Image Credit: Mike Stroud

Year Erected: 1965

Marker Text: Beginning with Poulain du Bignon, five du Bignon generations made Jekyll Island one of Georgia`s most romantic Golden Isles. This tabby ruin and burial ground alone remain from Jekyll Island's century (1794-1886) as the du Bignon Plantation. Christophe Poulain, native of Lambelle, Brittany, was a much decorated French naval captain whose loyalty to Louis 16th in the French Revolution forced him to flee his patrimonial lands. In 1792 on his ship, the Sapelo, he brought his family to the hospitable Georgia coast. With four other French royalists, he purchased first Sapelo Island then Jekyll. By 1794 he acquired Jekyll as his own plantation and enlarged Major Horton’s house as his manor. Sea Island Cotton recouped his fortunes and supported a Georgia dynasty of landed aristocracy like that established by his forebears. In 1825 Poulain was buried near du Bignon Creek with a live oak tree as his monument. His son Henri added honors to the island plantation as he made the Goddess of Liberty reigning queen of coastal racing boats. And when Henri`s grandson, John Eugene du Bignon, sold Jekyll to a group of millionaire capitalists, with them forming the Jekyll Island Club, Poulain du Bignon`s island began a new chapter in its fabulous history.