"Oh, yes" answered Mrs. Martin, "This was Elizabeth, the wife of Capt. Sherwood Bugg. There is a love story there."
"A love story" inquired Lucy Kent, "How interesting it grows! Please tell us this one."
Grandmother, pleased at her interested audience, continued her story of the Hobson sisters.
"Elizabeth Hobson, wife of Capt. Sherwood Bugg, (Legionary Corps, Jackson Legion) came with her husband and her brothers John and Matthew Hobson to Richmond County, Georgia, 1765-67. John died soon after his arrival in Georgia. Matthew married Miss Burke. He also lived in Augusta, was a Revolutionary soldier and an ardent patriot. It was at his house that the Executive Council met after the capture of Savannah by the British. It is said that General Washington was the guest of Matthew Hobson during his stay in Augusta, while on his triumphant tour through Georgia and the South."
"Elizabeth Hobson was no less a heroine than was her sister Agnes, nor less a patriot than were her brothers Matthew, William and Nicholas. Her house on her plantation, near Augusta, Beech Island, she converted into a refuge and hospital for the patriots and Continental Soldiers, where they were cared for and nursed back to health. Among these patriots were Colonels Clark and McCall, and Major Carter, who in spite of the care bestowed upon him died there from his wounds. Another, Colonel John Jones, of Burke County, received the tenderest treatment at the home of Mrs. Bugg. Colonel Jones had received eight sabre cuts on the head and was desperately wounded at Earle Fort, on the Pacolet River, during the night attack by the British and Tories. During his illness at Beech Island, his brother Abraham Jones and sister Sallie Jones came to visit him. The acquaintance thus brought about between the Jones and Bugg families, culminated later in the marriage of two couples. Sarah Ann Jones married young Sherwood Bugg, and following their example Abram Jones married Sally Bugg. From these descended the Phinizys and Hamiltons and Jones and Lamars, from whom you, Elizabeth and Mary and Lucy Kent are descended."
"You said, grandmother, that 'Ned Brace' of 'The Georgia Scenes,' came from the Hobson sisters," reminded Agnes, anxious that nothing be left untold.
"So he did; 'Ned Brace,' who was Edmund Bacon, was a grandson of Obedience Hobson, who married John Bacon. I spoke of him in the beginning as the brother of William Bacon, who married Agnes Hobson, and there is a sweet story tradition which tells of Obedience. On one occasion she was approached by a British officer, who had reason to believe that Obedience knew the whereabouts of her husband, John Bacon. 'Do you know where he is?' sternly demanded the officer as he leveled his gun at her head. 'Yes,' replied Obedience, not daring to tell a lie."
"'Where?' thundered the officer. Gaining strength at each stage of their interview, Obedience lifted her head and replied defiantly:
"I have hid him—in my heart and you will have to kill me to find him."
"Then, there was another sister, Sarah, who married William Fox. The old people used to speak of them as 'Sister Bacon' and 'Sister Bugg' and 'Sister Fox.' Margaret married a Telfair and Mary Married William Bilbo. Nicholas Hobson married Miss de Graffenried and William,—well, my memory fails me now,—but I suppose I have given you tradition and incident sufficient for tomorrow's lesson, so far as you are personally interested."