In February, 1796, special Commissioners were named for the town of Frederica. They were John Cooper, William McIntosh, James Harrison, James Moore, and William Clubbs. It was made their duty to lay off the town, as nearly as practicable, according to its original plan, cause the streets to be opened, the lots to be plainly marked or staked off, the commons to be resurveyed, and an accurate map prepared and recorded in the Surveyor General’s office within two months after the passage of the act. The survey of the town having been completed, the Commissioners were required, by notice in one of the public gazettes of the State, to call upon the owners and holders of lots to make due return thereof to the Commissioners within nine months, and pay the sum of one dollar per lot in defrayal of the cost of the survey. All lots not returned within the prescribed period were, after six weeks public advertisement, to be sold to the highest bidder,—one half of the purchase money to be paid in cash and the remainder in twelve months thereafter;—the deferred payment being secured by bond with mortgage on the premises purchased. The proceeds of such sales, after defraying the expences incurred in laying off the town and commons, were to be applied to the support of an academy or seminary of learning in Glynn County. Any person attempting to run up or appropriate any part of the town common was declared liable to a fine of five hundred dollars, to be recovered in the Superior Court of Glynn County by the Commissioners or any inhabitant or lot owner in the town;—one half the fine to enure to the benefit of the academy, and the other half to go to the party suing for the same. All surveys previously made, and grants surreptitiously obtained, were declared null and void, and any person in possession by virtue of such survey or grant was liable to the fine above mentioned, to be recovered in the manner indicated.[159] In 1801 Frederica is mentioned by Sibbald as “a pleasantly situated town on the island of St. Simons, latitude 31° 15´ North,” but he gives no statistics either of its population or commerce.[160] By an act assented to November 26th, 1802,[161]—the front range of lots in the town of Frederica being “too distant from the water for the convenient storage or shipping of produce, or the landing of goods imported to that place,”—the Commissioners were empowered “to cause a range of lots to be laid off in front of said town, commencing at low water mark, and running back so far as to leave a street eighty feet between the present front range of lots and those to be laid off.” These new lots were to be sold at public outcry upon sixty days’ notice, and the moneys realized upon such sale, after defraying the expences of the survey, were to be paid over to the Commissioners of the Academy of Glynn county to be by them expended for the benefit of that institution.