While the Proprietors were under attack, their failure as wardens of the southern marches the chief count against them, there was developed a plan-the best remembered of the pre-Georgia schemes-for solving the problem of southern border defense quite in the feudal spirit of their regime. The Margravate of Azilia was designed to occupy precisely the region which fifteen years later became Georgia. Otherwise it has seemed chiefly remarkable as involving a degree of sub-infeudation unique among English colonial projects,15 and for its singular plan of settlement. [Note 15 Professor C. M. Andrews has characterized this project as an attempt to establish 'the most remarkable feudal estate within the colonial area'] The projector was a Scotch baronet, Sir Robert Montgomery of Skelmorly (1680-1731). His was a family interest in colonization. He claimed a Knight of Nova Scotia among his ancestors; his father, moreover, had been a backer of Lord Cardross, and the charming descriptions of Carolina which he had heard in his youth inspired him, he wrote, with a particular affection for that part of America. 16 [Note 16 Dictionary of National Biography; Montgomery, Discourse (1717)] Among his associates were Amos Kettleby, discharged as agent by the South Carolina assembly in November, 1716;17 and the poet-projector, Aaron Hill.18 [Note 17 C.O. Kettleby had served as agent since 1712.] [Note 18 Aaron Hill, Works, 1753] Hill's pen, perhaps, produced the flamboyant descriptions of 'our future Eden,' which set a new record for exaggeration in colonial promotion literature. The very name of the colony was eloquent of the confused utopianism and decadent feudalism which inspired the scheme. In June, 1717, Montgomery and Kettleby presented their proposals, to which the Proprietors readily agreed, anticipating quit-rents and an easy solution of the vexing problem of defense. Details were negotiated by Kettleby and the Proprietary secretary, Shelton, and on July 11, 1717, the deeds of lease and release were executed. 19 For a penny quit-rent for each acre occupied, the Proprietors conveyed to Montgomery and his heirs and assigns 'all that Tract of Land which lies between the Rivers Altamaha and Savanna.' Farther southward, too, Montgomery might make settlements, but beyond the Altamaha the Proprietors reserved the right to grant unoccupied lands. Profiting by the Cardross episode, or, more probably, by recent quarrels between Virginia and South Carolina, they withheld from Montgomery the right to tax or in any way obstruct the navigation of the Azilian rivers by inhabitants of North or South Carolina, or to interfere with 'their free Commerce and Trade with the Indian Nations, either within, or to the Southward of the Margravate.' Moreover, if Montgomery should fail to effect a settlement within three years the Proprietors might repossess themselves of the grant.