MILLEDGE, John, statesman, born in Savannah Ga., 1757; died on the Sand Hills, near Augusta, Georgia, 9 February, 1818. He was descended from one of the early settlers of the colony, and was brought up in the office of the king's attorney. At the beginning of the Revolution, he espoused the cause of the colonies, and was one of the party that, headed by Joseph Habersham, entered the dwelling of the governor, Sir James Wright, and took him prisoner, 17 June, 1775. This was the first bold Revolutionary act that was performed in Georgia.. When Savannah was captured by the British, Milledge escaped to South Carolina, where he was taken by a party of patriots, and very nearly hanged as a spy. He was present at the siege of Savannah under Count d'Estaing and Gen Benjamin Lincoln, and also at Augusta, and did good service in the patriot army. He became attorney-general in 1780, was frequently in the legislature, and was elected to congress in 1792 in place of Anthony Wayne, serving three terms in succession, and also in 1801-'2, when he resigned to become governor of Georgia. He was United States senator in 1806-'9, and in the latter year was president of that body. In 1802, with James Jackson and Abraham Baldwin, he was a commissioner for ceding parts of Georgia to the United States. He was the principal founder of the state university, and presented the lands on which the town of Athens, the seat of the university, is built. By a special act of the legislature, the town of Milledgeville was named in his honor.