regular troops of his expedition at Frederica, with instructions to repair
the old military works at that point. These orders were only partially
observed, and the force was soon withdrawn.
During the continuance of the Revolutionary war St. Simons island,
in common with other isolated localities along the Georgia coast,
suffered from privateers and armed parties who pillaged the houses of
the inhabitants and led captive negroes and domestic animals. Similar
annoyances and losses were encountered during the war of 1812-1815. So
ruthless had been the spoliations and devastations by the British troops
during the progress of the Revolution, that upon its termination but
little remained of Frederica save the sites of burnt houses and heaps
of ruin. The town had almost entirely disappeared. Subsequent attempts
to revive it were feeble and unsuccessful. Of the State legislation
with regard to Frederica, the following synopsis may not be deemed
inappropriate:
On the 17th of December, 1792, James Spalding, John Braddock, Raymond
Demeré, John Palmer, John Burnett, John Piles, Moses Burnett, Samuel
Wright, and William Williams were appointed Commissioners of the towns
and commons of Frederica and Brunswick. They were directed, after three
months’ published notice, to cause surveys to be made of those towns,
according to their original plans, and to have the same recorded in the
Surveyor General’s office, and in the office of the Surveyor of Glynn
county. Any vacant lots, except such as were originally reserved for
public uses, were then to be sold upon four weeks’ public notice; and the
proceeds arising from such sales, after deducting the necessary expense
of survey, devoted to the building and support of an Academy in Glynn
County.[158]
In February, 1796, special Commissioners were named for the town of
Frederica. They were John Cooper, William McIntosh, James Harrison, James
Moore, and William Clubbs. It was made their duty to lay off the town, as
nearly as practicable, according to its original plan, cause the streets
to be opened, the lots to be plainly marked or staked off, the commons to
be resurveyed, and an accurate map prepared and recorded in the Surveyor
General’s office within two months after the passage of the act. The
survey of the town having been completed, the Commissioners were required,
by notice in one of the public gazettes of the State, to call upon the
owners and holders of lots to make due return thereof to the Commissioners
within nine months, and pay the sum of one dollar per lot in defrayal of
the cost of the survey.
All lots not returned within the prescribed period were, after six weeks
public advertisement, to be sold to the highest bidder,—one half of the
purchase money to be paid in cash and the remainder in twelve months
thereafter;—the deferred payment being secured by bond with mortgage on
the premises purchased. The proceeds of such sales, after defraying the
expences incurred in laying off the town and commons, were to be applied
to the support of an academy or seminary of learning in Glynn County.
Any person attempting to run up or appropriate any part of the town common
was declared liable to a fine of five hundred dollars, to be recovered in
the Superior Court of Glynn County by the Commissioners or any inhabitant
or lot owner in the town;—one half the fine to enure to the benefit of the
academy, and the other half to go to the party suing for the same.
All surveys previously made, and grants surreptitiously obtained, were
declared null and void, and any person in possession by virtue of such
survey or grant was liable to the fine above mentioned, to be recovered in
the manner indicated.[159]
In 1801 Frederica is mentioned by Sibbald as “a pleasantly situated town
on the island of St. Simons, latitude 31° 15´ North,” but he gives no
statistics either of its population or commerce.[160]
By an act assented to November 26th, 1802,[161]—the front range of lots in
the town of Frederica being “too distant from the water for the convenient
storage or shipping of produce, or the landing of goods imported to that
place,”—the Commissioners were empowered “to cause a range of lots to be
laid off in front of said town, commencing at low water mark, and running
back so far as to leave a street eighty feet between the present front
range of lots and those to be laid off.”
These new lots were to be sold at public outcry upon sixty days’ notice,
and the moneys realized upon such sale, after defraying the expences of
the survey, were to be paid over to the Commissioners of the Academy of
Glynn county to be by them expended for the benefit of that institution.
Two correct plans of these water lots were to be prepared and certified by
the surveyor, one to be transmitted by the Commissioners to the Surveyor
General for record in his office, and the other to be delivered to the
County Surveyor of Glynn county to be by him recorded in his office.
On the 18th of November, 1814,[162] the Commissioners of the towns of
Brunswick and Frederica were authorized to levy a tax upon the lots in
those towns, whether improved or unimproved, and pay over the moneys thus
raised to the Justices of the Inferior Court of Glynn county for the
purpose of erecting a Court House and Jail. To the same object was to be
applied one-fourth of the future rents of the town commons.
All efforts to revivify the dead town, to perpetuate something like a
corporate existence, to realize a revenue by special taxation of abandoned
premises, to maintain a semblance of public streets, commons, and private
lots, to clothe water fronts with the dignity of commercial wharves,
and transmit the physical impressions of the older days, proved utterly
futile.[163] Frederica lost its importance when it ceased to be the
strong-hold of the southern frontier. Its mission was accomplished when
the Spaniard no longer threatened. Its doom was pronounced in the hour of
its triumph. Upon the withdrawal of Oglethorpe’s regiment its decadence
began, and ceased not until its fort became a white ruin, its public
parade a pasture ground, and its streets and gardens a cotton field.[164]
_Omnia debentur morti._
III.
ABERCORN.
On a creek or branch of the Savannah, distant some three miles from
its confluence with that river, and about fifteen miles above the town
of Savannah, the village of Abercorn was located in 1733. Its original
settlement consisted of ten families. The plan of the town embraced
twelve lots, with two trust lots in addition,—one on either extremity.
Old Ebenezer was ten miles to the west; and four miles below the mouth
of Abercorn creek, was Joseph’s Town, where two Scotch gentlemen had
selected plantations on the right bank of the Savannah. Journeying towards
Savannah, in the early days of the Colony, the visitor would encounter
successively Sir Francis Bathurst’s plantation, Walter Augustin’s
settlement, Captain Williams’ plantation, Mrs. Matthews’ place, the Indian
School-house Irene, the Horse Quarter, and the Indian lands reserved just
outside the limits of Yamacraw. A strange fatality attended all these
early attempts at colonization. Born of the subjugation of the forests,
were malarial fevers and fluxes which engendered lassitude and death.
Short lived were these little settlements, and it was only upon the
introduction of slave labor that these plantations bordering upon the
Savannah became permanent and productive. The white men who strove to
bring them into a state of cultivation failed in the effort and quickly
passed away. Others, who endeavored to complete their labors, encountered
similar misfortune and disappointment.
The ten families who were assigned to Abercorn in 1733 were all gone
in 1737. That year Mr. John Brodie, with twelve servants, occupied the
settlement; but, after three years, he abandoned the place, leaving its
improvements to ruin and decay. Most of the thirty servants who cultivated
the lands of the Scotch gentlemen at Joseph’s Town died, and that
plantation lapsed into neglect.
The Saltzburgers who came to Georgia under the conduct of Baron VonReck
and the Rev’d Mr. Bolzius, in passing from Savannah to Old Ebenezer, were
sheltered and refreshed at Abercorn. To that place their baggage was
brought by water, and for some time all their supplies were delivered at
that point whence they were carried, at much pains, up Ebenezer creek and
through the woods. Before long, however, a road was cut from Abercorn to
Old Ebenezer which facilitated the transportation. While at Abercorn the
Saltzburgers suffered much from affections of the bowels.
Various efforts were made by the Trustees to increase the population and
ensure the prosperity of Abercorn,—which was regarded as a convenient
point for communicating with the Carolina settlements on the Savannah
river;—but they all eventuated in disappointment. Such of the colonists
as were sent there from time to time grew sick and tired of the abode,
took no interest in its advancement, and abandoned it upon the earliest
opportunity. The little life which this small place enjoyed was
insignificant and without moment in the history of the Colony.
In December, 1739, Mr. Stephens visited the town in company with Mr.
Jones, to inspect a large ferry-boat which, in obedience to General
Oglethorpe’s orders, had been there constructed by one Bunyon,—a
boat-builder by trade, and an inhabitant of the town. This boat was
capable of transporting nine or ten horses at a time, and was intended to
ply between Abercorn and Palachocolas. In perpetuating his impressions of
the place Mr. Stephens says: “As there was no Place in the whole Province,
of the like Allotment of fifty acres each, which in my eye seemed so
desirable, being a most pleasant Situation on the Banks of such a River,
with as good Land belonging to each Lot, as is readily to be found in
most Parts of the Province; I never saw it but with Regret, that there
never yet had been a number of Settlers there deserving it; but generally
they happened to be loose, idle People, who after some short Abode,
wandered elsewhere and left it: ... and there are at present five Families
only remaining there, nor has there often been more at one Time. As the
Trust-Lands seem to be now in some better way of cultivating by their own
Servants, than hitherto; I proposed it to Mr. _Jones_ to send down a few
_German_ families to work on the Trust-Lots there; which, by helping to
fill the Place, very probably might induce others the sooner to occupy
Lands there also: He agreed with me in Opinion, and said he would write of
it to the General.”[165]
It is very questionable whether this opinion of Mr. Stephens,—formed
during the winter,—of the desirableness of this locality, would have been
confirmed by a residence there amid the heats and miasmatic influences
of the summer and fall. Some Germans did settle in the neighborhood and
cultivate the soil, but all efforts to promote the prosperity of the
village and elevate it into the dignity of a town utterly failed. Like
Joseph’s Town and Westbrook, Abercorn is little more than a name in the
history of the Colony. In the end it passed into the hands of two English
gentlemen who converted the village into a plantation cultivated with
slave labor. So it continued under various owners until, by the result
of the civil war, the negro has been liberated, and the fortunes of this
region have become more unpromising than ever before.
After the capture of Savannah in December, 1778, Colonel Campbell advanced
a strong force to this place as a convenient base for future operations
against the interior of the State; and hence, in 1779, did a British
detachment move, crossing over to Purysburg and attempting to surprise
General Moultrie at Black-swamp.
The town had so entirely faded from the face of the earth that its
location is not indicated on that admirable map of South Carolina and
Georgia, published by William Faden at Charing Cross in 1780:—and the
only mention made by White is as follows: “Abercorn, sixteen miles from
Savannah, was a noted place in the early settlement of Georgia. No
memorial of its former condition can now be seen.”
Savannah, increasing her borders, practically claims as part of herself
the Indian lands opposite the northern end of Hutchinson island. Of the
Horse Quarter nothing remains. Joseph’s Town long ago lost its identity;
and Abercorn, New Ebenezer, Purisburg, and Palachocolas, have, within
the recollection of more than one generation, been known simply as
boat-landings on the water-highway between Savannah and Augusta.[166]
IV.
SUNBURY.
[Illustration: _GEORGIA. Parish of St. John._
_Plan of the Town of Sunbury containing 3430 feet in Length from North
to South, & 2230 in Breadth on the South Side, & 1880 in Breadth on the
North._
_J. Bien, Photo. Lith. N. Y._]
On the 23rd of January, 1734, Mr. Oglethorpe, accompanied by Captain
Ferguson and sixteen attendants,—including two Indians,—set out from
Savannah in an open row-boat, followed by a yawl carrying provisions and
ammunition, upon an exploratory expedition to the Southern frontiers
of Georgia.[167] His course lay through the inner passages, and was
pursued as far as St. Simons island. For the protection of the Colony it
was then determined to form a military station and settlement near the
mouth of the Alatamaha; and,—as an outpost and barrier against Spanish
invasion,—to erect a strong fort on the high bluff on the western side
of St. Simons island. These sites were shortly afterwards occupied and
fortified, and were respectively named New Inverness and Frederica. It
was during this reconnoissance that the eyes of the Founder of Georgia
first rested upon that bold and beautiful bluff which, overlooking the
placid waters of Midway river and the intervening low-lying salt marshes,
descries in the distance the green woods of Bermuda island, the dim
outline of the southern point of Ossabaw, and, across the sound, the
white shores of St. Catherine. Although formal session had been made by
the Lower Creeks of all lands along the sea-coast from the Savannah to
the Alatamaha river, extending westward as high as the tide flowed, and
including all islands except a few which the Indians specially reserved
for the purposes of hunting, fishing, and bathing, no English settlements
had, at that early day, been formed south of the Great Ogeechee river.
Fort Argyle,—garrisoned by Captain McPherson and his troop of Rangers,
and commanding the passes by which the Indians during the late wars were
accustomed to invade Carolina,—was then the only military post of any
consequence in the direction of the Spaniards. From this nameless bluff
the Aborigines had not then removed, and their canoes might be seen
passing and repassing to and from Hussoope, [Ossabaw], and Cowleggee,
[St. Catharine], islands and the main. To the quiet woods and waters of
this semi-tropical region the English were strangers. The Bermuda grass
which, at a later period, so completely covered Sunbury bluff, did not
then appear, but magnificent live oaks, in full grown stature and solemn
mien, crowned the high-ground even to the very verge where the tide
kissed the shore. Cedars, festooned with vines, over-hung the waters.
The magnolia grandiflora,—queen of the forest,—excited on every hand the
admiration of the early visitor. The sweet-scented myrtle, the tall pine,
the odoriferous bay, and other indigenous trees lent their charms to a
spot whose primal beauty had encountered no change at the hand of man.
The woods were resonant with the songs of birds, whose bright plumage
vied in coloring with the native flowers which gladdened the eye and gave
gentle odors to the ambient air. Fishes abounded in the waters, and game
on the land. Cool sea-breezes tempered the heat of summer, and the rigor
of cold was unknown in the depth of winter. It was a gentle, attractive
place,—this bold bluff,—as it came from the hand of Nature. Some scene
like this did the Poet Waller have in view as he sang:
“Heav’n sure has kept this spot at earth uncurst,
To show how all things were created first.”
By a certain grant under the great seal of the Province of Georgia,
bearing date the 4th of October, 1757, his Majesty George II conveyed to
Mark Carr, his heirs and assigns forever, in free and common socage, “All
that tract of land containing five hundred acres, situate and being in the
District of Midway in the Province of Georgia, bounded on the east by the
Midway river, on the west by land of Thomas Carr, on the south by vacant
land, and on all other sides by marshes of the said river.”
The grantee of these lands, which embraced the site of the future town
of Sunbury, had been for some twenty years a man of means and of mark in
the Colony of Georgia. In 1741 he had been sent by General Oglethorpe
to Virginia to raise recruits for the Colony.[168] In his last will
and testament, dated June 8th, 1767, and proven before his Excellency
Sir James Wright on the 4th of December of the same year, Captain Carr
describes himself as being “of the Parish of St. Patrick in the Province
of Georgia, Esquire.” He owned lots in the town of Frederica, an island on
the north side of Midway river, a tract of land on the main fronting that
island, which he had purchased from John Cubbage, and “a plantation on the
main over against Jekyll island.” This was his favorite residence. Here,
on the 18th of March, 1741,—despite the presence of a guard of soldiers
there stationed by General Oglethorpe,—the Indians made an attack very
early in the morning, killing several of the soldiers and servants,
wounding others, “locking down the women and children in the cellar,”
pillaging the house, and carrying away the booty in a large boat belonging
to the plantation.[169]
The grant of this five hundred acre tract on Midway river to Mark Carr
in fee simple, was made under the operation of the rules adopted by the
Common Council in May, 1750, which essentially enlarged the tenures of
grants already existing, and provided that future alienations should
convey “an absolute inheritance to the grantees, their heirs and assigns.”
It will be remembered that under the regulations at first prescribed by
the Trustees, five hundred acre tracts were conveyed only to persons
well approved by the Trust;—parties who should at their own expense, and
within twelve months from the date of the grant, bring ten able-bodied men
servants not younger than twenty years of age, and settle upon the lands.
Former alienations of this magnitude had been coupled with other
conditions, among which the following may be enumerated as the most
important:
I. The grantee obligated himself to abide in Georgia with his servants for
a term of not less than three years, building houses and cultivating the
lands.
II. Within ten years from the registry of the grant, at least two hundred
of the five hundred acres were to be cleared and cultivated.
III. No alienation of the lands thus granted, either in whole or in part,
for a term of years or otherwise, was permitted except by special leave.
IV. After the lapse of eighteen years from the date of the grant, should
any part of the five hundred acres remain uncultivated, unplanted,
uncleared, and without a worm-fence, or pales six feet high, such portion
should revert to the Trust, and the grant, _pro tanto_, was to become void.
V. These grants were in Tail Male.[170]
On the 20th of June, 1758, Mark Carr conveyed three hundred acres of this
five hundred acre tract, including that portion bordering upon Midway
river, to “James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie, John Elliott, Grey Elliott,
and John Stevens, of Midway, Esquires,” ... in trust that the same should
be laid out as a town by the name of _Sunbury_;—one hundred acres thereof
being dedicated as a common, for the use of the future inhabitants;—and in
further trust “that they, the said James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie, John
Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John Stevens and their successors, should sell
and dispose of all and singular the lots to be laid out in the said town
of Sunbury to and for the proper use and behoof of the said Mark Carr.”
Captain McCall[171] suggests that “the town was called Sunbury,—the
etymology of which is probably the _residence of the sun_,—from the entire
exposure of this place to his beams while he is above the horizon.” We
believe that this projected village was named for Sunbury, a quiet and
beautiful town in Middlesex County, on the left bank of the Thames, only
a little way above Hampton Court, and distant some eighteen miles by land
from London;—it being a pleasant custom among the colonists to perpetuate
in their new homes the memories of persons and places dear to them in the
mother country.
In ancient records, says Lysons, this place (Sunbury in England) is called
_Sunnabyri_, Sunneberie, Suneberie, &c. Sunnabyri is composed of two Saxon
words,—sunna, the sun, and _byri_, a town,—and may be supposed to denote a
place exposed to the sun, or with a southern aspect.
A name better suited to this locality could scarcely have been suggested.
It recalls the peaceful memories of one of the gentle towns of old
England, and typifies the genial influences of the “King of Day” as, from
early dawn until sunset, he irradiates with floods of light the bold bluff
“on the westermost bank of the river Midway.”
Two of the Trustees,—John Stevens and John Elliott,—were prominent members
of the Midway Congregation. James Maxwell had been for several years a
resident of St. John’s Parish. He and John Stevens were members of the
Provincial Congress which assembled at Tondee’s Long-room in Savannah on
the 4th of July, 1775.[172]
Kenneth Baillie and Grey Elliott were active and influential citizens.
The latter was subsequently selected by the General Assembly to act as an
assistant from the Colony of Georgia to Dr. Benjamin Franklin who had been
chosen by several of the Provinces,—Georgia among the number,—and sent
on a special mission to England to represent the wants and grievances of
the Colonies, remonstrate against such acts of the Crown as were deemed
oppressive, and oppose taxation without representation.[173]
All the Trustees, therefore, were men of position and character,
commanding the respect of the community. Their selection for the trust
indicated sound judgment and well-placed confidence on the part of Mark
Carr.
The road from Savannah to New Inverness in the Darien settlement which,
in 1736, in obedience to Mr. Oglethorpe’s orders, was located by Captain
Hugh MacKay, Jr., with his company of Rangers, and Indian guides furnished
by Tomo-chi-chi, had been completed. Various settlements on the Savannah,
Vernon, and Great Ogeechee rivers, and also on St. Simons island and the
Alatamaha river having been confirmed, between 1740 and 1750 planters
with their families and servants began to move in and occupy desirable
localities intermediate the Great Ogeechee and Alatamaha rivers. The
sites, at first selected, lay along the line of the Savannah and New
Inverness road, and upon high-grounds adjacent thereto bordering upon
salt-water streams and swamps emptying into them. Between the Great
Ogeechee and South-New Port rivers was formed the Midway settlement.
This district derived its name from its location, which was about _midway_
between the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha then constituting the northern
and southern boundaries of the colony. It has been suggested, and the
belief is current with some, that the true spelling is Medway, and that
both the District and the river which permeates it were named for one of
the well-known streams of merrie old England.[174]