Approximately ten miles west on the banks of the Altamaha River stood Fort Barrington, a stronghold dating to the earliest Colonial times. Built as a defense against Spaniards and Indians, it was named in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Barrington, a friend and kinsman of General James Edward Oglethorpe. Barrington, a scion of the English nobility and a large landowner in Georgia, lived just east of Barrington Ferry on San Savilla Bluff. Located twelve miles northwest of Darien, the fort was renamed Fort Howe during the Revolution after it fell into British hands. Though the fort disappeared long ago, the old military road that once ran between Savannah and Fort Barrington remains known as the Old Barrington Road, and Barrington Ferry, important since Colonial days, remained in use until the early years of the Twentieth Century.