BRACK: How much do you know about Button Gwinnett?

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

APRIL 25, 2025  |  Let me anticipate your groans and moans: Today you will have a pop quiz. Bet it’s been a while since you had one.  So get out your paper and pencil, or open your cell phone to write your answers.

We’ll quiz you on what you know about our county’s namesake, Button Gwinnett. To see how you did, just go to the very end of this column.

1. There are two reasons why old Button is famous. Simply put, what are they?
2. Where was BG born, and we’ll give you five choices: Iceland, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, or Denmark?
3. What time period are we talking about when he was born? We’ll give you a check mark if you can come up with the decade of his birth.
4. At one time Button purchased an island. What was the name of that island?
   

   Button Gwinnett

5.  What was the highest political office that Gwinnett held?
6. Button fought a pistol duel. At how many paces did the two gentlemen want to fire from?
7. In what city was there erected an obelisk to the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia?
8. Where does the name “Button” come from?
9. How much did a recent Button Gwinnett signature sell for?
10. Tell about Gwinnett descendants. 

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Here are the answers to today’s pop quiz on Button Gwinnett.

1. Button is famous for being one of 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, and famous also because his signature is so rare. 
2. He was born in Gloucestershire, Great Britain. 
3. The year he was born was 1735. 
4. St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia. He never paid for it. It was sold by creditors. 
5. Button was the second president of the Provisional Government before independence, essentially the second governor of Georgia. 
6. Button and his arch political enemy, Lachlan McIntosh, wanted to fight at three paces, that is, six paces apart. Their seconds got them to back off, and the fight was at six paces apart, or 12 paces. Both were gentlemen in the duel, aiming not at the body, but the legs. Both were good marksmen, hitting each other’s legs. McIntosh recovered. Button’s wound got gangrene and he died three days later in 1777. 
7. Augusta. The bones of Lynam Hall and George Walton are buried under the obelisk, erected in 1900.  But when they went to dig up Button’s bones in Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, neither leg bone was shattered from the duel. That meant that the bones in this grave were not that of old Button. We don’t know where his bones are in this cemetery in Savannah. However, he is remembered in the inscription of the obelisk in Augusta. 
8. Who would name a kid Button?  Turns out his ancestor, Sir Thomas Button, was a mariner attempting to find the northwest passage to Asia. He explored the reaches of Canada, but was unsuccessful. Button Bay in Hudson Bay is named for him. So, it’s a family name. 
9. There are only 46 signatures known of Button. In 2010, a single signature of his sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $722,500. 
10. Button’s children died without progeny. There are no known descendants of Button Gwinnett.

Now, see how you scored.   Besides a street in Savannah, Gwinnett is the only place named for Button. 

Does today’s quiz tell you that you need to know more about our county’s history, and its  namesake, Button Gwinnett (1735-1777)?