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L<ong ago, what is now Hancock County,--^Mississippi, was part of the Choctaw/;-;*:'- *' ^Nation and was inhabited by an'Indian .1! tribe "called the Chicapoula:; The .explorer’
JeariBaptiste.Le Moyne, was the first , -to set foot on the land ini' August "of 1699 ^
^ \and named the Bay of St. Loms.In^,,
^December of the same year, hisbrother -d’Iberville.established the first colony, on <;he shores; of the Bay when he placed there,a few families and a sergeant and ^ifi^eriTmetf'tcTguard the settlers.
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The' area remained under1 the French
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nag until 1763 when the British gained-control.'iThelfirst recorded land grant „
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^4~?rwas’ made to
______. one Philip Saucier in 1781.1.
^j\Ii£;1810 the United States assumed o ' L^ll j control and a large area between the Bay of Biloxi and Pearl River arid between - -
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the 31st parallel and the Gulf of Mexico
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^f’was designated a county on December! -14", 1812. It was named for John Hancock,
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