USA > Georgia > The history of Georgia, Volume II > Part 5
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" It might be impertinent in me to trouble your Lordship further on this subject, the consequence of which your Lordship will see with so much more perspicuity and extension than I can. On the one hand my Lord, with great deference, it seems to be a considerable step towards the ruin of a very flourishing Province : on the Other the advantage rather of a private na- ture, and this done, it is humbly conceived contrary to his Maj- esty's royal intention, when even in Charlestown it is the general opinion, and they daily expect to hear, that these lands are an- nexed to this Province ; all which is submitted to your Lord- ship's consideration."
This cogent letter is followed by another on the 6th of May, in which Sir James Wright enumerates, as far as he has been able to obtain them, the names of the grantees and the amount of land conveyed to each. "I am informed," says he, " that 27,250 acres were ordered to 11 persons, viz. to one Donnone, on account. of Col Bed's Estate, 5000 acres, to Lord Wm Campbell 2000, to Henry Middleton 3000, to one Stephens 3000, to Henry Lawrens 3000, to Wm Hopton 2000, to Wm Guering 2000, and to David and John Deas and one Vanderhorst, together, 5250 acres." . . .
" On Tuesday last," he continues, "a great many more war- rants were ordered to other persons for lands to the Southward of the river Alatamaha, to the amount of about 160,000 acres as appears by their Gazette ; but it's not in my power to give your
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Lordship 1 any further particulars. I shall only add that those large grants will soon reach St Augustine. Some, it's said, have already gone far up S' Juan's Lake or River, and the Creek In- dians are greatly alarmed at seeing a number of armed men sur- veying these lands and marking trees. They have sent runners all over the Nation to assemble them together, and what the con- sequence may be I don't yet say, but am apprehensive it may in- volve us in difficulties, for, my Lord, there is a great difference between extending our Settlements gradually and easily, and an appearance as though the whole country was to be swallowed .up at once and that by armed people ; and this the Indians say is a confirmation of what the French have told 'em, that we should tako all their lands from 'em and then drive 'em back and extir- pate 'em in time."
These, and other letters, addressed by Governor Wright to the Board of Trade, drew from the home government the following communication : -
" To Thomas Boone, Esquire, Governor of South Carolina.
"Sin, - A report having prevailed that you had, with the con- currence of the members of his Majesty's Council in South Caro- lina, issued orders or warrants for surveying large tracts of land in that part of his Majesty's dominions in America which lies to the South of the River Alatamaha in order to pass grants of such lands as being within your Jurisdiction : and the truth of this report having been confirmed by the copy of a protest or caveat of the Governor of Georgia against making such surveys and grants, which has been communicated to us by the Agent of that Province : it is our indispensable duty to avail ourselves of the opportunity by a vessel now ready to depart for Charlestown of expressing to you our surprise and concern that you should have engaged in a measure of this nature so inconsistent with and prejudicial to his Majesty's interests and authority.
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" The making grants of any part of this country is certainly contrary to the spirit and intention of his late Majesty's orders for the removal of Grey and his adherents from the settlement of New-Hanover, and must not only embarrass the execution of what general arrangements may be necessary in consequence of the cession of Florida, but will also interfere with those measures it may be reasonably supposed his Majesty will now pursne to ex- tend the government of Georgia and thereby remove those ob- stacles and difficulties which that well regulated colony has so
1 The Earl of Egremont.
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frequently and justly stated to arise out of the narrow limits to which it is confined.
" We hope however, that this letter will reach you. in time enough to prevent any grants passing in consequence of the sur- veys ; and as to any equitable claims which those persons in whose favour the surveys have been made may have in conse- quence of the expences they have been at, such claims must re- main for his Majesty's determination upon a consideration of each particular case ; but if it shall appear, as it has been suggested, that this measure has been calculated with a view to the particu- lar benefit of those who advised and acted in it, such persons may be assured that any claims on their part will not only be discoun- tenanced, but that, as officers of the Crown, their conduct will meet that censure and disapprobation it so justly merits.
" We are Sir,
" Your most obedient humble Servants,
SHELBURNE.
ED : ELIOT.
JOHN YORKE.
GEO : RICE.
" WHITEHALL, May 30th, 1763."
Governor Wright's protest having been utterly disregarded by Governor Boone, the Board of Trade hastened, so soon as it was advised of these transactions, to declare its disapprobation of them, and to promulgate specific instructions that no grants or charters should be issued for any lands south of the Alatamaha River sur- veyed under warrants from South Carolina.' The action of Gov- ernor Boone was declared unwarrantable.
The orders of the Board arrived too late. Surveys had been made, and charters had been issued before the disapprobation and directions of the Lords Commissioners were made known. Gov- ernor Boone apologized, but his excuses were deemed unsatis- factory. Meanwhile, the grantees having apparently acquired vested rights in the premises, the Board of Trade, on the 8th of July, 1763, applied to the attorney-general and to the solicitor- general for their opinion upon the question whether, under all the circumstances, the grants to land lying south of the river Alatamaha, made by the governor of South Carolina, were to be deemed valid in law.
The documents laid before the Crown lawyers, to assist them in the proper solution of the inquiry, were the protest of Sir James Wright, the two charters of Carolina, a statute of 2 George II.
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ch. 30, an extract from the commission to Governor Johnson em- powering him and his successors to grant lands, and the order of the Secretary of State, dated the 10th of June, 1758, directing the removal of Grey and his followers from their settlements south of the Alatamaha, "a country which, the Board were pleased to add, it does not appear the province of South Carolina has at any time exercised any jurisdiction in, or taken any pos- session of, either while it was under the government of the Pro- prictors, or since it has been in the hands of the crown." We are not advised that the attorney and solicitor generals ever rendered any opinion.
The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations seem at one time to have resolved to vacate, by process of law, these grants which they always regarded as illegal. To this course were they strenuously urged by Governor Wright who, by the most em- phatic representations, called their attention to the failure and neglect of the South Carolina grantees to comply with the royal instructions which rendered it obligatory upon every grantee, within a specified period, to bring into the province either a white person or a negro for every fifty acres of land claimed, and to enter upon the proper cultivation of the same. He also as- sured them that the surveys upon which these grants were based were partial and unreliable. " It is, my Lords, an undeniable fact," so writes the governor, " that most if not all the Tracts of Land taken up by the Carolina People upon any river were not surveyed, but the method was to stop their Boat and set up a Stake, or Mark a Tree, and then row a guessed distance and there stop again and put in another stake (which they carried in their Boats ready mark'd and notched, ) or mark another Tree, and thus make a Plat of the Land all at random without ever stretching a Chain upon the Land. This information I have had from many persons of reputation, some of whom were present. And indeed it must partly appear from the Plots themselves, and very few, if any, of the inland tracts are surveyed, but only a Corner and a few Trees marked, and the rest laid off in the Plot without ever going over or surveying the lands ; so that, my Lords, our Surveyors don't know how or where to lay out any Lands in that part of the Country with any certainty, as they can find no Lines to regulate their Surveys by." 1917159
It was finally determined, however, to admit, at least in a qualified manner, the validity of these grants. As the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations did not deem them-
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selves justified in entirely abrogating what had been so improvi- dently done, in order to prevent, as far as practicable, the mis- chiefs arising from such irregular and uncertain cessions, they ordered that transcripts of all grants to lands south of the Ala- tamaha should be sent by the governor of South Carolina to the governor of Georgia that they might be recorded in the proper offices of the latter province. Thus it came to pass that these grants which, in their inception, were, to say the least, of very doubtful authority became in a measure legalized and incor- porated into the land tenures of Georgia.1
As expressing the sentiments of the colony of Georgia with regard to these grants, the General Assembly, on the 25th of March, 1765, passed an act rendering it obligatory upon all per- sons claiming lands in the province under grants from his maj- esty witnessed by the governor of South Carolina, within six months after notice of royal approbation of the act should have been received by the governor of Georgia, to appear before the governor in council and make proof that they had " within the Province a family of white persons or negroes amounting in the whole to the number of one person for every fifty acres of land contained in their respective grant or grants, (allowing an hun- dred acres for the master or head of such family if he shall be come to settle within this Province) agreeable to his Majesty's royal instructions for granting lands to any of his subjects in this Province," and also that the negroes brought into the province were introduced bona fide, with an intention to settle and im- prove the lands claimed, and not with any fraudulent or secret purpose of removing them, or any of them, or carrying them again without the limits of Georgia.
Claimants were also required to produce their original plats and grants and have them regularly recorded and registered in the established offices in Georgia. Upon failure, within a speci- fied time, to comply with this provision, the grants were to be regarded as null and void.
If, upon the production of the plats and grants, it should ap- pear that the surveys upon which they were based were irregular and defective, the grantees were enjoined, under penalty of for- feiture, to have the lands claimed resurveyed within six months by the surveyor-general of the colony of Georgia.2
1 Seo A Report of the Attorney-General holden at Savannah on Tuesday, the 20th to Congress containing a Collection of Char- ters, etc., pp. 19-21. Philadelphia. 1796.
2 Sco Acts passed by the General Assem-
bly of Georgia at a Session begun and
day of November, Anno Domini 1764, etc., pp. 66-70. Savannah. Printed by James Johnston.
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Thus did Georgia endeavor to shield herself against the specu- lative intervention of sundry parties in South Carolina who, in- voking the official sanction of Governor Boone, sought to invest themselves with a title to some of the best lands in the newly- acquired territory.
In forwarding this act for the consideration and approval of the Board of Trade, Governor Wright on the 4th of April, 1765, took occasion to assure their lordships that he could not at that date learn that any settlements whatever had been made upon the granted lands. He affirmed that none of the grantees had peopled their premises with either families or negroes, "nor has one Shilling Tax been paid or offered to be paid in this Province, not withstanding his Majesty's Royal Proclamation of Annexation in October 1763, and that the Parties have had those lands for a year and ten months ; a Specimen, my Lords, of the great ad- vantage this Province is like to receive from the owners of 90,000 acres of the best Land in it."
After the usual reference, the king was pleased to sanction the following report, which was accepted and acted upon as a deter- mination of the whole question.
" May it please your Majesty.
" We have had under consideration an Act passed in your Majesty's Colony of Georgia in March 1765 intituled ' An act for the better strengthening and settling the Province by compelling the several persons who claim to hold lands within the same under any grant or grants from his Majesty, witnessed by the Governor of South Carolina, to bring or send into this Province a number of white persons or negroes in proportion to the lands they claim to hold agreeable to his Majesty's royal instructions for granting lands, and to cultivate and improve the same : and for the better ascertaining the said several tracts of land by reg- ulating the surveys and marking the lines thereof and recording the several Plots in the Surveyor General's Office, also for regis- tering and docketing such Grants in the other proper offices in this Province.'
" It will be necessary before we enter into a consideration of the particular provisions of this act briefly to state to your Maj- osty the occasion and ground upon which it has been enacted.
" The Cession made to your Majesty by the treaty of Paris of all the territories possessed by Spain on the Continent of North America having put an end to the disputes concerning the title to those lands which lay to the south of the Alatamaha river,
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and which, pending such dispute, had never been occupied and settled by either nation, the consideration of what might be ex- pedient to be done in respect to these lands necessarily fell under the attention of Government, and it being the opinion of your Majesty's ministers that all the territory to the south of the river St. Mary should be erected into a separate government under the name of East Florida, and that all the lands between that river and the river Alatamaha to the North should be annexed to the Colony of Georgia, which before was bounded to the South by the last mentioned river, this arrangement was notified by your Maj- esty's proclamation of the 7th of October 1763. Previous how- ever to this signification of your Majesty's will and pleasure as to the disposition of these lands, your Majesty's Governor of the Province of South Carolina thought fit, upon the ground that they lay within the limits of South Carolina according to the charters of King Charles the Second, to pass patents for a con- siderable part of them to many of the opulent planters in the settled part of that Province upon the terms and conditions pre- scribed in your Majesty's royal instructions to the said Governor.
"This measure taken by your Majesty's Governor of South Carolina was soon followed by complaints on the part of your Majesty's Governor of Georgia, not only of the irregularity of the measure itself, but also that the surveys in consequence thereof had been slightly and incorrectly made, and that in respect to far the greatest part of the lands no steps had been taken or were likely to be taken for a proper cultivation of them.
" Upon the ground of these representations and upon a consid- oration of all the circumstances which accompanied this transac- tion this Board thoughit fit to signify to the Governor of Georgia in general terms that they would readily concur in any law that should be enacted there for obliging the grantees of those lands to cultivate them according to the conditions of their grants, adopting upon this occasion a measure which appeared to them not only just and necessary in itself, but strictly agreeable to former precedents.
" In consequence of this signification the law now in question was passed with a clause suspending its execution until your Maj- esty's royal will and pleasure should be known.
" We need not upon this occasion enter into any consideration of such parts of this law as appear by implication to draw into question either the propriety of the measure taken by your Maj- esty's Government of South Carolina, or the validity of the
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grants themselves, but shall confine our observations to the enact- ing clauses of the act itself and the objections stated to the partic- ular provisions of it by Mr Dunning who appeared before us as counsel on the occasion for the grantees whose interests are to be affected by this law.
" The principal objections were that this act not only pre- scribes other terms and conditions than those upon which the lands were granted conformable to your Majesty's instructions to the Governor of South Carolina, but also in the manner of ascer- taining the proof of those requisites leaves it entirely to the dis- cretion of the Governor and council to decide what that proof shall be, and further does limit the time of adducing such proofs to six months from the receipt and notification in the Gazette there of your Majesty's confirmation of the act, without any ex- ception in the case of infants, insane persons, or those under other natural disabilities, which exceptions by the strict rules of law ought to be provided for in every case of this nature.
" These objections do not appear to us so essentially to vitiate this act that we cannot recommend it to your Majesty to con- firm it.
" At the same time we think it our duty to represent to your Majesty that as there is the greatest reason to believe, as well from the letters we have received from your Majesty's Governor of Georgia, as from what has been laid before us by his agent who appeared in support of the act, that not only the surveys made under the warrant of the Governor of South Carolina have been incorrect, but also that few if any of the grantees have taken any steps for the due and proper settlement and cultivation of the lands, and none have paid the quit rents due to your Maj- esty according to the terms of their grants. We do entirely agree with our predecessors in office that it is both just and necessary that some effectual means ought to be taken to correct an abuse of this nature operating to the prejudice as well of the public interest as of your Majesty's revenue, and therefore we humbly beg leave to propose that your Majesty's Governor of South Carolina be instructed to give positive directions to the proper officers in that Colony forthwith to prepare transcripts, duly authenticated, of all the patents granted under the Seal of that Province for lands to the southward of the river Alatamaha, and also of all orders, warrants, and proceedings thereupon, and to transmit the same with all convenient dispatch to the Governor of your Majesty's Province of Georgia.
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" That your Majesty's Governor of Georgia should be in- structed to cause such transcripts, when received by him, to be entered upon record in all the proper offices in that Colony.
" That if the said Governor shall, upon an examination of these documents, or from any other evidence or information, have reason to think that there have been any frauds or abuses in the survey of these lands, he do forthwith issue a warrant to the Surveyor General of lands in the Province of Georgia to cause a resurvey to be made thereof in the presence of the grantees or of such persons as they shall appoint within a reason- able time for that purpose. And in case it shall be discovered upon such resurvey that a greater number of acres has been taken in than are expressed in the original grant, that the said Governor do forthwith grant such surplus to such other persons as shall apply for the same, upon the terms and conditions pre- scribed by your Majesty's instructions to the said Governor.
" That the said Governor be further instructed to recommend to the Council and Assembly of the Province of Georgia to pass an act for establishing a method of enforcing the cultivation of lands, causing an inquest to be held on the oaths of a jury of twelve men before a Commissioner of escheats and forfeitures to be appointed by the said Governor for that purpose, and enacting that all lands which, upon a return of such inquest into the office of register of the court of chancery, shall appear not to have been duly cultivated according to the terms and conditions of the grant, be vested in your Majesty, your heirs, and successors without any further or other process.
CLARE. SOAME JENYNS. WN FITZHERBERT. THO: ROBINSON.
" WHITEHALL, May 26th, 1767."
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CHAPTER III.
TERRITORIAL LIMITS OF GEORGIA EXTENDED. - CONGRESS OF THE FOUR SOUTHERN GOVERNORS, THE SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, AND THE FIVE NATIONS AT AUGUSTA, IN 1763. - TREATY STIPULATIONS. - PETITION OF DENNIS ROLLE AND ASSOCIATES. - UTOPIAN SCHEME OF THE EARL OF EGLINTOUN. - REGULATIONS WITH REGARD TO TIIE IN- DIAN TRADE. - REPRESENTATION OF THE GEORGIA PARISHES IN 1761. - FOUR ADDITIONAL PARISHES LAID OFF IN 1765. - LAND BOUNTIES TO SOLDIERS. - CONDITION OF THE COLONY. - CONDUCT OF CHIEF JUSTICE GROVER. -- LIBEL UPON THE EXECUTIVE.
By royal proclamation, dated at St. James on the 7th day of October, 1763, his majesty King George III., from the extensive and valuable acquisitions in America secured to his crown by the definitivo treaty of peace concluded at Paris on the 10th of Feb- ruary in the same year, annexed to the province of Georgia all lands lying between the rivers Alatamaha and St. Mary. The separate governments of East and West Florida were also then organized. The northern boundary of the two Floridas consti- tuted the southern boundary of Georgia as far as the Mississippi River.
Thus did Georgia cease to be a frontier colony. Relieved from those anxieties so long entertained by reason of her proximity to Spanish rule at St. Augustine and Pensacola, and no more ex- posed to the annoyances of French intrigue and jealousies ema- nating from Mobile and the Alabama Fort, the province entered upon a career of security and assured prosperity. Her southern and western boundaries, formerly threatened by enemies, were now but dividing lines separating plantations with kindred inter- ests and acknowledging a common allegiance. The change was pleasing and restful, and the effect upon the colony most salu- tary.
The native population, however, remained, and it became nec- essary to acquaint the Indians with the change which had oc- curred, and to perpetuate the amicable relations existing between them and the British Crown. To that end the Earl of Egremont, the principal Secretary of State for the Southern Department, at the instance of the king, addressed communications to the gov-
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ernors of the provinces of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and.Georgia, directing them, in association with Captain Stuart, the superintendent of Indian affairs, to convene a congress of the Creeks, Cherokees, Catawbas, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, at Au- gusta, or at such other central point as might be deemed most convenient.
After some discussion, and upon the suggestion of Governor Wright, indorsed by Mr. Stuart, Augusta was selected as the locality most suitable for the convocation. The congress was opened with due formality at the King's Fort, in that town, on Saturday, the 5th of November, 1763. There were present on the part of the English, Governor James Wright of Georgia, Gov- ernor Thomas Boone of South Carolina, Governor Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina, Lieutenant-Governor Francis Fauquier of Vir- ginia, and John Stuart, Esq., Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Southern Department. Seven hundred Indians were in at- tendance. James Colbert acted as interpreter for the Chicka- saws and Choctaws. John Butler, James Beamor, and John Watts interpreted for the Cherokees, and Stephen Forest and John Proctor for the Creeks. Colonel Ayres, the Catawba chief, interpreted for his nation.
The Upper and Lower Chickasaws were represented by the following chiefs : Hopayamatahah, Poucherimatahah, Houpastu- bah, Piamatah, Hopayamingo, Houratimatahah, Hopayamingo (Jockey's son), and twenty warriors. The chiefs Red-Shoes and Chappahomah represented the Choctaws.
The Upper and Lower Creeks were present in the persons of their chiefs, Captain Aleck, Sympoyaffee, Bohotcher, Sausechaw, Boysonecka, Hillibeesunaga, Firmicho, Poyhucher, Poyhuchee, and their followers.
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