Abstracts of Colonial Wills of the State of Georgia, 1733-1777

By: Atlanta Town Committee, Pub. 1962, reprinted 2023, 200 pages, New Index, soft cover, ISBN #978-1-63914-137-1.

The records were compiled for the Department of Archivers and History of the State of Georgia.  Georgia's colonial period starts with the Charter signed by King George II in 1732 and ends at the close of the Revolutionary War in 1777.  Many of the colonial records have been lost due to war and neglect.  During the Civil War the most important records were loaded on wagons and hauled to Charleston, SC.  From there they were moved to Newbern, NC then to upper Virginia and finally to Maryland.  They were not returned to Savannah until 1783 again by wagon.  Wills were not considered the most important papers and did not make the wagon transfers.  Some of these early records ended up in the Tower of London where they remained until 1801.  The wills within this book are those that were found in trunks within the Tower of London.