George Gauld was born in Ardbrack, Banffshire, Scotland, in 1731, and was educated at King's College in Aberdeen, where he received his Master of Arts degree.
"After Florida came into the possession of Great Britain, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, sent out Mr George Gauld to make a thorough survey of the whole coast.
This manuscript also includes a letter from Dr. John Lorimer to Gauld, and a sketch of the Middle and Yellow Rivers of West Florida by Thomas Hutchins.
Major Dickson went with them for the first part of the survey, and helped them investigate the Manchac region, but evidently left the group at Natchez.
Dr. Lorimer made careful measurements of latitude at Natchez, and then the remainder of the party continued further north to the mouth of the Yazoo River.
This cheap land was mostly purchased for speculation, because running the property profitably as a plantation would have been too difficult as absentee landlords from their homes on the Gulf Coast.
[7] Later, Thomas Hutchins would write an account of this journey, with acknowledgment to the information he had received from Gauld: "It may be proper to observe that I have had the assistance of the remarks and surveys, so far as relates to the mouths of the Mississippi and the coast and foundings of West Florida, of the late ingenious Mr. George Gauld, a Gentleman who was employed by the Lords of the Admiralty for the express purpose of making an accurate chart of the above mentioned places.
How it happened to be published there we cannot pretend to say; but it is the only part of the many surreptitious sketches, which have been pirated from Mr. Gauld's works, that has been literally and pretty correctly copied; tho' there is an error of about 30 miles or more in the Latitude.In 1776, Gauld was forced to suspend his work in the Dry Tortugas and Florida Keys due to the depredations of American privateers, and he was taken prisoner at the Siege of Pensacola in 1781.