John Noel (June 18, 1762 – November 1, 1817) was an American politician who served as mayor of Savannah, Georgia, from 1796 to 1797 and from 1804 to 1807.

Biography

Noel was born on June 18, 1762, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the son of Experience (née Young) and Garrat Noel (died 1776). His father was a bookseller who had emigrated from England. He was raised in Elizabethtown, New Jersey. In 1777, he graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, and was licensed as an attorney in 1783. In 1788, he moved to Georgia, where he worked as a judge in Augusta, the county seat of

Richmond County Richmond County may refer to places: Australia *Richmond County, New South Wales, a cadastral division Canada *Richmond County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom *Richmondshire, the original Richmond County in Yorkshire, England United States ...

, before moving to

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...

in the 1790s. He was elected to a one-year term as mayor of Savannah in 1796 and then served on the city council (1798–1799 and 1801–1802). He was once again elected as mayor in 1804 and served three consecutive terms (July 9, 1804 to September 14, 1807). In 1805, he was credited by the governor John Milledge for successfully preventing an outbreak of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

. Noel was an investor in the Georgia Company, which was part of the

Yazoo Land Fraud of 1795 The Yazoo land scandal, Yazoo fraud, Yazoo land fraud, or Yazoo land controversy was a massive real-estate fraud perpetrated, in the mid-1790s, by Georgia governor George Mathews and the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia politicians sold large ...

Personal life

In 1784, Noel married Sarah Cuttler Dennis.

Death

He died in Savannah on November 1, 1817. He was interred in the city's

Laurel Grove Cemetery Laurel Grove Cemetery is a cemetery located in midtown Savannah, Georgia. It includes the original cemetery for whites (now known as Laurel Grove North) and a companion burial ground (called Laurel Grove South) that was reserved for slaves and fr ...

; his widow survived him by nineteen years and was buried beside him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, John 1762 births 1817 deaths Mayors of Savannah, Georgia Politicians from Savannah, Georgia American people of English descent