We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Philanthropy and religious idealism loomed high in the inception of Georgia. Doctor Thomas Bray, once Commissary of the Lord Bishop of London in Maryland, the motivating factor in the founding of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the patron of parochial lending libraries for the colonies, and the ardent advocate of the education of the negro slave, had in his latter years associated himself with General James Edward Oglethorpe. The two had found a common interest in the need of prison reform; there is much reason to believe that Oglethorpe's concern over the hardships of the debtor prisoners was the result of his conferences with Doctor Bray. At any rate, when Doctor Bray received a legacy for the education of the Negroes in the colonies, Oglethorpe was one of the group later incorporated as the “Associates of Doctor Bray.” There were several prominent Anglican clergymen among the trustees, as well as laymen of wealth and position. The original Associates did not constitute a colonising society; their objects were the founding of parochial libraries in England and the plantations and the Christian education of the Negro. When the colonisation of Georgia was undertaken, the enlarged group of Associates of Doctor Bray formed the nucleus of the Georgia Board of Trustees. The Associates included some eight individuals who never served as trustees of the new colony; but no one of the Board as first named was chosen from outside that composite charitable society. “At the head of its membership were three of the original group of Associates. There were fourteen members of Parliament, all of whom but Digby (and possibly Lowther) had served on at least the revised committee on the gaols, though three of the least active were omitted from the trust.
1 The Anglican influences in the establishment of Georgia have become more and more recognised in recent years. Dr. Verner W. Crane has treated of the subject in the following publications: Southern Frontier, 309ffGoogle Scholar.; “The Philanthropists and the Genesis of Georgia” (American Historical Review, XXVII, 65ffGoogle Scholar.); “The Promotion Literature of Georgia” (Bibliographical Essays, A Tribute to Wilberforce Eames, 233ffGoogle Scholar.). See Pennington, Edgar L., “Anglican Influences in the Establishment of Georgia” (Georgia Historical Quarterly, XVI, 292ff., 12, 1932).Google Scholar
2 This information, drawn largely from S. P. G. and Public Record Office archives, is cited in detail in Pennington, Edgar L., “The Reverend Samuel Quincy, S. P. G. Missionary” (Georgia Historical Quarterly, XI, 158–165, 06, 1927).Google Scholar
3 Minutes of the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia.
4 Ibid.
5 Fries, Adelaide L., The Moravians in Georgia, 108.Google Scholar
6 This quotation, as well as others which follow (readily recognisable), will be found in all the editions of Wesley Journal.
7 Letter of Charles Wesley to Dr. Thomas B. Chandler, in the Facsimiles of Church Documents.
8 Fries, Adelaide L., The Moravians in Georgia, 128.Google Scholar
9 Georgia Colonial Records, XXI, 220–221.Google Scholar
10 Georgia Colonial Records, XXI, 370.Google Scholar
11 Letter of Thomas Causton to the Georgia Trustees (Georgia Colonial Records, XXII, Part I., 204.)Google Scholar
12 Tyerman, , Wesley, I, 142–143.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., I, 161.
14 This rare book, by Pat Tailfer and others, has beeen reprinted; and the excerpts quoted and referred to may be found in the Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, II, 208ff.Google Scholar
15 William, Stephens, Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia …, I, 9.Google Scholar
16 Ibid., I, 10–11.
17 Ibid., I, 12.
18 Ibid., I, 15.
19 Ibid., I, 19–20.
20 Ibid., I, 31.
21 Ibid., I, 36–37.
22 Ibid., I, 40.
23 Fulham MSS (Hawks Transcript).
24 Georgia Colonial Records, XXII, Part 1, 32–41.
25 William, Stephens, Journal of the Proceedings in Georgia …, I, 234–235.Google Scholar
26 Tyerman, , Whitefield, I, 135–136.Google Scholar
27 Tyerman, , Wesley, I, 170.Google Scholar
