Chatham County Records

The Site of Savannah was established and drawn out by General James Oglethorpe. This is the seat of the first English settlement in Georgia. 114 persons came with Oglethorpe on his first voyage and erected huts with saw-palm roofs. Within a year, over one hundred wooden homes were constructed, while vessels transported more settlers. Several parishes governed the area, viz: Christ Church, St. Andrews, and St. Marys. After the Revolutionary War, the parishes were dispensed with as boundaries and counties established. Chatham was named for William Lord Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Many prominent citizens emerged from the first settlers into the settled gentry and poltical figures. During the American Revolution, Loyalists marked as traitors escaped into Florida and to Bermuda where they established plantations. If you have lost someone from this period, that is where to search!

Earliest Settlers: Charles Alexander, Michael Bottomley, Jonathan Clark, Raymond Demere, Thomas Dawson, William Gilbert, John Houstoun, William Jordan, Alexander Lesley, David Montaigut, William Mortimer, John Mackay, Charles Ogilvie, Daniel Pendleton, Augustus Rogers, Richard Seymore, Nicholas Witzen, and Nathaniel Zettler.

Hutchinson Island, Savannah, Georgia was surveyed in 1825 for Thomas Young, Esquire. Deptford Hill, Brewtons Hill, Thomas Spalding, James Habersham, Thomas Young of Springfield Plantation, J. P. Ward, Ebenezer Jackson, James Wallace of Mulberry Grove, Drakies Plantation, Judge Berrien of Marlan Hall, John P. Williams of Clifton Plantation, John Potter of Colerain Plantation, Thomas Gibbons of Whitehall Plantation.Argyle Island: Thomas Gibbons of Shaftsbury Plantation, Judge Wayne, John Potter, R. M. Stiles. Onslow Island: John Potter, General Read, Hugh Ross. Alpine Island: The Hermitage, Joseph Stiles of Val Royal.

Origins

• Origins of Early Chatham County Residents from the Notes of Jeannette Holland Austin

Colonial Records

• Savannah Residents of 1738
• Savannah Town Assistants
• Savannah Bailiffs Officers
• Baptisms 1735-1738
• Savannah Conservators of the Peace
• Savannah Town Constables
• Savannah Malcontents of 1738
• Savannah Store Keepers
• Savannah Town Lots, 1745-7,1756
• Savannah Lots Yamacraw Bluff, 1760
• 1759 Savannah Wharf Lots, 1759

Orphans Records

• Bethseda Orphanage

Confiscated Lands of the Loyalists

Note: The Loyalists in Charleston and Savannah fled to Barbados and Florida. From Charleston northward, they fled to Nova Scotia. They were declared traitors and would be hanged if they remained in the colonies. All lands were confiscated from 1784 to 1787.

Lists were published in the Georgia State Gazette between 1786 and 1788

• 1784
• 1786
• 1783 to 1784