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CHAPTER XXI
PERSONNEL OF THE TBUSTEES—HIGH CHARACTER OP THE MEN WHO GOV
ERNED THE COLONY OP GEORGIA—How THE AFFAIRS OF THE TRUST
WERE ADMINISTERED—How THE MEETINGS WERE ATTENDED—
JAMES VERNON—THE EARL OP EGMONT—THE EARL OF SHAFTSBURY.
(This chapter contributed by James Ross McCain, A. M.)
It will be recalled that the trustees for settling Georgia were organ
ized into an open corporation whose membership could be indefinitely
increased. It was a wise provision of the charter, since it allowed the
trustees to associate with them as many good and influential men as
they might be able to interest in their enterprise. From the nature of
the undertaking, it was not to be expected that many men would seek
membership in the trust; only those who were willing to do hard work
without remuneration could be induced to join in carrying on the settling
and support of the colony. In addition to the twenty-one trustees named
in the charter, fifty others were elected to office during the twenty years
of the corporation's existence. Twenty-six of these were chosen during
the first two years of the trust, while the remaining twenty-four were
scattered somewhat uniformly through the last eighteen years. This
inequality of distribution in the adding of members is readily explained
by the great amount of interest in the colony and enthusiasm for its
development that we have previously noticed was especially manifest
during the years 1733 and 1734.
The trustees named in the charter did not belong to any one profes
sion or rank in society, though all were gentlemen. Interest in the
charitable work proposed seems to have been the general basis of ap
pointment. Five of the twenty-one members were ministers of the
gospel, all of the Church of England. Ten were members of the House
of Commons. Two held seats in the House of Lords. One was a com
missioner of the excise, another was a philanthropist noted for his work
in establishing, and supporting hospitals, still another was a clerk in
the South Sea House, while the last was a country gentleman. None
of the men were distinguished. nobles or noted political leaders at the
time, nor were they of such wealth that they would be able \o carry on
the work by their own financial contributions, in fact the records for the
whole twenty years of the trust show gifts from these twenty-one mem
bers of only about £225.*
In the choice of members at the annual meeting of 1733, it would
seem that interest in the financial progress of the colony had weight.
*C. E. Ill: 1-208.
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