Baldwin County is the third oldest county in Alabama. It was created in 1809 while still part of Mississippi Territory and was named for Abraham Baldwin (1754-1807), founder of the University of Georgia, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and a member of Congress from 1789 to 1807. The county once lay west of the Tombigbee River, but after a series of boundary changes it now lies east of the Mobile and Alabama Rivers. Its county seat has been at Bay Minette since 1901, after earlier seats at McIntosh Bluff, Blakely, and Daphne. The county was long a center of conflicting claims by Spain, France, and England, and by the royal governors of Florida, Louisiana, Carolina, Georgia, and West Florida, until Mississippi Territory was formed in 1798 and Alabama Territory was formed from it in 1817. In the struggle for control of the Southeast, many armies camped in the area, including those of Narvez in 1528, DeLuna in 1558, Bienville in 1719, Galvez in 1780, Red Eagle in 1813, Jackson in 1814, Packenham in 1815, Maury in 1864, and Canby in 1865.