"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms: Never! Never! Never!”

—William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

Gordon Street Row Houses Near Chatham Square

England’s decision to establish the Colony of Georgia was an intentional upset to an ongoing delicate balance of power that existed between England, Spain, and France — both within Europe and to their competing colonial interests in North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

The reactions in France and Spain followed immediately upon James Oglethorpe’s voyage, landing just off the bluffs of the Savannah River in 1733. France agreed to the defense of Spanish territories in America — which in the Spanish mind included both Florida and the lands England had just named Georgia after British King George II.

General Oglethorpe’s colonialists held the Spanish from encroaching upon England’s claims. But friction between the English South Sea Company and various Spanish monopolies over trade in the Caribbean became overheated. An English ship captain named Robert Jenkins, who was a nasty blend of a smuggler and a pirate, told the British Parliament a wild tale of being captured by the Spanish near Havana in 1731, which included having his ear cut off by the Spanish coast guard commander.

Years later, Jenkin’s strange tale was revived for political propaganda purposes, leading to The War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739-1743). In 1740, James Oglethorpe allied militarily with Creek Indians to invade Florida but could not capture St. Augustine. He then halted an attempted Spanish invasion of Georgia at the Battle of Bloody Marsh. A military stalemate soon resulted on the Georgia and Florida border.

As told in Robert Gaudi’s The War of Jenkins’ Ear: The Forgotten Struggle for North and South America and the World that Made It (2021), this battle was part of a worldwide conflict, which engaged the European powers on battlefields in Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Asian subcontinent.

Years later, the European Powers' struggles for political and military domination continued with The Seven Years’ War. We named it ‘The French and Indian War’ in the American colonies. It featured a young Virginian named George Washington, who cut his teeth as a military leader on the British side, fighting against the French but primarily battling Native Indigenous Tribes aligned with the French.

During the Seven Years’ War, the English Prime Minister was William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham.  Years earlier, Pitt had been a leading advocate for a hardline policy against the Spanish during the Jenkins’ Ear war. The Seven Years’ War and the French and Indian War in North America were settled in 1763 by The Treaty of Paris. In that settlement, Spain ceded Florida to England. Georgia and Florida were thereby secured for England, and British Colonies in America were protected from further southern threats.

Interestingly, having championed the rights of American Colonialists before the Revolutionary War over the Stamp Act taxation issue, William Pitt retained his popularity among Savannah’s colonial residents. Chatham County, where Savannah resides, was named for him in 1777, while Chatham Square was later named to also honor William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham in 1847.

These beautiful Gordon Street Row Houses are found just off Chatham Square on Gordon Street, named for William Washington Gordon, the first President of the Central of Georgia Railroad (see PFS-65 and PFS-91). These buildings, constructed together in the 1850s, feature gorgeous curved steps with intricate cast-iron railings. Chatham Square is also home to the former Barnard Street School (see PFS-23), which now houses the Fibers Department for the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).