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440
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Deeming it best to take no notice of her representations and her threats the council refused her request. Thereupon Bosom worth sold his wife's alleged interest in the lands lying between Pipe- Maker's Creek and Savannah, and her house and lot in that town. With the funds thus realized, the two went to Charles- town whence they sailed for London. While they were absent and engaged in prosecuting that vexatious suit which so long engaged the attention of the government, the islands of Ossabaw, St. Catharine, and Sapelo, and also the lands on the Savannah River lying between Pipe-Maker's Creek and the town of Sa- vannah, -all of which were claimed by Mary Bosomworth as her individual property, - were, on the 22d of April, 1758, formally ceded by the Creek nation to his majesty the king of England. A year or two afterwards, as has been stated, the pretensions and demands of the Bosomworths were finally accommodated in England by a payment to Mary of some £2,100, and by a sur- render to her of all title held by the Crown to the island of St. Catharine where she had fixed her home and where she subse- quently died and was buried.
Every religious belief, the Roman Catholic excepted, was tol- erated in Georgia. While the Church of England was held in special favor and was encouraged, the colony numbered among its inhabitants Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Moravians, Anabaptists, and Hebrews. And now certain Quaker families entered the province and formed a settlement about seven miles above Augusta upon a tract of land known to this day as the Quaker Spring. The territory within which they fixed their abodes had been formerly owned by a tribe of Indians called the Savannahs. Thence were they expelled by the Uchees who oc- cupied adjacent lands. Peaceably inclined as they were, these Quakers hoped to dwell in amity with the neighboring Indians. While engaged in clearing lands and in building comfortable homes they were alarmed by the intelligence that the Cherokees were on the eve of invading the white settlements. Without pausing to ascertain the truth of the report, they hastily aban- doned the country, leaving behind them no trace of their short occupancy save a spring and a slender memory.
The fortifications at Augusta were now in a ruinous condition and were incapable of affording protection to the inhabitants. The soft airs of spring invited to the fields and all were busy with their agricultural pursuits, when the report of an uprising of the Cherokees was proclaimed everywhere. About the middle
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441
HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF THE INDIANS.
of May, 1751, an express from Augusta, sent by Patrick Graham, reached Savannah with the information that James Maxwell and a number of Indian traders, who fled precipitately from the Chero- kee nation to save their lives, had just entered that town. They brought news that two traders had been murdered and that they themselves had been robbed of all their goods. It was appre- hended that the Indians would soon be upon the war-path. Fleeing from their plantations the inhabitants of Augusta and its vicinity took refuge in a church. Detachments of mounted mili- tia were sent in every direction, but no traces of the enemy could be discovered in the neighborhood of the town. A letter was received from James Fraser inclosing a copy of an affidavit made by Maxwell which unfolded more fully the hostile temper of the Indians.
Uncertain whether the whole affair was not a trick on the part of the traders to bring on a war with the Indians and thus screen themselves from the payment of their debts, the president and assistants determined to adopt the more prudent course and to place the colony in a state of defense. The magazine was examined and officers were ordered to muster and discipline the militia. Noble Jones was appointed colonel, and Noble W. Jones, who had been a cadet in General Oglethorpe's regiment, was assigned to the command of a troop of horse. Bourquin and Francis were commissioned as captains of infantry compa- nies, and Captain McIntosh at Darien and the officers at Fred- erica and on Cumberland Island were warned of the impending danger. The governor of Carolina strengthened his outposts in the neighborhood of the Cherokees and supplied Fort Moore with ammunition. It transpired subsequently that some of the young warriors of the Cherokee nation had insulted some of the traders because they had not brought with them a large supply of ammunition. The chiefs, however, condemned this conduct and were disposed to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the traders, who were suffered to depart. On their return, having again failed to bring as much ammunition as the Indians desired, they were all seized. The Cherokees, then threatened with hostil- ities by the Notteweges who were in alliance with the French, charged that the neglect on the part of the traders to supply them with ammunition would disqualify them from offering suit- able resistance. The traders proposed, if liberated, to go to _Au- gusta and procure a liberal quantity of powder and lead. The Indians consented to release only two of them, who were to
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
obtain the ammunition and return within thirty days. For the fulfillment of this engagement their companions were detained as hostages. Finding that no more favorable conditions could be secured, the traders acceded to them and two of their number, James Beamor and Richard Smith, set out for Augusta. Imme- diately upon their arrival at that town they made oath to the facts as they had transpired, and their affidavits were at once for- warded to the governor of South Carolina whose business it was to look after the behavior of the Cherokees, as most of the traders with those Indians were inhabitants of the province over which he presided. The apprehension was generally entertained that the Cherokees had been seduced by the French, and that they were seeking a pretext to declare war against Georgia and Car- olina.
Various circumstances tended to confirm this suspicion. The Cherokees and Notteweges not long afterwards were found as friends attacking the Uchees. Bands of Indians wandered near the settlements, some venturing within a few miles of Savannah and creating wide-spread alarm. Fortunately, however, all dis- turbances soon ceased, and the colony escaped the anticipated horrors of savage warfare.1
The time approached when the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in America resolved to surrender their charter and relieve themselves from the further execution of a trust which had grown quite beyond their management. For twenty years had they supported its provisions with an earnest solicitude, a philanthropic zeal, and a loyal devotion worthy of every com- mendation. The careful conception and the honest development of the scheme for the colonization of Georgia and the restrictions so long imposed upon alienations of land and the employment of slave labor have claimed our attention. The mistakes committed in encouraging the agricultural capabilities of the province have not passed unnoticed, and, npon a more intimate acquaintance with the character of the soil and the nature of the climate, we have been able to account for the sad disappointments experi- enced in the effort to cultivate the vine and propagate the silk- worm. The skill and the honesty with which the finances of the province were administered have excited our admiration, and we have seen ample cause to applaud the tact, liberality, and fair- ness with which the aborigines were propitiated and their friend- ships won. Upon the brave chapter which commemorates the
1 Consult McCall's History of Georgia, vol. i. pp. 240-247. Savannah. 1811.
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TRIBUTE TO THE TRUSTEES.
struggle between the gallant Oglethorpe and the envious Span- iard we have lingered with pride, and the illustrious names and good deeds associated with the primal settlement and develop- ment of this colony have found safe lodgment in our grateful recollection. We have seen a feeble plantation upon Yama- craw Bluff expanding, year by year, until it now assumes the proportions of a permanent colony and discloses the potentialities of a future nation. The English drumbeat on the banks of the Savannah is answered by the Highland bagpipe on the Alata- maha, and the protecting guns of Frederica are supplemented by the sentinel field-pieces at Augusta. At every stage of progress and in every act, whether trivial or important, these trustees, capable and worthy, evinced a clear conception of duty, a patience of labor, a singleness of purpose, an unselfish dedication of time and energy, an integrity, and a rigid adherence to all that was pure, elevated, and humanizing, which become quite conspicuous when their proceedings are minutely and intelligently scanned. That they erred in their judgment in regard to the best method of utilizing many of these marish lands, smitten by sun and storms and pregnant with fevers and fluxes, may not now be doubted. That the theory upon which they administered the trust was in some respects narrow and retarding in its influences is equally certain. That they were unfortunate in the selection of some of their agents excites no surprise. But that they were upright, conscientious, observant, and most anxious to promote the best interests of the colony as they comprehended them will be freely admitted.
A few words more and we turn to those proceedings which withdrew the province from the guardianship of its earliest friends and placed it under the dominion of a royal governor.
To the spiritual welfare of the colonists the trustees were sensibly alive. They also hoped to accomplish much in civil- izing and christianizing the Indian nations. With the "Soci- ety for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts " they were in happy accord. Several of their number were distinguished clergymen of the Church of England. Of one, the Rev. Dr. John Burton, it was said he was a man of acknowledged tal- ents and of most amiable and winning virtues. Another, the Rev. Dr. Richard Bundy, was prebend of Westminster and chaplain in ordinary to the king. A third, the Rev. Arthur Bedford, was chaplain to the Prince of Wales, and the au- thor of several interesting and valuable works. A fourth, tho
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
Rev. Samuel Smith, LL. B., was rector of All Hallows on the Wall. A fifth, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Hales, was equally re- nowned as a naturalist and as a divine. "Perhaps," says Dr. Aiken, " the records of biography can produce no character more marked by the union of blamelessness with active benevo- lence." A sixth was the Rev. Thomas Rundle, prebendary of Durham, and afterwards promoted to the bishopric of Derry ; while the seventh, the Rev. Thomas Wilson, was the senior preb- endary of Westminster. The associates of these gentlemen in the Board of Trustees were prominent in station and of ac- knowledged virtue. Let their names be perpetuated in honor : John, Lord Percival, first president of the trustees and first Earl of Egmont; Edward, the sixth Baron Digby ; George, Lord Carpenter ; James Oglethorpe, M. P .; George Heath- cote, M. P. ; Thomas Tower, M. P .; Robert Moore, M. P .; Robert Hucks, M. P. ; Roger Holland, M. P. ; William Sloper, M. P. ; Sir Francis Eyles, Bart., M. P. ; John Laroche, M. P. ; James Vernon, Esqr., a commissioner of excise ; William Be- litha ; Adam Anderson, the author of a clever work upon Trade and Commerce ; Captain Thomas Coram, the special patron of the Foundling Hospital and always busied with schemes of char- ity and of public utility ; James Stanley, tenth Earl of Derby ; Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, grandson of the first earl of that name; John, Lord Tyrconnel ; James, Lord Limeric ; James, Lord D'Arcy ; Richard Chandler, Esqr. ; Thomas Frederick, M. P .; Henry L'Apostre, Esqr. ; Sir Will- iam Heathcote, Bart., M. P. ; John White, Esqr. ; Robert Kendall, Esqr., alderman of London ; John Page, M. P. ; William Hanbury, Esqr. ; Christopher Tower, M. P. ; Sir Eras- mus Phillips, Bart., M. P. ; Sir John Gonson, Knight; George Tyrer, Esqr., alderman of Liverpool; William, Lord Talbot, afterwards Earl Talbot and Baron Dynevor ; Richard Coope, Esqr. ; William Wollaston, Esqr., M. P. ; Robert Eyre, Esqr. ; Thomas Archer, Esqr., M. P., elevated to the peerage in 1747 as Baron Archer of Umberslade ; Hon. Henry Archer, M. P .; Robert Tracy, Esqr., M. P .; Francis Wollaston, Esqr. ; Sir Robert Cater, Knight, alderman and sheriff of London; Sir Jacob de Bouverie, Bart., elevated to the peerage as Lord Longford, Baron of Longford and Viscount of Falkestone ; Sir Harry Gough, Bart., M. P. ; Sir Roger Burgoyne, Bart., M. P., one of the commissioners of the Navy ; Lord Sidney Beauclerk, M. P., one of his majesty's Privy Council; Henry, Earl Bath-
445
TRUSTEES.
urst, afterwards Baron Apsley and Lord Chancellor of Eng- land ; Hon. Philip Percival ; Sir John Frederick, Bart., M. P .; Hon. Alexander Hume Campbell, M. P., Solicitor-General to the Prince of Wales and Lord Registrar of Scotland ; Sir John Barrington, Bart., M. P. ; Samuel Tufnell, Esqr., M. P .; Sir Henry Calthorpe, K. B., M. P .; Sir John Philipps, Bart., M. P., one of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations ; Velters Cornewall, Esqr., M. P., "a steady patriot, whom no prom- ises, rewards, titles or expectations could seduce from the true interests of his country ; " John Wright, Esqr .; Francis Co- kayne, Esqr., Lord Mayor of London ; Samuel Lloyd, Esqr., a prominent silk merchant; Second Earl of Egmont, one of the postmasters-general, first Lord of the Admiralty, and, when sworn as a member of the Privy Council, enrolled in the Eng- lish peerage as Lord Lovel and Holland ; Anthony Ewer, Esqr. ; Edward Hooper, Esqr., M. P., a commissioner of customs; the Right Hon. Sir John Cust, Bart., M. P., afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons and a member of his majesty's Privy Council ; the Right Hon. Slingsby Bethel, M. P., al- derman and Lord Mayor of London ; Right Hon. Stephen Theodore Jansen, M. P., Lord Mayor of London ; and Richard Cavendish, M. P., one of his majesty's commissioners of eus- toms.1
At their suggestion many rectors and vestrymen in the United Kingdom interested themselves in obtaining subscriptions of money in aid of the charity and in procuring donations of bibles, prayer-books, and other religious works for the edification and instruction of the colonists. Moreover, funds were raised to pay the fixed salaries of the clergymen and missionaries sent over to minister in spiritual things to the settlers, and to assist in the erection of religious temples at the prominent points of coloniza- tion. Glebe lands also were set aside for the use of parish churches and for the sustentation of the clergy in charge. All Protestant denominations participated. Papists only were ex- cluded from the benefits of the benevolent design. The Rev. Dr. Herbert, who volunteered his services, accompanied the first embarkation and comforted the emigrants as they pitched their tents beneath the tall pines on Yamacraw Bluff. The vessel which bore them was richly freighted with bibles, testaments, common prayer-books, psalters, catechisms, and other religious
1 See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. i. appendix. New York. MDCCCXLVII. MS. Minutes of the Trustees.
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446
THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
works. . Comfortable provision was made for the support of the missionary and the dissemination of spiritual reading. He was succeeded by the Rev. Samuel Quincy, who for more than two years was the only clergyman at Savannah. Then came the brothers Wesley, of whose labors, trials, and disappointments we have already spoken. The Rev. Benjamin Ingham and Dela- motte were their assistants, but their labors for the conversion of the Indians, the instruction of the children of the province, and the guidance of its inhabitants in the paths of righteous- ness were not crowned with flattering success. At Darien the Rev. John McLeod led the Highlanders most acceptably in prayer, and guarded the ark of the covenant amid the solemn cypress groves of the Alatamaha.
Responding to the invitation of the Rev. John Wesley, and accepting the offers of the trustees, the Rev. George Whitefield lifted his eloquent voice in behalf of the moral, intellectual, and spiritual education of the Georgia colonists, and expended some of the best energies of his noble life in founding and maintain- ing the orphan house at Bethesda. And there too was James Habersham who, amid his engagements as teacher, secretary, legislator, and merchant, exhibited the crowning virtues of a Christian and contributed the valuable services of a catechist and reader.
Recommended by the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of London, and bearing the blessings of Selina, Countess of Hun- tingdon, the Rev. William Norris for some time discharged the duties of missionary at Savannah and Frederica. During his ministry he is said to have baptized one hundred and forty-two persons, of whom seventy-one were soldiers. He left Georgia under a cloud, and was followed by the Rev. Christopher Orton, who in August, 1742, died at Savannah when his ministrations were little more than fairly commenced.
The next clerical appointment was unfortunate. On the 4th of July, 1743, the Rev. Thomas Bosomworth was commissioned to perform all religious and ecclesiastical offices in Georgia. At Frederica he officiated as chaplain to Oglethorpe's regiment, but marrying the Indian woman Mary Matthews soon became involved in schemes for personal aggrandizement and the accu- mulation of property which seriously impaired the tranquillity of the province and necessitated his recall.
The Rev. Bartholomew Zouberbuhler was sent over in his place. Although a native of St. Gall in Switzerland, at an early
447
REV. MR. ZOUBERBUIILER.
age he accompanied his father to Carolina and acquired a good education in Charlestown. Visiting England he was ordained as a deacon and priest by the Bishop of London. His ability to speak the French and German languages recommended him to the trustees, who had been recently memorialized by the inhab- itants of Vernonsburg and the adjacent villages to furnish them with a minister of Calvinistic principles. They had suggested the employment of the Rev. John Joachim Zubly, of St. Gall, as a suitable religious teacher, but as proper terms could not be agreed upon the trustees substituted Mr. Zouberbuhler in his stead. Although he spoke English rather imperfectly, the labors of this parson were generally acceptable. Out of the six hun- dred and thirteen inhabitants which Savannah contained in 1748, three hundred and eighty-eight are said to have been Dissen- ters. After preaching and teaching diligently for three years he returned to England " with ample testimonials to his good behavior." At the close of 1749 he was again in Georgia where, with great zeal, he resumed his labors. The church edifice in Savannah, which was commenced on the 11th of June, 1740, was not completed until the 7th of July, 1750. The day of its dedication was the anniversary of the establishment of the first court in Savannah seventeen years before, and also of the defeat of the Spaniards by General Oglethorpe when they attempted to capture the island of St. Simon. Although this sacred struc- ture has been supplanted by another of stronger materials and more august proportions, the lot upon which Christ Church in Savannah now stands was the earliest dedication to ecclesias- tical uses made within the confines of the province of Georgia. The blessings of nearly a century and a half rest upon it, and five generations of worshipers have here learned the way to heaven.
In 1750 the gentlemen of Augusta built " a handsome and convenient church " opposite one of the curtains of the fort and so near that its guns afforded ample protection. This was the furthest point the Church of England had thus far advanced into the Indian territory. In order to attract a minister, the inhab- itants of this town promised to erect a parsonage, cultivate the glebe lands, and contribute £20 a year toward his maintenance. The Rev. Jonathan Copp, a native of Connecticut and a gradu- ate of Yale College, having in December, 1750, been ordained in England as a deacon and priest by Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of Lon- don, came to Augusta the following year and there entered upon
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THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA.
his ministry. His congregation numbered nearly one hundred. Among them were eight communicants. The parsonage, how- ever, had not been erected, the glebe lands were uncultivated, and the hope of receiving prompt payment of the stipend of £20 appeared uncertain. "Separated from any brother clergyman by one hundred and thirty miles of wilderness," on the frontier of civilization, in proximity to the Indian territory and daily lia- ble to the merciless attacks of savages, " with but little to cheer and much to discourage, with small emolument and ardnous labour," he here continued as a missionary until 1756, when he accepted a call to the rectorship of St. John's parish in South Carolina.
With the virtuous and religious lives of the German Lutherans at Ebenezer, with the erection of their churches, Jerusalem and Zion, and with the ministrations of their devoted pastors, Martin Bolzius, Israel Christian Gronau, and H. H. Lembke, we are already somewhat familiar. The Salzburg church at St. Simon's, organized in 1743 and possessing a membership of some sixty individuals, was under the pastorate of the Rev. John Ulrick Driesler, and continued to exist until General Ogle- thorpe's regiment was disbanded. The death of its spiritual head and the dispersion of the congregation terminated its feeble existence.
Short was the sojourn of the Moravians in Georgia, and yet the recollection of their quiet, industrious, and pious lives is pleasant, and they have linked with the religious history of the colony under the trustees the names of Count Zinzendorf, Span- genberg, Nitschman, Boehler, Mack, Layshart, Hayger, and Zeis- berger. To the teachings of the Rev. Peter Boehler did Mr. John Wesley attribute his conversion, and more Indian children were instructed in the little school-house at Irene, builded and supported by the Moravians, during the few years of its ex- istence, than at all other places in the colony combined. The United Brethren did not tarry long enough in Georgia to create anything like a lasting impression upon the temper and institu- tions of the province.
Although the Israelites in Savannah obtained a room which they fitted up and used as a synagogue, their numbers, during the period when the trustees governed the colony, were too few to justify the erection of a temple.
With the exception of the Lutheran and Moravian settlements, the Georgia communities up to this time had not been remarka-
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RELIGIOUS EFFORTS OF THE TRUSTEES.
ble either for their religious devotion or subserviency to pastoral rule. The trustees, however, had done what they could to sustain the worship of Almighty God, and to enjoin upon the colonists an observance of the rules of morality and religion.1
1 See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. i. book second, chapter 10. New York. MDCCCXLVII.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE TRUSTEES SURRENDER THEIR CHARTER AND GEORGIA PASSES INTO THE HANDS OF THE CROWN. - DEED OF SURRENDER. - SERVANTS OF TIIE TRUSTEES CONTINUED IN OFFICE PENDING TIIE ERECTION OF A ROYAL GOVERNMENT. - PATRICK GRAHAM SUCCEEDS MR. PARKER AS PRESIDENT. - POPULATION AND CONDITION OF GEORGIA IN 1753. - ROYAL PLAN FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CIVIL GOVERNMENT. - CAPTAIN JOIIN REY- NOLDS APPOINTED AS FIRST ROYAL GOVERNOR. - HIS POWERS AND DUTIES. - PUBLIC SEAL. - GEORGIA DURING THE INTERREGNUM. - THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. - THE COUNCIL. - QUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS AND OF REPRESENTATIVES. - THE COMMONS HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. - THIE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. - THE COURTS. - THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND ASSO- CIATE JUSTICES. - THE PROVOST MARSHAL, ETC., ETC.
ALTHOUGH the charter granted by his majesty King George II. to the Trustees for establishing the Colony of Georgia in Amer- ica did not, by its terms, expire until the 9th of June, 1753, persuaded that the proper administration of the affairs of the province and the defrayal of the expenses connected with the suitable maintenance of the civil and military establishments were beyond their capabilities, the common council, on the 25th of April, 1751, appointed a committee, with the Earl of Shaftes- bury as its chairman, to adjust with the general government "proper means for supporting and settling the Colony for the future, and to take from time to time all such measures as they should find necessary for its well being." That committee was also empowered to frame, affix the seal of the corporation, and present to the Privy Council such representations or memorials as they might deem appropriate to carry into effect the inten- tions of the trustees. Acting under these instructions a memo- rial was prepared and submitted. Informed that the Lords of the Privy Council had appointed Thursday evening, the 19th of December, 1751, to consider the trustees' memorial to his maj- esty, and certain reports thereon emanating from the Lords Com- missioners of the Treasury and from the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, the committee convened on the 14th of December and empowered the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr. Hooper, Mr. Vernon, Mr. Tracy, Mr. Frederick, and Mr. Lloyd
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