Newsletter Number 4 - February 2001

Thomas Causton Goes to Georgia

On June 9 1732 a charter was passed by King George III to set up a body of "21 noblemen and gentilmen for establishing the colony of Georgia in America". General James Ogilthorpe Esq., soldier and philanthropist had proposed the scheme to offer free passage and the means to settle in the new colony for debtors in the overcrowded and notorious Fleet and Marchalsea prisons. It was also to be a refuge for Protestants from some parts of Europe and serve as a buffer between Carolina and Spanish controlled Florida.

The land was to be south of the Savannah River with each new immigrant granted a town lot, a garden of five acres and forty five acres of farm land.

Any well-to-do man who paid his own passage, took servants and promised military service in case of need was given 500 acres of land.

The Early Years

The first emigrant ship "Ann" sailed for Georgia in 1732 with "sober, industrious and moral persons" and stores. The Ann, a galley of over 200 tons commanded by Captain Thomas, sailed from Gravesend on Friday November 17 1732 and arrived at Beaufort, Port Royal Island, South Carolina where they stayed until January 30. The settlers then continued their voyage in a 70 ton sloop and five smaller sloops. They sailed up the Savannah river and disembarked on Georgian soil on February 1 1733. The passenger list of the "Ann" does not include any servants for Thomas Causton or his wife and children. It seems that they must have followed on a later ship. Thomas Causton is shown as aged 40 and his trade is given as calico printer.

The colony suffered severe hardships at the beginning, mainly because few of the colonists had subsistence farming skills. This combined with a wilderness setting, probable salt poisoning and diseases borne by insects and caused by the lack of sanitary measures led to a high death rate. This probably included Thomas's daughter Martha who is not mentioned again in later accounts of the colony. Many lived for some time in tents and clapboard huts before better houses could be erected. The town of Savannah was established on a high bluff on the Savannah River. Thomas Causton's plantation called Ockstead was about five miles east of Savannah. He built a house on high ground or bluff overlooking Saint Augustine Creek This high ground and the area around it is known as Causton's Bluff.

Possibly because of his activity in the affairs of the colony he did not start making improvements to the plantation until 1737. In five months a garden was laid out, the house was built and the Causton family moved in. Later in 1737 outbuildings were added and in the spring of 1738 a large garden and orchard were planted. By 1741 the vineyards are described as outstanding and there was a large mulberry orchard of 4,000 trees. He accumulated "200 head of cattel". 1740 was a sad year for him as his son Thomas and his wife Martha died within a month of each other.

Dispute

Thomas Causton was the chief of three magistrates and also the keeper of the Trustee's stores which held all the provisions for the colony. This made him the most powerful person in the colony when James Ogilthorpe was not present. He was in the difficult position of having to balance the books for the Trustees in London and at the same time deal with demands for credit when crops failed or other hardships prevailed. As a magistrate he might then have to adjudicate on any resulting disputes. He also had to enforce the regulations made by the trustees, many of which were unpopular and felt to be out of touch with reality. These included a ban on owning slaves and on selling rum. Colonists wanted Thomas not to enforce these regulations. In practice apart from the initial use of some slaves to put up buildings in Savannah the ban on slaves was continued but the ban on rum selling was widely ignored.

In a 1733 letter home to his wife in England Thomas Causton describes being pestered by flies and other insects that are all "much stronger than in England". He also mentioned his situation as being leasant and wanting for nothing but that in spite of this there were "grumbletonians". There was dissatisfaction with how he and other officials carried out their duties and he was accused of being dictatorial and of "being courtesy itself to newcomers who had money to spend, inconsiderate when times were hard, deaf to appeals for settlement of certain vexing questions and harsh when his will was opposed". Some of the people of Savannah applied for his dismissal.

The progress of the dispute is recorded in the diaries of the first Earl of Egremont, one of the Trustees in London. At first the Trustees defended his position and at the Trust Board meeting in London on 18 June 1737 they recorded that the situation in the colony was "very satisfactory". By May 1738 however concern was being expressed about " the bad state of our cash which was imputed to the ill management of Thomas Causton". It was noted that £13,382 of the Trustees money was not accounted for.

It was the private belief of some Trustees that James Ogilthorpe, who was a soldier, had ordered Thomas Causton to spend what was necessary to turn the colony into an armed camp surrounded by strong outposts. The Trustees called Ogilthorpe back to London and laid down the law to him. Their main wrath however fell on Causton's head. The store was taken out of his hands and he was ordered to London to explain the situation. Causton was accused of taking in stores not needed to please ship owners, overcharging the stores and of extending credit where repayment was dubious. After the stores had been taken over James Olgilthorpe wrote to the Trustees that the stores were almost empty and had been ill managed. Thomas Causton blamed the poor state of the stores on large losses caused by the "Spanish alarms" that had prevented inhabitants from cultivating their lands and to a drought. He could not fully account for the state of the store as the principal clerk to whom the full management of the store had been entrusted had run away to Virginia. In 1744 he sailed to England to present his case to the Trustees, only to be sent back to Georgia to get more information on his accounts. He died in 1745 on this return voyage, aged about 52, from a fever, along with the captain and half the crew and was buried at sea. The facts were therefore never clearly established. The Trustees ran the Ockstead plantation from 1745 to 1750 when they disposed of the charges against Thomas Causton and passed a resolution by which William Williamson, as administrator of the Causton estate, received approximately £110. This was the amount due to Thomas Causton if it was accepted that his calculations of his accounts were correct.

The Hopkey Connection

On 5 February 1736 John Wesley, the famous missionary and Methodist preacher, arrived in Savannah on the same boat as Miss Sophie Christina Hopkey, Thomas Causton's niece. He had been asked by Sophie's mother Martha to teach her French. This young lady was apparently beautiful, intelligent and cultivated. John Wesley was attracted to her and visited her many times at Ockstead, where she lived with Causton family. Although strongly attracted to her he did not propose marriage - possibly because of his abstemious and rigid manner of life. Sophia married William Williamson, a clerk in her uncles store. Thomas Causton had at first been on friendly terms with Wesley and approved a possible marriage with Sophia but fell out with him after he started to refuse Sophia communion at church for minor infractions of ecclesiastical law (failing to signify her name with the curate the day before taking Holy Communion). Thomas Causton saw this as shabby treatment of his niece and possibly as a result had Wesley arrested on a number of charges that had not been resolved when Wesley left for England on 13 December 1737.

Although the records of the passengers to Georgia do not contain any reference to the origins of Thomas Causton this appears to be Bromley in London. This is confirmed by a 1727 case in the civil courts over the will of John Clarkson, calico printer. Thomas Causton is described as having a niece Sophia Hopkey, born 1718 and as the person who under the will was to run the Clarkson family Calico printing business. This seems to be strong evidence that is the same Thomas Causton that went to Savannah. From this we know that Thomas Causton married Martha Clarkson on 12 September 1712 at St. Benet's Church, Paul's Wharf, London and their daughter Martha, was baptised 28 January 1713 at St Dunstan, Stepney.

Causton Bluff Today

As there were no direct descendants of Thomas Causton the plantation passed to William Williamson, his nephew in law. There appears to be no trace today of the buildings Thomas Causton erected on the bluff. The Causton name lives on in street and place names. Part of Causton Bluff is now a smart residential area.
Many thanks to Jim Cawston in Atlanta who found and copied for me many of the references quoted and travelled to Savannah to take photographs of the area.

References:

1. Diary of the First Earl of Egremont. British Library ADD MSS 46920-47213
2. Slavery in Colonial Georgia: Betty Wood
3. A History of Georgia: University of Georgia Press
4. Georgia- A Bicentennial History: Harold H Martin
5. Savannah River Plantations: edited by Mary Grainger