised an army and began to carry out raids of Spanish territories in Florida.
In 1800, Bowles declared war on Spain. At one stage, Bowles operated two schooners and boasted of a force of 400 frontiersmen, former slaves, and warriors. Eventually, he was turned over to the Spanish. He died in 1805 at Castillo de Moro, in Havana, Cuba, having refused to eat2 3.
Richard returned to East Florida in 1799, the same year that he took American Citizenship, only to be expelled for his alleged affiliation with the plots of William Augustus Bowles4. He was lucky to have been merely expelled given the earlier sentence he had been given in absentia (Part #6). It isn’t surprising that Bowles’ ideas were attractive to Richard. After the events of 1794, he had no love for the Spanish and he was probably still very much a British loyalist at heart.
According to a biography of Bowles written by Wright5, one of the first things Bowles did after capturing the Fort of St Marks in early 1800, was to write to Richard Lang, William Jones and other leaders of the 1795 rebellion asking them to raise their forces again. Bowles may well have been successful in East Florida had the Spanish not re-captured St Marks very quickly and if Richard Lang had not inadvertently disclosed Bowles' plan.
Richard got drunk on election day and left Bowles' letter lying about where it was discovered, thereby bringing Bowles' scheme to everyone's attention. To protect himself, Richard wrote to the Governor of Georgia to tell him of Bowles’ overtures to him. In response, the Governor of Georgia issued a proclamation insisting that anyone who went with Bowles would be jailed. Nonetheless, Richard Lang and William Jones continued to talk with Bowles about raising a force on the south side of the St Marys River6.
Richard wrote to William Augustus Bowles on 17 August 1800. A copy of the letter can be viewed in my family history archive along with a certification by William Gibson that it is a true copy of Richard Lang’s letter. William Gibson was Notary Public of St Marys. The letter and certification can also be accessed from the Digital Library Georgia which is where I got them from.
Richard Lang’s letter of 17 August 1800 reads:
St Marys August 17 1800
Sir
I wrote you by Robert Allen, that if you could be furnished with arms and ammunition, I did not think you would want men. I then had it not well in my power to consult so many of our friends as I have done since. I now am certain that if you should come so near that our friends could get to you without running the risk of being embarrassed with those unfriendly Indians that Governor White has been tempering with, you would not want men. The Grand thing is, getting to you and putting our lives immediately under your command, this seems to be the general wish of most of our friends, hearing that you had left St Marks has occasioned us to send the bearer, Mr William Tally, express to you, to be informed where you are, and what is to be done.
My particular friend and brother sufferer, Mr Wm Jones, is now with me and has wrote you also by Mr Tally.
Were you to come this way and arrange matters and leave some of your people with us, we could then go on without your remaining with us, but there seems a difficulty in getting a set of men together, without their seeing and knowing who is their head. Your showing a friendly disposition towards the Government of the U.S. is a grand thing for us. And it enables us with more boldness to espouse your cause for a number of our friends and some of them high in office are hearty friends to the Government of the U.S. and by no means wish to give cause of offence to that Government. There is a report that Allen and the few men that went with him took away some horses from some of our friends if so, it was badly done, it makes some of our friends enemies, Allen is an active young man and may be of service to us, but must be kept within bounds - dispatch the bearer as quick as possible, as our friends want much to be in motion and let us know what is to be done. If you could conveniently bring on a few arms and a little ammunition, it would be well, but perhaps we could make out without, we shall be making all the preparations in our power, against the bearer returns. We have a number of friends in Florida, that nothing prevents their joining us but the want of a sufficient force to protect their families at the first set out.
I am Sir, with the utmost esteem, your oblg’d and Most Humble Serv’t
[Signed] Rich’d Lang.
[To] Wm A. Bowles
Direct’r. Gen’l of Muskogee
The certification of the letter as a true copy reads:
I certify the foregoing to be a true copy, of the letter sent to Mr Wm A Bowles by Mr Richard Lang handed to Major Thomas King by said Rich’d Lang
St Marys October 13th 1800
[Signed] William Gibson
N. Public
Acquisition of Office and Land
In 1804, about five years after Richard became an American Citizen, he became a Justice of the Peace at St. Marys, Camden County; a post he continued to hold until his death in 18177.
During his time in Georgia, Richard gradually acquired land. In 1809, he acquired 400 acres of land in Camden County8:
Georgia, Camden County. By the Court of Justices of Camden County. To Daniel Miller Surveyor of said County. You are hereby Authorised and Required to admeasure and lay out or cause to be admeasured and laid out unto Richard Lang _ _ a Tract of Land in said County of Camden which shall contain four hundred acres Taking Especial care that the same hath not heretofore been laid out to any other person _ or persons _ And you are hereby also Directed and Required to Record the plat thereof in Your Office and Transmit a Copy of the same to the Surveyor General within two years from this Date - Given under our hands as Justices of said Court this fifth Day of June 1809
Isaac Crews Clerk
Dan Miller JP - John Crews JP - Wm Siblack JP
It is likely that there were other land acquisitions.
Riotous behaviour
In 1809 a Richard Lang was indicted for riot, along with David Mizell, David Lang and John Gorman. The David Lang in the indictment is most probably Richard's son, David. He would have been about 23 years of age in 1809. John Gorman is likely the John Gorman who married Richard's daughter, Rebecca. He would have been in his 30’s in 1809 assuming he was a similar age to Rebecca,
While I don’t know for sure that the Richard Lang mentioned in the indictment is the Richard Lang written about in this post, it seems quite likely. As far as I have been able to find out, he did not have a son called Richard. He did have a grandson, Richard (Isaac’s son). However, that Richard was born in 1798 in Camden County and would only have been 11 years at the time of the indictment and so not likely to be the Richard referred to. Also, as referred to above, the Richard Lang being written about here was not above getting drunk from time to time. Perhaps drinking contributed to riotous behaviour in 1809 at the age of 65?
All defendants were discharged when the witnesses for the prosecution didn’t turn up:
October term – Indictment for Riot – The State vs. Richard Lang, David Misell [sic], David Lang, John Gorman. The witnesses on the part of the prosecutor being called, and not appearing – on motion of the Defendants It is ordered that the defendants be discharged9.
I do wonder why they didn’t turn up?
An Eventful Life
I am not entirely sure about Richard’s date of death. It appears that he died at St Marys, Camden County, Georgia in 181710 at the age of 72.
He certainly had an eventful life. As I said at the outset, some writers are disparaging of him and judge him as a self-centred schemer, as though he is an inherently bad person. However, I find that somewhat simplistic. People are complex. They do what they do for a whole variety of reasons. There will be many reasons that led Richard down the path he took. Other writers take a more balanced approach and see Richard as a product of the circumstances within which he found himself. I must say I feel more comfortable with the latter view. You can decide for yourself.
In this series of posts #1-#7, I have told you everything I know so far about Richard and his family ... Well almost! I haven’t quite finished with him yet. In the course of researching Richard, I came across a number of enslaved people associated with the Lang family. They deserve a post of their own. More about that in Part #8 …
This post draws information from my family history archive on the weare.xyz platform.
Notes:
Notes given to me by Lang researcher Roger Chilson citing Judge Folks Huxford Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia Volume V Compiled and Published by Judge Folks Huxford (p.257)
William Augustus Bowles Wikipedia. Accessed 27 February 2020.
William Augustus Bowles Encyclopedia of Alabama. Accessed 22 May 2025.
James G. Cusick (2011). 'Some Thoughts on Spanish East and West Florida as Borderlands' 'The Florida Historical Quarterly', 90(2), 133-156. via JSTOR [Website]. Accessed 24 May 2022.
J. Leitch Wright Jr. (1967) William Augustus Bowles: Director-General of the Creek Nation University of Georgia Press.
J. Leitch Wright Jr. (1967) - See Note 6.
Notes given to me by Lang researcher Roger Chilson citing extracts from: Bennett, Charles E. (1981) Florida's "French" Revolution 1793-1795. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (p.200) suggest that Richard Lang’s property Casa Blanca was sold in the year Richard died. Spanish Land Grants in Florida, III:D21 as cited by O’Riordan, Cormac A. (1995) The 1795 Rebellion in East Florida. UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 99 via University of North Florida Digital Commons (Footnote 42, Chapter 1) show the property was sold in 1817.
Land 415’ document - Georgia, Headright and Bounty Land Records, 1783-1909 via Ancestry.com – shared to Ancestry.com by member, myoldjed, on 14 June 2012. Accessed 19 February 2020 (It appears to have originally been found at Family Search).
From: 'Isaac Crews Minute Book of the Superior Court of Camden County (Georgia)' – 1809 Camden County – via Ancestry.com - shared by Ancestry member, Ralan64, on 30 December 2014 Accessed 10 Jan 2020.
This death date is based on two sources - See Note 7. above - that suggest Richard died in the year his Casa Blanca plantation was sold and that that sale occurred in 1817.