Baldwin County (Georgia) Cemeteries

1755 - Jul 1, 1812

Cemetery: Memory Hill
West Side, Section E, Lot 66, Grave 4
-- See section's Lot Layout map on Memory Hill website. (Map will open in a new window.)

Inscription and Notes:

Dates per other sources - see below.

Military Service: American Revolution
Q.M. Continental Army

Andrew Torrance served as a private and quartermaster in the Continental Army from Virginia, where he settled after migrating from Scotland in 1766. According to family history, he saw all or most of his eleven brothers lay down their arms at Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington.

Following the Revolution, Torrance moved to Union District, South Carolina where he married Hester (Esther) Howard in 1789. She was the daughter of Nehemiah Howard and Edith Smith, and the sister of John Howard, one of Milledgeville's early settlers.^[i][ii] Andrew and Hester Howard Torrance had three sons, William Howard, Amelius, and Mansfield, and four daughters, Harriett, Clara, Maria, and Matilda .^[iii]

From 1786 to 1799, Andrew Torrance's name appears frequently in Union County, South Carolina records. He served on the jury and was appointed overseer of the road between the Tyger and Enoree Rivers in 1786. In 1787 he was appointed Deputy Sheriff and resigned the overseer position. He continued to serve on juries, was appointed executor of an estate and served on a panel to arbitrate a dispute. In 1795, upon taking the oath of office as Justice of the Peace, he earned the right to style himself "Esquire." In 1799, many records begin and end with "Present their Honors: Thomas Brandon, William Kennedy, Andrew Torrance." A January 9, 1799 record reads, "On the application of Andrew Torrance, Esq., leave is given him to retail spirituous liquors and keep public house on his entering bond according to law."

In the spring of 1811, the Torrance family moved to Baldwin County, Georgia, where Andrew Torrance died on 1 July 1812. Hester Torrance died in 1832. They are interred in the Torrance lot in Milledgeville's Memory Hill Cemetery. Hester's brother, John Howard, is buried in the Old Howard Burial Ground on South Warren Street in Milledgeville. It is believed that their mother, Edith Smith Howard, is also buried in the Howard family cemetery.

See others in this cemetery lot.