History
Our state still bears his name, but King George II never set foot here.
He was born in Germany and when he succeeded his father, George I, in 1727, he became the second of Britain’s Hanoverian German kings.
In 1732, he [1] signed the charter creating the colony of Georgia and [2] granted the charter of the colony of Georgia to a board of twenty [20] Trustees in London that would govern the colony.
The success of the colony depended on finding an exportable product to survive.
James Oglethorpe [pictured above] persuaded the king that England needed a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida, so Georgia became the first new British colony in North America in more than 50 years.
The colonists, headed by General James Oglethorpe, established a garden with fruits and vegetables from around the world to see what would thrive here. This effort was known as the “Trustees Garden,” and was the first organized agriculture experiment station anywhere.
One of the main fruits planted was grapes to establish the wine industry. The colony’s Trustees assumed that Georgia, being the most southern of the thirteen [13] colonies and on the same latitude as the lower Mediterranean countries, was the logical choice to become the “Vineyard Colony” for England.
Establishing vineyards in the new colony become a priority because making England self-sufficient in wine was one of the most powerful appeals that the Trustees had for coaxing money from Parliament.
The Trustees were continually requesting updates on the Georgia vineyards and the quality of any wine produced.