Chatham County GaArchives History .....Chapter I - History of Savannah and South Georgia 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 12, 2004, 11:07 am CHAPTER I FOUNDING OF SAVANNAH ORIGIN OF NAME—SAVANNAH TOWN FOUNDED—FORETHOUGHT OF OGLETHORPE—HIS PRISON REFORM RECORD—ORIGIN OF SAVANNAH. When the illustrious founder of the Colony of Georgia set sail from England, had he chosen a name for the place he might select as the location of the first settlement of his people? This is an interesting question, and one very easily answered. He knew, of course, all about the boundaries of the territory described in the charter granted by George II to the Trustees, and that the said territory was "in that part of South Carolina, in America, which lies from the northern part of a stream or river there commonly called the Savannah," etc. The name Savannah, then, was not unknown to him, and it is a fact that he had determined, before leaving home, to name the capital of his colony after the stream which should thereafter separate Georgia from her friendly neighbor who willingly consented to the scheme so dear to the heart of that good man, now recognized as one of the foremost philanthropists of the world. This is no mere conjecture therefore, as it is positively recorded, even before Oglethorpe left the shores of England, that the name of the first place to be settled was Savannah. The statement has been made, and is true, that he "marked out the site of a town which, from the river which flowed by, he called Savannah."* A little more than one month after the landing of the colonists, the South Carolina, Gazette published an account of a visit made to the new settlement by some Carolinians, mentioning the arrival of the colonists "at Yamacraw,—a place so called by the Indians—but now Savannah in the Colony of Georgia." Judging from the language of all writers who have touched upon this point, it seems to have been the __________________ * History of Georgia, by Chas. C. Jones, Jr., Vol. I, p. 118. -------------- p. 2 general opinion heretofore that Oglethorpe had found no name for the place until he began to build the town, but the truth of the matter, as divulged in the official records of the trustees, appears to have escaped the scrutiny of them all. Fifteen days before Oglethorpe's departure from Gravesend, a meeting of the Trustees was held, when they "affix 'd their seal to a Grant erecting a Court of Judicature for trying causes, as well criminal as civil, in the town of Savannah, by the Name and Stile of the Town Court." (Colonial Records, edited by A. D. Candler, Vol. I, p. 33—Minutes of the Trustees, Nov. 2, 1732.) Again, the common council, on the 8th of November, 1732, ordered "That Mr. Oglethorpe do set out three hundred acres of land in Georgia in America to be appropriated for the use of the Church of the Town of Savannah and a site for the Church and the Minister's House in the Town and likewise a Burial Place at a proper Distance from the Town" (Candler's Colonial Records, Vol II, pp. 10-11); and that same body, on the 7th of November, 1732, took action "appointing Peter Gordon, William Waterland and Thomas Causton.” Another item from the minutes of the trustees at a meeting held January 17, 1732-33, makes mention of the town, while the colonists were on their voyage, by ordering "That a letter be sent to Mr. Oglethorpe recommending Mr. Botham Squire to be settled in the Township of Savannah, under Mr. Christie's Grant, he paying the Expenses of his Passage himself." ORIGIN OF NAME "SAVANNAH" Seeing, then, that the name was chosen in advance of the coming to the territory to be occupied by the settlers, let us inquire how it came to be adopted. It was so called from the river Savannah; but how did that stream get its name? Hitherto there has been a difference of opinion on that point, some holding that it is purely an Indian word, while others contend for a Spanish origin. Logan, in a footnote on page 211 of Vol. I of his History of Upper South Carolina, makes this statement: "Isundiga was the Cherokee name for the ancient Keowee and Savannah. The present name of Savannah was derived from the Shawano or Savannah Indians, a warlike tribe that once lived on its western bank near the present site of Augusta. Some time after the settlement of South Carolina they removed beyond the Ohio. Adair declares they were driven away by the foolish measures of the English." SAVANNAH TOWN FOUNDED The settlement mentioned in this extract was called Savannah Town, afterwards known as Fort Moore. For full information as to this matter the reader is referred to Vol. III, part II, of Collections of the Georgia Historical Society—"A Sketch of the Creek Country," by Benjamin Hawkins, pp. 16, 17, 21, 25, 34, 35 and 83. Advocating its Spanish origin, the Hon. A. H. Chappell, in his "Miscellanies of Georgia"* says: "It is an interesting fact, reflect- ______________ * Part I, p. 18. -------------- p. 3 ing light on the first exploration of the State, and clearing up a part of its history otherwise so obscure, that so many of the Atlantic rivers of Georgia have the Spanish stamp on their names—as the St. Mary's, the Great and Little St. Illa, the Altamaha, and last, and, if possible, the plainest of all, the Savannah. For no one can ascend that stream from the sea, or stand on the edge of the bluff which the city occupies, or on the top of its ancient Exchange [now, alas! completely obliterated, and its site marked by the new City Hall] (which may fire and war, and tempest, and the tooth of time, and the felon hand of improvement long spare) and overlook the vast expanse of flat lands that spread out on both sides of the river, forming in winter a dark, in summer a green, in autumn a saffron, contrast to its bright, interesting waters, without knowing at once that from these plains, these savannas, the river got its name, derived from the Spanish language and the Spanish word Sabanna—and that it was baptized with the Christian, though not saintly, name it bears, by Spanish discoverers just as certainly as the great grassy plains in South America owed their names of savannas to the same national source." It is undoubtedly true, and the statement is made by all the writers to this same effect, that Oglethorpe "marked out the site of the town which, from the river which flowed by, he called Savannah."* The question is happily settled by the Hon. Albert Gallatin, who, in " Archaeologia Americana Transactions and Collections of the American Antiquarian Society," Vol. II, pp. 83-84, says: "In the year 1670, when English emigrants first settled in South Carolina, four tribes are mentioned near the seashore between the rivers Ashley and Savannah—the Stonoes, Edistoes, Westoes, and Savannahs. * * * The name of Savannahs, most probably derived from that of the river on which they lived, and which is of Spanish origin, is there dropped." FORETHOUGHT OF OGLETHORPE It is hardly to be supposed that the founder of the city left England without some definite plan for the laying out of the same. Gen. James Edward Oglethorpe was not that kind of a man. His purpose in providing a home for the unfortunates of a certain class of his countrymen was made after a careful investigation of the cause of their condition, and the method of providing for their relief was carefully considered, so that when the time came to carry out his plan in that respect he was ready to answer satisfactorily any questions which might be put to him by skeptics and to brush away all objections which might be offered to his philanthropic scheme. So it was with every part of the intricate work which he set out to accomplish. When he set the colonists to work in building homes for themselves, after landing on Yamacraw bluff, those houses were built according to a well-prepared plan in the marking out of which he had spent many busy hours, and perhaps days. How can there be the slightest doubt of this in the mind of anyone who walks through the streets ________________ * History of Georgia, by Chas. C. Jones, Jr., Vol. I, p. 118. -------------- p. 4 and squares of the city which, unique under its systematic order of by-ways, lanes, and chain of parks, makes it so attractive to visitors from all parts of the world? There is no other city on the whole earth just like it, and the regularity of its lines and angles compels the wonder and admiration of everybody! Whence came the plan, and who suggested it to Oglethorpe? Some light may be thrown on this subject when we consider the first steps leading to the founding of Georgia and contemplate the life and education of one who, through what the world calls chance, crossed the pathway through life of the man we so much honor. The following endeavor to discover the source whence the plan of the city was obtained is the substance of a paper read by the present writer before the Georgia Historical Society at a meeting held September 7, 1885, entitled "A Suggestion as to the Origin of the Plan of Savannah." OGLETHORPE'S PRISON REFORM RECORD Entering parliament in the year 1722, and representing his constituents in that body for the long period of thirty-two years, Oglethorpe's record there bears witness to the characteristic energy of (he man in his efforts to secure the rights of the downtrodden and to lift up the fallen. In other ways, also, he faithfully performed the duties required of all who are chosen to make and uphold the laws of their country. From the beginning to the end of his life Oglethorpe was indeed, and in truth, a philanthropist. His attention was soon called to the shocking state of affairs in connection with the prisons of England, but especially to the treatment of that class of prisoners known as "honest debtors," that is, men who through misfortune could not -------------- p. 5 meet their pecuniary obligations, and, in accordance with the then lawful custom, were sent by their creditors to prison in the hope that friends would provide the means to pay the debts of the creditors in order to secure the release of the latter. As the author of a motion "that an inquiry should be instituted into the state of the gaols of the metropolis," the motion having been carried, he was made the chairman of a committee from the house of commons to investigate the methods of the prison keepers. The work of that committee in scrutinizing the conduct of the most notorious of these inhuman wretches form the subject of one of best known and most touching of the pictures of the renowned artist, William Hogarth. Its title is “Examination of Bambridge," and, as the mention of it in this chapter will be explained a little farther on, the description accompanying the engraving of it in Hogarth's works, though rather lengthy, will not be out of place just here: This very picture, Hogarth himself tells us, was painted in 1729 for Sir Archibald Grant, of Monnymusk, Bart., at that time Knight of the Shire for Aberdeen, and one of the committee represented in the painting; many of whom attended daily, and some of them twice a day. "That every other figure in the print is a genuine portrait there cannot be the least doubt; though at this distant period it is not possible to identify the particular persons, they are all, however, to be found in the following of the names of the committee: "James Oglethorpe, Esq., Chairman. | FINCH, | MORPETH, THE RIGHT HON. THE LORDS : | INCHEQUIN, | PERCIVAL, | LIMERICK. HON. JAMES BERTIE, SIR GREGORY PAGE, SIR ARCHIBALD GRANT, SIR JAMES THORNHILL, GYLES EARLE, ESQ., GENERAL WADE, HUMPHREY PARSONS, ESQ., HON. ROBERT BYNG, EDWARD HOUGHTON, ESQ., Judge Advocate, SIR ROBERT SUTTON, SIR ROBERT CLIFTON, SIR ABRAHAM ELTON, SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL, SIR HUMPHREY HERRIES, CAPTAIN VERNON, CHARLES SELWYN, ESQ., VELTERS CORNWALL, ESQ., THOMAS SCAWEN, ESQ., FRANCIS CHILD, ESQ., WILLIAM HUCKS, ESQ., -------------- p. 6 STAMPE BROOKSHANKS, ESQ., CHARLES WITHERS, ESQ., JOHN LA ROCHE, ESQ., MR. THOMAS MARTIN. " 'The scene,' says Mr. Walpole, 'is the Committee. On the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance, that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman Gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn for Iago in the moment of detection. Villainy, fear and conscience, are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance; his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his botton-holes. If this was a portrait it is the most striking that was ever drawn; if it was not, it is still finer.' "This committee was first appointed February 25,1728-9, to examine into the state of the Gaols within the Kingdom; and the persons here represented under examination were Thomas Bambridge, then warden of the Fleet prison, and John Huggins, his predecessor in that office. Both were declared 'notoriously guilty of great breaches of trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanors.' It was the unanimous resolution of the committee 'that Thomas Bambridge, the acting Warden of the Prison of the Fleet, hath wilfully permitted several debtors to the Crown in great sums of money as well as debtors to divers of His Majesty's subjects to escape; hath been guilty of the most notorious breaches of his trust, great extortions, and the highest crimes and misdemeanors in the execution of his said office; and hath arbitrarily and unlawfully loaded with irons, put into dungeons, and destroyed prisoners for debt under his charge, treating them in the most barbarous and cruel manner in high violation and contempt of the Laws of this Kingdom.' "Bambridge was in consequence disqualified by Act of Parliament, and he cut his throat twenty years after. "It was also resolved 'that John Huggins, Esq., late Warden of the Prison of the Fleet, did, during the time of his wardenship, wilfully permit several considerable debtors in his custody to escape; and was notoriously guilty of great breaches of trust, extortions, cruelties, and other high crimes and misdemeanors, in the execution of the said office;' and he was for some time committed to Newgate, but afterwards lived in credit to the age of ninety.” Let this fact not slip the attention of the reader: that several of the members of this committee were afterwards associated with Oglethorpe as trustees named in the charter of the Colony of Georgia. Dr. Thaddeus Mason Harris* asserts that the attention of Oglethorpe was first attracted to the prison conditions of England by the case of Sir William Rich, Baronet. It is certain that General Oglethorpe numbered among his friends Robert Castell, whose life was in some respects _____________ * “Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe,” pp. 10 and 340. -------------- p. 7 remarkable, and whose maltreatment at the hands of the same Bambridge, while a prisoner in the Fleet, is thus told by Robert Wright, in his "Life of Oglethorpe:" "Though born to a competent estate, he became involved in debt and was arrested. Castell was first carried to a sponging-house attached to the Fleet prison and kept by one Corbett, an underling of the warden. On giving security by virtue of 'presents,' as they were called, to the latter whose name was Thomas Bambridge, he obtained the liberty of the rules, but at length becoming no longer able to gratify the warden's appetite for refreshers, that insatiate officer ordered him to be recommitted to Corbett's, where the small-pox then raged! Poor Castell having informed Bambridge that he had never had that disease, and was in great dread of it, earnestly implored to be sent to some other sponging-house, or even into the jail itself. But though the monster's own subordinates were moved to compassion, and endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, he forced his unhappy prisoner into the infected house, where he caught the small-pox, of which he died after a few days, leaving a large family in the greatest distress, and with his last breath charging Bambridge as his murderer." It is asserted that Bambridge was twice tried for the murder of Castell, but was acquitted. ORIGIN OF SAVANNAH Just here we find the turning point in the life of Oglethorpe which led him into an investigation of the treatment of prisoners by their custodians and culminating in the founding of Georgia, and the building of the city which was the landing-place of the first colonists under his leadership. It was Castell's case that directed his mind to introduce his resolution in the House of Commons. In the year 1728, Robert Castell, a skilful architect, published a sumptuous work called "The Villas of the Ancients," richly illustrated, and containing matter certainly of interest, and very probably of utility to one who might have in view the founding of a town or planning the laying out of pleasure grounds. The author, in his preface, says: “The whole work consists of three parts. The first contains the description of a Villa Urbana, or country house of retirement near the city, that was supplied with most of the necessaries of life from a neighboring market town. The second sets forth the rules that were necessary to be observed by an architect who had the liberty to choose a situation and to make a proper distribution of all things in and about the villa; but particularly with relation to the farm house, which in this sort of buildings, according to the more ancient Roman manner, was always joined to the master's house, or but very little removed from it. In the third part is shown the description of another Villa Urbana on a situation very different from the former, with the farm house and appurtenances so far removed as to be no annoyance to it, and at the same time so near as to furnish it conveniently with all necessaries.” It was usual at that time for books of an expensive sort to be sold by subscription, and a list of the subscribers was printed as an appendix to the work. The list so -------------- p. 8 added to this publication shows that James Oglethorpe subscribed for two copies. His friendship for the author is thus shown, as well as in his visits to the author-prisoner in his confinement within the walls of the Fleet. Who can say what suggestions presented in that volume were adopted by Oglethorpe in his plan of Savannah, or to what extent he was indebted to the author, either in conversation or in written communication, for the same purpose? May not the bond of friendship which impelled the noble philanthropist to visit in prison the unfortunate artist, leading the former to plan an asylum of refuge for "many of his Majesty's poor subjects who through misfortunes and want of employment were reduced to great necessities"* have also led him to take advice from one of these "poor subjects," well-equipped for the work, in so important a matter? Thus far, by way of introduction, an attempt has been made to account for the name of the city whose history we are considering, and to show, by way of suggestion only, the probable source whence Oglethorpe acquired and finally developed the general plan of the first settlement of his followers, having, to some extent, at least, an idea of its future growth in beauty and importance among the great cities of the world both from a commercial standpoint and otherwise. These two points have received our special attention here, for the reason that former writers have, whether through lack of knowledge or failure to see their importance, passed them by in silence. _____________ * Charter of the Colony. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME I ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/chatham/history/other/gms388chapteri.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 20.5 Kb