Wereat, John, ca. 1733-1799.

John Wereat (ca. 1733-1799) was born in Somerset, England. He immigrated to America in 1759 and shortly after married Hannah Wilkinson. After moving to Georgia, Wereat became a merchant-planter. He was a member of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety. From 1776 until 1783, he served as Georgia's Continental agent. Wereat also served as the de facto governor of Georgia in 1779. He was taken prisoner in Augusta, Georgia, in 1780 and spent a year in a Charleston, South Carolina, prison. He was the state auditor, 1782-1783, and served as president of the state convention that ratified the U.S. Constitution. In 1795, Wereat tried to prevent the Yazoo land sales, organizing the Georgia Union Company in an attempt to buy western lands and prevent them from inclusion in the Yazoo sales.

John Wereat was born about 1730, and was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of the colonial cause in the troubles that preceded the Revolution. He was a member of the first Provincial Congress of Georgia; was speaker of that body in 1776; as president of the executive council he discharged the duties of governor from Dec. 29, 1778 to Nov. 4, 1779; was made chief justice in 1781; was a member of the commission to treat with the governor of Florida regarding the boundary question in 1783; was president of the convention that ratified the constitution of the United States; played a prominent part in relieving the want of the people living west of Augusta in 1782, and was generally recognized as one of the most useful men of his day and generation. He died in Bryan county in 1798.