Georgia began as an idea, the brainchild of James Oglethorpe and several other Englishmen who wanted to establish a new British settlement between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, on land claimed by both South Carolina and Spain. The new colony needed official blessing, and Oglethorpe and his associates—who became the Georgia Trustees—petitioned the Privy Council, Parliament’s executive body, for a charter in September 1730. The request moved slowly through the bureaucracy before getting approval 16 months later. King George II signed the Charter in April. In June, the Council affixed its seal and handed it over to the Georgia Trustees, officially creating the colony of Georgia.

The charter granted colonists the rights of Englishmen but did not allow local government, and though it granted religious liberty, it banned Roman Catholics and Jews, though Jews were among the earliest Georgia settlers.

The Trustees governed Georgia for the next 20 years after receiving the Georgia Charter with the Privy seal on June 9, 1732, Today in Georgia History.