This petition, referred at first to a committee of the privy council,
was by them submitted to the consideration of the board of trade, who,
after a second commitment, made their report, that the attorney and
solicitor-general should be directed to prepare a draft of the charter.
This report, being laid before his majesty, was by him approved and he
directed the proper officer to make out the charter. The charter thus
prepared was approved by the King, but in consequence of the formalities
of office did not pass under the great seal until June 9, 1732.
This instrument constituted twenty noblemen and gentlemen a body
corporate, by the name and style of "The Trustees for establishing a
Colony of Georgia, in America"; giving to the projected colony the name
of the monarch who had granted to them such a liberal territory for the
development of their benevolence.
The charter revealed two purposes as the object of this colonization:
the settling of poor but unfortunate people on lands now waste and
desolate, and the interposing of this colony as a barrier between the
northern colonies and the French, Spanish, and Indians on the south and
west. These designs the trustees amplified and illustrated in their
printed papers and official correspondence.
Oglethorpe, in his _New and Accurrate Account_, declares: "These
trustees not only give land to the unhappy who go thither, but are also
empowered to receive the voluntary contributions of charitable persons
to enable them to furnish the poor adventurers with all necessaries for
the expense of the voyage, occupying the land, and supporting them till
they find themselves comfortably settled. So that now the unfortunate
will not be obliged to bind themselves to a long servitude, to pay for
their passage, for they may be carried gratis into a land of liberty and
plenty, where they immediately find themselves in possession of a
competent estate in a happier climate than they knew before; and they
are unfortunate, indeed, if here they cannot forget their sorrows."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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