On December 10, 1807, the General Assembly of Georgia passed an Act to lay out and identify new counties out of the counties of Baldwin and Wilkinson. One of these new counties was to be called and known by the name of Laurens in honor of John Laurens of Revolutionary fame. John Laurens, a native of South Carolina, was of Huguenot ancestry, and had the honor of being aide to General Washington. The new county of Laurens was to consist of "all that part of Wilkinson County lying between the Oconee and the Ocmulgee Rivers.
