Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

174 GEOEGIA AND GEOEGIANS
After remaining1 in session some three weeks the assembly adjourned
on. February.8, 1751, having submitted a number of grievances which
the president of the colony was thought competent to redress. One of
the recommendations urged by this body was that a militia be organ
ized, and to this overture, President Parker, on assuming office,
addressed himself. Since the disbandment of Og'lethorpe's regiment
the colony had been at the mercy of the Indians, whose friendship,
while warmly professed, was somewhat uncertain. Civilians were forced
to rely upon themselves for police duty, and consequently there was no
adequate protection for the colony's exposed borders. To form a militia,
therefore, all adult white male inhabitants who possessed 300
'acres of land or over were ordered to appear on horseback, well
accoutered, while all white male proprietors who owned less than 300
acres were to be armed as infantrymen. There were four companies in
the, militia thus organized, one of horse and three of foot, numbering
in all some 300 men. On Tuesday, June 13, 1751, ..the first general
muster, was held at Savannah, under the general command of Capt.
Noble Jones, There were 220 men who responded to this call. Later
Captain Jones was given a colonel's commission. His son, Noble Wym-
berly Jones, formerly a cadet in Oglethorpe's regiment, was given the
command of a troop of horse.
Conservators were named at this time for some of the more populous
districts in which there were no established courts, Capt. John Mcln-
tosh was appointed at Darien, James Frazer at Augusta, and Audley
Maxwell for the district of Midway and Great Ogeechee. These con
servators, to use the phraseology of a later day, -were justices of the
peace, empowered to try cases where the amount involved did not exceed
£20 sterling.
Disturbed no longer by the dread of a Spanish invasion, South Caro
lina began to covet once more the rich lands which lay to the west of
Savannah, out of which a colony had been formed for her protection.
Consequently, a movement for the annexation of Georgia to South Caro
lina was projected. It met with vigorous opposition on the part of
the colony's first assembly and a strong pamphlet entitled "Objections
to Annexing Georgia to South Carolina" was published at this time, a
copy of which is still in existence among1 the Shaftsbury papers, in the
Public Record Office in London. But the proposed consolidation failed
to materialize.*
In 1752 a colony of Puritans destined to make its profound impress
upon the future history of the state, came to Georgia, settling in the
famous Midway district, between Savannah and Darien. These new
settlers came directly from South Carolina, where they had acquired an
extensive property in slaves. For -some time they had coveted these
rich alluvial lands on the Georgia coast, but it was not until the trust
permitted an introduction of negroes and modified its policy with respect
to land tenure that they felt at liberty to settle in Georgia. Most of
* Sowtb, Carolina made a similar attempt during "the Bevolutiou to incorporate
Georgia within her boundaries; and to this end sent Wm. H, Drayton to Savannah
to address the Legislature. But sueh. was the hornet's nest of opposition aroused by
his speech that he returned somewhat hastily to South Carolina, where he felt much
safer.