Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 237
coast trade during the late Colonial period. Colonel Jones estimates
the population of Sunbury at something like 1,000 inhabitants, a num
ber which was quite large, considering the times, and doubtless but
little short of the figures for Savannah. It was also the seat of a
pioneer school of learning—the famous Sunbury Academy, taught by
Dr. Me Whir. Only ten miles distant from the Midway Church, it
became the abode of a number of the members of this flock. But the
excellence of the harbor facilities attracted settlers from remote points.
Some came from Savannah, some from Charleston, and some even from
far-off Bermuda. As early as 1762 it was made a port of entry by
Governor Wright, who considered it a place of great promise; but it
lay in the path of the despoiler, and from the ravages of the Revolution
it never rallied.
General Oglethorpe, during his reconnoisance of the southern fron
tier of the province, in 1734, is said to have been impressed by the bold
and beautiful bluff near the mouth of the Midway River, but it was not
until twenty years later that the foundations of the future town were
laid. The members of the Dorchester settlement, who were located for
the most part in the close neighborhood of the Midway Church, were
thrifty as well as pious, and they realized the need of a town on the
ocean front nearby, where they could market rich crops of rice and
indigo, from which, if handled to commercial advantage, there were
large profits to be realized. The result was that, on June 20, 1758,
Capt. Mark Carr, who owned 500 acres of land oil the heights overlook
ing the river, deeded 300 acres of this tract to a set of trustees, who were
charged with the duty of laying out the proposed town.
It appears that the owner acquired the property only a short time
before the date of this transfer by deed of conveyance from His
Majesty, King George II. The trustees to whom he conveyed the land
for the founding of Sunbury were: ; James Maxwell, Kenneth Baillie,
John Elliott, Grey Elliott, and John Stevens, most of whom were either
members or supporters of Midway Church. Captain McCall* suggests
that the town was called Sunbury because the slopes on which it was
built faced the sunrise, reasoning from the etymology of the word, the
interpretation of which is—"the residence of the sun." Colonel Jones
is inclined to think that it was named for the town of Sunbury, on the
River Thames, in England. The trustees divided the area of the town
into 400 lots and also planned for three squares. The lots were to be
seventy feet in breadth by 130 feet in depth, and four of these were to
constitute a block, bounded on three sides by streets, while a lane was
to be the boundary of the fourth. The width of the streets was to be
seventy-five feet and of the lanes twenty feet. King's Square, an area
well to the front of the town, was to be twice the size of the other two,
viz.: Church and Meeting, and these were to be in. the opposite wings.
Such, in brief, were the specifications upon which the town was built.
It commanded the rice crops from the adjacent swamps, together with
large supplies of indigo from Bermuda Island. The principal trade
was with the West Indies and with the Northern colonies. On being
made a port of entry, Thomas Carr \vas appointed collector, John Mar-
• "History of Georgia," Edition of 1909, Yol. I. p._177.