USA > Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah > A history of Savannah and South Georgia, Volume I > Part 5
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Colonel Bull, a gentleman of this Board, and who we esteem most capable to assist you in the settling of your new colony, is desired to deliver you this, and to accompany you, and render you the best services he is capable of; and is one whose integrity you may very much depend on.
"We are, with the greatest respect and esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble servants,
"ROBERT JOHNSON, THOMAS BROUGHTON, AL MIDDLETON, A. SKEENE, FRA. YOUNGE, JAMES KINLOCK, JOHN FENWICKE, THOMAS WARING, J. HAMMERTON. "
STANCH COL. WILLIAM BULL
Farther than this, Governor Johnson, in a letter to Benjamin Martyn, secretary of the trustees of Georgia, dated February 12, 1733, said of Colonel Bull: "I have likewise prevailed on Colonel Bull. a member of the Couneil, and a gentleman of great probity and ex- perience in the affairs of this Province, the nature of land, and the method of settling. and who is well acquainted with the manner of the Indians, to attend Mr. Oglethorpe to Georgia with our compli- ments, and to offer him advice and assistance; and, had not our assembly been sitting, I would have gone myself."
Fortunate, indeed, was General Oglethorpe in having the aid and friendship of Col. William Bull in this most important business. All that was said of him by Governor Jolinson, and others, was true. He promised his assistance, and that promise was more perfectly realized than the fondest hopes of the colonists had expected. Not only did he give his best service, but he added to it materially in providing the skilled labor of four of his servants of whom it was said that they were expert sawyers. Their part of the work was in preparing boards for the houses. As highly appreciated however, as were the friendship and support of this man, whose name has been most prominently mentioned, there were others from Carolina whose services deserved and received the sincere gratitude and thanks of those who at this eritieal period stood in sore need of help. Ogle- thorpe wrote to the trustees: "Mr. Whitaker has given us one hundred head of cattle. Mr. Bull, Mr. Barlow, Mr. St. Julian, and Mr. Wood- ward are to come up to assist us with some of their servants." In return for all the kindness received at the hands of these. friends Oglethorpe named some of the streets of the town for such as gave and did the most. In the naming of the wards and tythings he re- membered the trustees of the colony who, from the very beginning, Vol. 1-2
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encouraged him in his great undertaking; but of this we shall say more later on.
MOORE'S DESCRIPTION OF SAVANNAH
It seems proper just here to explain the method by which the town! was divided into lots, and for this purpose we will again take the words of Francis Moore whose "Voyage to Georgia" is accurate. Continuing where we left off in Chapter II, he says: "The town of Savannah is built of Wood; all the Houses of the first forty Freeholders are of the same size with that Mr. Oglethorpe lives in, but there are great numbers built since, I believe one hundred or one hundred and fifty, many of these are much larger, some of two or three stories high, the Boards plained and painted. The Houses stand on large lotts. sixty foot in Front, by ninety foot in Depth; each lot has a fore and back street to it, the lotts are fenced in with split Poles; some few People have pallisades of turned wood before their Doors; but the generality have been wise enough not to throw away their Money which, in this Country, laid out in Husbandry, is capable of great improvements, though there are several People of good Substance in the town who came at their own Expense, and also several of those who came over on the charity, are in a very thriving way; but this is observed that the most substantial people are the most frugal, and make the least show, and live at the least Expense. There are some also who have made but little or bad use of the Benefit they received, idling away their time, whilst they had Provisions from the Publick store, or else working for hire, earning from two shillings, the price of a labourer, to four or five shillings, the price of a carpenter, per diem, and spending the money in Rum and Good Living, thereby neglecting to improve their Lands, so that when their time of Receiving their Provisions from the Publiek ceased, they were in no Forwardness to maintain themselves out of their own Lands. As they chose to be hirelings when they might have improved for themselves, the consequence of that folly forces them now to work for their Daily Bread. These are generally dis- contented with the Country; and if they have run themselves in Debt, their creditors will not let them go away till they have paid. Considering the Number of People there are but very few of thesc. The industrious ones have throve beyond expectation; most of them that have been there three Years, and many others, have Houses in the Town which those that let have, for the worst £10 per annum, and the best let for £30.
"Those who have cleared their five Aere Lotts have made a very great Profit out of them by greens, roots and corn, Several have im- proved the Cattle they had at first, and have now five or six Tame Cows; others, who to save the Trouble of Feeding them, let them go into the Woods, can rarely find them, and when brought np, one of them will not give half the quantity of Milk which another Cow fed near Home will give.
"Their Houses are built at a pretty large Distance from one another for fear of fire; the Streets are very wide, and there are great squares
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left at Proper Distances for Markets and other Conveniences. Near the Riverside there is a Guard-house inelosed with Palisades a Foot Thiek, where there are nineteen or twenty Cannons mounted, and a eontimmal Guard kept by the Free-holders. This Town is governed by three Bailiffs, and has a Recorder, Register, and a Town Court which is holden every six weeks, where all Matters Civil and Criminal are decided by grand and petty juries as in England; but there are no Lawyers allowed to plead for hire, nor no Attornies to take money, but (as in old times in England) every man pleads his own cause. In case it should be an Orphan, or one that cannot speak for themselves, there are Persons of the best Substance in the Town appointed by the Trustees to take care of the Orphans, and to defend the Helpless, and that without Fee or Reward, it being a Service that such that is capable must perform in his turn.
"They have some laws and customs peculiar to Georgia; one is that all Brandies and Distilled Liquors are prohibited under severe Penalties; another is that no Slavery is allowed, nor Negroes; a third, that all Persons who go among the Indians must give Security for their Good Behavior; because the Indians, if any Injury is done to them and they cannot kill the man who does it, expect satisfaction from the Government, which. if not proeured, they break out into War by killing the first White Man they conveniently can.
"No Victualler or Ale-house Keeper can give any Credit, so conse- quently ean not reeover any Debt.
"The Free-holds are all entailed which has been very fortunate for the Place. If People could have sold, the greater part, before they knew the Value of their Lotts, would have parted with them for a trifling Con- dition, and there were not wanting Rich men who employed Agents to Monopolize the Whole Town ; and if they had got Numbers of Lotts into their own Hands, the other Free-holders would have had no Benefit by letting their Houses, and hardly of Trade, sinee the Rich, by means of a large Capital, would underlet and undersell, and the Town must have been almost without inhabitants as Port Royal in Carolina is, by the best Lotts being got into a few Hands.
"The mentioning the Laws and Customs leads me to take notice that Georgia is founded upon Maxims different from those on which other Colonies have been begun. The Intention of that Colony was an Asylum to receive the Distressed. This was the charitable Design, and the govern- mental View besides that was with Numbers of Free White People, well settled, to strengthen the southern Part of the English Settlements on the Continent of America, of which this is the Frontier. It is necessary therefore not to permit Slaves in such a Country, for slaves starve the poor Labourer, for, if the Gentleman can have his Work done by a Slave who is a Carpenter or a Bricklayer, the Carpenters or Brieklayers of that Country must starve for want of Employment, and so of other trades.
"In order to maintain many People it was proper that the Land should be divided into small Portions, and to prevent the uniting them by Marriage or Purchase. For every Time that two Lotts are united, the town loses a Family, and the Inconvenience of this shows itself at Savan-
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nah notwithstanding the Care of the Trustees to prevent it. They suf- fered the moiety of the Lotts to descend to the Widows during their Lives; those who remarried to Men who had Lotts of their own, by uniting two Lotts made one to be neglected ; for the strength of Hands who could take care of one, was not sufficient to look and improve two. These uneleared Lotts are a nuisance to their neighbors. The Trees which grow upon them shade the Lotts, the Beasts take shelter in them, and for want of clearing the Brooks which pass thro' them, the Lands are often prej- udiced by floods. To prevent all these inconveniences the first Regula- tion of the Trustees was a strict Agrarian Law, by which all the Lands near Towns should be divided, fifty Aeres to each Free-holder. The quantity of Land by experience seems rather too much, since it is im- possible that one poor Family can tend so much Land. If this Alottment is too much, how much more inconvenient would the uniting of two be ? To prevent it, the Trustees grant the Lands in Tail Male, that on the expiring of a Male-line they may re-grant it to such Man. having no other Lott, as shall be married to the next Female Heir of the Deceased, as is of good Character. This manner of Dividing prevents also the Sale of Land, and the Rich thereby monopolizing the Country.
"Each Frec-holder has a Lott in Town Sixty foot by Ninety foot, be- sides which he has a Lott, beyond the Common, of Five Acres for a Gar- den. Every Ten Houses make a Tything, and to every Tything there is a mile Square, which is divided into twelve Lotts, besides Roads; each Free- holder of the Tything has a Lott or Farm of forty-five Acres there, and two Lotts are reserved by the trustees in order to defray the Charge of the Publick. The town is laid out for two hundred and forty Free-holds ; the quantity of lands necessary for that number is twenty-four square miles ; every forty houses in town make a ward to which four square miles in the country belong, each ward has a constable, and under him four tything men. Where the town-lands end, the villages begin ; four villages make a ward without, which depends upon one of the wards within the town. The use of this is, in case of war should happen that the villages without may have places in the town, to bring their cattle and families into for refuge, and to that purpose there is a square left in every ward big enough for the out-wards to encamp in. There is ground also kept round about the town ungranted, in order for the fortifications when- ever occasion shall require. Beyond the villages commence lotts of five hundred acres; these are granted upon terms of keeping ten servants. etc. Several gentlemen who have settled on such grants have succeeded very well, and have been of great service to the colony. Above the town is a parcel of land called Indian lands; these are those reserved by King Toma-chi-chi for his people. There is near the town to the east, a garden belonging to the trustees, consisting of ten aeres; the situation is de- lightful, one-half of it is upon the top of a hill, the foot of which the river Savannah washes, and from it you see the woody islands in the sea. The remainder of the garden is the side and some plain low ground at the foot of the hill where several fine springs break out. In the garden is variety of soils: the top is sandy and dry, the sides of the hill are clay, and the bottom is a black rich garden mould, well watered. On the north part of the garden is left standing a grove of part of the old wood
3
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as it was before the arrival of the colony there. The trees in the grove are mostly bay, sassafras, evergreen, oak, pellitory, hickory, American ash, and the laurel tulip. This last is looked upon as one of the most beautiful trees in the world; it grows straight bodied to forty or fifty foot high; the bark smooth and whiteish, the top spreads regular like an orange-tree in English gardens, only larger; the leaf is like that of common laurel, but bigger. and the under-side of a greenish brown. It blooms about the month of June; the flowers are white, fragrant like the orange, and perfume all the air around it; the flower is round, eight or ten inches diameter, thick like the orange-flower, and a little yellow near the heart ; as the flowers drop, the fruit, which is a cone with red berries, sueceeds them. There are also some bay-trees that have flowers like the laurel. only less.
"The garden is laid out with eross-walks planted with orange trees, but the last winter a good deal of snow having fallen, had killed those upon the top of the hill down to their roots, but they being eut down sprouted again. as I saw when I returned to Savannah. In the squares between the walks were vast quantities of mulberry trees, this being a nursery for all the province, and every planter that desired it, has young trees given him gratis from this nursery. These white mulberry trees were planted in order to raise silk, for which purpose several Italians were brought at the trustees' expense from Piedmont by Mr. Amatis; they have fed worms and wound silk to as great perfection as any that ever came out of Italy; but the Italians falling out, one of them stole away the machines for winding, broke the coppers, and spoiled all the eggs which he could not steal and fled to South Caro- lina. The others, who continued faithful, had saved but a few eggs, when Mr. Oglethorpe arrived; therefore he forbade any silk should be wound, but that all the worms should be suffered to eat through their balls in order to have more eggs against next year. The Italian women are obliged to take English girls apprentiees, whom they teach to wind and feed; and the men have taught our English gardeners to tend the mulberry trees, and our joyners have learned how to make the machines for winding. As the mulberry trees inerease there will be a great quantity of silk made here.
"Beside the mulberry-trees there are in some of the quarters in the coldest part of the garden, all kinds of fruit trees usual in England, such as apples, pears, etc. In another quarter are olives, figs, vines pomegranates and snch fruits as are natural to the warmest parts of Europe. At the bottom of the hill, well-sheltered from the north wind, and in the warmest part of the garden, there was a collection of West- India plants and trees, some eoffee, some cocoa-nuts, eotton, Palma- Christi, and several West India physical plants, some sent up by Mr. Eveliegh, a publiek-spirited merchant at Charles-town, and some by Dr. Houstoun from the Spanish West Indies, where he was sent at the expence of a collection raised by that enrions physician, Sir Hans Sloan, for to colleet and send them to Georgia where the elimate was eapable of making a garden which might contain all kinds of plants; to which design his graee the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Derby. . the Lord Peters, and the Apothecary's Company contributed very gen-
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erously, as did Sir Hans himself. The quarrels among the Italians proved fatal to most of these plants, and they were labouring to repair that loss when I was there, Mr. Miller being employed in the room of Dr. Houstoun who died in Jamacia. We heard he had wrote an account of his having obtained the plant from whence the true Balsa- mum Capivi is drawn; and that he was in hopes of getting that from whence the Jesuit's Bark is taken, he designing for that purpose to send to the Spanish West Indies.
"There is a plant of bamboo eane brought from the East Indies, and sent over by Mr. Towers, which thrives well. There was also some tea seeds which came from the same place; but the latter, though great care was taken, did not grow.
"There were no publiek buildings in the town, besides a store- house; for the courts were held in a hut thirty-six foot long and twelve foot wide, made of split boards, and erected on Mr. Oglethorpe's first arrival in the colony. In this hnt also divine service was performed, but upon his arrival this time, Mr. Oglethorpe ordered a house to be erected in the upper square, which might serve for a court house and for divine service till a church could be built, and a workhouse over against it; for as yet there was no prison here."
PROGRESS OF THE INFANT TOWN AND COLONY
The foregoing, although somewhat out of chronological order, is given for the purpose of showing how the colonists began to build the town. Progress in that matter will now receive our attention. The Carolinians took a very active part in the beginning. Colonel Bull, with four of his servants, spent a month on the spot, and had much to do in the matter of directing how the houses should be built. Mr. Whitaker and others gave one hundred head of cattle. Several weeks were spent by Mr. St. Julian in like manner as Colonel Bull. Mr. Joseph Bryan gave two months in the same way. Mrs. Ann Drayton gave the work of four men in sawing lumber, besides which Colonel Bull and Mr. Bryan furnished twenty servants to generally assist in any way that might be helpful. These generous friends were well remembered in having their names given to the streets running through the town-names which these streets still bear. The name Johnson was given the first square laid out, in honor of Gov. Robert Johnson who, in a special manner, made the task lighter to the com- pany of pioneers, much lighter than they had any reason to expect. The street farther north was called Bay, next came Bryan, then St. Julian, all running east and west; and intersecting them were Bull, in the center, Drayton next on the east with Abercorn following in the same direction, while Whitaker was the only one lying west of Bull. One of the principal benefactors of the colony was the Right Honorable James, Earl of Abercorn, and he was complimented in the naming of one of the first streets, marking the then extreme eastern limit of Savannah. In the division of the town into wards and tythings Oglethorpe wisely determined to nse in their designation the names of the trustees who, under the charter, managed the business affairs of the colony.
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We have already quoted from the charter those portions of that instru- ment deelaring the boundaries of the colony, ete., and how its affairs should be managed. For that purpose a corporation was formed and styled "The Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in Amer- ica,"' and the names of the persons composing that body, together with. the places of their residence, are as follows:
Lord Percival. Pall Mall; Lord Carpenter, Grosvernor Square, Edward Digby. Esq., Clarges street; James Oglethorpe, Esq., Old Palaee Yard; George Heathcote. Esq., Soho Square; Thomas Towers, Esq., Middle Temple : Robert Moore. Esq., Duke street. York Buildings: Robert Hucks, Esq., Russell street, Bloomsbury ; Rogers Holland, Esq., Essex street ; William Sloper, Esq., St. James Place ; Frances Eyles, Esq., Soho Square; John Laroche, Esq., Pall Mall; James Vernon, Esq., Gros- venor street : William Belitha. Esq., Kingston. Surrey: Stephen Hales. A. M. Teddington, Middlesex; John Burton, B. D., Oxford; Richard Bundy, A. M., Dean street, Soho; Arthur Bedford. A. M .. Hab. Hosp .. Noxton ; Samuel Smith, A. M., Aldgate; Adam Anderson, Gent., Clerk- enwell Green; Thomas Coram, Gent., Goodman's Fields.
Bishop William B. Stevens, in his History of Georgia, Vol. I, pp. 99- 100, states that the division of towns into tithings and the appointment of tithing men was an old Saxon custom, and suggests that it was de- rived from the action of Moses as counseled by Jethro, his father-in-law, as recorded in the latter part of Exodus 18, and adds: "But in no in- stance was a town originally lined out as Savannah was into wards and tithings, with officers appropriate to their divisions." Let us add also that no town except Savannah was ever so laid out as to have at regular intervals grassy parks, or squares as they are called, which some one has aptly styled "breathing places" of the city.
When the building of houses had proceeded to a considerable extent, and the divisions indicated through the lines on which they were erected. that is to say. on the 7th of July following the landing, a solemn cere- mony was observed in the streets. At the command of Oglethorpe the people assembled early in the morning, and after being led in prayer they were, in the language of Col. Chas. C. Jones, Jr.,* "definitely advised of the precise plan of the village, taught the names which he proposed to bestow upon the square, streets, wards, and tithings, and participated in the assignment of town lots, gardens and farms." At that time four wards were named, and each ward was subdivided into four tithings. The names of the one square and the streets have already been mentioned. The wards and tithings were named as follows: "Percival Ward, so named in honor of John, Lord Pervical. the first Earl of Eg- mont, and president of the trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America : Heathcote Ward, so named in honor of George Heathcote, M. P., an alderman of London, and one of the most active and influential members of the board of trustees; Derby Ward, so-called in compliment to the Earl of Derby, who was one of the most generous patrons of the colonization; and Decker Ward, so named in honor of Sir Matthew Decker, whose benefactions to the charitable design had been conspicuous. The tithings embraced in Percival Ward were called, respectively, Moore.
* History of Georgia, Vol. I. p. 149.
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Hucks, Holland and Sloper, in honor of Robert Moore, Robert Hueks. Roger Holland and William Sloper, members of parliament all, and influential trustees. Heathcote Ward was composed of Eyles. Larcche, Vernon and Belitha tithings, so named to perpetuate the pleasant memo- ries of Sir Francis Eyles. Bart., one of the commissioners of. the navy and a member of parliament. John Laroche, also a member of parlia- ment, James Vernon, Esq., and William Belitha, all members of the trust. The four tithings constituting Derby Ward were Wilmington, Jekyll, Tyrconnel and Frederick. These were named in compliment to the Earl of Wilmington, Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, who, with his lady, had contributed six hundred pounds in furtherance of the laudable design of the trustees, Lord John Tyrconnel, and Thomas Fred- erck, M. P., both members of the board of trustees. The tithings into which Decker Ward was divided were named Digby, Carpenter, Tower and Heathcote, in honor of Edward Digby. George, Lord Carpenter, Thomas Tower, M. P., and George Heathcote, M. P., trustees all."#
Allotments of the portions of land in the town having been made, as we have seen, to the citizens on the 7th of July, let us look a little further into this business, and see what steps had been previously taken which led to this transaction.
Among the powers granted to the trustees by the charter was that of appointing a common council. This council was composed of the Right Honorable Anthony, Earl of Shaftesbury; the Right Honorable John, Viscount Percival; the Right Honorable John, Lord Viscount Tyr- connel; the Right Honorable James, Lord Viscount Limerick; the Right Honorable George, Lord Carpenter; the Honorable Edward Digby, Esq. ; James Oglethorpe, Esq., George Heathcote, Esq., Thomas Tower, Esq .; Robert Moore, Esq., Robert Hucks, Esq., Roger Holland, Esq., William Sloper, Esq., Francis Eyler, Esq., John Laroche, Esq., James Vernon, Esq., Stephen Hales, A. M., Richard Chandler, Esq., Thomas Frederick. Esq .. Henry L'Apostre, Esq., William Heathcote, Esq., John White, Esq., Robert Kendal, Esq., alderman, with Richard Bundy, D. D., with Benjamin Martyn, as secretary. The minutes of this body show that at a meeting held in the Palace Court, on the 26th of October, 1732, among other business attended to there was "Read a Lease and Release granting five thousand acres of land in Georgia in America to Thomas Christie, Joseph Hughes and William Calvert in trust," and on the 1st of November following "A Power to James Ogle- thorpe, Esq., to set out, limit and divide five thousand Acres of Land in Georgia in America was read, approv'd and order'd to pass the Seal. * Appointment to James Oglethorpe. Esq .. to give Directions to Thomas Christie. Joseph Ilnghes and William Calvert concerning the division of Land in Georgia in America was read, approved and ordered to pass the Seals."
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