Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, GeorgiaCate, Margaret Davis
History
Hawkins-Davison Houses, Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia
Cate, Margaret Davis
Dwellings -- Georgia -- Saint Simons Island; Fort Frederica National Monument (Ga.); Saint Simons Island (Ga. : Island) -- History
“John Robertson, late brick layer in Frederica, in Georgia, maketh oath
and saith, that on or about the ninth of August last, being at work on
Mr. Davison’s house, adjoining to Mr. Hawkin’s, at the said Frederica,
on which the said Davison was putting a new roof, he did propose to the
said Hawkins, to take up a few shingles, and a gutter belonging to the
said Hawkins’s house, and put the said gutter on the party-wall, to
which the said Hawkins agreed; saying that it would be a benefit to him,
because he must be obliged to alter the roof of his own house soon: and
the said Davison being to lay down a new gutter at his own expense, it
would serve for both houses, and which must save one half the expense of
the said gutter to the said Hawkins. But the said Hawkins being out of
town, a day or two after General Oglethorpe sent to the said Davison, to
forbid him to touch anything belonging to the said Hawkins’s house,
though the said gutter encroached fourteen inches on the said Davison’s
ground, and the said Oglethorpe’s own carpenter said it might be done in
a few hours, and without harm to the Doctor.* [Hawkins—in footnote].
That the said Oglethorpe did soon after, on the same day, stand on the
sill of the said Hawkins’s window, and put his head up betwixt the
joists of the said Davison’s house, and ordered Mr. Cannon to build the
said joists six inches lower; when the said Cannon told the said
Oglethorpe they were but six inches deep; when the said Oglethorpe
replied, he did not care, they might take it down, and build the house
six inches lower; when the said Cannon said, that one roof would fall
lower than the other, and that therefore it would be impossible to make
the said Davison’s house tight, or keep it dry; then the said Oglethorpe
said, you might have thought of that before. And further, that the said
Oglethorpe did then say to the said Cannon, if you touch a shingle of
what the Doctor (meaning Hawkins) has put down, I’LL SHOOT YOU, to which
he added a great oath, for you have done more than you can answer in
building so high as to stop up the Doctor’s window. That the said
Davison being thus hindered from finishing his house, was forced to
remove his goods from the said house (which was quite open,) and had
only a stable for his family to be in, until this deponent left the said
Frederica, which was on the 29th of September, 1741.”[36]
We also know that Dr. Hawkins had planted two hedges on his lot but
there is no mention of fences.[37]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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