Mary Musgrove acted as an interpreter for James Edward Oglethorpe. Genealogists have traced Mary’s lineage to being the daughter of Edward Griffin, an English trader in Charleston, South Carolina, and a Muscogee Creek Indian. In my research, I have found that this type of union was frequent among English traders and Indian squaws. When Mary John Musgrove, the marriage enhanced his trade among various tribes. Mary was fluent in the local Creek dialects and learned English in Pon Pon, South Carolina. In 1732, the South Carolina Governor asked the Musgroves to start the trading post “Cowpen” near the Savannah River, and afterward, John Musgrove accompanied James Oglethorpe on a trip to England. The result was that the Trustees granted John Musgrove some land four miles upriver from Yamacraw Bluff.
After 1737, Mary married Jacob Matthews, and another trading post was erected at Mount Venture on the Altamaha River. When Matthews died in 1742, Musgrove remarried, the third time, to an Englishman, the Reverend Thomas Bosomworth, a land-greedy Christian missionary. During this marriage, Mary pursued the long battle to claim more lands as payment for her services to James Edward Oglethorpe.
Chief Malatchi of the Lower Creeks granted Mary and Thomas Bosomworth three Sea Islands the Indians claimed: Ossabaw, Sapelo, and St. Catherines. This transaction was determined by Georgia authorities not to be allowed because a Nation could not cede land to individuals. Nevertheless, Mary was diligent in continuing her claims. In 1749, when more than 200 Creeks unsuccessfully supported her in Savannah, Mary traveled to England to plead her case, and in 1754, when the Board of Trade finally heard the matter, it was referred to the Georgia courts. When Mary returned to Georgia, she discovered that the disputed land had come under Georgia’s control. It was not until 1760 that Mary Bosomworth reached a compromise with Georgia authorities. Governor Henry Ellis, in return for the right to St. Catherine’s Island and £2,100, Musgrove relinquished her claims to the other lands. Three years later, Mary died on St. Catherine’s Island.
