ENGLISH, GEORGE (1808-1876). George English, soldier and early sheriff, the son of Elizabeth (Tittle) and William English,qv was born in Warren County, Tennessee, in 1808. His parents were divorced when he was quite young, and evidently he moved to Texas many years after his father settled near Ayish Bayou. English became the first sheriff of the Ayish Bayou District under the Mexican government in 1827 and was serving in that office when San Augustine Municipality was organized in 1834. He was appointed a first lieutenant by the General Councilqv of the provisional governmentqv of Texas on November 29, 1835. He was subsequently promoted to captain and fought at the siege of Bexarqv in December 1835. He was president of the Board of Land Commissioners of Shelby County, Texas, in 1839. President Sam Houstonqv appointed him captain of a company of mounted gunmen for duty in Shelby County on May 31, 1837, and he continued to serve in this capacity through 1839. About 1843 he moved to Houston County. Soon he volunteered for military service in the Mexican War,qv in which he served as a first lieutenant under Capt. John Hall. Although he never married, English was the equivalent of a stepfather to the children of his uncle, Archibald English, who died in 1857. Though he was an avid opponent of secession,qv he organized a cavalry company, enrolled in the Confederate Army after the outbreak of the Civil War,qv and served until July 4, 1863. He died on October 12, 1876. His grave was marked with a Texas Centennialqv marker in 1936.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Armistead Albert Aldrich, The History of Houston County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1943). George L. Crocket, Two Centuries in East Texas (Dallas: Southwest, 1932; facsimile reprod. 1962). Houston County Historical Commission, History of Houston County, Texas, 1687-1979 (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Heritage, 1979). Gifford E. White, Character Certificates in the General Land Office of Texas (1985). Gifford E. White, 1830 Citizens of Texas (Austin: Eakin, 1983).
Richard D. English
