Dungeness on Cumberland Island, Georgia, is a ruined mansion that is part of a historic district that was the home of several families significant in American history. The mansion was named after a nearby sandy spit at the southern end of the island, first recorded in a land grant petition in 1765 and almost certainly named after the Dungeness headland, on t…
Dungeness on Cumberland Island, Georgia, is a ruined mansion that is part of a historic district that was the home of several families significant in American history. The mansion was named after a nearby sandy spit at the southern end of the island, first recorded in a land grant petition in 1765 and almost certainly named after the Dungeness headland, on the south coast of England. The first Dungeness house was the legacy of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene, who had acquired 11,000 acres of island land in 1783 in exchange for a bad debt. In 1800, his widow Catharine Miller built a four-story tabby mansion over a Timucuan shell mound. During the War of 1812 the island was occupied by the British, who used the house as a headquarters.