The Original Houses of Frederica, Georgia:
The Hawkins-Davison Houses

By Margaret Davis Cate[1]

The recent excavation of the building sites in the old Town ofFrederica has stirred interest in this now “Dead Town” and inthe fortification, Fort Frederica.

Fort Frederica, located at a bluff on the western shore of St.Simons Island, Georgia, and on the Inland Waterway, was foundedin 1736 by the British under the leadership of James EdwardOglethorpe, as an outpost to protect the colony of Georgia andthe other British possessions to the north against the Spaniardsin Florida. It became one of the most expensive fortificationsbuilt by the British in America and the military headquarters fora string of fortifications erected along this southern frontier ofBritain’s provinces in North America.

The Town of Frederica, adjacent to the fort, was settled byforty families brought here at that time. These settlers built FortFrederica and manned the fortifications until the coming of theregiment of British soldiers two years later.

Occupying about thirty-five acres of land, the town was halfa hexagon in shape, divided by Talbott Street, generally calledBroad Street, into two wards—North Ward and South Ward—andwas laid out into eighty-four lots, which were granted to thesettlers and on which they built their homes. About half a milefrom Frederica, and surrounding the town on three sides, werethe garden lots while the fifty-acre tracts granted the settlers werelocated in various parts of St. Simons Island.

Later, a larger area of safety being necessary, the entire townwas fortified and surrounded by a moat, the banks of whichformed the ramparts of the town. A wall of posts ten feet high,forming the stockade and palisade, flanked both sides of themoat, with five-sided towers on the corner bastions. Entranceinto the town was through the Town Gate.

This old Town of Frederica was a thriving community in itsday. The streets were lined with houses, some built of brick, someof tabby, and others of wood. John and Charles Wesley, foundersof Methodism, who came to Georgia in 1736 as missionaries ofthe Church of England, were in charge of religious affairs. Thetown government consisted of a magistrate, recorder, constables,and tythingmen. There were two taverns, an apothecary shop,and numerous other shops and stores. The trades and professionswere represented by the hatter, tailor, dyer, weaver, tanner, shoemaker,cordwainer, saddler, sawyer, woodcutter, carpenter, coachmaker,bricklayer, pilot, surveyor, accountant, baker, brewer,tallow candler, cooper, blacksmith, locksmith, brazier, miller, millwright,wheelwright, husbandman, doctor, surgeon, midwife,Oglethorpe’s secretary, Keeper of the King’s Stores, and officers ofOglethorpe’s Regiment. Frederica was a barracks town, so thatits business life was dependent on the money brought in by thesoldiers of the Regiment.

After the British victory at Bloody Marsh and the defeat ofthe enemy in the Spanish Invasion of 1742 (War of Jenkins’Ear), peace was made w

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