This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Compliments of Hancock County Chamber of Comnerce
History of Hancock County - Page 2
for the colonists. Some were sent by force, while others came willingly; some were of questionable morals, while others were of irreproachable character. Each young lady carrying a trousseau packed in a little chest, anxiously awaited while the representative of Ursulines arranged a suitable marriage.
The country remained under the French flag until the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, at the close of the Seven Years ’-Jar when France ceded to Great Britain all its possessions east of the Mississippi River, with the exception of New Orleans, which was ceded to Spain. The British rule was of short duration because on May 8, 1779, Spain declared war against England; and Galvez, Provincial Governor of Louisiana, quickly joined in the hostilities against his traditional enemy. Within two years Gal viz had forced the surrender of the British possessions, along the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast, to Spain. It was then that what was known as the West Florida Territory including all the territory south of the 31st Parallel passed to Spanish rule.
In the fall of 1800, Spain secretly ceded Louisiana to Napoleon by the Treaty of San Ildephonso. However, Spain remained in actual possession of this territory.
A diplomatic triple play was executed at New Orleans in the fall of 1803 when Louisiana went from Spain to France to the United States within a short space of 20 days in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.
The first written records of habitation in what is now Hancock County show that a land grant dated in 1781 within the limits of the present city of Bay St. Louis was issued to Philip Saucier. This land passed later to Marshall and Joseph Necaise. Another grant dated the same year adjoining the Philip Saucier-Necaise grant was given to Madame Chorlo.
Joseph Chalone who settled on Pearl River where Logtown is located was given a land grant in 1805. Simon Favre obtained a grant on Pearl River at a place called Napoleon where	he lived	in 1806. He also staked a claim down the River	at a	place
known as Nizan	Landing,	just above Logtown. In 1807, there was a grant	to Amos
Burnett for the land on which the old Indian village of Chicapoula was situated. Ambrose Gaines	received	a grant in 1810 located at the head of Navigation on	the
east branch of	Pearl River and established the village of Gainesville.	This	vil-
lage was once a busy and important lumber mill center, and a shipping point for cotton brought by wagon from as far away as Columbia. Gainesville was also at one time the county seat of Hancock County.
There were two Jourdan brothers, Noel and John J., each of whom was granted two tracts of land. Noel's land was on the Jourdan River to which he gave his name. John J. Jourdan's land was on Catahoula Creek, a tributary of Jourdan River.
One of the most notable land grants by the Spanish government was given to Thomas Shields. This grant was first given in 1789 to Constantio Tardil, but it was not occupied and cultivated by him, so his claim was invalidated. The next year, 1790, Shields got possession of the land, but did not occupy it until 1800. This grant on the shore of Bay St. Louis was called Shieldsboro, by which the city of Bay St. Louis and the former port of entry were called for many years.