George Mathews (30 August 1739 – 30 August 1812) was Governor of Georgia (F) from 9 January 1787 to 26 January 1788 (succeeding Edward Telfair and preceding George Handley) and from 7 November 1793 to 15 January 1796 (succeeding Telfair and preceding Jared Irwin) and a member of the US House of Representatives (F-GA 3) from 4 March 1789 to 3 March 1791 (preceding Francis Willis).
Biography[]
George Mathews was born in Augusta County, Virginia in 1739, and he worked as a merchant and planter before becoming a senior officer in the colonial militia. During Lord Dunmore's War, he assisted in the defeat of the Indians at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and he went on to serve in the House of Burgesses after the conflict's end. After the American Revolutionary War broke out, Mathews took command of the 9th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army and fought in the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown, being captured in the latter battle. He spent the next four years as a prisoner of war, including two years on a prison ship; he was exchanged in 1781. After the war, he moved to Georgia and was elected to the General Assembly, and he served as Governor from 1787 to 1788. In 1789, he was elected to the first US House of Representatives, and he supported the ratification of the US Constitution. His second administration as Governor from 1793 to 1796 was tainted by the creation of a rogue state in Creek lands and the Yazoo Land Fraud, forcing his retirement from politics. In 1810, President James Madison assigned Mathews a filibuster operation, ordering him to incite an insurrection in East Florida and capture the territory fro the United States. Despite the expedition's successes, Madison was forced to disavow the mission due to the risk of war with Spain and its allies, and Mathews decided to confront Madison himself in Washington DC. However, he died in Augusta, Georgia on 30 August 1812 while en route.