Mary Musgrove
A canny businesswoman, a prolific interpreter, and an excellent diplomat, Mary Musgrove helped foster peace between English settlers and Native Americans in and around present day Savannah, Georgia. Her business skills and diplomacy led to her become the wealthiest land owner in Georgia, although she eventually was embloiled in a court case regarding land. Her contributions to the early days of Savannah are incalculable and history remembers Mary Musgrove very fondly.
Savannah, Georgia, established in 1733, enjoyed friendly relations with the Native Americans thanks to Mary Musgroves’ diplomacy, language skills, and understanding of cultural nuances of the colonists and the Natives.
Coosaponakeesa, or as she is known in history, Mary Musgrove was an early Savannahian, born around 1700. Her job as a mediator between the Native Americans and the settlers was due to her background. The daughter of an English trader and Creek Indian mother, Mary spent her first years being raised in the Wild Clan culture.
Two Different Worlds
When she was seven years old, her father took her and her brother to a small Georgia town called Pon Pon, where she learned English and changed her name to Mary. Mary straddled the two cultures throughout her life. She was fluent in the Creek languages of Muskogee and English. She also was comfortable with the customs and culture of both colonial and local Native American societies. This society of Native Americans was a matriarchal society where children took the cultural identity of their mother, and property was passed through the maternal line. Because the Wind Clan society was matrilineal, she was considered a full member of her clan and Creek society.
Trading Success
At the age of seventeen, Mary married the English trader John Musgrove. Together they established a trading post, where she utilized her cultural and language skills to her advantage. Mary and John had three children, none of whom made it to adulthood. When she and her husband were granted more land near the Savannah River, they moved their trading post. This post located near Yamacraw Bluff, called the Cowpens, became a major business site in the area for deerskin trade.
Interpreter
When General James Oglethorpe arrived in Georgia in 1732, he made Mary Musgrove's acquaintance. Realizing that she would make an excellent liaison between the early settlers and Native Americans, he hired her to be his interpreter. She served as his chief interpreter from 1733 to 1743. It is primarily thanks to Mary Musgrove's understanding of both cultures that the relationship between early Savannah settlers and the Creek Natives was friendly.
Marriages
John Musgrove died in 1735. Some historians suggest that she married her second husband to keep her land. According to Georgia law at the time, women could not own property. Her marriage allowed her to keep her land. The new couple established another trading post at Mount Venture.
Mary slowly moved up the ladder of colonial status. After her second husband died, she married her last husband, a missionary named Thomas Bosomworth and a part of the colonial upper class.
Important People
Mary was frequently visited by significant Native chiefs and colonial leaders. John Wesley wrote of her, “She can read and write, and is a well-civilized [woman]. She is likewise to teach us the Indian tongue". She was beloved by Tomochichi, the head chief of the Yamacraw settlement that became Savannah, Georgia. To show his appreciation, he gifted her three islands called the Sea Islands.
Island Fights
While Mary was celebrated by upper class Native and colonial chiefs alike, many early Savannahians were jealous of her rise to success. Although she had been given the land by the lower Creek chief, British officials contested her right to the Sea Islands, stating that according to law, a nation can only grant land to another nation, not an individual.
Mary, along with 200 Creek people, petitioned Georgia officials to allow her to keep the islands. The officials said the issue would need to be settled in England. So, Mary went to plead her case before the Board of Trade in England, who referred her case back to Georgia. During her absence, Georgia had already taken over her land. The case was finally settled more than fifteen years after it started. The governor compromised and granted Mary one of her three islands along with £2,100.
Mary died in 1763 on her remaining island.
Memorials
Mary Musgrove is primarily remembered for this incident above, but her role in early Savannah history cannot be denied. In 2019, a marker in her honor was placed in Lafayette Square in Savannah. There is another memorial erected on Savannah Sugar Refining Co. ground, a mile from her trading post.
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