[874] [They are described in a report of the Georgia Historical Society.—Ed.]
[875] They were sold in London in July, 1881, by Mr. Henry Stevens; and, although the State of Georgia was importuned to become the purchaser of them, the General Assembly declined to act, and the volumes passed into other hands, but have recently been given to the State by Mr. J. S. Morgan, the London banker. [Cf. Stevens, Hist. Collections, i. p. 34. Mr. Stevens also gives in his Bibliotheca Geographica, no. 2618, some curious information about other MSS. in England, being records kept by William Stephens, the Secretary of the Colony, which are now at Thirlstane House, Cheltenham. A Report of the Attorney and Solicitor General to the Lords of Trade, on the proposal of the Trustees of Georgia to surrender their trust to the Crown, dated Feb. 6, 1752, is noted in vol. 61 of the Shelburne MSS., as recorded in the Fifth Report of the Hist. MSS. Commission, p. 230; and also, a Report of the same officer on the properest method of administering the government after the surrender. The opinion of the attorney and solicitor-general on the king’s prerogative to receive the charter of Georgia (1751) is given in Chalmers’ Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, i. p. 34.—Ed.]
[876] [This Society was organized in Dec., 1839. Cf. Amer. Quart. Reg., xii. 344; Southern Quart. Rev., iii. 40; The Georgia Hist. Soc., its founders, patrons, and friends, an address by C. C. Jones, Jr., Savannah, 1881; Proceedings at the dedication of Hodgson Hall, 1876.—Ed.]
[877] Volume I. (1840) contains the anniversary address of the Hon. William Law, February 12, 1840, reviewing the early history of the province; reprints of Oglethorpe’s New and Accurate Account of the Provinces of South Carolina and Georgia; of Francis Moore’s Voyage to Georgia begun in the year 1735; of An Impartial Inquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia, and of Reasons for Establishing the Colony of Georgia with regard to the Trade of Great Britain; together with the Hon. Thomas Spalding’s Sketch of the life of General James Oglethorpe.
Volume II. (1842) contains the Historical Discourse of William Bacon Stevens, M. D., and reprints of A New Voyage to Georgia, &c.; of A State of the Province of Georgia attested upon Oath in the Court of Savannah, November 10, 1740; of A Brief Account of the causes that have retarded the progress of the Colony of Georgia, &c.; of A true and historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in America, &c., by Patrick Tailfer, M. D., Hugh Anderson, M. A., David Douglass, and others; and of An Account showing the Progress of the Colony of Georgia in America from its first establishment, &c.
Volume III., part i., consists of A Sketch of the Creek Country in the years 1798 and 1799, by Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, with a valuable introduction by the late William B. Hodgson.
Volume III. (1873) contains letters from General Oglethorpe to the Trustees and others, covering a period from October, 1735, to August, 1744,—a report of Governor Sir James Wright to Lord Dartmouth, dated September 20th, 1773, exhibiting the condition of the Colony of Georgia,—letters from Governor Wright to the Earl of Dartmouth and Lord George Germain, from August 24th, 1774, to February 16th, 1782:—an Anniversary Address of Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr., on the life, services, and death of Count Casimir Pulaski,—and an Address by Dr. Richard D. Arnold commemorative of the organization of the Georgia Historical Society and of the Savannah Library Association.
Volume IV. (1878) contains The Dead Towns of Georgia, by Charles C. Jones, Jr. (also published separately), and Itinerant Observations in America, reprinted from the London Magazine of 1745-6. In the Dead Towns of Georgia the author perpetuates the almost forgotten memories of Old and New Ebenezer, of Frederica, of Abercorn, of Sunbury, of Hardwick, of Petersburg, and of lesser towns and plantations, once vital and influential, but now covered with the mantle of decay. This contribution embraces a large portion of the early history of the province, and recounts the vicissitudes and the mistakes encountered during the epoch of colonization. It is illustrated with engraved plans of New Ebenezer, Frederica, Sunbury, Fort Morris, and Hardwick, and revives traditions and recollections of persons and places which had become quite forgotten.
To the Itinerant Observations in America the student will turn with pleasure for early impressions of the province, and especially of its southern confines.