The tabby ruins of the Horton House, seen from its north side.
Horton House walls, as seen from the south side.
Horton House walls, as seen from the interior.
A Georgia historical marker, on the subject of “Tabby,” is positioned at the Horton House site:
Tabby was the building material for walls, floors, and roofs widely used throughout Georgia during the Military and Plantation Eras. It was composed of equal parts of sand, lime, oyster shell and water mixed into a mortar and poured into forms.
The lime used in tabby was made by burning oyster shell taken from Indian Shell Mounds, the trash piles of the Indians.
The word tabby is African in origin, with an Arabic background, and means “a wall made of earth or masonry.” This method of building was brought to American by the Spaniards.
When the Coquina (shell rock) quarries near St. Augustine were opened, hewn stone superseded tabby for wall construction there. Coastal Georgia has no coquina, so tabby continued to be used here even as late as the 1890's.
On the reverse of the above marker is found the following text:
MAJOR WILLIAM HORTON
Born in England
Came to Georgia in 1736
Died at Savannah in 1748These are the remains of Horton's tabby house. Major Horton of Oglethorpe's Regiment, the first English resident of Jekyll Island, erected on the north end of Jekyll a two story dwelling and large barn. He cleared fields here for cultivation of crops which supplied the settlers at Frederica on St. Simons Island, a neighboring island, who would have suffered except for this assistance. Major Horton cut a road across the north end of Jekyll, running east and west, from this tabby house to the beach. This road is still known as the Horton Road.
Major Horton was a trusted officer chosen by James Oglethorpe for important missions. Upon Oglethorpe's final return to England in 1743, Major Horton succeeded him as commander of the military forces of the Colony of Georgia.
Poulain du Bignon, owner of Jekyll Island after the Revolutionary War, repaired the Horton tabby house and made it his home. As the du Bignon family grew, wooden wings were added to the house.
The following plaque also honors Major Horton:
HORTON HOUSE
William Horton, “Undersheriff of Herefordshire,” England, came to Georgia in 1736. He built this building for his plantation residence and it was his home until his death in 1749. Major Horton succeeded Oglethorpe as commander of the regiment of British troops stationed here.
“He shined in war and in peace, in public and in private stations.”
Given by His Descendants
This plaque credits the organizations which assisted in stabilizing and preserving the Horton House ruins:
Preservation of these ruins was made possible through the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia in cooperation with the Jekyll Island State Park.
This guide to Jekyll Island is sponsored by Mitchells Publications.
Copyright © 2006 Patricia B. Mitchell.