January 1738

JANUARY 1738

January 1738 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

January 1738    John Wesley has left “America” and the developing Colony of Georgia  and debatable borders with Spanish Florida.  While he is onboard a ship returning to England, this Journal entry still falls under the “Sixth Savannah Journal.”  A new year had begun and time was now marching toward his warming statement in Aldersgate. During this month long journey across the Atlantic Ocean to return to London, England, Wesley has time to write and reflect.  He makes several mentions to his “heart” such as on January 8, 1738 and January 24, 1738.  Wesley has talked about a warmed heart before as mentioned in this blog.

If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earliest months were grouped together, but Blog is now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.  You might see signs that Wesley’s warming began in America, the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida.  My academic paper on the Florida-Georgia border dispute is included at the end of this month’s blog as Wesley’s time in America has come to a close.  Brenda Rees | Shaping Florida 1-29-2012

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of Rev. George Whitefield display at World Methodist Museum in Lake Junaluska, North Caroline by Brenda Rees ©.  The ships of Wesley and Whitefield  pass, unknown to each other. Wesley returns to England on the ship “Samuel” and the “Whittaker” bears Whitefield  to America.   

                                                                                                                              

Sunday, January 1, 1738 –  On this first day of 1738, Wesley wrote, “All in the ship, except the captain and steersman, were present both at the morning and evening service, and appeared as deeply attentive as even the poor people of Frederica did, while the word of God was new to their ears….”

Monday, January 2, 1738 – Wesley is sad as he lamented, “Being sorrowful and very heavy, … .”  His spirits were lifted in the evening when he instructed a cabin boy.

Friday, January 6, 1738 –  The preceding days had found Wesley “averse from speaking” and he read “Abridgement of Mr. de Renty’s Life.”

Saturday, January 7, 1738 –  Wesley wrote, “I began to read and explain some passages of the Bible to a young negro.”

Sunday, January 8, 1738 – In one of the mentions of “heart” by Wesley, he wrote “In the fullness of my heart, I wrote the following words:” ….  Wesley continued to reflect on these thoughts.

Friday, January 13, 1738 – Wesley is affected by another storm.  This time he wrote, “I was at first afraid; but cried to God, and was strenghthened.”  He compared the sound to cannons and American thunder.  He preached with vigor the next day and made a resolution to his style of preaching.  He stated, “I no sooner executed this resolution than my spirit revived, so that from this day I had no more of that fearfulness and heaviness which before almost continually weighed me down.”  This was quite a revelation and warm statement.

Tuesday, January 24, 1738 –  News from a passing ship told of England’s nearing shore. Wesley wrote of his heart as he approached England, “I went to America, to convert the Indians; but oh, who shall convert me? Who, what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief?....”  He continued on about papists, and English, Lutheran and Calvinist authors.  He spotted “whitish sand” and was uneasy about striking upon the rocks of Scilly.

Saturday, January 28, 1738 – Land was observed.

Sunday, January 29, 1738 – Wesley wrote, “We saw English land once more, which about noon appeared to be the Lizard Point.  We ran by it with a fair wind, and at noon the next day the west end of the Isle of Wight.”  Beach Head is in sight.

Tuesday, January 31, 1738 – Wesley is preparing to land in England and unknown to him the Rev. George Whitefield has passed on another ship on his way to America.

Please find the following academic paper on “John Wesley in Spanish Florida” by Brenda Rees as presented to the Gulf South History and Humanities Conference in 2006.

THE FLORIDA – GEORGIA BORDER DISPUTE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE HISTORICAL TRAVELS OF JOHN WESLEY IN THE COLONY OF GEORGIA AND SPANISH FLORIDA DURING 1736 – 1737

A PRESENTATION FOR THE 2006

GULF SOUTH HISTORY AND HUMANITIES CONFERENCE

BY

BRENDA ANDERSON REES

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA

OCTOBER 5-7, 2006

Copyright 2006

All Rights Reserved

(Original paper written in Methods, University of West Florida, Carolyn Knefely, Instructor, April, 2006 )

  John Wesley, founder of Methodism, preached in Florida during 1736-1737.   By analyzing John Wesley’s personal journals and diaries, geography, maps, treaties, conflicts, an Act of Congress, an 1887 U.S. Supreme Court case, and other documents, a case can be made that John Wesley preached not only in Georgia, but also in Florida.[1]  To date, a review of history books on America, Florida, Georgia, or Methodism, that mentions John Wesley, James Oglethorpe or the Methodist movement in America, will cite Wesley in Georgia, a British colony, but fail to mention that he was also in Spanish Florida.   That John Wesley was in Florida is significant and should be reflected in the literature.   This paper, and a growing acknowledgement of the diversity of America, will allow this to happen.   Wesley’s tremendous volume of published writings influenced the founding of America and documented many moments.  His Calm Address had enormous circulation.[2]   He lived to be 88 years old and died in 1791.   His last letter was written to fight slavery, particularly in America.[3] 

La Florida or Florida’s borders have twisted and turned many times.[4]  As the oldest European named state on a map of America,[5] these border changes were fraught with almost inexhaustible disputes between warring nations and peoples.  From secret treaties ceding parts of Florida from Spain to France[6] to outright disregard for borders by Englishman James Oglethorpe,[7] John Wesley’s host in Georgia, it is no wonder that writers, historians, and Wesley have been unaware or unsure of Florida’s borders.

Understanding Florida and Georgia’s natural borders and geography is important as both have seaward or coastal barrier islands.  John Wesley visited such a barrier island and wrote of the landscape throughout his journals and diaries.  Frederica, on the coastal barrier island of St. Simon’s Island, now in Georgia, was in Florida in Wesley’s time.  Wesley lived, fell in love, and labored as an evangelist in Frederica.  The original charter for Georgia was between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers.[8]  St. Simon’s Island in Glynn County, Georgia, is “south of the Altamaha River.”[9]   Wesley observed white sand and blackish sand.[10]

Florida’s physical borders have been changing and receding, like its political borders, for some time.  The shape of Florida affected by water, time, and geography influenced Florida’s history and John Wesley’s religious travels.  Geography, religion, and history are connected as stated in Edwin Scott Gaustad’s atlas, “Contrary to this modern (in) sensibility, the New Historical Atlas of Religion in America suggests that geography matters; that human relationships to the land matter; that region and religion affect one another.”[11]  The shore where John Wesley landed to join James Oglethorpe in the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida was similar to today’s shoreline; although with renewed acceleration coastal cities will be submerged.[12]   Archaeological and history research should proceed with this in mind.   The land, the sand, and the sea level had stabilized around 3,000 years before present.[13]  Sea level was rising about 25 cm per 100 years and had slowed down to about 4 cm per 100 years.[14]  Barrier islands developed.[15]  Archaeologist Max White said, “Barrier islands, often bordered on the mainland side by saltwater marsh, form some of the most picturesque places in Georgia.”[16]   Understanding Frederica is on a barrier island matters as it is south of the Altamaha River, Colonial Georgia’s purported early southern border.

With the geography of Florida and Georgia in mind, the debate of the political borders can now begin.  The political border dispute from a historical Spanish perspective is over 500 years old.  Native peoples’ claims, thousands of years old, or their aboriginal depopulation,[17] are not addressed in depth here.  Native peoples also regularly replaced other native peoples from occupied land.[18]  

But, to begin the exploration of complex European border struggles for control, it must be acknowledged American history is anglicized.  As a result, Spanish history has been ignored, slanted or treated in a condescending manner by many American historians.  Perhaps this is why no one noticed John Wesley had been in Florida before now.  While the British busily established colonies in the early 1600s, other countries, particularly Spain, also settled, produced documents, and drew maps of this new world.  In fact, Spain had settlements in Florida about 40 years before Jamestown and Plymouth.[19]  Pensacola had a settlement in 1559 and St. Augustine established in 1565.  

Some Spanish settlements, now located in modern Georgia, were in Spanish Florida very early and in John Wesley’s time.  Max E. White said, “Along with efforts to establish settlements, the Spanish began missionary work among the tribes, and in 1568 two Jesuits were stationed along the Georgia coast in Guale territory.”[20]  It is evident a number of events catapulted the Spanish, as well as Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English into shaping the new world.  Centuries old historical treaties and documents are important in understanding the Florida – Georgia border dispute.  Early European battles and attempted domination of the new world must be taken into account.[21]

Background is needed here and is similar to that offered by Justice Bradley in his Opinion for the Coffee v. Groover case cited in this paper.  Justice Bradley said, … “As the case before us depends upon a disputed boundary between two states, it cannot be properly understood or determined without adverting to the historical facts connected with that boundary….”[22]

Two historical events, Pope Alexander VI’s papal bull, the Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493, and Ponce de Leon’s arrival on the shore of Florida in 1513, are particularly significant in understanding early European world supremacy tactics.  Historian Francis Simkins wrote, “In 1493 Pope Alexander VI divided the world outside Europe in two halves as though the earth were an apple.  He gave Africa, Asia and Brazil to Portugal, and the rest of the Americas and the Philippines to Spain.”[23]  This decree, while disputed or ignored by other countries,[24]  was issued by a known world political, spiritual leader. The Inter Caetera of May 4, 1493 said, “…by which the Pontiff donated and granted dominion over all lands discovered and those yet discovered to the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella.”[25]

This papal bull was after, and in response to, Columbus landing on an island off the mainland of North America in 1492.  Columbus had been “acting under a prerogative granted by the king and queen of Spain….”[26]  In 1513 Ponce de Leon consummated the land of Florida and North America for Spain by actually landing on and penetrating the shore of what was to become Florida and the United States of America.

There are numerous other treaties and documents that particularly affect the Florida – Georgia border dispute following Ponce de Leon’s claim of La Florida for Spain in 1513.  Early on, the French challenged the Pope, Spain, and Portugal as French corsairs frequented America.  Another Treaty of Madrid between Spain and France was in 1526.[27]   The Treaty of Madrid in 1670 addressed the border dispute between the British colony of Carolina and Spanish Florida.  This 1670 border “was latitude 32°30”, about ten miles north of the Savannah River, where Hilton Head is located, and the present boundary between South Carolina and Georgia.”[28]  However, this did not stop the English from encroaching on Spanish Florida.[29]  An extra complicating factor was native peoples used this border dispute to rile up the Spanish and English against each other.  Historian Charles Arnade said, “The major region of dispute was the unsettled land between the Savannah and the St. Johns rivers, that is, between English Carolina and Spanish Florida, which historian Herbert E. Bolton called the ‘Debatable Land.’”[30]   Part of this contentious land, known for a while as West Florida and East Florida, played a larger role in American history than has been fully realized.  John Bannon, in Bolton and the Spanish Borderlands, included, “In a very real sense the Florida – Georgia area shows the defensive role which the Borderlands often played in the broader American story.”[31]  Although in West Florida, the French and Spanish did show signs of border agreement in 1719 by recognizing the Perdido River as the boundary between French Louisiana and Spanish Florida.[32]

Documents and treaties tell part of the story, but it is also early maps from the 1500s forward that illustrate the broad expanse of Spanish borders in North America and help explain how John Wesley was in Florida.  A map of La Florida by Geronimo de Chavez of Spain[33] shows Florida encompassed all of the current southeastern United States as well as land to Texas and up to Newfoundland.[34]  Other maps reveal encroachment or disputed borders between the European powers, with almost all showing Spain having at least some claim to the area where John Wesley traveled in 1736-1737.  A map of Queen Anne’s War from 1702-1713 shows troop movements of French, British, Spanish and Native Americans.[35]   Another map of Florida to Mexico 1685-1721 shows the northern limit of the Spanish claim by the Treaty of Madrid in 1670.[36]  Georgia was founded as a British Colony in 1733.[37]   Now, Spanish Florida added Georgia to its list of entities vying for a piece of its claimed land.

Border conflicts closer to Wesley’ time and Georgia’s beginning are abundant. Georgia’s early boundaries are often noted.  One such reference stated, “When the colony of Georgia was founded, the ceded lands lying between the Savannah and the Altamaha rivers and extending their headwaters indefinitely toward the west were occupied by Indians….”[38]  It is amazing such a peaceful river, the Altamaha, as depicted in a picture published with William Bartram’s work,[39] had such consequence on contentious disputes. With border conflicts and changes already centuries old by the time John Wesley visited Spanish Florida and the British Colony of Georgia; it is understandable he did not realize he preached on Florida soil. While Wesley admitted to being lost and not knowing exactly where he was as he traveled about on occasion,[40] he knew of Florida.   In The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. edited by Nehemiah Curnock it said, on Thursday, December 9, 1736, “With Mrs. Musgrove he read an account of Florida.  On his return in the evening he twice visited Mrs. Clark, the woman referred to in the text.”[41]  Even after Wesley returned to England in 1737, the Florida – Georgia border dispute raged on.  Boundaries were not settled between these “old empires … until the middle of the nineteenth century.”[42]  From Pope Alexander VI’s papal bulls dividing the world, to the United States Supreme Court case in 1887, encompassed the Florida – Georgia border dispute.  So, while Frederica was in Spain’s domain while Wesley was there 1736-1737, the Florida – Georgia boundary dispute lingered on for another 150 years.

 Maps and treaties show this lingering conflict.  It was not just a passing conflict, but a serious claim by Spain on the disputed area before, during, and after Wesley’s time.  One map shows Frederica and Santa Catalina south and within the northern line of Spanish claim.  Text with the map, in Mark Carnes’ Historical Atlas of the United States, said, “Spain, England, and France all attempted to control the strategic Southeast.  Despite conflicting claims and the construction of forts and settlements, the Southeast remained in Spanish hands until after the Seven Years’ War, when, in 1763, it was ceded to Britain in return for Cuba.”[43]  Another map, 1700-1760, depicting Colonial Frontiers illustrated Spanish control and predictably took in the Frederica area.[44]

Following this review of maps of Spanish Florida, more treaties and conflicts that affected the Florida – Georgia border are important to note as Spain continued to claim disputed areas.  A few are before Wesley’s visit, but most are after and important as they show continued dispute.

They are: 1702, English Campaign against St. Augustine;[45] 1739, War of Jenkins Ear;[46] 1740, English Campaign against St. Augustine;[47] 1742, Battle of Bloody Marsh;[48] 1763,      Treaty of Paris;[49] 1783, Treaty of Paris;[50] 1795, Pinckney’s Treaty;[51] 1800, Treaty of San Ildefonso, October 1, 1800 (also known as the Secret Treaty);[52]  1812, War of 1812;[53] 1819, Adams - Onis Treaty;[54]  1872, An Act of Congress in 1872;[55] and 1887, U.S. Supreme Court case Coffee v Groover.[56]  The 1887 Supreme Court case acknowledged border encroachment between Spanish and British provinces.

After traveling to the nineteenth century and the U.S. Supreme Court case of the Florida – Georgia border dispute, we must step back and look once more at the Florida – Georgia world of James Oglethorpe and John Wesley.  John Wesley reckoned his whereabouts from Oglethorpe.  Oglethorpe knowingly stretched the borders of Georgia.  An example of Oglethorpe’s creative map and border making included text in Thomas Hodler’s Georgia atlas which said, “The Martyn Map (first map of Georgia) was used by Georgia’s founder to project an appealing image and to gain public support.”[57]  One Emanuel Bowen map of 1752 showed the borders of Georgia as between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers.[58]  The Emanuel Bowen map and text on the inside cover of Hodler’s atlas showed an extensive border for Georgia and said, “Also interesting is Bowen’s treatment of Georgia’s southern boundary, the Altamaha, here spelled Alatamaha.  Bowen shows a branch of that river threading to the sea between Cumberland and Amelia islands, far south of its true course.”[59]  This depiction illustrated “cartographic warfare.”[60]  Oglethorpe traveled at least all the way into Florida’s Fort St. George.  A map reproduced with permission from the Colonial Office in The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. edited by Nehemiah Curnock illustrated Fort St. George on St. George’s Island, south of Amelia Island, Florida.[61]  In a large fold out map in this same book, Frederica is clearly shown on St. Simons Island.[62]

            As early as 1735, Oglethorpe was setting up colonists in Frederica.[63]  Land titles from the list of original settlers are somewhat sketchy from the Frederica area.  Mrs. Pat Bryant noted in A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia, “Fee simple titles to the land were not given by the trustees.”[64]  Whether and how Oglethorpe had attained additional land from native peoples might also be questioned.  One treaty for South Carolina “forbade the establishment of trading posts south of the Savannah River.”[65]  Wesley’s first contact with native people came on Saturday, February 14, 1736.   The day before he had word he was to meet “Tomo-chachi.”[66]   Tomochichi “was chief of a small party of Creek Indians settled four miles from Savannah and four hundred miles from the main body of the Creek Tribes.”[67]  Yamacraw chief Tomochichi admitted he had been banished and had just moved into the area.[68]  Tomochichi’s ability to cede anything might be questioned.  Oglethorpe continued “… to increase his power surreptitiously….”[69]  There is evidence of a later cession by native peoples to Georgia concerning the Altamaha, but well after Wesley left.  “In 1782 at Augusta and 1785 at Galphinton, certain Creek tribes ceded lands between the Altamaha River and the Florida boundary to the Georgians. These treaties were disputed by other Indians, led by Alexander McGillivray.”[70]    Notwithstanding, disputed cessions are used by Oglethorpe to justify expansion into Spanish Florida. 

Wesley was aware of conflicts with the Spanish. On Thursday, May 27, 1736, Wesley acknowledged, “Within and without there were the gravest causes for anxiety.  The Spaniards disputed Oglethorpe’s right to establish an English colony on St. Simon’s Island, claiming it as a possession of the Spanish Crown, and Horton knew that the colony was a rope of sand.”[71]  On Friday, August 27, 1736, Wesley noted “Fr. Don Antonio de Arredondo came to St. Simon’s from the Havanna, to treat with Mr. Oglethorpe.”[72]   Another confrontation between Oglethorpe and the governor of Spanish Florida, Francisco del Moral Sanchez, in 1737, produced “an agreement with Oglethorpe according to which the Georgian withdrew north from the St. Johns while sustaining his claim as far as the Altamaha.”[73]  Sanchez may have paid for this concession with his life.  Spain refuted his actions of conceding even to the Altamaha and considered latitude 32˚ 30” up near South Carolina as a border.[74]  On Friday, August 13, 1736, Wesley said, “…where I delivered Mr. Oglethorpe the letters I had brought from Carolina.  The next day he set out for Fort St. George.”[75]  Fort St. George is south of Florida’s Amelia Island.  Likewise, Cumberland Island, where Oglethorpe had set up a camp, was occupied by those under the pastoral care of Wesley.  Fort Clinch, near Fernandina, Florida, overlooks Cumberland Island, Georgia, just across the St. Marys River.  A clear view of the beach from Fort Clinch is offered where those under Wesley’s pastoral care might have wandered and guarded.  Wild horses from that era still run free on the beach.[76]  The true head of the St. Marys and its course to the Atlantic marks today’s Florida – Georgia boundary.[77]  The “Georgia Fractions”[78] show a lingering conflict.

The border analysis of Florida from early Spanish claims through various treaties and wars lends credibility to the discovery presented in this paper and builds the case that John Wesley preached in Florida.  Wesley’s journals and diaries reveal in his constant stream of commentary a multi-racial, multi-cultural world co-existing in Colonial Georgia and Spanish Florida.  Understanding John Wesley’s location, where he traveled and preached, developed methods for sermons and hymns, and how it eventually led him to found what has become the United Methodist Church is important.[79]  Nehemiah Curnock included a notation in the Wesley Journal he edited that, “…the spirit of the evangelist…was in him long before he reached

Aldersgate Street

….”[80]  This could apply to Wesley’s time in Florida.

The religious world he entered when he stepped off the boat anchored near Tybee Island[81] was contentious like the border as “…the Protestant religion, the maintenance which was regarded as all important.  On the west of the province were the French, and the Spaniards to the south – Papists all.”[82]  Wesley, aware of the Spanish presence in his developing parish, took Spanish lessons from Dr. Nunes, a Spanish Jew.[83]  He wrote of many peoples and conflicts.  He met Dutch, French,[84]English, Germans, Italians, Spanish,[85] and native peoples.  Serious conflict was everywhere.  He wrote graphically of fighting, burning, and torture among the French and Chicasaws.[86]  On the trip over, Wesley taught an officer of the Prussian government, Mr. Van Hermsdorf, who later organized “the defense of Frederica against the Spanish.”[87]  While this great mix of humanity and an epic battle among European powers raged in the new world, Wesley’s overwhelming and inspired evangelism, plus a botched love affair with Miss Sophy, eventually hastened his time off the shores of Florida and Georgia.  These great trials and exposure to diverse people had a significant impact on Wesley and could be attributed to his conversion.

John Wesley visited Frederica, a key settlement, at least five times.  Each Frederica trip can be examined by reviewing Wesley’s journals and diaries.  In the First Frederica Journal he arrived on Saturday, April 10, 1736,[88] and departed on Saturday, April 17, 1736.[89]  In the Second Frederica Journal he arrived on Sunday, May 23, 1736,[90] and departed on Wednesday, June 23, 1736.[91]  In the Third Frederica Journal he arrived on Friday, August 13, 1736,[92] and departed Thursday, September 2, 1736.[93]  In the Fourth Frederica Journal, he arrived on Saturday, October 16, 1736,[94] and departed Monday, October 25, 1736.[95]  In the Fifth Frederica Journal he arrived on Wednesday, January 5, 1737,[96] and departed on Wednesday, January 26, 1737.[97]  Wesley’s parting words to Frederica were, “After having beaten the air in this unhappy place for twenty days, at noon I took my final leave of Frederica.  It was not any apprehension of my own danger, though my life had been threatened many times, but an utter despair of doing good there, which made me content with the thought of seeing it no more.”[98]

In addition, if the borders were adjusted and recognized by the Spanish treaties, such as the Treaty of Madrid in 1670, even Savannah and all areas south would also be considered in Florida.  This would include many areas listed in John Wesley’s journal as places he visited.

This paper is one small illustration of a significant historical event that can be more accurately illuminated by examining Florida’s historical borders.  Most of the history about Florida does not reflect its true historical significance in American history.  Florida shaped more than just the 2000 presidential election.[99]  The physical shape of Florida played a key role in shaping the history of America and the Methodist Church.  Just as Charles Vignoles admitted in his 1823 book Observations Upon The Floridas he slighted information on West Florida because he did not have the resources to go there in preparing his book,[100] other writers and historians have slighted Spanish Florida and missed Wesley’s visit.

Wesley, the founder of Methodism,[101] spent time in Georgia, a British colony, and Spanish Florida.   John Wesley not only preached and had influence in Florida, but Florida had a significant role in his conversion experience.  The rough and wild terrain, as well as the wild behavior, affected him.  Furthermore, Wesley wrote extensively and influenced America in its early development.  To know exactly where he was while he was in America is important.  That Florida shaped Wesley, America’s history, and the history of the world is a theory worthy of further exploration.

---

      [1]Brenda Anderson Rees, unpublished research, 2006.

      [2]John Wesley, The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, Enlarged from Original Mss., with Notes from Unpublished Diaries, Annotations, Maps, and Illustrations, Standard Edition,  vol. 6, Edited by Nehemiah Curnock, Assisted by Experts (London: The Epworth Press, 1909, Reprinted, 1938), 100.

      [3] Basil Miller, John Wesley (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1953), 138.

      [4]Peggy Tuck Sinko and Kathryn Ford Thorne, comps., Florida Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, ed.  John H. Long (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1997), 5.  Listing of Florida border changes from 1719.

      [5]Michael Gannon, ed., The New History of Florida (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996), xiv.

      [6]Coffee v. Groover, 123 U.S. 1 (1887), 24.

      [7]Charles A. Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” in The New History of Florida, ed. Michael Gannon (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996), 110.

      [8] Charles C. Jones Jr., The History of Georgia, vol. 1 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1883, Reprint, Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, 1969), 1.

      [9]State of Georgia, “Community of St. Simon’s Island,” accessed March 12, 2006, available online:  http://stsimonsisland.georgia.gov/05/home .

      [10]John Wesley, The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. Sometime Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, Enlarged from Original Mss., with Notes from Unpublished Diaries, Annotations, Maps, and Illustrations, Standard Edition,  vol. 1, Edited by Nehemiah Curnock, Assisted by Experts (London: The Epworth Press, 1909, Reprinted, 1938), 403.

      [11]Edwin Scott Gaustad and Philip L. Barlow, New Historical Atlas of Religion in America (Oxford: University Press, 2001), 391.

      [12]Joseph C. Britton and Brian Morton, Shore Ecology of the Gulf of Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989), 320.

      [13]Anthony F. Randazzo and Douglas S. Jones, eds., The Geology of Florida (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997), 158.

      [14]Ibid., 156.

      [15]Ibid., 158.

      [16]Max E. White, The Archaeology and History of the Native Georgia Tribes, with a forward by Jerald T. Milanich (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2002), 8.

      [17]Howard F. Cline, Notes on Colonial Indians and Communities in Florida 1700-1821, reprinted as Florida Indians I (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1974), 57.

      [18]Howard F. Cline,  Provisional Historical Gazeteer with Locational Notes on Florida Colonial Communities, reprinted as Florida Indians II (New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1974), the entire book is a listing and map illustration of native peoples’ communities from 1700-1823.  Analysis is possible by studying and observing the 186 communities and 16 maps.

      [19]Kenneth C. Davis, Don’t Know Much About History (New York: Avon Books, 1990), 10.

      [20]White, Archaeology and History, 98.

      [21]Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron, “From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in Between in North American History,” American Historical Review 104, no. 3 (June 1999), 815.

      [22] Coffee v. Groover, 11.

      [23]Francis Butler Simkins, A History of the South (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956), 14.

      [24]Frances Gardiner Davenport, ed.,  European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and Its Dependencies to 1648, with a forward by Samuel Flagg Bemis (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith,  First published in 1917, Reprinted, by Permission of Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1967), i.

      [25]Guadalupe Jimẽnez Codinach, The Hispanic World 1492-1898 (Washington: Library of Congress, 1994), 27.

      [26]Florida, Helpful and Useful Matter, Whitfield’s Notes, Vol. III. Statutes, 1941, 98. 

      [27]Davenport, European Treaties, 2.

      [28]Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” 101.

      [29]Ibid., 102.

      [30]Ibid., 108, 109.

      [31]John Francis Bannon, ed., Bolton and the Spanish Borderlands (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1964), 133.

      [32]Sinko and Thorne, Florida Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, 5.

      [33]Geronimo de Chavez, La Florida map, archives, T.T. Wentworth Jr. State Museum, part of Historic West Florida, Inc., Pensacola, Florida, scanned copy in author’s personal collection from great uncle’s collection.

      [34]Edward A. Fernald and Elizabeth D. Purdum, eds., Atlas of Florida (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992), 82.  The La Florida map was first published in 1584 in Ortelius’ Atlas of the World.

      [35]Mark C. Carnes, and Malcolm A. Swanston, cartography. Historical Atlas of The United States (New York: ROUTLEDGE A member of the Taylor Francis Group, 2003), 64.

      [36]Carnes, Historical Atlas, 57.

      [37]Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” 109.

      [38]Jones, The History of Georgia, 1.

      [39]William Bartram, Travels in Georgia and Florida 1773-74 (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1943), Plate IX, F13. Picture of Altamaha on March 11, 1940.

      [40]The Journal of John Wesley, 268.

      [41]Ibid., 301.

      [42]Davenport, European Treaties, i.

      [43]Carnes, Historical Atlas of The United States., 56.

      [44]Ibid., 58.

      [45]Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” 107.

      [46]Ibid., 111.

      [47]Ibid., 113.

      [48]Ibid., 114.

      [49]Coffee v. Groover, 11.

      [50]Davenport, European Treaties, i; Department of State,  “Treaty of Peace,” September 3, 1783,  Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949, vol. 12, compiled by Charles I. Bevans, 1974, 10; Carnes, Historical Atlas of The United States, 97.

      [51]Samuel Flagg Bemis, Pinckney’s Treaty: America’s Advantage from Europe’s Distress, 1783-1800. Rev. Ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1960), 313, 314.

      [52]Adelman and Aron, “From Borderlands to Borders,” 835; The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, Treaty of San Ildefonso: October 1, 1800, accessed March 1, 2006, available online:  http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ildefens.htm, 3.

      [53]Department of State, “Peace and Amity” (Treaty of Ghent), December 24, 1814, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949, vol. 12, compiled by Charles I. Bevans, 1974, 43.

      [54]Harris G. Warren, “Textbook Writer’s and the Florida ‘Purchase’ Myth,” Florida Historical Quarterly 41, no. 4 (1963): 327; Department of State, “Amity, Settlement, and Limits,” February 22, 1819, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949, vol. 11, compiled by Charles I. Bevans, 1974, 529.

      [55]Frederick Cubberly, “Florida Against Georgia: A Story of the Boundary Dispute” Florida Historical Quarterly 3, no. 2 (1924): 29; Act to settle and quiet the Titles to Lands along the Boundary Line between the States of Georgia and Florida, Statutes at Large 17 (1872).

      [56]Coffee v. Groover, 11.

      [57]Thomas W. Hodler and Howard A. Schretter, The Atlas of Georgia (Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia, 1986), 65.

      [58]Emanuel Bowen, A New & Accurate Map of Mexico or New Spain, 1752, archives of Florida State Museum, Tallahassee, Fl., OCLC #39717976, reproduction in author’s personal collection.

      [59]Hodler, Atlas of Georgia, inside cover.

      [60]Ibid.

      [61]The Journal of John Wesley, 203.

      [62]Ibid., 78.

      [63]E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye, eds., A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia, 2^nd edition (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1967), 1.

      [64]Mrs. Pat Bryant, comp. Entry of Claims for Georgia Landholders 1733-1755 (Atlanta: State Printing Office, 1975), xi.

                                                                            

      [65]Jones, Georgia History, 119.

      [66]The Journal of John Wesley, 156.

      [67]Ibid., 159.

      [68]Jones, Georgia History, 134, 138.

      [69]Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” 111.

      [70]

Mills Lane

,  The People of Georgia, An Illustrated History 2^nd ed. (Savannah: Library of Georgia, 1992), 97.

      [71]The Journal of John Wesley, 221.

      [72]Ibid., 267.

      [73]Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” 111.

      [74]Ibid.

      [75]The Journal of John Wesley, 258, 259.

      [76]Brenda Anderson Rees, personal observation at Fort Clinch, Florida overlooking St. Marys River and Cumberland Island, Georgia, October 2, 2004.

      [77]Burke G. Vanderhill and Frank A. Unger, “Georgia-Florida Land Boundary, Product of Controversy and Compromise.” West Georgia College Studies in the Social Sciences 18 (1979): 59.

      [78]Ibid., 70.

      [79]The Journal of John Wesley, 265, 302, 311.

      [80]Ibid., 265.

      [81]Ibid., 145.

      [82]Jones, Georgia History, 108.

      [83]The Journal of John Wesley, 345.

      [84]Ibid., 355.

      [85]Ibid., 397.

      [86]Ibid., 368.

      [87]Ibid., 112.

      [88]Ibid., 192.

      [89]Ibid., 195.

      [90]Ibid., 221.

      [91]Ibid., 235.

      [92]Ibid., 258.

      [93]Ibid., 269.

      [94]Ibid., 282.

      [95]Ibid., 287.

      [96]Ibid., 310.

      [97]Ibid., 312, 313.

      [98]Ibid.

      [99]Brenda Anderson Rees, Northwest Florida Field Director for The Republican Party of Florida, 2000. 

      [100]Charles Vignoles, Observations Upon the Floridas (New York: E. Bliss and E. White, 1823), A facsimile reproduction (Gainesville: A University of  Florida Book. The University Presses of Florida, 1977), 9.

      [101]General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church, “The Wesleys and Their Times,” accessed March 18, 2006, available online: http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/.

December 1737

DECEMBER  1737

December 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

December 1737    John Wesley was often his best when he followed his heart and broke the rules.   Whether it was talking with his proper lady friends from the best society in England or ordaining Bishops for America, Wesley could shine with an open heart. Wesley had faced diverse, multicultural peoples and preached to English, German, French, Spanish and Italians in their own languages.   The world was Wesley’s parish in the new world.   Wesley had consulted with his friends and agreed that the time they had looked for had come for him to leave the developing Colony of Georgia and area he knew had Spanish influence and nominal English jurisdiction. He would escape home to England and admit his heart had been warmed. There has never been a lack of scandalous characters that besmirch or spread scurrilous attacks against those who are truly looking out for the good of the common man.  They are often not exposed until after the fact and time for real justice has passed.  Such was the case for Wesley who did his best against great odds and personal attacks from those such as Miss Sophy’s uncle, Thomas Causton.

If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earliest months were grouped together, but Blog is now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.  You might see signs that Wesley’s warming began in America, the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida.

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of a thicket near Savannah, Georgia.  Wesley and his small group endured walking through such a thicket as he escaped Georgia on his return to England.  Photograph by Brenda Rees ©

Friday, December 2, 1737 –  The first two paragraphs in Wesley’s Journal for this day reveal how he escaped from Georgia.  Wesley wrote, “I proposed to set out for Port Royal, Carolina, about noon, the tide then serving.  But about ten the magistrates sent for me, and told me I must not go out of the province ….”  Wesley continued to write that he was asked to produce a bond.  He added, “In the afternoon, the magistrates published an order, requiring all the officers and sentinels to prevent my going out of the province, and forbidding any person to assist me so to do.  Being now only a prisoner at large, in a place where I knew by experience every day would give fresh opportunity to procure evidence of words I never said, and actions I never did, I saw clearly the hour was come for {me to fly for my life,} leaving this place; and as soon as evening prayers were over, about eight o’clock, the tide then serving, I shook off the dust of my feet, and left Georgia, after having preached the gospel there {with much weakness indeed and many infirmities,” not as I ought, but as I was able, one year and nearly nine months.”

Wesley then added in his Journal a number of observations about “the real state of this province” including this about the Uchee Indians and Spanish.

Wesley wrote, “11.  About twenty miles north-west from St. Simon’s is Darien, the settlement of the Scotch Highlanders, a mile from Fort King George, which was built about seventeen and abandoned about eleven years since.  The town lies on the mainland, close to a branch of the Alatamahaw, on a bluff about thirty feet above the river, having woods on all sides.  The soil is a blackish sand.  They built at first many scattered huts; but last spring (1736), expecting the Spaniards, they built themselves a large fort, and retired within the walls of it.”

Wesley wrote a rather harsh review of the Uchee Indians with, “27.  The Uchees have only one small town left (near two hundred miles from Savannah) and about forty fighting men.  The Creeks have been many times on the point of cutting them off.  They are indeed hated by most, and despised by all the other nations, as well for their cowardice, as their superlative diligence in thieving, and for out-lying all the Indians upon the continent.”

Saturday, December 3, 1737 – Wesley’s entourage of four got to Purrysburg but was unable to get a guide.  His torturous tale of their journey through the thickets of Georgia included “It now grew towards sunset; so we sat us down on the ground, faint and weary enough.  Indeed, had the day continued we could not have gone much farther, having had no sustenance since five in the morning, except {about a quarter of a pint of rum and” a cake of gingerbread {which Mrs. Burnside had persuaded me to take with me}….”  Wesley found water for them by thrusting his cane into the ground.  They had no fire.  Wesley wrote he slept until morning.

Sunday, December 4, 1737 – Wesley’s group set forth for Port Royal.  He wrote, “At twelve we ate the remainder of our cake, and, meeting some moist ground, dug as before and found water.”  He added, “Between one and two God brought us safe to Benjamin Arieu’s house, the old man whom we had left the day before.”

Wesley read French prayers to a family in the evening.  One agreed to guide them to Port Royal about forty or fifty miles away.  They took a loaf of bread with them.  At sunset they asked the guide if he knew where he was and he said no.  By seven, they came to a plantation and were able to get a meal of potatoes and lodging.  By the next evening, Wesley’s small group had made it to Port Royal Island.

Wednesday, December 7, 1737 –  Wesley arrived in Beaufort and is comforted by old neighbors from Savannah.  Mr. Jones, the minister of Beaufort, was a good host.

Thursday, December 8, 1737 – Wesley was joined by Mr. Delamotte and they “set out for Charlestown by water.”  Bad weather kept them at a Mr. Cockram’s plantation where Wesley wrote, “we were hospitably entertained.”  But, the next day Wesley said, “the poor folk at whose plantation we landed the next day; who, however, at last gave us a few bad potatoes, of which they plainly told us we robbed the swine.”  On the 12^th they got some potatoes and were at “liberty to roast them in a fire which his negroes had made a distance from the house.”

Tuesday, December 13, 1737 – Wesley arrives in “Charlestown.”

Wednesday, December 14, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “Being desired {by Mr. Garden’s assistant} to read prayers, I was much refreshed by those glorious {prophecies and} promises which were exhibited to us both in the seventy-second Psalm and in the First Lesson, the fortieth chapter of Isaiah.”  Then, Wesley added, “In the afternoon, visiting a poor man who in all probability had not many days to live, we found him full of the freshest advices, domestic and foreign, and busy in settling the affairs {of Muscovy and Persia,” of the Czarina, Prince Thamas, and the Ottoman Porte. … For if a soul quivering on the verge of life has still leisure to amuse itself with battles and sieges, why may not the same dreams continue, even in the sleep of death?”

Friday, December 16, 1737 – “I parted from the last of those friends who came with me into America, Mr. Charles Delamotte, from whom I had been but a few days separate since October 14, 1735,” Wesley wrote.

Sunday, December 18, 1737 – Wesley was seized with “a violent flux” but still preached “once more to this careless people; ….”

Thursday, December 22, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “I took my leave of America, though, if it please God, not for ever, going on board the Samuel, Captain Percy, with a young gentleman who had been a few months in Carolina, one of my parishioners of Savannah, and a Frenchman, late of Purrysburg, who was escaped thence with the skin of his teeth.”

Curnoch added in his footnotes that Eleanor Hayes also returned per Tyerman, vol. i. p. 165 and that she became one of the first London Methodists.

Saturday, December 24, 1737 – At noon, Wesley wrote he lost sight of land as they sailed over the Charlestown bar.  He was once again very seasick.  On December 25^th he wrote nothing about Christmas or any celebration.  He said, “The wind was fair, but high, as it was on Sunday the 25^th, when the sea affected me more than it had done in the sixteen weeks of our passage to America.”

Monday, December 26, 1737 – Wesley added on this day, “I began instructing a negro lad in the principles of Christianity.”  He also vowed to return to his simple diet which helped him with the motion of the ship.

Wednesday, December 28, 1737 – Wesley admitted he had been uneasy for several days, but “it pleased God, as in a moment, to restore peace to my soul.”

So ends Wesley’s Journal notes for 1737.

November 1737

NOVEMBER  1737

November 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

November 1737   Wesley had faced diverse, multicultural peoples and preached to English, German, French, Spanish and Italians in their own languages.   His method and habit of preaching to all developed a culture which has enabled Methodism to have a broad world reach today.  Wesley had decided to leave the developing Colony of Georgia and what was also known as Spanish Florida.  The timing would become clear.  This would be Wesley’s last full month in America.  He would head (escape is more like it) home to England soon and be able to admit and verbalize that his heart had been warmed.  Of course, this timing also has some interesting background that is revealed in his Journal.  Stay tuned.

If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earliest months were grouped together, but Blog is now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.  You might see signs that Wesley’s warming began in America, the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida.

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of Savannah where John Wesley spent some of his last days in the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida before returning (on the run!) to England.  On Tuesday, November 22, 1737, Wesley had posted an announcement of his intention to leave.   Photograph by Brenda Rees ©

Tuesday, November 1, 1737 – Wesley is paid a 10 pound sterling by Colonel Stephens.  Wesley noted he had not had one shilling in his house for several months.

 Thursday, November 3, 1737 – Wesley had not written journal notes for a day.  He went to court being conducted to clear up accusations by a Mr. Hugh Anderson.  Mr. Causton told Wesley, “”It is not a proper time.’ So I acquiesced, and let the matter sleep.”

Friday, November 4, 1737 – Mr. Burnside and his family are invited to stay with Wesley.  Burnside had “let his house in town” and was moving into the country.  Mr. Watson, who had been confined for “two years, eleven months, and nineteen days” was released and admitted to Holy Communion by Wesley on Sunday, November 6, 1737.

Tuesday, November 22, 1737 –   This is the day Wesley and friends agreed that the time for Wesley to leave had come.  Earlier that day, Wesley had met with Causton for “a conference … should clear up all the misunderstandings which had been between us.”  Causton read him affidavits one of which Wesley wrote “asserted that I had assaulted Mr. Causton in his own house, calling him liar, villain, and so forth.”  Wesley added in his Journal, “It was at this conversation, Mr. Anderson told me I had been reprimanded in the

last Court

, for an enemy to and hinderer of the public peace.”

Wesley noted, “I again consulted my friends, who agreed with me that the time we looked for was now come.  The next morning I went to Mr. Causton again and told him I designed to set out for England immediately.  I posted up an advertisement in the

Great Square

[renamed Percival] to the same effect, and then quietly prepared myself for the journey.”

Wednesday, November 30, 1737 – Wesley added, “I went to Mr. Causton once more to desire money for the expenses of it.  The same evening two children were baptized, as were three more the day following whose parents had been Anabaptists.”

In footnotes, Curnoch noted, “Jackson and Tyerman, in commenting on the prosecution of Wesley, quote from a pamphlet, published at Charlestown in 1741, written ‘by P. Tailfer, M.D., H. Anderson, M.A., and others, landowners of Georgia,’ to show that Causton was guilty of dishonesty before he came to Georgia, and in Savannah, as Keeper of the Trustees’ Stores; and that, as chief magistrate, he was guilty of gross maladministration and tyranny.  He was dismissed from both offices by Oglethorpe on his return to Georgia in Oct. 1738.”

October 1737

OCTOBER  1737

October 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

October 1737  Wesley’s trial was over, no Indians were saved, someone else had been appointed to perform ecclesiastical duties at Savannah, and Wesley’s departure from the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida was imminent.  His interpretation that no Indians of America had “the least desire of being instructed” reflected the Protestant/Catholic clash prevalent in the Atlantic Zone of Conflict among warring European nations.  The Spanish had been in Spanish Florida and this area now called “The Colony of Georgia” for several hundred years along with their Catholic priests.   Wesley faced diverse, multicultural peoples in this geographical space and new world.  Wesley preached to English, German, French, Spanish and Italians in their own languages.   

If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earliest months were grouped together, but Blog is now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.  You might see signs that Wesley’s warming began in America, the Colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida.

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of John Wesley attempting to instruct the Indians and fulfill his reason for leaving England for the New World.   Courtesy of the Lane Rees collection.  See additional notes from my academic paper on John Wesley in Spanish Florida at end of this blog.   Even the various Indian tribes disputed the transfer of land. Photograph by Brenda Rees ©

Friday, October 7, 1737 – “I consulted my friends whether God did not call me to return to England,” Wesley wrote.  He continued, “The reason for which I left it had now no force, there being no possibility, as yet, of instructing the Indians; ….”  Wesley also mused that he might have better luck back in England.  Soon, Wesley received a unanimous affirmation that he should  leave.  Wesley stated he would leave this timing up to God.

 Tuesday October 11, 1737 – Wesley went to Ebenezer “to inquire of Mr. Boltzius and Gronau whether I could do them any service, ….”

Thursday, October 13, 1737 – Wesley had a conversation with the Scotch at Savannah.

Saturday, October 17, 1737 – The French at Highgate were read to in French by Wesley.

Saturday, October 22, 1737 – Wesley read to the Germans at Hampstead.  He wrote, “We began the service both at Highgate and Hampstead with singing a psalm.  Then I read and explained a chapter in the French or German Testament, and concluded with prayers and another psalm.” 

Sunday, October 23, 1737 – “Having ended Fleury’s Manners of the Ancient Christians, we began to instruct the children, in public as well as private, in a short paraphrase of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, “ Wesley added.

Saturday, October 29, 1737 – The French at Highgate wised Wesley would read to the larger number of French in Savannah.

Sunday, October 30, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “I began so to do; and now I had full employment for that holy-day.  The first English prayers lasted from five till half an hour past six.  The Italian, which I read to a few Vaudois, began at nine. The second service for the English, including the sermon and the Holy Communion, continued from half an hour past ten till about half an hour past twelve.  The French service began at one.  At two I catechized the children.  About three began the English service.  After this was ended, I had the happiness of joining with as many as my largest room would hold, in reading, prayer, and singing praise.  And about six the service of the Moravians, so called began; at which I was glad to be present, not as a teacher, but a learner.”

Monday, October 31, 1737 – Wesley ended this month’s journal with, “The Grand Jury sitting in the court-house, we had the evening prayers in the school, which held upwards of thirty persons conveniently.  The rest stood without, but I hope not so far off as to fail of that blessing which God giveth to all that diligently seek Him.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The following is an excerpt from my academic paper presented at the 2006 Gulf South History and Humanities Conference in Pensacola

THE FLORIDA – GEORGIA BORDER DISPUTE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE HISTORICAL TRAVELS OF JOHN WESLEY IN THE COLONY OF GEORGIA AND SPANISH FLORIDA DURING 1736 – 1737

© Brenda Rees All Rights Reserved

As early as 1735, Oglethorpe was setting up colonists in Frederica.[1]  Land titles from the list of original settlers are somewhat sketchy from the Frederica area.  Mrs. Pat Bryant noted in A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia, “Fee simple titles to the land were not given by the trustees.”[2]  Whether and how Oglethorpe had attained additional land from native peoples might also be questioned.  One treaty for South Carolina “forbade the establishment of trading posts south of the Savannah River.”[3]  Wesley’s first contact with native people came on Saturday, February 14, 1736.   The day before he had word he was to meet “Tomo-chachi.”[4]   Tomochichi “was chief of a small party of Creek Indians settled four miles from Savannah and four hundred miles from the main body of the Creek Tribes.”[5]  Yamacraw chief Tomochichi admitted he had been banished and had just moved into the area.[6]  Tomochichi’s ability to cede anything might be questioned.  Oglethorpe continued “… to increase his power surreptitiously….”[7]  There is evidence of a later cession by native peoples to Georgia concerning the Altamaha, but well after Wesley left.  “In 1782 at Augusta and 1785 at Galphinton, certain Creek tribes ceded lands between the Altamaha River and the Florida boundary to the Georgians. These treaties were disputed by other Indians, led by Alexander McGillivray.”[8]    Notwithstanding, disputed cessions are used by Oglethorpe to justify expansion into Spanish Florida. 

---

      [1]E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye, eds., A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia, 2^nd edition (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1967), 1.

      [2]Mrs. Pat Bryant, comp. Entry of Claims for Georgia Landholders 1733-1755 (Atlanta: State Printing Office, 1975), xi.

                                                                            

      [3]Jones, Georgia History, 119.

      [4]The Journal of John Wesley, 156.

      [5]Ibid., 159.

      [6]Jones, Georgia History, 134, 138.

      [7]Arnade, “Raids, Sieges, and International Wars,” 111.

      [8]

Mills Lane

,  The People of Georgia, An Illustrated History 2^nd ed. (Savannah: Library of Georgia, 1992), 97.

September 1737

SEPTEMBER  1737

September 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

September 1737  Scurrilous attacks had been made against John Wesley, but a letter of response from the minority opinion challenged them and were later mentioned in the 1789 “The European Magazine.”  Causton also had charges against him that were sent to England.  Causton went to England to answer to the Trustees.  On the return trip he “found a watery grave.” 

 If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earliest months were grouped together, but Blog is now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of Johnny Mercer’s house in Savannah.  Savannah has long been the sight for trials and tribulations between good and evil.  Photograph Brenda Rees ©

 September 1, 1737 – Court had been adjourned until today.  The Grand Jury returned ten indictments against John Wesley and they were read, in detail, into the court records.  The charges included communicating with Miss Sophy (Mrs. Sophia Christiana Williamson), not administering the Lord’s Supper, wrong proceedings, readings at contrary hours, refusing to baptize other than dipping, refusing to read burial notice, called himself Ordinary, and refusing Godfather and Godmother status.

 Friday, September 2, 1737 – Wesley said most of these charges were ecclesiastical with only speaking and writing to Miss Sophy of “secular nature.”

Saturday, September 3, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “I was seized with a violent flux, which so weakened me before evening that I had much ado to get to church ….”

Wednesday, September 7, 1737 – Mr. Dison, chaplain of soldiers at Frederica, called on Wesley and said he now had “authority from the magistrates to perform ecclesiastical offices at Savannah …”.

Thursday, September 8, 1737 – Wesley sends the magistrates a note on Mr. Dison’s activities. 

Friday, September 9, 1737 –  Delamotte advised Wesley to go to England.

Saturday, September 10, 1737 – Wesley wrote, “Having consulted my friends, I laid aside the thoughts of going to England ….”

Sunday, September 11, 1737 – Wesley confirmed he would continue his practice of allowing Holy Communion only for those with prior notice and other practices based on Church of England regulations.  Wesley said, “I was only a servant of the Church of England, not a judge ....”

Monday, September 12, 1737 – Grand Jury members with a minority opinion wrote letter to the Trustees of Georgia backing Wesley and refuting charges.  If the jury had consisted of a regular number, this group would have been in the majority.

Thursday, September 15, 1737 – Mr. Causton and Wesley engage in court gymnastics and counter charges.

Friday, September 30, 1737 – The last entry in Wesley’s Third Georgia Diary had been Wednesday, August 31, 1737.  In his Journal, Wesley wrote, “Having ended the Homilies, I began reading Dr. Rogers’s eight sermons to the congregation, hoping they might be a timely antidote against the poison of infidelity which was now with great industry propagated among us; ….”

August 1737

AUGUST  1737

August 1737 

Wesley's Warming Journey

By Brenda Rees © All Rights Reserved

August 1737 and August 1736 were rough months for John Wesley.   While in Frederica in August 1736, Wesley fought for his life when Mrs. Hawkins attacked him with scissors and a gun.  August 1737 finds Wesley fighting for his reputation and brings a warrant for his arrest which hastens his departure from Savannah.   If you are new to this blog, consider starting with the Introduction of Wesley’s Warming Journey Blog and then each month from February 1736.  Earlier months grouped together, but Blog now by month.  This blog carries you from Wesley’s landing at Tybee Island in 1736 eventually through his warming at Aldersgate back in London in 1738.

SIXTH SAVANNAH JOURNAL cont.

Picture of peaceful statue of John Wesley in Savannah that perhaps heals the turbulent episodes that marked his time in Spanish Florida and the developing Colony of Georgia .  Photograph by Brenda Rees ©

Monday, August 1, 1737 – Wesley talked with Spangenberg on journey to Ebenezer about, “the calm we had so long enjoyed was now drawing to an end ….”

Wednesday, August 3, 1737 – Wesley returns to Savanna.

Sunday, August 7, 1737 – An epic day for John Wesley.  In his diary he wrote “10 ¼ Prayers, sermon. 11 ½  Eucharist, Miss Sophy repelled.”  In his journal, Wesley wrote in more detail, “I repelled Mrs. Williamson from the Holy Communion [for the reasons specified in my letter of July 5, as well as for not giving me notice of her design to communicate after having intermitted it for some time.  I foresaw the consequences well, but remembered the promise in the Epistle for the day, ‘God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.’”

Mrs. Burnside tried to get Mrs. Williamson (Miss Sophy) to talk to Wesley afterwards, but she said, “No, I will not show such a meanness of spirit as to speak to him about it myself, but somebody else shall.”

Monday, August 8, 1737 – Mr. Recorder issued a warrant from Savannah, Georgia which stated, “You, and each of your, are hereby required to take the body of John Wesley, Clerk:

And bring him before one of the bailiffs of the said town, to answer the complaint of William Williamson and Sophia his wife, for defaming the said Sophia, and refusing to administer to her the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, in a public congregation, without cause; by which the said William Williamson is damaged one thousand pounds sterling: … .”  Wesley went to a lovefeast with the Germans that evening.

Tuesday, August 9, 1737 –  Wesley explained in his Journal, “I was apprehended by virtue of a warrant …. Mr. Williamson’s charge against me was: (1) that I had defamed his wife; (2) that I had causelessly repelled her from the Holy Communion.  The first article I denied.  As to the second, being purely ecclesiastical, I could not acknowledge their power to interrogate me….”  Mr. Williamson wanted Wesley to pay bail, but he was let off with his word.  Mr. Williamson then took out an advertisement that forbade anyone taking Wesley out of town.  Wesley’s evening lesson was the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.  Wesley wrote, “Oh may I ever have respect unto the recompense of reward, and esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasurer of Egypt.”

Wednesday, August 10, 1737 – Mr. Causton attempted to have Wesley appear.  Wesley did not.  Wesley’s lesson for the day included, “Let us lay aside every weight, … and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Thursday, August 11, 1737 – Wesley noted that Causton came to house and used rough language and demanded he write his niece a letter.  Wesley said he would and did ending with “when you have openly declared yourself to have truly repented, I will administer to you the mysteries of God.”

Friday, August 12, 1737 – Wesley wrote in his Journal that Causton was reading selected parts of letters he had written Miss Sophy from the beginning of their acquaintance. Wesley also wrote, “The rest of the family in the meantime were very industrious in convincing all they could speak to ’that Mr. Wesley had done this merely out of revenge because Sophy would not have him.’

Sunday, August 14, 1737 – More than usual showed up for this Sunday service

Monday, August 15, 1737 – Mr. Causton fired Mr. Burnside, who had been employed over two years by the Trustees, for not signing a certificate of charges he had written.  Wesley also noted that Mr. Causton “employed his utmost power and art and application to prepare the persons who form the Grand Jury ….”

Tuesday, August 16, 1737 – Wesley feared that the “communicants” would be unduly influenced so read them an account of the case.

Saturday, August 17, 1737 – Wesley prayed for Mr. Causton and Miss Sophy, having spent the week waiting on the Grand Jury report.

Sunday, August 21, 1737 – “God gave us a day of rest,” Wesley wrote.

Monday, August 22, 1737 – The court met and Wesley was not pleased with the jury.  He said, “Forty-four jurors were then sworn, a great majority of whom were well prepared for their work, either by previous application from Mr. Causton or by avowed enmity to me or to the Church of England.  One was a Frenchman, who did not understand English, one a Papist, one a professed infidel, three Baptists, sixteen or seventeen other Dissenters; and several who had personal quarrels against me, and had openly vowed revenge.”

An affidavit and extensive list of grievances is detailed in the Journal.

Wesley wrote, “They examined Mrs. Williamson in the afternoon, and afterwards Mr. Causton, and Mrs. Causton on Tuesday Mrs. Williamson declared she had no objection at all to my behaviour before her marriage; Mr. Causton that he should not have denied, if I had ever asked his consent to marry her, and Mrs. Causton that it was at her request I wrote the letter to Mrs. Williamson of July 5.”

Wednesday, August 24, 1737 – Wesley noted the Grand Jury then addressed ecclesiastical grievances.  He said Causton presented himself so poorly before them that they wanted to inquire into his conduct.  Witnesses were examined for a time.  Court was adjourned until September 1, 1737.