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]