HAWKINS-DAVISON HOUSES
FREDERICA
St. Simons Island, Georgia
Reprinted from
THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Vol. XL No. 3 Sept. 1956
Publication No. 2
FORT FREDERICA ASSOCIATION
The Original Houses of Frederica, Georgia:
The Hawkins-Davison Houses
By Margaret Davis Cate[1]
The recent excavation of the building sites in the old Town of Frederica has stirred interest in this now “Dead Town” and in the fortification, Fort Frederica.
Fort Frederica, located at a bluff on the western shore of St. Simons Island, Georgia, and on the Inland Waterway, was founded in 1736 by the British under the leadership of James Edward Oglethorpe, as an outpost to protect the colony of Georgia and the other British possessions to the north against the Spaniards in Florida. It became one of the most expensive fortifications built by the British in America and the military headquarters for a string of fortifications erected along this southern frontier of Britain’s provinces in North America.
The Town of Frederica, adjacent to the fort, was settled by forty families brought here at that time. These settlers built Fort Frederica and manned the fortifications until the coming of the regiment of British soldiers two years later.
Occupying about thirty-five acres of land, the town was half a hexagon in shape, divided by Talbott Street, generally called Broad Street, into two wards—North Ward and South Ward—and was laid out into eighty-four lots, which were granted to the settlers and on which they built their homes. About half a mile from Frederica, and surrounding the town on three sides, were the garden lots while the fifty-acre tracts granted the settlers were located in various parts of St. Simons Island.
Later, a larger area of safety being necessary, the entire town was fortified and surrounded by a moat, the banks of which formed the ramparts of the town. A wall of posts ten feet high, forming the stockade and palisade, flanked both sides of the moat, with five-sided towers on the corner bastions. Entrance into the town was through the Town Gate.
This old Town of Frederica was a thriving community in its day. The streets were lined with houses, some built of brick, some of tabby, and others of wood. John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism, who came to Georgia in 1736 as missionaries of the Church of England, were in charge of religious affairs. The town government consisted of a magistrate, recorder, constables, and tythingmen. There were two taverns, an apothecary shop, and numerous other shops and stores. The trades and professions were represented by the hatter, tailor, dyer, weaver, tanner, shoemaker, cordwainer, saddler, sawyer, woodcutter, carpenter, coachmaker, bricklayer, pilot, surveyor, accountant, baker, brewer, tallow candler, cooper, blacksmith, locksmith, brazier, miller, millwright, wheelwright, husbandman, doctor, surgeon, midwife, Oglethorpe’s secretary, Keeper of the King’s Stores, and officers of Oglethorpe’s Regiment. Frederica was a barracks town, so that its business life was dependent on the money brought in by the soldiers of the Regiment.
After the British victory at Bloody Marsh and the defeat of the enemy in the Spanish Invasion of 1742 (War of Jenkins’ Ear), peace was made with Spain by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748; and the regiment of British soldiers was disbanded the following year.
Having gloriously achieved the purpose for which it was built, Frederica now became a “Dead Town.” Gone were the soldiers who had given it life, followed by the tradesmen and other settlers. The houses fell into decay, brick and tabby walls tumbled, and fire took its toll. Much of the old brick and tabby was hauled away and used in structures erected during the plantation era and, in time, no evidence remained on the surface to show that these houses had ever existed. Other families came, built their houses on these sites, and for generations lived within the confines of the old town.
Of the several buildings Oglethorpe had erected within Fort Frederica the ruin of only one remained and this was situated on the property of Mrs. Belle Stevens Taylor. In 1903, Mrs. Taylor, through her friendship for Mrs. Georgia Page Wilder, President of the Georgia Society of the Colonial Dames of America, gave to this Society the plot of ground on which stood this ruin, which the Colonial Dames repaired and saved for posterity.
Map of Frederica made in 1796 by Joshua Miller, Deputy Surveyor, Glynn County, Georgia. Original in Georgia Department of Archives and History, Atlanta
Four decades later, under the leadership of the late Judge and Mrs. S. Price Gilbert of Atlanta and Alfred W. Jones of Sea Island, the Fort Frederica Association raised the funds necessary for acquiring the lands occupied by the old fort and town. In 1945 the property thus acquired was taken over by the National Park Service and is now known as the Fort Frederica National Monument.
Little was known about the lay-out of Frederica. Twenty-five years ago the only published map which gave information about the pattern of the town was that which forms the frontispiece for the chapter on “Frederica” in Dead Towns of Georgia by Charles C. Jones, Jr.[2] Though this map gave the plan of the old town, it was too small to be of any value.
The only maps available which gave any detailed information about the fort and the town were those made in 1796 by Joshua Miller, Deputy Surveyor of Glynn County, Georgia. These were made by order of the General Assembly of Georgia, which named Commissioners for the Town of Frederica, directing them to have a resurvey made to lay out the town “as nearly as possible to the original plan thereof....”[3] One was a detailed map of the Town of Frederica, showing the lay-out of the town, with the streets, wards and lots, together with the number of each lot. Then, for the first time was it possible to locate the exact lot on which any particular settler had lived.[4]
In 1952 original manuscript maps of Fort Frederica and the Town of Frederica, dated 1736, were found in the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, R. I. The legend states that these maps were made “by a Swiss engineer,” whom the author has identified as Samuel Augspourger, a native of Switzerland, who was surveyor at Frederica in 1736.[5] The Augspourger map of Fort Frederica is most valuable, giving information about the fort, parapets, palisades, moat, and other details which had hitherto been unknown. However, Augspourger’s map of the Town of Frederica gave no information as to the lot numbers, names of streets, and other details which were desired.
Information about the Frederica settlers and their way of life has been buried in old letters and other records. Only by careful reading of available material in the scores of published and unpublished volumes of the colonial records of Georgia could small bits of such information be found and pieced together to give the picture of early days at Frederica. It is known that records were kept of the lot owners, for Oglethorpe wrote the Trustees in 1738, “I send you a Plan of ye Town of Frederica with the Granted Lotts & the names of the Possessors”[6] but this list has not yet been located among Georgia’s early records.
Even though these volumes of the colonial records contained the names of many of the settlers and told of the part they played in the life of Frederica, rarely did they contain information as to the number of the lot which such individuals occupied. Not until 1947 when the University of Georgia purchased a manuscript collection of Georgiana, known as the Egmont Papers of the Phillipps Collection, did this definite information become available. From material in this collection Dr. E. Merton Coulter and Dr. Albert B. Saye edited in 1949 A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia, which gives the lot numbers granted these settlers and makes it possible to locate each individual on the proper lot.
It is believed that this list was compiled in England by Viscount Percival, Earl of Egmont, President of the Board of Trustees for the Founding of the Colony of Georgia, from information sent over from Georgia from time to time. As is so often the case with such records, there were errors. One such instance is the listing of lot number 2, South Ward, Frederica, for Samuel Davison and the same lot for Dr. Thomas Hawkins. Since the Hawkins and Davison families came to Frederica at the same time and were among the first settlers of Frederica, it is obvious that both of them could not have had lot number 2, South Ward.
Davison left Georgia in 1741,[7] moving to Charleston, S. C., and Dr. Hawkins returned to England in 1743.[8] In 1767 George Mackintosh petitioned for lot number 1, South Ward of Frederica “formerly belonging to Dr. Hawkins.”[9] His petition was not granted. In January of the following year Christian Perkins,[10] widow, petitioned the Colonial Council, stating that “there was a Lot in Frederica known by the Name of Dr. Hawkins’s which was left in the Care and Possession of the Petitioner’s late Husband by John Hawkins the said Doctor’s Brother who was supposed to be entitled thereto That her said Husband from the Time the said Lot was so left with him to the Time of his Death (being many Years) had the Possession thereof and constantly accounted for the Taxes and other Provincial Duties,” and asked that it be granted to her.[11] This was done, the lot being recorded as number 1, South Ward.[12] Thus, in this 1768 record we have proof that lot number 1, South Ward belonged to Dr. Hawkins, leaving Samuel Davison in undisputed possession of lot number 2.
The families who occupied these two lots were different in every way. Dr. Thomas Hawkins and his wife, Beatre, who occupied lot number 1, were troublemakers; in fact, Mrs. Hawkins was known as “a mean woman.”[13] Samuel Davison, with his wife, Susanna, their little daughter, Susanna (born in England), and sons, John and Samuel (born at Frederica),[14] who lived on lot number 2, were good citizens and well liked by the other settlers.
Dr. Hawkins was one of the important personages in the community. Not only was he the surgeon in Oglethorpe’s Regiment and the medical doctor for Frederica and the other settlements nearby, but he kept the apothecary shop, and was First Bailiff. His house on Broad Street was his residence as well as headquarters for his work. Here he saw patients and dispensed drugs from his apothecary shop. He claimed his improvements were “superior to any other.”[15]
In addition to his pay as surgeon in the Regiment, Hawkins received a salary of thirty pounds a year as First Bailiff and was allowed twelve pounds, three shillings, four pence, for clothing and maintaining a servant, together with an allowance of four pounds for the expense of “public rejoicings, Anniversary Days, etc.” Also, he had an allowance of ten pounds for acting as correspondent with William Stephens of Savannah.[16]
The Trustees sent him quantities of drugs, sugar, and tallow, to use in his work. To enable him to go to Darien and other parts of the Colony to visit the sick, he was allowed twenty-five pounds a year for the upkeep of his boat, as well as the services of two of the Trustees’ servants. Hawkins made charges for equipment for this boat, such as blocks and rope, which the Trustees refused to pay. Likewise they refused to pay the charge of one shilling for sharpening two surgeon’s saws, and fifteen shillings for cleaning and grinding his surgical instruments. In fact, he never seemed able to put through an expense account![17]
When he was not paid the sums he claimed, he wrote: “I continue the care of the sick, widows, servants and Indians and objects of charity as well as the bailiffship but cannot get regular payment....” He further claimed “my constitution [is] ruined by fatigue; character hurted by Malicious Aspersions, My Dues kept from me.”[18]
There were those, however, who did not think he had earned all he claimed. Thomas Jones wrote that “he had not administered one dose of physic to any poor person but refused, unless paid for which has been done by contributions from the inhabitants....”[19]
Oglethorpe defended Hawkins and wrote the Trustees: “I do well know that he has attended the Sick very carefully and that he constantly went up to Darien when I was here, and I suppose he did so when I was not, It is no little thing to go in open Boats in all Weathers near Twenty Miles & no small Expence to hire Men and Boats ... for tho he is very capable of Doing his Duty as a Surgeon he is very ignorant in Accounts.”[20]
Perkins, Moore, Calwell and Allen were among the Frederica settlers who had altercations with Hawkins and two of his neighbors wrote that “if it were not for debts and demands made on Hawkins there would be little use for Court at Frederica.” In 1742 he was removed from office as First Bailiff.[21]
Beatre Hawkins and her friend, Anne Welch, wife of John Welch, who with their three children lived a few doors down the street on lot number 7, South Ward[22] thoroughly disliked the Wesleys. The Hawkins and Welch families had crossed the Atlantic in the same boat with Oglethorpe and the Wesleys. During this voyage religious services had been held for the passengers and Mrs. Hawkins had seemed greatly moved by John Wesley’s preaching and professed to be awakened to a new and better life. Charles Wesley, observing her actions, saw through her hypocrisy and warned his brother that her repentance was not genuine. She learned of this and, so, hated the Wesleys.[23]
After their arrival at Frederica these women attributed Oglethorpe’s puritanical sternness to the moral and religious influence of the Wesleys and conspired to bring about a break between Oglethorpe and the clergymen. They fabricated a fantastic story of their indiscretions and “confessed” these “misdeeds” to Charles Wesley, then told Oglethorpe that Charles Wesley was spreading this tale. It was not until John Wesley arrived from Savannah that the matter was cleared up, the truth known, and mutual respect restored between Oglethorpe and the Wesley brothers, a regard which was maintained throughout the remainder of their long lives.
After a few months in Georgia, Charles Wesley returned to England. However, Mrs. Hawkins persisted in her efforts to persecute John Wesley. On one of his later visits to Frederica she sent for him. When he entered the Hawkins house, she, brandishing a pistol in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, threatened to shoot him. Wesley held her hands so that she could not use either weapon; whereupon, she seized his cassock with her teeth and tore both sleeves to pieces.[24]
Her altercations with her Frederica neighbors caused one of them to write, “If that W[oma]n is to be punished in this World, for her Wickedness, how dreadful will the example be? I grow sick with the thoughts of her,” and it was said, too, that Dr. Hawkins was “not atall beloved by the Inhabitants.”[25]
The Davison family, on the other hand, were good neighbors and were well liked by the other settlers. Charles Wesley called Davison “my good Samaritan” and wrote of him and his wife, “to their care, under God, I owe my life....” Davison was said to be “one of the first of the industrious villagers.”[26]
In addition to keeping a tavern, Davison was Second Constable. In 1739 he was named Overseer of the Trustees’ Servants at a salary of twenty-five pounds a year, but Hawkins took this position away from him and named to this office one of the Trustees’ servants who had just arrived from Germany and spoke hardly a word of English. In 1740 Davison was named Searcher of Ships at a salary of forty pounds a year.[27]
For a time Davison seemed to enjoy life at Frederica. Writing to friends in London in 1738, he said that “we all of us here have been wonderfully protected by Almighty providence, very few of us have died, & none sickly; we have great encrease of Children, & women bear, that in Europe were thought past their time; The Cattle and Hogs yt. were given us on Credit, thrive very well, & Fowls in great abundance, & one may venture to say yt. ye place is blest on our Accounts....”
To another friend, he wrote “my crop wch. was but very small on Acct. of our being kept back in planting Season by ye alarms of the Spaniards, ye land I got cleared being very good, gave me great hopes; now this Year I have got at both plantations 6 acres & 38 perches of Land well fenced about 6 & 7 foot high; & planted, wch. I hope in God will afford me & my family Bread;... My wife was brought to bed of a John in July last, a fine thriving child, & little Susan grows apace.”[28]
However, in 1741, Davison with his family left Frederica and moved to Charleston, S. C., complaining of the treatment he had received from Dr. Hawkins and giving this as his reason for leaving.[29] It is not known when Samuel Davison died, but his wife, Susanna, died in St. Bartholomew Parish, Colleton County, S. C. in 1761. Her will (on file in the South Carolina Archives, Columbia) names Susanna (who married John Smith), John, and Samuel, the children who had lived at Frederica; and William, who was born after they moved to South Carolina.
It was known that Hawkins and Davison had adjoining lots, that the houses had a “party wall,” that they were built of brick and three stories high. When funds were made available for excavating a small area in the Town of Frederica, it was decided to begin with these two lots. The location of the “party wall” would fix the lot line between these two lots, thus, making it possible to set up the exact boundaries of all the Frederica lots.