USA > Georgia > Georgia as a proprietary province; the execution of a trust > Part 11
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governors of other colonies, because the Board was hostile to the policies of the Trustees. Vernon did not make a motion embodying his suggestions, but he urged their con- sideration. The Trustees present were pleased with his pro- posals and asked that he prepare a definite plan to carry out his ideas.28
On January 12th following, the Common Council exam- ined the general plan he proposed and appointed a com- mittee to digest and prepare instructions for the officials to be selected. The committee was not restricted to the plan that had been presented by Vernon, but it was authorized to consider in every way the better regulating of the gov- ernment of the province.29 On January 20 and 23 the com- mittee worked on the plan and finally agreed to follow very closely the suggestion of Vernon; 30 but the report was not finally ratified in the Common Council until April 15, 1741. On that date it was agreed to divide the province of Geor- gia into two counties to be called the County of Savannah and the County of Frederica. The former included all the settlements on the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers and so much further to the southward as might be determined by an accurate survey which was to be made. All the rest of the lands granted to the Trust would be included in the County of Frederica.31 The government of each county was to be under a president and four assistants. The new adminis- tration was not at all municipal; but in a way it merged into itself the existing town government of Savannah and was intended to merge that of Frederica also. This was brought about by having the bailiff's of the towns to act as assistants
29 C. R. V: 415-416.
"C. R. II: 353. 3 C. R. V: 432, 436. "C. R. II: 367.
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for the counties, while the recorder at each place was to serve as clerk for the president and his board of assistants. The bailiff's and recorders acted just as before for the towns, their new duties being of a higher executive order than the ones before exercised and not interfering with them in theory at least. This uniting of offices in the person of one man is quite different from the policy pursued by the Trustees in 1735.
On April 20, 1741, the Common Council adopted the in- structions that had been prepared for the president and assistants of each county, and the new system was ready for operation.32
The powers granted to the various officials and the in- structions sent them were not materially changed during the remainder of the proprietary period; and they are of the utmost importance for a proper understanding of the execu- tive management of the province. The commissions and instructions were the same for the officials of both counties ; and so they may be treated as one.33 The president and assistants were to take the usual oaths. They were all re- movable at the pleasure of the Common Council and were to act under its directions. The president with two assist- ants formed a quorum to do business ; and, if the president were necessarily absent, the first assistant might act with any other two of the board. When the president was absent, however, the actions of the assistants must be approved by him in all cases except that of appeals from courts below.3+
The powers granted to the new president were impres- sively meager, relating mostly to trivial matters of routine.
32 C. R. II: 369-370.
33 The government was never put into operation in the county of Frederica for reasons to be given later.
" B. T., Ga., XIII: 6 et seq.
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With reference to his fellow officials, he was allowed some influence. He was authorized to send to the Trustees a list of five persons whom he thought suitable to be appointed assistants if vacancies in the board should occur ; he would thus seem to have some part in naming future assistants, though the Common Council did not pledge itself to abide by his nominations. He had the authority to suspend an assistant who should stay away so long as three months without license from the president, and he could fill the place of such an assistant temporarily until the Trustees could decide the matter. The president might also remove a clerk and appoint another in his place, who should hold the office until the pleasure of the Common Council might be learned.
As to military authority, he was to control entirely the boats belonging to the Trust. He was authorized to en- force guard duty and to inspect the Trust servants. It was also his duty to see that the friendship of the Indians was maintained, though he was not empowered to take any definite measure to accomplish this end. He was assigned a hundred pounds at a time, with a limit of three hundred pounds for a year, for his sole expenditure without previ- ously consulting the assistants, though he was required to render a strict account of how the sums of money were expended.
Finally, the president was to enforce the law against the use of negroes, and he was to prevent monopolies in the sale of useful commodities.35
The truth is that the great majority of the instructions given to the president did not confer powers, but they rather specified duties to be performed, and such duties as required capacity for details more than great authority. He was di- rected to call a special court for the installation of the new " B. T., Ga., XIII: 7-8.
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offices ; he was to send an alphabetical list of the inhabitants of his county each year. He was to see that an accurate map of the county be made as soon as possible. The presi- dent was also instructed to send in regular reports of the progress in the towns and plantations ; and he was to keep a complete list of the arrivals and departures of ships with their passengers in either direction. He was to feel free to suggest any changes in government that would be advan- tageous for the colony.36
The president was required to transmit to the Trustees copies of all proceedings in which he was engaged. He was also directed to record all orders sent to Georgia that passed through his hands. Births, deaths and marriages were to be reported regularly to the Trust ; and marriage bans were to be regularly published by the president. It was his duty also to keep the Trustees informed as to all lands that were occupied, but not registered ; and was expected to see that the surveyor ran out speedily all land grants and that the proper reservations for the Trust were made.37
The executive board, consisting of the president and as- sistants acting together, had comparatively little power. It could license persons to retail liquors, and it must see to it that unlicensed houses must not be operated. It was to be an appellate court for cases arising in the town courts where the amount involved was twenty pounds or more. This is an interesting provision, since a majority of the court of appeals would consist of the three bailiffs who were the judges in the town court. The president and assistants were authorized to fix a table of moderate fees for court charges, to be approved by the Trustees. One of their most important functions was to issue the public money in pay-
34 B. T., Ga., XIII : 9.
" Ibid., 12.
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ment of the colonial expenses; this must be done on the warrant of the president, concurred in by a majority of the assistants; but there was no authority in the colony which had any power to contract a debt for the province. The president, with the consent and advice of the assistants, could appoint and remove constables and tithingmen. This board had general charge of the Trust servants, and it would give them land and various household supplies when their terms as laborers expired. The board was also especially enjoined to devise the best possible means for converting the Indians to Christianity.38
As has been noticed, the county of Savannah was the only one to be organized under the new form of govern- ment. Vernon had suggested that Oglethorpe be compli- mented with the office of president for the county of Fred- erica; but for some reason this was not done, and as no suitable man for the position appeared the old form of government for the town of Frederica remained, and the same lack of government continued in the rest of the county. Gen- eral Oglethorpe had been asked to recommend a proper per- son for president and also for the fourth assistant ; 39 but he was busy with preparations to meet the Spanish invasion, and there is no evidence that he made suggestions. After a lapse of nearly two years, the board of Trustees recom- mended to the Common Council that the two counties of Georgia be united under one government; 40 and on June 10, 1743, the Council adopted the suggestion and made the necessary arrangements for a single government in the colony to exercise authority over the whole province. It was or- dered that the president of the county of Savannah be the
38 B. T., Ga., XIII: 15.
~ C. R. V: 494-495.
" Ibid., 690.
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president of all Georgia. The three bailiffs of Savannah with one additional man were made the assistants for the whole colony. The bailiffs of Frederica were to be only local mag- istrates ; and the recorder was to correspond with the presi- dent and assistants in Savannah so that the commands and regulations of the colonial executives might be speedily trans- mitted to the southern part of the province.41 Private and public instructions were sent by the Common Council to the president and to the president and assistants combined; but these were identical with those sent to the officials of a single county, as previously outlined.
Thus after a period of eleven years and a day from the time the charter was granted, Georgia was united under an executive administration not very different from that which existed in the other British colonies of America. The chief executive bore the title of "president" instead of "gov- ernor," and a small board of assistants took the place of the generally more numerous council; but these were slight dis- tinctions. More fundamental were the differences in the amount of power vested in the executive of Georgia from that of the other provinces, the former being notably weaker; but nevertheless the changes were a great advance over the other arrangements that had been tried by the Trustees. On May 23, 1745, on the recommendation of the general corporation, the Common Council increased the number of assistants to five; 42 and somewhat later a sixth one was added specially for the Salzburghers.43 The government, as thus organized and modified, continued to the end of the pro- prietary period and until the royal rule was established.
The salaries paid officials in Georgia were small, but they
" B. T., Ga., XIII: 49.
" Ibid., 76.
" Ibid., 209.
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were paid in sterling money. The president of each county was to receive eighty pounds per year ; but when a president served for the whole colony, he received a hundred pounds. In addition to that, he always served in some other office for which he would earn perhaps fifty pounds additional. It is not certain that he received any fees in addition to his salary ; but any that he may have gotten must have been of very slight consequence. At the same time, the governor of South Carolina was being paid five hundred pounds sterling as a fixed salary, with a hundred pounds for house rent, and about five hundred more in fees.++ Of course Georgia was a much less important colony than South Carolina, but the difference was not sufficient to account for a so much smaller salary for the governor. The first bailiff received slightly less than fifty-five pounds per year, while the second and third bailiffs were paid not quite forty-five pounds. When the Trust was surrendered, the bailiffs of Savannah were not acting as assistants for the province; but the first bailiff happened to be the same as the president, though the offices were not united during most of the proprietary period. The assistants for the province were paid only twenty pounds each per year; but they might serve in other offices. For example, one of them acting as secretary of the province drew a stipend of fifty pounds. The recorder of the prov- ince got about thirty-two pounds ; the register, twenty ; con- stables, ten, in Savannah, and five elsewhere; while tithing- men were paid five each.45
It could not be expected that men would give their whole time to employments paying such nominal salaries. In the case of ahnost every officer except the president, his private means of making a livelihood took up the larger part of his
" Smith-South Carolina as a Royal Province, 77.
" B. T., Ga., XIII: 209.
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time while his official duties were exercised at comparatively rare intervals. Before leaving the subject of salaries, we may note with interest that after royal government was established in Georgia larger rewards for services were paid. For instance, the governor was paid the sum of six hundred pounds with perquisites amounting to nearly two hundred more.46
During the closing years of the Trust the government in Georgia exercised considerably more power than it did when it was first established in 1743. This was not a result of further grants of power by the Common Council, but it was made necessary by the exigencies of the situation. The Common Council, which was supposed to supervise and direct the Georgia officials, was meeting only twice a year; it was too occupied at those times with financial matters to give much consideration to government, and so the officers in the colony were obliged to exercise many functions that were de- signed to be retained in England. We may illustrate the tendency of the Georgia government to assume responsibility by the changes that took place in the manner of making land grants. All power to make grants of land was vested by the charter in the Common Council. Accordingly, when at first applications for land were made to the president and the assistants, they made recommendations to the Common Council, and the latter acted on each separate case. It was not long before the Council ceased to act on individual applications, but simply approved in a body all the recom- mendations that had been sent in by the board in Georgia. The next records show the mere mention that certain lands have been granted by the president and the assistants, and no formal action seems to have been taken in the Council; so that the later grants made by the Georgia authorities " Jones-Hist. of Ga. I: 511.
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are positive, without being conditioned on approval in Eng- land; 47 and yet there is every reason for thinking that no definite grant of such authority had ever been made. This development of assumed power in the matter of land grants is typical of such powers in other particulars; and at the close of the proprietary rule there was in the colony a fairly influential de facto government in spite of the fact that there had been no nominal development in it during the nine years that it had been existing.
Thus far we have been dealing with executive government in Georgia abstractly without regard to those who admin- istered it; but the personnel of the officers of the colony requires some attention before we leave the subject. It was a difficult task for the Trustees to select the first officials for the province. They had determined to conduct the gov- ernment through the settlers sent over on charity; and, as these had not made a success of their own private affairs, it did not seem likely that they would achieve marked success in handling the larger affairs of a settlement, whether it be a single town or a whole province. Moreover, all the people were on a level at their setting out; and it was impossible to make any choice or distinction among them that might not be a possible cause of trouble in the future.48 The best that the Common Council could do, since it had been already determined not to send an experienced governor, was to choose such men as seemed most prudent and discreet, and to make provision for others to succeed them in case the original appointees did not prove efficient. Accordingly, on November 8, 1732, they chose the following officers : Bailiff's, Peter Gordon, William Waterland, and Thomas Causton; Recorder, Thomas Christie; Constables, Joseph Fitzwalter
"C. R. VI: 331, 357, 359, as examples.
"C. R. III: 379.
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and Samuel Parker; Tithingmen, John West and John Pen- rose; but it is interesting to see that eight individual deeds were sealed at the same time revoking the appointments just made and naming successors for the officers first named. At first thought, it might be confusing to find appointments immediately revoked, as was seemingly the case; but the fact evidently is that the last eight deeds were to be dormant until some of the first appointees proved unsatisfactory in some way, when they could be at once displaced by the commissions of others which had been to that time dormant.+? In addition to the officials mentioned, there were chosen eight conservators to keep the peace, who were Peter Gor- don, William Waterland, Thomas Christie, Thomas Caus- ton, George Symes, Richard Hodges, Francis Scott, and Noble Jones. During the first year, other minor officials were deemed necessary to meet the increasing population ; and Henry Parker was chosen with others as a constable.50
Of the various appointees of the first year, very few were of any importance in the history of the colony; but four of them played somewhat prominent parts in the early gov- ernment of Georgia. These were Causton, Parker, Jones, and Christie. Thomas Causton was the first to rise into prominence. He was appointed storekeeper, and he used his position to advance himself rapidly in the colony. He was promoted by the Trustees to be second bailiff on Octo- ber 16, 1734; and about a year later he was made first bailiff.51 He soon came to have the finest estate in the colony at Ocstead; 52 and he was generally recognized to be the leading spirit in the province after the departure of Ogle-
"C. R. II: 11. W B. T., Ga., XII: 90. 51 C. R. II: 20. 52 C. R. IV: 13.
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thorpe in 1734. It was Causton who drew all bills on the Trustees and directed affairs at Savannah during the next four years. He was not a popular official, and he succeeded in getting the ill will and even active opposition of some of the best men in Savannah. The Trustees complained oc- casionally of his neglect in writing to them and in sending his accounts promptly ; but they trusted him fully until the spring of 1738, when they found that he had gotten them into debt by several thousand pounds. They then suspected him of fraud and ordered his arrest, suspending him from his offices of storekeeper and first bailiff until his accounts were satisfactorily adjusted. The accounts never were completed ; they were worked over by a committee for about eight years ; and then Causton went to England to try to settle them in person with the Trustees. He was only partially successful and he was returning to Georgia in 1746 to complete the work when he died at sea. It was never proved that he acted with fraudulent intent in his deal- ings with the Trust; but it was undoubtedly true that he reaped a great deal of personal profit out of them and that he almost ruined the Trust by his mismanagement.53
Henry Parker entered the service of the Trust as a con- stable on July 4, 1733. The next year he was promoted to be third bailiff, and the year following he became second bailiff. In 1738 when Causton was deposed, Parker was given the position of first bailiff of Savannah; and he con- tinued to hold that office until the charter of the colony was surrendered to the king. When the province was divided into counties, Parker was made first assistant for the County of Savannah; and in 1743 he was made first assistant for the whole of Georgia. On March 27, 1750, he was advanced to the office of vice-president, which had been created to give 53 C. R. IV : 213.
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relief to President Stephens on account of his great age and infirmities.5+ On May 24 of the following year, Parker was made president of the colony and held the position when the government of England took charge of the province.55
Parker's character is clearly delineated in all the accounts we have of him. He was strongly addicted to the habit of drunkenness, and it seems that he never overcame this handi- cap. He was a poor manager of his own affairs and was often reduced to want, his dress and appearance becoming despicable for service in his office. The neglect of his per- sonal affairs was partly occasioned by his zeal for the colony, for he was ever ready to serve the public when he was not under the influence of strong drink.56 In consideration of his poverty and services, the Trustees in 1738 gave him the use of two Trust servants and a gift of money addi- tional to his salary.57 In his public service, he was ac- knowledged by his enemies to be a man of good sense and of an impartial temperament, though he showed no special initiative or strength of will. That he was comparatively easy to lead was evident in 1739 when a number of mal- contents in Savannah got him to join with them in petition- ing for negroes and changes in tenures, though he himself was not interested in the changes and knew that the peti- tioners were mainly bent on embarrassing the Trustees. As a punishment for his weakness in this instance, as well as his other shortcomings, the Trustees removed him from the offices which he held under them; 58 but before the re- moval took effect, he was restored to office. His restora- tion was due to his acknowledgement of his faults and his " C. R. II: 503.
" Ibid., 510.
56 C. R. IV: 21, 32.
57 C. R. V: 20. 38 Ibid., 192.
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promise to make an effort to overcome them.59
Thomas Christie was appointed to the office of recorder for Savannah on November 8, 1732, and he continued to hold the position until June 27, 1739, when he was appointed first bailiff to succeed Henry Parker; but this appointment never went into effect, and in 1740 he was first suspended and then removed from the office of recorder which he had continued to exercise while waiting to become bailiff.60 He then went to England and tried to excuse himself to the Trustees for the faults with which he was charged; but he was never able to regain their favor to the extent that he had previously enjoyed it. He was appointed naval officer at Savannah, but he took no further active part in colonial affairs. Christie's character was not above reproach. He actively identified himself with the discontented element in Savannah and caused much trouble for those whom he was serving. He lived in open adultery, thus setting a bad ex- ample to the common people. He was careless and slovenly in keeping his books, and his accounts were not satisfac- tory.61 He is an instance of the unfortunate appointments so frequently made by the Common Council.
Noble Jones was also an appointee of the first year who carly seemed likely to be a disappointment but later devel- oped into a useful and highly respected officer. He was the surveyor for the colony and also acted as constable. There were many complaints against him as a surveyor ; and in 1738 he was removed from that office and suspended from acting as first constable.62 When the war with Spain broke out shortly afterwards, Jones received the commis-
" B. T., Ga., Martyn to Parker, Mar. 25, 1740, Vol. IX.
ยท C. R. V: 391.
"1 Ibid., 234, 236, 243, 260, 324; C. R. IV: 476.
62 Ibid., 214.
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sion of a lieutenant under General Oglethorpe and did good service in the siege of St. Augustine. After that expedi- tion, he was appointed a captain in the militia service and was given the task of guarding Skidoway Narrows against a possible invasion from the Spanish.63 In 1749 he was given the command of the whole militia force of the colony, and to him was assigned the difficult task of disarming and quieting a disorderly band of Indians who had marched into Savannah intent on mischief.6+ He accomplished the work satisfactorily ; and the incident gave him considerably more prestige than before. In 1750 he was made one of the assistants for the province, and the next year he was asked to act also as the register for Georgia.65
The next appointee of the Trustees who was destined to have a great deal of influence in the colony was William Stephens, who was chosen the first secretary of Georgia in 1737. He was more prominently and influentially con- nected with the province during the last thirteen years of the Trust than any other man in it. Comparatively little is known of his early life. His father was the lieutenant gov- ernor of the Isle of Wight. Here the future Georgian was born in 1671. He was educated at King's College, Cam- bridge, and thought of becoming a lawyer; but he gave up this ambition. He was elected to represent the town of Newport in Parliament, and for twenty-six years he held this office, seemingly giving satisfaction, but making no great name for himself. Through acquaintance with Gov- ernor Horsey of South Carolina, he was induced to visit that province; and at the same time he went to Georgia to visit Oglethorpe, whom he had known in Parliament. Return-
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