Part 3

At a point ninety-two feet north of the Hawkins house our excavation uncovered the remains of a tabby wall. It was badly decayed and was surrounded by the usual household debris which marks the sites of houses. It evidently marks the south or front wall of a house, built of tabby, on Lot 1 of the North Ward. This lot belonged to Mark Carr, founder of Brunswick. At the present time no records of a building on this lot are known. Time and funds did not permit further exploration of the structure.

_The Artifacts_

Colonial archaeology is particularly fascinating because of the great quantities and intrinsic interest of the artifacts recovered. These objects are usually recognizable in spite of breakage and corrosion. They immediately call to mind a host of associations and functions that do much to enrich the picture of a living community. In many cases they are objects of considerable esthetic appeal and are prime museum exhibits. No detailed discussion of the various classes of colonial relics can be made here. It will be sufficient to call attention to those of special interest.

Items of military equipment were in a definite minority in the Hawkins-Davison houses. Those of us who have been working at Frederica have come to think its military aspects outweighed the civilian facets. In these two houses a few musket balls, two bayonets, and one sword scabbard tip indicate clearly that Frederica enjoyed a life with a minimum of emphasis on the martial, at least for the non-garrison people. Hinges, locks, nails, and other hardware give us a good idea of how the houses were constructed and furnished as to doors and windows. In this connection the great quantities of window glass may surprise many. What might be called the Daniel Boone Tradition has conditioned us to think of our colonial ancestors living in poorly lighted log cabins. Here at Frederica the wealthy, at least, lived in brick and tabby houses with completely glazed windows.

Many of the objects fall into the personal ornament and clothing class. Buckles were very common, of iron or brass and often tastefully ornamented. Buttons were generally of brass but several gilded or gold plated examples exist. Two single cuff-links or frogs were found. Both were made of copper or brass and set with small blue “stones” of glass. Coins were relatively rare, only three being found. All are George II English pennies bearing the dates of 1739, 1738, and 1757. Household objects included a brass candle-stick base, forks, knives, and spoons, one complete pewter spoon being found. A clock key bears the Latin motto “Tempora Mutant,” perhaps fitting for the stirring times in which Dr. Hawkins lived. Common pins were much like the modern ones and illustrate how little some everyday objects have changed in two centuries.

Ceramics are usually of great interest to the archaeologist because they reflect so clearly the changing styles and technology of the times. A wide variety of pottery and porcelain was found, surprisingly varied, as the excavations in the regimental barracks had led us to expect a rather limited variety. The great majority were simple earthenwares with various lead glazes. These were made in England and used for kitchen and domestic purposes. They range from large bowls to small oven casseroles. A few sherds of Spanish olive jars were found, evidently loot from Oglethorpe’s expeditions against Spanish Florida.

There was a large group of soft-paste ceramics with yellow and brown glazes that are the forerunners of the famous Staffordshire potteries. The design is a random trailing of brown lines on a yellow ground. They were apparently more kitchen than table wares. Especially common around the Davison house were pieces of English salt glazed stoneware mugs. White, grey, and brown examples were found. All are tall mugs with large handles on the side. They were apparently the common ale or porter mug of the Davison tavern. Red and tan wares of the Nottingham type were in a minority.

The chief table ware in both the Hawkins and Davison houses was the blue on white soft-paste ware called variously English Delft or English Faience. It is decorated with tin enamels on a soft body, generally in blue on white; although green, red, and brown do occur. The designs mostly copy Chinese porcelains and quite a variety is known. From the Hawkins house and wells we have a number of small white English Delft jars that are evidently medicinal ointment containers. All the fragments found here seem to have been made in England, presumably in Lambeth or Bristol. It is clearly the common table ware of the better sort for the early 18th Century.

A relatively large number of porcelain sherds were found, especially in and near the Hawkins house. At first it was assumed that this was Chinese export porcelain. Expert identification indicates that the bulk of this porcelain is Japanese Imara ware. It was somewhat surprising as little trade with Japan might be expected in the first half of the 18th Century. Occasional pieces of Japanese porcelain had been noted from Spanish sites in Florida but such a large collection had not previously been located. The bulk of the porcelain is blue and white in floral designs. Sometimes green, pink, and gilt were added over-glaze to form very attractive decorations on handleless cups and shallow saucers. Several pieces of Chinese porcelain are included in the group. All this is another illustration of the rather luxurious life of some of the colonists. True porcelain then, as now, was expensive, especially so as it was not made to any extent in Europe at the time and the pieces had to be brought from China or Japan.

Glass formed an important part of the collections and consisted of several kinds. The most common was a squat round bottle of a light chartreuse color which appears black by reflected light. A few square bottles of the “Case Bottle” type are represented, but most were of the round type. Smaller bottles were usually in a clear or faintly bluish glass. The numbers found around Dr. Hawkins house suggest that they were medicine containers. Two types of glasses were present: tumblers and stemmed goblets. The tumblers were rare and the prevalent type of drinking glass was the stemmed goblet. Many of the stems had enclosed tear drops and some had engraved designs around the rims.

In the wells organic materials were preserved below waterline. Barrel staves and other wooden objects were quite common. Peach pits, squash, and gourd seeds indicate some of the agricultural products. The second Hawkins well, sealed in 1740 by the back addition to the house, contained a number of peach pits. It seems doubtful that trees would have grown to bearing size in the four years since the founding of the town and one wonders if these pits may not be derived from Spanish trees found growing on the island.

It is difficult to summarize the results of these excavations in that the material found is really simply a demonstration of the facts learned from the documentary research already so ably conducted by Mrs. Margaret Davis Cate. However, we can point out that the Hawkins-Davison house proved to be exactly where the documents said it would be. All the additions and dimensions given in the colonial sources were demonstrated to correspond closely to those given. The location of the streets and their size agree closely with that given on early maps and the location of the town grid of Frederica now can be presumed to be firmly established. Of course, any excavation only whets the appetite for more and we hope to uncover more of the old Town of Frederica. In the artifacts we find a reflection of the life of the times. Each householder had in his home certain items of military equipment and was prepared to stand to the defense of his town and colony should the occasion arise. The houses, of some at least, were well built of brick and tabby, well glazed and sturdy if not commodious. Household appointments were as good as England, with her world trade, could provide at the time. The sturdy houses, lead glass goblets, and Japanese porcelain show that the colonists introduced into the new colony a gracious way of life such as was enjoyed in a highly prosperous England.

FOOTNOTES

[1]Well-known historian of Coastal Georgia and Historical Collaborator of the National Park Service for the Fort Frederica Project.

[2]Published as Volume IV of the _Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_ (Savannah, 1878). Jones gave no source for this map, but it has been identified by the author as a small detail from a large map of St. Simons Island made in 1739 by Capt. John Thomas, Engineer in Oglethorpe’s Regiment. The original manuscript map is now in the Crown Collection in the British Museum (with a copy in the Library of Congress), catalogued CXXII-71a.

[3]Robert & George Watkins, comps., _A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia ..._ (Philadelphia, 1800), 599.

[4]These original manuscript maps were discovered by Nathaniel Harrison Ballard, State Superintendent of Schools for Georgia, among uncatalogued papers in the office of Georgia’s Secretary of State. They are now in the Georgia Department of Archives and History and their first publication was in Margaret Davis Cate, _Our Todays and Yesterdays_, (Brunswick, Ga., 1930), 57, 60.

[5]Allen D. Candler, ed., _Colonial Records of the State of Georgia_ (25 vols. Vol. XX, not published. Atlanta, 1904-1916), XXII, Pt. I, 280; XXXIX, 433, 479. _Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_, I (Savannah, 1840), 192.

[6]Candler, ed., _Colonial Records of Georgia_, XXII, Pt. I, 279.

[7]_Collections of The Georgia Historical Society_, II (Savannah, 1842), 113, 150.

[8]Candler, ed., _Colonial Records of Georgia_, VI, 146.

[9]_Ibid._, X, 79.

[10]This Christian Perkins who petitioned for Dr. Hawkins’ lot came to Georgia as Christian Grant. Several of her brothers, all of whom were indentured servants, came at the same time. (E. M. Coulter and A. B. Saye, eds., _A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia_ (Athens, 1949), 19. One of these, Peter Grant, fought at the Battle of Bloody Marsh and spent the rest of his life on St. Simons Island, where he died in 1804 at the age of eighty-four. [George White, _Statistics of the State of Georgia_ (Savannah, 1849), 283; _Coll. Ga. Hist. Soc._ I, 284n]. Christian Grant married John Perkins and after his death married Francis Lewis. In her will (executed in 1786 and recorded in 1811) on file in Chatham County, Georgia, Court House (Will Book E, 84), she left her Frederica lots (17N and 1S) to her brother, Peter Grant. However, in 1789 she executed a deed transferring lot 17N “to my loving nephew ... Thomas Grant, son of my brother, Peter Grant.” (Glynn County, Ga., Deed Book CD, 168).

[11]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, X, 382.

[12]Georgia Department of Archives and History. Grant Book H, 27.

[13]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, II, 150.

[14]_Ibid._, V, 284.

[15]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXII, Pt. II, 387; Egmont Manuscripts in Phillipps Collection in University of Georgia Library no. 14205, p. 253.

[16]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, II, 278-79, 434; XXX, 125.

[17]_Ibid._, II, 346-48; V, 400, 564-65; XXIX, 404; XXX, 280, 301.

[18]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXIII, 425; Egmont Manuscripts, Phillipps Collection, no 14205, p. 253.

[19]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXIII, 63.

[20]_Ibid._, XXIII, 31.

[21]_Ibid._, XXXIII, 198; Egmont Manuscripts, Phillipps Collection, no. 14205, pp. 204, 256.

[22]Coulter and Saye, eds., _A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia_, 56, 101.

[23]Nehemiah Curnock, ed., _The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M._ (8 vols. London, 1938), I, 124-65.

[24]_Ibid._, I, 189, 263, 264.

[25]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, V, 606.

[26]_Ibid._, XXI, 319; Thomas Jackson, _The Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M. A._ (New York, 1842), 64.

[27]Egmont, Manuscripts, Phillipps Collection, no. 14204, pp. 281, 295; Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXIII, 44, 45; XXX, 137, 142, 143, 266.

[28]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXII Pt. I, 143, 145-47.

[29]_Ibid._, XXIII, 464.

[30]Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, Florida State University, Tallahassee.

[31]Egmont Manuscripts in Phillipps Collection in University of Georgia Library, no. 14203, p. 239.

[32]Francis Moore, “A Voyage to Georgia” in _Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_, I (Savannah, 1840), 114.

[33]Egmont Manuscripts, Phillipps Collection, no. 14202, p. 213.

[34]Allen D. Candler, ed., _Colonial Records of the State of Georgia_ (25 vols. Vol. XX not published. Atlanta. 1904-1916), XXII, Pt. I, 16.

[35]Egmont Manuscripts, Phillipps Collection, no. 14205, p. 95.

[36]_Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_, II (Savannah, 1842), 112-13.

[37]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXII, Pt. II, 453.

[38]Phillipps Collection, no. 14202, p. 123; no. 14203, p. 123; no. 14204, p. 293.

[39]_Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont. Diary of Viscount Percival, Afterwards First Earl of Egmont_ (3 vols. London, 1920-1923), III, 216; Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, V, 501.

[40]“A Voyage to Georgia,” 114.

[41]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXII, Pt. I, 16.

[42]_Collections of the Georgia Historical Society_, II, 112.

[43]Egmont Manuscripts, Phillipps Collection, no. 14205, p. 95.

[44]Candler, ed., _Col. Rec. Ga._, XXII, Pt. II, 453.

[45]Egmont Manuscripts, no. 14204, p. 293.

[46]Moore, “A Voyage to Georgia,” 114.

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.