I dedicate tonight’s talk to the memory of Richard Vance Wellman,

1922-2005

Richard Wellman

• Dick introduced me to you this Spring and it is with deep appreciation and pleasure to welcome Natalie Wellman tonight.

• As John Langbein of the Yale School of Law said:– “Dick Wellman was a national treasure. He

was our most knowledgeable and influential authority on probate procedure.”

• Dick spoke here on “An Introduction to U.S. Family Law.”

• I ask for a moment of silence in his memory.

Sir Joseph Jekyll and His Impact on Colonial Georgia

By Thomas Hart WilkinsAt the Torch Club of Athens, Georgia on August 25, 2005

Jekyll Island, Georgia was named for Sir Joseph Jekyll

• Because of Jekyll’s impact on the Colony of Georgia, General Oglethorpe named the island across from Saint Simon Island in honor of Sir Joseph Jekyll.

• Historian Charles Jones said that Oglethorpe and Jekyll “were friends.”

Sir Joseph Jekyll, 1663-1738Portrait by Michael Dahl a copy this portrait hangs in the Rockefeller Cottage on Jekyll

Island

Why have no Articles ever been written on Jekyll’s relationship with the Colony of

Georgia?• A fire in Parliament in early 19th century destroyed

many records from this period.• Jekyll did not maintain a diary as Lord Egmont did.• Very few letters from and to Jekyll exist today as

contrasted with numerous surviving letters to and from General Oglethorpe.

• Parliament tried to suppress limit newspaper reporting of Parliamentary debates. For example, Samuel Adams wrote about Parliamentary speeches in the 1740’s as “Debates in the Senate of Lilliput,” the fictitious country created by Joseph Addison.

• What speeches have been recorded are sketchy and are recreated by third parties.

• Privy Council records are also sketchy. • Nothing compares to Lord Egmont’s Diary in size

and scope.

•

The Order of Tonight’s Discussion

• 1. Who was Jekyll?

• 2. The Burning issues of the 1730’s.

• 3. Jekyll’s Impact on these burning issues and on Georgia.

Who Was Sir Joseph Jekyll?

• One of Britain’s Most Senior Judges• A Member of the House of Parliament• A Member of the Privy Council.• Knighted by King William III• Appointed to the Privy Council and Master of the

Rolls by King George I.

• It would as if Condoleezza Rice were today a member of the Supreme Court, House of Representatives and Cabinet at the same time.

“The Rolls” a photography by our member, Dr. John Whitehead

Joseph Jekyll

• Born in 1662 as the fourth son of John Jekyll, a radical dissenting politician, haberdasher, Presbyterian and lifelong friend of Rev. Thomas Watson whose writings are still published today.

• Went to a Dissenters’ Academy.

• Married the sister of Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England, under King William III and chairman of a Parliamentary Committee which led to Britain’s Bill of Rights.

• A Member of Parliament for 40 years

What were the burning issues of this Era?Excessive Alcoholic Consumption, same as

today but portrayed differently as“Gin Alley” by William Hogarth

Issues Continued: Church Government Issues

Issues Continued: The emigration of the Salzburgers to

Georgia

Issues Continued: Georgia was a no man’s land between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.

Issues Continued: Fort Augustine built by the Spanish

Issues Continued: The Captain Robert Jenkins Saga. Here Walpole pushes away Captain Jenkins and his severed ear, A French representative bribes the Prime Minister’s mistress and a courtier throws out a protesting British merchant. A naval vessel in the far right edge suggests an alternative to Walpole’s foreign policy of appeasement.

Marker for the Battle of Bloody Marsh

Issues Continued: How Jekyll related to Party Government. Robert Walpole, Considered Britain’s First Prime Minister, in Roman Attire

Issues Continued: Propagation of Protestanism and Peace with

the Natives

Now to turn to the title of tonight’s talk: What was Jekyll’s Impact on

Colonial Georgia?• Based on Hard Facts:

– Financial Support.– Military Support for the colony when it was

vulnerable to Spanish invasion.– Religious toleration.

• Not based on Hard Facts but based on convincing circumstantial evidence:– Banning the sale and import of rum in Georgia.– Banning of slavery in Georgia.

Jekyll’s Impact via Financial Support

• There are many documents and facts supporting Jekyll’s significant role in supporting Georgia philanthropically and legislatively.

• He and his wife were the largest contributors….giving £600…and tied for first place with King Georgia II.

• To show you what 600 was worth, the only known study concerning the distribution of income was in 1688, when almost half of Britain’s population had a per capital income of £2.5 per annum. Assuming a doubling by the 1730’s to £5.00, then the Jekyll’s gift would be the equivalent of 120 persons annual income.

• We know he donated because he was sympathetic to the goals of the colony.

Financial Support Continued• The Georgia Colony was dependent on Parliamentary funding. • Oglethorpe tried in 1732 to obtain Parliamentary funding but

could not get the votes. • Because of Jekyll’s standing in Parliament, he was chosen by

the Trustees to make the motion on May 10, 1733 for the first Parliamentary grant of £10,000 to support the colony .

• Lord Egmont said Jekyll spoke “very handsomely” for his motion and overcame the objections of Mr. Francis Whitworth who did not want to use public money for the colony and overcame the objections of Mr. Thomas Winnington who thought that raising of wine and silk in Georgia would prove to be cost ineffective. Parliament approve this maiden grant which came just in time when Oglethorpe needed it after having landed in Savannah a few months earlier.

• Part of Jekyll’s success in obtaining Parliamentary votes was that he said part of the funds would be used to bring the Salzburgers from Germany to Georgia.

Impact Continue: Military Support

• At a time when Prime Minister Walpole gave indications that he was willing to abandon the Georgia colonists to the Spanish claims to Georgia, Jekyll wrote a forcible letter to the Lord Chancellor. This handwritten letter is unpublished but is in The British Library and has been transcribed at my directions by a professional archivist.

Impact Continued: Religious Toleration

• According to the Dictionary of National Biography (2005), Jekyll authored the Quaker Tithe Bill which terminated the persecution of Quakers in Britain and in Georgia. One should be reminded that a diversity of faiths was not the way of life in early 18th century Britain.

• According to Lord Egmont, Jekyll spoke in Parliament as:– “That it seems a particular design of Providence

to erect a colony at this time for an asylum to the persecuted Protestants of Saltsburg..”

Impact Continued: Rum

• Jekyll was the unquestioned leader in London for controlling liquor distribution and consumption, as abused in the earlier slide entitled “Gin Alley.” He was the author of the Gin Act which taxed heavily the retailing of liquor and caused riots in London.

• The legal basis for outlawing rum importation and retailing in Georgia was an order from “King in (Privy) Council” of April 3, 1735.

Impact Continued: Slavery

• The Trustees wanted Georgia to be different from South Carolina.

• They did not want to have a “trickle down economy” where only a few men possessed huge landed estates.

• Instead the Trustees limited land holdings to 50 acres per man whose transportation and one year’s support was provided by the Trustees. In theory, each colonist was to be both a farmer-provider as well as a soldier to defend against Spanish encroachment. A maximum of 500 acres was allowed when colonists went to Georgia at their own expense and brought indentured servants with them.

Slavery continued• Slavery was outlawed because the Trustees feared that the

Spanish would use slaves as a means of insurrection against the Georgia colonist, by promising them freedom if they escaped to Florida.

• Georgia was alone in outlawing slavery.• The legal basis for banning slavery was an order on April 3,

1735 from “King in (Privy) Council.”• Whereas no known transcript of this meeting identifies Jekyll

as a supporter of this ban, Jekyll was one of the Privy Council’s most active attendees and Jekyll also feared Georgia’s insecurity against the Spanish as shown in his letter to Britain’s Chancellor (Hardwicke). The threat from Spain to Georgia was the most compelling reason to outlaw slavery.

• After Jekyll’s death in 1738 and after Oglethorpe’s defeat of the Spanish in 1742 at the Battle of Bloody Marsh, the military arguments for banning slavery were no longer compelling and the ban was lifted in January 1, 1751 right before the Trustees’ term of office expired. Afterwards, Georgia became a slaved-based economy.

Jekyll’s Influence on the American Revolution

• It is beyond the scope of this talk but Jekyll’s Parliamentary Speeches were used against the argument of “virtual representation”…namely that the members of Parliament in London, though not elected by Georgians, were able to represent Georgia’s interests.

• Once this argument was demolished, America was able to break its bond to London.

Picture Credits

• Slide 3: Picture of Horton House on Jekyll Island. Georgia Historical Quarterly, Summer, 2002.

• Slide 5: Jekyll’s Portrait hangs in the Judges’ Room of the Employment Appeals Tribunal in London.

• Slide 9: House of Lord’s Archives courtesy of Dr. John Whitehead.

• Slide 11: Hogarth’s “Gin Lane” courtesy of Northwestern University Library.

• Slide 12: Saltzburger Eviction courtesy of New York Public Library.

• Slide 14: Source: John Tate Lanning: The Diplomatic History of Georgia, 1936