Musgrove, Mary (1700?-1765?), was a tradeswoman and diplomat in colonial Georgia, in what is now the southeastern United States. Her parents were a Creek Indian woman and an English trader based in South Carolina. Mary is also known by her Creek birth name, Coosaponakeesa. Because of her mixed heritage, Mary knew the languages and customs of both the European colonists and the region’s Lower Creek Indians. She worked as a translator and helped with relations between the two groups.
Coosaponakeesa may have been born in the Creek village of Coweta, which at the time was located near what is now Macon, Georgia. She received the name Mary after her baptism into the Anglican faith. Like many other Creek women, Mary participated in trade. She married John Musgrove, the son of a Creek woman and a South Carolinian trader. The exact dates of Mary’s birth and first marriage are uncertain. Some scholars think she was born in about 1700 and married in about 1716, but some have placed her birth as late as 1708 and her marriage around 1725.
In about 1732, Mary and John Musgrove moved to the bluffs of the Savannah River. The couple established a store there. In February 1733, a group of more than 100 English settlers, led by James Oglethorpe, arrived to establish the colony of Georgia. The settlers founded Savannah, Georgia’s first colonial settlement. The Musgroves helped translate communication between the newcomers and the Lower Creeks. Mary served as an interpreter for three decades and became well respected for her diplomatic abilities.
John Musgrove died in 1735. Mary then married Jacob Matthews, a former indentured servant of Mary and her husband. Matthews died in 1742. Mary married Thomas Bosomworth, an Anglican clergyman, in 1744.
In 1737, Tomochichi, a neighboring Lower Creek leader, gave Mary a generous gift of land near Savannah in appreciation for her work. The land included the coastal islands of Ossabaw, St. Catherines, and Sapelo. However, neither colonial officials nor the British trustees who governed Georgia recognized her claim to these lands. In August 1749, Mary invited her Lower Creek relatives to Savannah to threaten local authorities. She declared herself the “Empress and Queen of the Upper and Lower Creeks,” but her tactics backfired. Mary was arrested and only released because her husband apologized for the disruptions she had caused.
In 1757, Mary and colonial officials finally reached a compromise. Under the agreement, she received part of the land and a cash settlement. Mary acquired the deed to St. Catherines Island in June 1760. She lived there until her death in about 1765.
