Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-03-15
CHATHAM'S LANDED AREA
SEARCHING THE COLONIAL RE
CORDS FOR EARLY TITLES.

Locating the Granted Lands as the Basis
for a Survey to Establish the BOunha-
ries of the UDgranted Lands-An In
VestigatiOn of the State Departments
Records to be Made this Week-The
Fortunes and MisfOrtunes of Some of
OglethOrpe's Early Settlements.
Mention was made in the NEWS a few
days ago of a meeting of the Commission
ers of Ungranted Lands of Chatham
county, for the purpose of taking definite
action respecting the rights of the Chat
ham Academy and the Union Society to
such of these lands as the two corporations
are respectively entitled to. The area of
Chatham county, exclusive of water
courses, is, in round numbers, about 270,-
600 acres, but the average area returned
to the Receiver of Tax Returns, for the
purpose of taxation, as appears by the
dIgests for the past 10 or II years, does
not exceed 100000 acres, leaving fully
| 100000 acres to be accounted for.
The trustees of the Chatham Academy,
at meeting last week, decided to secure
| the services of Isaac Beckett, Esq, to
represent them in Atlanta, for the purpose
OF making preliminary examination of
the colonial records. on file in the Office
VI thO CGOlCldl1 VI CldAGs Win a view ~
locating the granted lands, and thus
certain a basis Tor such thorough sur
vey Of the county as will enable the
| County Surveyor to establish the lines Of
all the ungranted lands.
SEARCHING FOR THE TITLES.
Mr.. Beckett's familiarity with the titles
of the county, resulting from his labOri-
Gus and painstaking investigations dur
ing the past five years, render him pc
D - 1
| taking the original grants and tracing
them through the pages of the colonial rec
| Ords, which carry these titles from
the fountain head down to the
year 1885, when the records of Chatham
county were begun, he will be able readily
to connect them with the abstracts which
he has already prepared, covering the
period between 1885 and 1877, thus pre-
senting an unbTOken history of each
tract of land in the county and lot in the
city from the days of OglethOrpe down to
the present time. With the boundaries Of
| all the granted lands thus definitely es-
| tablished it will prove an easy matter for
the County Surveyor to designate those
that are ungranted.
The geographical limits Of the county
include the entire original "Christ Church
parish' and the lower portion of the
parish of st. Philip the upper part of the
ldIbSE DdTIsu, WIFI lu6 MuOle Vi 81 VI dL-
thew's, forming the adjoining county of
Etfingham) and covers tie territory be-
tween the Savannah and Great Ogeechee
rivers, mloW-Water mark of theAtlantic
Ocean to the line of bingham county.
| When first laid out ''Christ Church
parish" was intended to include a num-
Der of villages, besides the town, as is was
then called, of Savannah. Hampstead
and Highgate, on the White Bluff road,
were laid out, and inhabitants assigned
to them. The former was occupied by
twelve German and the latter by the same
number of French families. But time and
malaria thwarted the plans of OglethOrpe,
and history says that in 1740 there re-
manned but two families out Of the twelve
at Highgate, while Hampstead retained
an existence only upon the county map.
SOME OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
Josephstown, opposite Argyle Island,
and Abercorn, about Is miles above Sa-
vannah, were also laid out as villages,
but they, too, failed to meet the eXpecta-
tiOns of the founder. Jones' history of
Georgia relates that of the 10 families as
signed to AbercOrn not one remained at
the end of the fourth year from the date
of its settlement.
Mr.. Beckett left for Atlanta last night,
and will begin his investigation there
tomorrow. If the result is satisfactory
to the trustees of the academy they
will probably proceed with the work
and eventually realize what is justly
their property. 1t is not intended
to inflict hardship upon parties living
upon any portion of the lands. On the
contrary, the trustees will deal literally
and generously with all, but will of
course possess themselves of all lands
not occupied that justly belong to them,
according rigid recognition to the just
rights of every man having equitable
claims.
1t is not supposed that the present in
vestiga tion will occupy more than few
days time, as it is only designed to ascer-
tain by examination of the books and re-
cords in the State Department what
thorough search will probably cost, and
thus enable the trustees to decide whether
or not it will be expedient to proceed fur
Their