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Learn Chatham County HistoryWE begin our search for Chatham County History, with the formation of the Georgia Colony and the creation of Georgia's first city - Savannah.The Founder of the Colony of Georgia, James Edward Oglethorpe, was born on December 22, 1696, in London England. After attending the Eton College and Corpus Christi College in Oxford, he joined the military, and then was elected to the English Parliament in 1722. Oglethorpe headed a committee investigating prison conditions, after a close personal friend, Robert Castell, died in a prison for debtors.
the first Georgia Trustees) were awestruck by this discovery.
• To remove the poor, so England would not have to support them • To provide relief to persecuted Protestants such as the Salzburgers • To act as a buffer to protect South Carolina from Spaniards in Florida • To strengthen the British Empire by the success of the colony and its population • To have the colony supply raw products such as wine, hemp, silk, flax, etc. to manufacturers in England. • To establish another market for exported English made products
Issued on June 8, 1732, the original Georgia Charter (June 8, 1732)
opening statement names the desperately poor as proper colonists, persons, who “through misfortune and want of employment” were “reduced to great necessity, insomuch that by their labor they are not able to provide maintenance for themselves and families”. At twenty-one pages long, the Charter listed twenty-one persons, including James Oglethorpe, as the original Georgia Trustees.
The Charter was to be valid for twenty-one years, at the end of which - Georgia would become a Royal Colony.
• The land granted was south to the south branch of the Altamaha River, west to the river’s sources and northern branch of the Savannah River • No person could own more than 500 acres • Trustees could never be salaried. • Trustees could own no land individually. Colonists were to pay Quitrent, a fixed rent, paid to the English crown at a rate of 4 shilling per 100 acres. • Colonists kept their English citizenship including any children born in Georgia
Savannah.
Oglethorpe wrote, in one of his first letters to the Georgia Trustees, that he had chosen a forty foot bluff, high above the river with sandy soil and a spring. He noted that he felt that the area was healthy as the local Indians liked it too, so he decided it would be a good site for his colony.
An important part of Chatham County history is the original city plan, which accompanied General Oglethorpe to Savannah. The plan provided that the town be laid out in a perfect grid pattern with individual lots given to the colonists. Additional space would be provided for public buildings.
To show the Georgia Trustees in England the progress of the new colony, Peter Gordon was commissioned to draw a map of the City. On February 5, 1777 Chatham County history began, this was when Georgia was created. The county was named in honor of William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, the same man for whom the city of Pittsburg is named. At The Creek Cession of May 21, 1733, the territory was acquired. The original county was taken from Parishes of St. Philip and Christ Church before the Revolution. 
We can learn more Chatham County history from the 1854 Gazetteer of the United States...
CHATHAM - a county forming the E. extremity of Georgia, bordering on the sea, has an area of 358 square miles. The Savannah River forms its boundary on the N. E. and the Ogeechee on the S. W. The surface is level, and partly occupied by swamps. The soil near the rivers is rich, adapted to the cultivation of rice; other parts are sandy and sterile. Cotton, Indian corn, rice, and fruits of various kinds are cultivated. In 1850 this county produced 580 hales of cotton; 57,427 bushels of corn; and 19,453,750 pounds of rice.
Today, Cities within Chatham County include: Savannah (county seat), Bloomingdale, Thunderbolt, Tybee Island, Isle of Hope (area), Garden City, Pooler, Port Wentworth and Vernonburg.
Chatham County is one the few areas in the south not destroyed during the civil war by General Sherman. The region has a wealth of historic locations, many listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Click on any of the text links above to discover more about the cities that got Chatham County history started... so many years ago!
Continue your Journey through the pages of Chatham County History...
Return from Chatham County History to City of Pooler
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Oglethorpe discovered that many honest and honorable men were jailed solely due to debt obligations. He and the committee (many of whom were recruited as
James Edward Oglethorpe and his group of 114 settlers arrived from England on February 12, 1733. They landed in Beaufort, South Carolina, and then traveled eighteen miles up the Savannah River to what is now known as the City of
