The Lawless Story

Our story begins right here in Walton County in the late 1700’s as part of British West Florida. Scottish immigrants settled in the north, near what we know now as Defuniak, and English in the south, generally along the coast of south Walton. In 1783 the Treaty of Paris awarded control of Florida back to Spain. The Spanish agreed to let the settlers stay on the conditions that they convert to Catholicism and start paying taxes to the Spanish crown. They unanimously refused to convert to Catholicism, despite Spanish law saying they were only allowed to remain in Florida if they did so and the Spanish were unable to compel them to pay taxes to the local Spanish government. The Spanish came to regard the English and Scottish settlers as "stubborn" and "ungovernable" as the Spanish were unable to make them obey any Spanish law. Our name is inspired by our “stubborn” and “ungovernable” ancestors. We like to think they’d enjoy a long pull off one of our smooth lagers while watching the Spanish ships disappear from sight off the coast…. The Lawless Coast.