Bulloch County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 70,217. The county seat is Statesboro. The county was created on February 8, 1796 from St. Phillip's parish. It is named after Archibald Bulloch, a South Carolina native who served as Provincial Governor of Georgia. Archibald Bulloch was born in South Carolina but bought a plantation on the Savannah River. Politically active in opposing the British, he became the first provincial governor of Georgia, in January 1776, and was to have been one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence, but thirteen months to the day after taking office, he died, aged forty-six, in mysterious circumstances, probably poisoned. There was no Statesboro in his lifetime, just a terrain of settlers driving out the Creek Indians.