Charter and the Constitution & By-laws

Scotsmen landed with James Oglethorpe at the founding of Georgia in 1733 and brought with them a strong faith. By 1755, the Presbyterian Church of Savannah, later called the Independent Presbyterian Church, had been established. Its first building, facing Market Square (now Ellis Square), was erected on property granted by King George II, “to the intent and purpose that a place of public worship be there upon erected and built for the use and benefit of such of our loving subjects . . . as are and shall be professors of the Doctrines of the Church of Scotland, agreeable to the Westminster Confession of Faith.” In many ways it became the mother church of Georgia Presbyterians.