USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume I > Part 17
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GUBERNATORIAL PROCLAMATION
Then the following proclamation was read:
"GEORGIA-By his Excellency, John Reynolds, Esq.
"Captain General, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over his Majesty's said Province, and Vice Admiral of the same.
"Whereas his Majesty by his Royal Proclamation given at Whitehall the twenty-fifth day of June, 1752, did continue all officers then duly and lawfully possessed of, or invested in any office or trust Ecclesias- tical, Civil or Military, in his Majesty's said Province in their respective offices and employments until his Majesty's pleasure should be further known.
"And whereas, his Majesty's said proclamation does now of course determine, therefore, that the execution of Justice may not be obstructed, and that good order and tranquillity may be preserved within his Majesty's said Province, till other measures for that purpose can be taken, I have, by and with the advice and consent of his Majesty's Honourable Couneil. thought fit to issue this my proclamation, requiring and commanding. and I do hereby require and command all officers duly and legally invested in any office. Ecclesiastical, Civil or Military, in his Majesty's said Province, to continne to exercise their respective trusts and offices, until further orders. And I do hereby command and require all his Majesty's subjects in the said Province to be obedient to and aid- ing and assisting the said officers in the performance and execution of their respective offices, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.
١
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"Given under my hand and the Great Seal of this his Majesty's Prov- ince in the Council Chamber at Savannah, this thirty-first day of Octo- ber, 1754, in the twenty-eighth year of his Majesty's reign.
"By his Excellency's command.
"JOHN REYNOLDS.
"JAMES HABERSHAM, Secretary. (Seal of the Province.) .
"Ordered, That his Excelleney's proclamation be forthwith published by beat of drum as usual in this Town."
The reception of John Reynolds as their governor by the people was all that he could wish in the way of showing their belief that his inaug- uration would be for their welfare and happiness. It is recorded that everyone showed the greatest respeet for him and that all rejoiced at his coming, as marked by the lighting of bonfires throughout the town at night, and the giving of a public dinner in his honor by the council who were joined in this act of esteem by the prominent citizens. This is the second instance recorded of a social funetion prepared on a large scale in Savannah. Bishop William Bacon Stevens has stated that the first ball given here was on the 27th of June, 1736, but does not give the authority for that statement. He quoted from a "record of the day" that "several gentlemen from South Carolina, arrived at Georgia, were entertained by Oglethorpe, and the night before leaving. a ball was given them by the ladies." *
COLLAPSE OF COUNCIL HOUSE
Scarcely had the new administration settled down to business when the building in which they met collapsed, and by the slightest chance the members of the council escaped with their lives. In the minutes of November 4th the secretary, after noting that the minutes of the last board were read and approved, added: "The house hitherto used for transacting public business, and in which the council and assembly met, being in a ruinous condition, and in appearance in great danger of falling, the Board took into consideration to provide a proper place for theirs and the Assembly's meeting, which they had hardly entered into, when they were alarmed with the falling of a stack of chimney and one end of the said house, and very providentially escaped being buried in the ruins, which obliged them immediately to quit it, and move to the Court House until some proper house could be provided. which neces- sity now obliged them to take under their immediate consideration.
"It appeared to the Board that a large and counnodious house erected at the public expense, and intended for lodging and sorting cocoons would be very proper, if fitted up, for public offiees; and they likewise understood that it was at present of no use; but as it was thought proper not to divert anything proposed to accommodate or en- courage the valuable culture of silk, the Board sent for Mr. Ottolenghe, who has the whole care and management of the said culture, to know whether the said house would be wanted for that purpose.
* The Magnolia, or Southern Monthly, Vol. IV, p. 343-June, 1842.
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"Mr. Ottolenghe attended, and after being acquainted with the season of his being sent for, informed the Board that he should have no further nse for the said honse. Therefore, his Excellency ordered James Habersham, Noble Jones and Jonathan Bryan, Esqs., to examine what was necessary to be done to make it fit for publie offices, and to re- port the same to this Board."
Those gentlemen, on the 6th, made a statement of the business, and had with them workmen skilled in their trades in order that they might make estimates of the probable cost of the necessary repairs, and after a conference, they desired a day or so in which to consider the matter and submit proposals for the work. Time was granted, and when their bids were submitted on the 9th, they were aeeepted, but when the work was finished the record does not show.
NEW COUNCIL HOUSE
A new couneil house was, at the same time, provided for, and we find that on the 20th of February, 1755, the workmen employed in that busi- ness were ordered to appear and submit their bills so that the same could be examined with a view to their payment. For some reason, a conclusion in the matter was not reached until April 14th, when the secretary made this record : "The account for the whole expense for fit- ting up the new Council House and public Gaol, with proper vouchers for payment of the same was laid before the Board, amounting to £256.7.814, his Exeellency the Governor and Alexander Killett, Noble Jones and Piekering Robinson, Esqs. (in order to discharge the said expense) drew on Benjamin Martyn, Esq., in two sets of bills of Ex- change, both dated this day, payable at thirty days sight to Messrs. Harris and Habersham, or order. namely one set for £220 and the other for £36.7.814. both together amounting to the aforesaid sum of €256 7.814, which was in part of the sum of $500 allowed for the contingent expenses of this Goverment, and of which they likewise advised said Mr. Martyn in their letter of this date."
At the same meeting the board found it necessary to take action in the matter of an act of lawlessness which seems remarkable for that time when it would seem that the committing of such an aet could hardly be done without detection: "The Board being informed that some idle and illminded persons had thrown some of the great guns off that bluff before this Town into the River, it was ordered that any person or persons that will discover who committed the said offense shall, upon the conviction of the offender or offenders, be entitled to a reward of five pounds sterling."
NOTES FROM AN EARLY "PLAN OF SAVANNAH"
About to make use of certain information given in a plan of the eity of Savannah, made at an early date by John Gerar William De Brahm, a word or so in regard to that man may well serve here as a preface to what follows. In the dedication of his "History of the Three Provinces of South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida" to the
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king, he says: "By your Majesty's Commission, dated the 26th of June, 1764. I had the Honour to be appointed Surveyor for the South- ern District of North America, and was ordered to make General Sur- veys both of the inlands and sea coasts, with the soundings as well on the coasts as within the harbors, to obtain their latitudes and longitudes, and to make such remarks as might conduce to the security and informa- tion of your Majesty's subjects who may navigate those seas." Further on, he says "The author begins his remarks in the year 1751," and that the history "is concreted from abstraets of journies, astronomical observations, actual surveys and voyages performed by the author from the year 1751 to 1771." There is no way by which the date of the plan of Sayannah accompanying the work may be aseertained, but it is reasonable to suppose that the buildings indicated thereou were either
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in existence at the later date or had been erected previous to that year. Thus, he locates an Exchange on the spot where a building so-called was located and was demolished to make room for the present city hall in recent years, and which building we know was erected in 1799; but of an earlier edifice with the same name we have no other information than that of De Brahm in his plan. Some things we learn from his sketch will properly be mentioned here in connection with the building of the new council house in the time of Governor Reynolds. He locates the "Old Council House" on the lot now occupied by the postoffice and United States courthouse on Wright square, which is bounded by Bull, York, Whitaker and President streets, while he places the "New Council" on the lot bounded by Abercorn, Congress, Lincoln and St. Julian streets on Reynolds square. The governor's house was on the lot bounded by Barnard, State, Jefferson and President streets on what is now Telfair Place, which was eontinned as such until the end of Sir James Wright's administration; but he gives the place of residence of
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John Reynolds as the lot bounded by Abercorn, York, Lincoln and President streets, on Oglethorpe square, while his own home was on the lot just across President street from that of Reynolds, namely, bounded by Abercorn, President, Lincoln and State; and of his residence he says : "The author had built, in the lowest part of the city a house in the year 1760, a season of remarkable drought, he sunk a well twenty-four feet deep, wherewith he obtained eighteen inches water, and after three hours in vain digging for sinking the curb deeper in the quicksand, he at last had the well wall set up, and his well water proved not only of the best kind of this city but has always water in abundance for himself and neighbors in time of scarcity." Tomochichi's tomb was located in the very center of Wright square, thus proving that the account of the burial of that chief by writers who lived at the time was taken as abso- lutely correct at this short time thereafter and the correct location of the grave preserved on this plan for the information of all following generations. He shows the "Old Prison" just across President street from the old council house, on Wright square, bounded by Bull, President. State and Whitaker streets, where Armory Hall, the home of the Chat- ham Artillery, now stands. There was in his day a "Beef Market" where our present city market now holds a place. A dial then marked the spot where General Greene's monument is, and there was a well at the intersection of Bull street and Oglethorpe avenue. The block now occupying the lot bounded by Barnard. Bryan, Whitaker and St. Julian streets was then called "Indian Meeting;" # while the lots whereon the courthouse and the Southern Church of the Ascension now stand were then called respectively "Old Basilua" and "New Basilua." The Filature stood there when it was first erected and where it always stood from the time of its erection in 1751 until its destruction by fire in 1839, where Cassel Row is now located, on the lot bounded by Aber- corn, President, Lincoln and Bryan streets, on Reynolds square, and that was the building to which Governor Reynolds' council moved when the old council chamber collapsed on the 4th of November, 1754,
REYNOLDS' ADMINISTRATION DISAPPOINTING
The administration of Governor Reynolds was not a long one, nor was it a successful one. He wrote an account of his arrival in the prov- ince and his cordial reception, and then described Savannah as "well situated and contains about a hundred and fifty houses, all wooden ones, very small, and mostly very old. The biggest was used for the meeting of the President and Assistants, wherein I sat with the Council for a few days, but one end fell down whilst we were all there, and obliged us to move to a kind of shed behind the Court House, which, being quite unfit I have given orders, with the advice of the Council, to fit up the sliell of a house which was lately built for laying up the silk, but was never made use of." ete. He held a conference with the Indians en- deavoring to keep them in a state of friendliness; called for an infantry. . force of one hundred and fifty men, and for cannon, small arms and
* Evidently the word Independent was intended.
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ammunition for the better defense of the territory; and, during an inspection of the southern portion of his dominion, became so much impressed with the location of the little place called Hardwieke, on the Great Ogeechee river that he suggested it to the lords commissioners for trade and plantations as the only place in his opinion "fit for the capital and strongly urging the removal of the seat of government from Savannah thither. His successor, Gov. Henry Ellis, had the same opinion in regard to this matter, but the home government did not heed the recommendation, and Hardwicke never became the important place so confidently expected by those two royal governors. It may be proper to remark here that the name was given to this place by Governor Reyn- olds in honor of his kinsman, the lord high chancellor of England, and that the place was selected by him as a proper place for a town and as "the only fit place for the capital" and the name given on the 4th of February, 1755, but it had first received the name of the "Elbow on Great Ogeechee River," and changed on May 10, 1754, to "George- town." In the same letter to the lords commissioners. of the 1st of May, he said "There are many objections to this town of Savannah being so [the capital] besides its being situated at the extremity of the prov- ince, the slowness of the river, and the great height of the land, which is very inconvenient in the loading and unloading of ships."
The favorable impression made by Governor Reynolds on the people of Georgia at his first coming soon gave way to a decided feeling of dis- appointment which grew into a positive dislike and repugnance, the out- growth of a disagreement between the man and his council. He was selfish, and demanded of the home government an increase in his salary, on the ground that living was expensive and that it would cost him at least all of his present salary "to live as a private gentleman without any regard to the dignity of his office, the perquisites whereof he perceives will be extremely low." He charged the general assembly with disrespect of himself and his office, and, among other things, plainly showed that he considered some of their number as not only incompetent, but even unfaithful in the performance of their duties as legislators. Offsetting these charges it was held that Governor Reynolds did not give as much of his personal attention to his office as he should ; that soon after taking the oath he practically committed the affairs of his administration to William Little, a surgeon in the navy, brought over by the governor as his private secretary who was unfit for the responsibilities of the office and."of the most despotie principles." The council, at a meeting held September 30, 1755. adopted a paper remonstrating against the further employment of Little and demanding his dismissal in these words: "That the Council cannot sufficiently lament the possibility that it should be in the power of a man of a bad head and worse heart (for he must have both to fit him for the undertaking) to lessen or invalidate your Exeelleney's wonted confidence in your natural Councillors who have collectively and individually given incontestable proofs of their loyalty to his most sacred Majesty, of their zeal for your Excellency's Goverment and of their affection for your person ; yet they confess that the Commeil can only attribute to such an inthenee, an unfortunate influ- ence to this infant Colony, should it in the least prevail, that your Ex- Vol. 1-9
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eellency is pleased to issue proclamations without their adviee and eon- sent, even in affairs in which they are to have the honour of eo-operating with your Excelleney ; by means whereof they are precluded from giving their opinion as it is there duty to do;" and, charging Little with forgery, illegal commitments and arbitrary behavior, they stated that the only remedy for the whole unsettled state of affairs was the prompt dismissal of the man. The remonstrance was of no avail and Governor Reynolds refused to comply with the demand.
HENRY ELLIS SUCCEEDS REYNOLDS
Representations were made to the lords of trade of such a nature that they felt obliged to take notice of the matter, and a letter written by them on the 5th of Angust, 1756, but not received by him until Feb- ruary 16, 1757. made the demand on him "that he should return to England, to the end that an account of the present situation and eireum- stances of the province, and of his eonduet in the administration of the government there. might be laid before his Majesty for his further direetions, and to resign the Goverment of the Colony into the hands of Henry Ellis, Esq." That letter was written in response to an order from the king, at Whitehall, direeting that the lords commissioners for trade and plantations "should immediately direct Governor Reyn- olds to come to England to answer for his eonduet in his Government," and in that order was the "recommendation of Henry Ellis, Esq., to be appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Georgia during the absence of Mr. Reynolds." Promptly on the receipt of the letter Reynolds sailed for England in a merchant ship, the Charming Martha; but before his departure the following transaction took place by which the government passed out of his hands never to be resumed :
"Couneil met 16th February, 1767.
"Present : His Excelleney John Reynolds, Esq., and Henry Ellis, Esq .. and Sir Patrick Houstoun, Bart. ; James Habersham, Francis Har- ris, Jonathan Bryan, James Mackay, James Edward Powell, James Read and Patrick Mackay, Esqs.
"Mr. Ellis then prodneed a letter which he told his Exeelleney he was ordered to deliver to him, and after his Exeelleney had perused the same he acquainted Mr. Ellis he was informed that his Majesty had been pleased to appoint him Lieutenant-Governor of this Province, that he was ordered to go to England, and he should aeeordingly obey his Majesty's commands.
"Mr. Ellis then produeed his most saered Majesty's Commission, bearing date at Kensington the fourth day of August, 1756, in the thir- tieth year of his Majesty's reign, appointing him Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Georgia, and in case of the death or during the ab- sence of his Majesty's Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the said Provinee now and for the time being authorizing him to excreise and perform all and singular the powers and directions contained in his Majesty's Commission to the said Captain-General and Governor-in- Chief according to such instructions as have been or may hereafter be received from his Majesty, which said commission was read and duly
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published in the presence of the said Jolin Reynolds, Esq .. and the gentlemen of the Council above named.
"Then Mr. Ellis took all the state oaths appointed by law, declared and subscribed the test, and also took the oaths for administering the * government and for securing the Acts of Trade and Navigation. *
* Then John Reynolds, Esq., delivered to his Honor the Great Seal of the Province, and also acquainted his Honor he should deliver to him the papers he was possessed of agreeably to his Majesty's orders, and there- upon left the Council Chamber."
The reception of Governor Ellis was as hearty and as demonstrative as that accorded to his predecessor, and the expectation of the people that he would prove to be more friendly to them and more inclined to respect their wishes and to look after their welfare was fully realized. A pleasing incident connected with his reception was the cordial wel- come extended him by an association of school-boys banded together as a military company who, through their commander, after parading and passing in review before the governor, presented to him an address in these words: "Sir :- The youngest militia of this Province presume by their Captain, to salute your Honour on your arrival. Although we are of too tender years to comprehend the blessing a good governor is to a province, our parents will doubtless experience it in its utmost extent, and their grateful tale shall fix your name dear in our memories."
It is said that Governor Ellis always looked back through the forty- eight years of his after life to this as one of the most gratifying acts connected with his life in the province.
At the first meeting of the assembly following his inauguration, held June 16, 1757, he opened the session with this address: "I can with unfeigned sincerity declare that I enter upon this station with the most disinterested views, without prejudice to any man or body of men, or retrospect to past transactions or disputes, but animated with the warmest zeal for whatever concerns your happiness or the public utility, sincerely inclined to concur with you in every just and necessary meas- ure, and fully resolved that, if unfortunately my wishes and endeavors prove fruitless, to be the first to solicit my recall." Replying to those words, council assured him "that they congratulated him upon his arrival into the Province, and that they promised themselves, from his distinguished abilities, acknowledged probity, and nnwearied applica- tion, that the day of his arrival will prove the era of the prosperity of this colony."
His stewardship proved all that his constituents desired, and the termination of his incumbency, brought about by ill-health which neces- sitated his request for a recall, was a matter of regret on all sides. Of his administration Bishop Stevens has written these choice words : "The period of his comeetion with Georgia will ever be in her history like the calm hour of sunshine after a tempest has blackened the sky." It was during his term of service that the troublesome Bosom- worth litigation was finally settled, and that alone is sufficient to cause his name to be held in remembrance by all Georgians who take an interest in the history of the illustrious commonwealth. That his administration of the affairs of the province was entirely
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satisfactory to the people proof exists in the reference made to him by the couneil in the speech of that body addressed to his successor, Sir James Wright.
JAMES WRIGHT FOLLOWS ELLIS
Awaiting the time when he could hand over to the newly appointed governor the great seal of the colony, Ellis, suffering under the in- jurious effeet of the climate upon his health, had to remain at his post until the arrival of Gov. James Wright whose commission had been signed in time for him to leave England in the fall of 1760, and insured his arrival at Savannah in the month of October. Wright first appeared in the assembly on the 5th of November (the departure of Ellis having occurred on the 2d), when his assumption of the duties devolving upon him is thus recorded in the journal of the upper house of that day: "His Honour James Wright, Esq .. Lientenant-Governor and Commander- in-Chief of this Province, came to this House and sent a message to the Commons House of Assembly by the master in chancery requiring their attendence in this House immediately." The two houses having assem- bled in joint session, the governor's address was then delivered. It began with these words: "Ilis Majesty having been pleased to permit his Excellency Governor Ellis to return to Great Britain and to honour me with the appointment of Lieutenant-Governor of this Province, the administration is now. on his Exeelleney's departure, devolved upon me," ete. In reply, the council made an address beginning "We. his Majesty's most dutiful and loving subjeets, the Council of Georgia in General Assembly met, beg leave to return your Honour our unfeigned thanks for your speech to both Houses of Assembly and to present our hearty congratulations to your Honour on your safe arrival in this Provinee.
"However sensibly we regret the departure of his Exeelleney Gov- ernor Ellis, we do with great sincerity assure your Honour that it is with the highest satisfaction we see your Honour appointed to preside over us,"' ete.
The departure of Henry Ellis was a source of the deepest regret to every citizen of Georgia, and numerous complimentary addresses were presented to him by such bodies as the merchants and citizens of Sa- vannah and Augusta and the Georgia Society. The Union Society, under whose care the Bethesda Orphan House had passed, presented him with a handsome piece of plate.
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