On the 25th December, 1750, Mr. Pickering Robinson, who, together with Mr. James Habersham, had been appointed the preceding August a commissioner to promote more effectually the culture of silk, arrived in Savannah.
Mr. Robinson had been sent to France, at the expense of the Trustees, to study the management of filatures and the necessary processes for preparing the article for market, and thus, though no operative, was qualified to take the directorship of so important a branch of industry. His salary was 100_l_. per annum; 25_l_. for a clerk, and a tract of land was also granted him, which, in 1763, sold for 1300_l_.
Mr. Robinson brought with him a large quantity of silkworm seed, but all failed, save about half an ounce; the commissioners determined at once to erect a filature, which should be a normal school to the whole province, and it was their opinion that it would be "a sufficient nursery to supply, in three or four years, as many reelers as will be wanted, when we make no doubt of many private filatures being erected, which can only make their culture a general staple." The dimensions were thirty-six feet by twenty, rough boarded, with a loft or upper story, for the spreading out of the green cocoons. It was commenced on the 4th of March, 1751. On the 1st of April, the basins were put up, and on the 8th of May the reeling began. To encourage the colonists, the Trustees proposed to purchase all the balls, and wind them at their own expense, and paid from 1_s_. 6_d_. to 2_s_. 4_d_. per pound for green cocoons. The Commissioners separated the cocoons into three sorts: 1st, perfect cones; 2d, the spongy and fuzzy; and 3d, the spotted, stained, and dupions. This arrangement, however, gave great offence to some of the residents in Savannah and Purysburgh, and Messrs. Robinson and Habersham requested the Vice President and assistants to determine the respective prices and publicly announce the same, which they did on the 26th April, by a proclamation, wherein by way of bounty, they promised to pay for cocoons delivered at their store in Savannah, the following sums, namely, for cocoons made by one worm, hard, weighty and good substance, 2_s_. per pound; for the weaker quality, pointed, spotted, or bruised, 1_s_. 3_d_.; for dupions (those made by two worms), 6_d_.; for raw silk, from 1st quality cocoons 14_s_. per pound; for that made from 2d quality, 12_s_.; the product of the double cones, 6_s_. per pound; and they also offered, if delivered at the filature, for best cocoons, 3_s_. 6_d_.; for middling 1_s_. 8_d_.; and for inferior 1_s_. 1_d_., a series of prices truly astonishing, when we reflect that the real merchantable worth of a pound of cocoons is scarcely ever 6_d_.
Experiments were made at the filature to ascertain the relative quantity of each of these qualities, in a given weight of cocoons, and the results were, that in fifty pounds of green cocoons, there were twenty-seven pounds of the first sort, ten pounds four ounces of the second, and twelve pounds twelve ounces of the third. After curing or baking, these fifty pounds weighed only forty-six pounds five ounces, showing a loss in ponderosity of nearly eight per cent. Beside the arrangement above specified, the cocoons were still further divided for the purpose of reeling into white and yellow, and these again, subdivided into five each, namely, 1st, hard and weighty; 2d, little woolly and weaker; 3d, very woolly and soft; 4th, spotted and much bruised; 5th, double worms.
Mr. Camuse, son, and daughter, who, it appears, gave the commissioners no little trouble by their perverse conduct, returned to Savannah and were engaged to labor at the filature, at three shillings per day, at which Mr. Habersham exclaims, "monstrous wages!" The reelers now advanced with much proficiency, and five of them, on the 10th of May, wound off eleven pounds of cocoons each. The proportion of raw silk to the cocoons, appeared, on a variety of trials, to be nearly in this ratio:—
oz. 10th May, 1751, 55 lbs. cocoons, 1st quality, produced 117-7/8. 11th " " 8 " " " " 6-9 per thread 18-1/2. 13th " " 11 " " " " produced 21-1/2. 15th " " 55 " " 2d " " 109. 18th " " 20 " " " " " 24. 22d " " 15 " " 1st " " 20-3/4. " " " 10 " " 2d " " 13-1/2.
The whole amount of cocoons raised in the province, was six thousand three hundred and one pounds, of which two thousand pounds came from Ebenezer, and four thousand pounds were made at Whitefield's Orphan-house. Two hundred and sixty-nine pounds and one ounce of raw silk, and one hundred and sixty-one pounds of filogee, were prepared, notwithstanding over three hundred and eighty pounds were lost by vermin, fire and mould. The expense of the culture was large this year, owing to the erection of the filature, &c., which swelled the sum to 609_l_. 9_s_. 8-1/2_d_. sterling. The private journals of that day kept at Savannah and Ebenezer, acquaint us, in some measure, with the arduous nature of the commissioners' labors, and the difficulties they encountered from the want of funds, the intractableness of laborers, the novelty of the attempt, the imperfections of machinery, and the bitter opposition of those who should have sustained and encouraged them. The public duties of Mr. Habersham prevented his constant attention to this business; but the whole time of Mr. Robinson was devoted to the filature, directing the sorters, aiding the novices, advising the reelers, and in every way exerting himself to obtain success. His engagement with the Trustees expired on the 30th of August, 1751, but finding that his intended departure depressed the friends of the culture, he was solicited by the local government to remain another year, and, generously sacrificing private to public interests, he complied with their request. Mr. Habersham thus speaks of Mr. Robinson. "I think him the most prudent as well as the most capable person I ever knew, to undertake such a work, and if he could be continued here, I doubt not but that he would turn out a number of well instructed reelers, who would be able to conduct filatures at Ebenezer, Augusta, and other parts of the province." So great was the confidence which the Trustees had in him, that he was appointed an assistant in the government at Savannah; an honor which he declined, and in the same letter stated, "If due encouragement be not given to the culture of raw silk, for the term of at least fourteen years, I positively cannot think of settling in America." These gentlemen recommended the building of a house, sixty feet by twenty-six, as a cocoonry, great loss having been experienced for the want of such a structure.
In 1752, Mr. Robinson returned to England, and his place was partially supplied by Joseph Ottolenghe, a native of Piedmont, and a proficient in his art, who came to Georgia on the 18th of July, 1751, and took charge of the filature in April, 1753. In a letter to Lee Martyn, dated September 11, 1753, Mr. Ottolenghe says, that "there were fewer cocoons raised this year, as the worms mostly hatched before the trees leaved," and that "the people were willing to continue the business." One hundred and ninety-seven pounds of raw silk were made this year, and three hundred and seventy-six pounds in 1754, besides twenty-four pounds of filosele. The people of Augusta became interested in this manufacture, and entered with considerable spirit into the undertaking, promising to send hands to Savannah, yearly, to learn the art of reeling: their enthusiasm, however, soon evaporated.
On the 29th of March, 1755, a certificate, signed by thirty-nine eminent silk-throwsters and weavers, was given to the "Commissioners for Trade and Plantations," stating that after examining three hundred pounds of raw silk, imported from Georgia, "we do sincerely declare that the nature and texture is truly good, the color beautiful, the thread as even and as clear as the best Piedmont (called wire silk) of the size, and much clearer and even than the usual Italian silks;" and furthermore, "it could be worked with less waste than China silk, and has all the properties of good silk well adapted to the weaver's art in most branches."
In 1755, five thousand four hundred and eighty-eight pounds of cocoons were raised, and four hundred and thirty-eight pounds of raw silk spun. The good effects of the filature were now happily evident in the increased interest of the planters in the subject, who sent both their daughters and young negroes to acquire the art of reeling. In 1756, three thousand seven hundred and eighty-three pounds and one ounce of cocoons were received at the filature, and two hundred and sixty-eight pounds of raw silk reeled.