CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Province of Georgia

former colony in North America, part of Great Britain

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ785035
Source-derived summary

The Province of Georgia (also Georgia Colony) was one of the Southern Colonies in colonial-era British America. Founded as a British proprietary colony in 1732, in 1751 it became a royal colony. In 1775 it was the last of the Thirteen Colonies to support the American Revolution.

The original land grant of the Province of Georgia included a narrow strip of land that extended west to the Pacific Ocean.

The colony's corporate charter was granted to General James Oglethorpe on April 21, 1732, by George II, for whom the colony was named. The charter was finalized by the King's privy council on June 9, 1732.

The English colony of Georgia was planned as a utopian society with an integrated physical, economic and social design influenced by the ideals of James Harrington. Oglethorpe envisioned a colony which would serve as a haven for English subjects who had been imprisoned for debt and "the worthy poor." General Oglethorpe imposed laws that many colonists disagreed with, such as the banning of alcoholic beverages. He disagreed with slavery and thought a system of smallholdings more appropriate than the large plantations common in the colonies just to the north. However, land grants were not as large as most colonists would have preferred.

Editorial summary

“Province of Georgia” enters the record as former colony in North America, part of Great Britain. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Province, Georgia and former can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1732, 1751, 1775—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1732-06-09. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Province, Georgia and former.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Province of Georgia” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Province, Georgia and former provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q785035. VIAF identifies the subject as 151984545. Authority coordinates are 31.761, -82.357. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1732, 1751 and 1775.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Province of Georgia”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Province of Georgia primary sources, Province of Georgia archive and Province research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Province of Georgia”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Province of Georgia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.