Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia — Inside the Classic

ut 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 Only by careful reading of available material in the scores of published and unpublished volumes of the colonial records of Georgia could small bits of such information be found and pieced together to give the picture of early days at Frederica.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.