Zubly, John Joachim, 1724-1781

Reverend John Joachim Zubly (August 27, 1724 – July 23, 1781), born Hans Joachim Züblin, was a Swiss-born American pastor, planter, and statesman during the American Revolution. Although a delegate for Georgia to the Continental Congress in 1775, he resisted independence from Great Britain and became a Loyalist.

Born in St. Gall, Switzerland, Zubly was ordained to the German [Reformed] Church ministry in London on 19 August 1744. Following that, he came to South Carolina, where his father David Zublin had settled near the Savannah River in 1735. He preached first at small congregations south of Savannah. He then spent 10 years as minister at the Wappetaw Church near Charleston, SC, an interesting congregation composed largely of descendants of a shipwreck that carried Congregationalists from New England. In 1756 he visited and preached to a congregation in Savannah, Georgia. They were so impressed with him that he was later invited to their newly created pulpit. So in 1760 he moved to Savannah and became the first pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church there.

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