The History of South Carolina under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719

Front matter

THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 1670-1719 THE HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 1670-1719 ni EDWARD McCRADY A MEMBER OF THE BAR OF CHARLESTON, S.C^v&ND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA Neui gotfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1897 All rights reserved COPTRIGHT, 1897, Bt THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Nortooot JJttsB J S CllBhine & Co. - Berwick & Smith Norwood Mass U.S.A. The folloAving study of the history of South Carolina has been made amidst the engagements of a busy profes sional life, in hours snatched from that jealous mistress — the laAV. It has been a labor of love, and has been under taken and carried on with the single purpose of learning and telling the story of the State of which the author is proud to be a son and a citizen.

In the course of his study, he has found, as he conceives, occasional errors in the Avorks of those who have preceded him ; and these he has pointed out. He cannot hope himself to have escaped like mistakes — though he has striven to do so. It will be the duty of those Avho come after to correct Avhere he has gone astray. He only asks that this shall be done in the spirit of fairness he has endeavored to observe. To his readers in general he Avould recall the lines of the poet : — Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. In ev'ry work regard the writer's end, Since none can compass more than they intend ; And if the means be just, the conduct true, Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due. Pope's Essay on Criticism, 250-260. AUTHORITIES CONSULTED AND QUOTED American Commonwealth Series.

Horace E. Scudder. Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth Democracy. By Professor Alexander Johnson. Maryland : The History of a Palatinate. By William Hand Browne. Virginia : A History of the People. By John Esten Cooke. Anderson's History of the Colonial Church. London 1856. A New Voyage to Carolina. John Lawson, 1709. Bancroft's History of the United States (Edition 1882). Baptist Church, Charleston, History of. Barbadoes, Poyer's History of. Barbadoes, Ligon's History of. Bingham's Antiquities. Bohun, Edmund, Memoir and Autobiography of. British Empire in America. Oldmixon. 2 ed. MDCCXLI. Bruce's Economic History of Virginia. 1896. Burke's Peerage. Burnet's History of His Own Times. London 1724. Burn's Ecclesiastical Law. Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury, London, 1889). Calhoun's Works.

Chapter I

Christopher Columbus accepting the theory of the ro tundity of the earth, in 1492 sailed westward, assured that unless he discovered some new country in the yet unex plored seas he must reach the Indies, the easternmost limits of the known world. Upon his discovery of the islands which he supposed to be the Indies, he returned to Spain with the great tidings, and Pope Alexander VI generously bestowed the new countries upon the King doms of Leon and Castile, on the condition that they should labor to extirpate idolatries and plant the holy faith in the NeAV World. In his second voyage, in 1493, Columbus discovered more islands and coasted along a part of South America. In his first voyage his course had been diverted by the flight of birds to the southwest — and never, it has been said, had a flight of birds such important consequences.

This southerly direction Colum bus and his folloAvers continued to pursue, and so it was that the northern continent escaped their knowledge. Had the course of Columbus not thus been deflected, he would have entered theAvarm current of the Gulf Stream, have reached Florida, and thence perhaps been carried to the coast of Carolina or Virginia. The result would probably have been, as it has been observed, that the territory of the present United States would have been given a Roman Catholic Spanish population instead of a Protes tant English one — a circumstance of immeasurable importance.1 As it happened, the only foothold the Spaniards obtained in this territory was in Florida, and the only English colonists with Avhom they came in contact and collision were those in Carolina. In the year 1496 John Cabot, a Venetian then in England, perceiving by the globe, as he thought, that the islands found by Columbus stood almost in the same latitude with England, and much nearer thereto than to Portugal and Castile, obtained from King Henry VII tAvo ships and three hundred men, with which he embarked upon a voyage of discovery of his OAvn.

He sailed westwardly, discovered NeAvfoundland, and coasted along the shores of North America, Salvano says, till he came to 38 degrees towards the equinoctial line — that is, someAvhere off the coast of Virginia, and from thence returned to England. " There be others," he adds, " Avhich say that he Avent as far as the Cape of Florida which standeth in 25 degrees."2 Columbus was diverted to the south by the flight of birds. Sebastian Cabot, upon the death of his father, like Columbus, seeking a Avay to India, ascended Hudson's Bay, and pressed on among ice bergs until the mutiny of her crew compelled him to turn back. Thus it Avas that the first discoverers of America, seeking a way to India, turned aside from the great Con tinent, the one to the tropics, and the other to the Arctic regions.

In 1495 the Spaniards had established themselves upon the Island of Hayti or Hispaniola, Avhich became the seat of their great poAver in the Western Hemisphere. It Avas not, however, until seventeen years later that they became aware of the Continent so near them on the north. In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon discoArered the mainland of Florida on Easter, Pascha Floridum, the supposed deri- 1 John Nichol, LL.D., Encyclopedia Britannica, "America." 2 Hakluyt's Voyages, Supplement, 17, 18. GOATERNMENT 41 vation of the name. He landed, it is said, at a place called the Bay of the Cross, a feAV miles north of the site of St. Augustine, took possession, and erected a stone cross in sign of the jurisdiction of Spain. This Avas to be the place of the first European settlement on the Continent of America, and was to be the source of numerous woes to the English colonists of Carolina.

The first Europeans Avho trod the soil of Carolina were Spaniards Avho sailed in 1520 from Hispaniola, seeking in the Lucayos or Bahama Islands a supply of Indians to take back Avith them to work as slaves in their gold mines, a third part of the nation of Hispaniola having perished within three years after the Spaniards took possession of the island. Tavo vessels fitted out by Lucas Vasquez de Allyon for this purpose, driven by tempest, more by chance than Avith any design of discovery, reached the coast about the latitude of 32 degrees. The adventurers entered a bay, a cape of Avhich they named St. Helena, and a river in its A'icinity they called the Jordan.1 Though the Spaniards had noAV been at St. Augustine for eight years, the natives of the region do not appear to have knoAvn of their presence.

When, therefore, the Spanish vessels made to the shore, the natives, aston ished as at a miracle, thought some monster had come among them — they never before having seen a vessel. They fled upon the approach of the vessels, but two SAvift and nimble young Spaniards overtook a man and woman and brought them to the ship. Clothing and loading these Avith presents and sending them back, the Spaniards gained 1 Rivers, after a close examination of the accounts of early voyages, old maps, and charts, is not prepared to admit that the " Jordan " is the Combahee, as most writers assert, but concludes that the "Jordan" could not have been far from the Savannah. Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 15. confidence of the Indians, and were kindly treated by them. After some stay on the coast and a partial exami nation of the country, the Spaniards enticed the Indians, whose confidence they had gained, on board their vessels, and Avhen their decks were crowded they suddenly drew up their anchor and unfurled their sails, carrying off to a wretched fate the guests they had received with all the appearances of friendship.

One of the vessels on its re turn foundered at sea, and all on board perished. Many of the captives on the remaining vessel, pining Avith grief, refused to take food and died before the end of the voyage. Of those who survived, most languished in their bondage and sank under their sufferings. The rest became too feeble for the mines and were distributed among the people of Hispaniola as domestic servants or in the lighter tasks of husbandry. The countries around the bay into which the ships of Vasquez had entered on the one side Avere called Duharhe or Gualdape, and on the other Chicora.1 Vasquez, avIio Avas a citizen of Toledo, a licentiate, professor of judicature, one of the senators of Hispaniola, returning to Spain to procure leave to plant a colony, took with him as a servant one of the Chicoranes, whom he had baptized, giving to him the Christian name Francis and the sur name of Chicora.

Peter Martyr in his history of the NeAV World says that he sometimes had both Vasquez the mas ter and Chicora his servant as his guests, and retails the most extraordinary stories which they told concerning the inhabitants of Chicora and Duharhe, especially of the lat ter country, whose inhabitants they said were white, and had a king of giant-like stature and height, called Datha, 1 Rivers calls attention to the mistake made by several authors in giving the name of Chicora to the whole of this country, and not merely to a part of it, as in the text. and that the queen his Avife Avas not much shorter than himself. Martyr was not, however, inclined to accept these Avonderf ul tales told by Vasquez, " nor did Francis the Chicorane, who was present," he observes, " free us from that controversies' : Indeed, as Rivers observes, the captive seems to have acquiesced in any story his master made.2 In the year 1524 Vasquez made another voyage to the coast of Carolina ; but the true events of the expedition are not certainly known.3 It is believed that he reached in safety the place which he had before visited, that one of his vessels was stranded, and that a number of his men Avhom he sent ashore perished by the hands of the natives — a just retaliation for his treacherous conduct in the previous expedition.

The failure of this expedition and the equally disastrous fate of Narvaez and of De Soto and their companions disheartened the Spaniards, and their abandonment of the country for forty years left it open to exploration and occupancy by adventurers from other European states. In January, 1524, Giovanni Verrazzano set out on a voyage of discovery in behalf of Francis I of France.4 He reached the Continent 34 degrees north latitude, and searching for a harbor landed probably in the neighbor hood of Cape Fear. He returned to France in July of the same year. Upon this discovery and those made in Canada, the French claimed the greater part of North America under the title of NeAV France ; but civil and religious wars at home distracted at the time their attention from 1 Hakluyt's Voyages, Supplement, 620, 621. 2 Hist.

Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 16. 8 Hakluyt's Voyages, Supplement, 33 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 17. 4 Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, 295 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 18. New World. Thirty odd years after, Coligny, admiral of France and leader of the Huguenot party, obtained per mission from Charles IX to establish a colony of Prot estants in NeAV France. Jean Ribault was sent out in command of tAvo of the King's ships and a company of veterans, together with many gentlemen Avho joined the expedition, to discover a suitable place for the colony.1 The course of navigation from Europe to America had continued to folloAV the direction given to it by Columbus, by way of the Spanish Islands in the West Indies, but Ri bault ventured directly across the Atlantic, and on the 30th of April, 1562, reached the Continent in 30 degrees north latitude.

He landed at a river he called May, because he discovered it on the first of the month of that name, but it is now known as the St. John's River in Florida. From this point Ribault sailed along the coast towards the north, looking for the River " Jordan," Avhich the Spaniards had visited forty years before ; and on the 27th of May he cast anchor in a depth of ten fathoms, at the opening of a spacious bay, which from cape to cape was three leagues wide and formed the entrance to a noble river, Avhich he named Port Royal. Charmed with the magnificent forests, the stately cedars, the wide-spreading oaks, and fragrant shrubs, they explored the adjacent country ; they sailed up the Broad Rhrer, and passed probably through Whale Branch uniting with the Coosaws.2 The Indians fled at first upon the approach of the French, but their timidity was soon over come by the sight of various articles of merchandise, and they Avere encouraged by friendly gestures ; in their turn they brought presents of deerskins, and baskets made of palm leaves, and a few pearls.

They built an arbor of 1 Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, 308-319. 2 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 22. boughs to shelter their visitors from the heat of the sun and sought Avith manifest good will to induce Ribault and his party to remain with them. This kindness of the natives Ribault returned by an attempt to capture some of them for the purpose of carrying one or two to France, in accordance Avith the command of the Queen, as Verrazzano and Vasquez and Columbus had done before. For this purpose he had induced two to accompany him to his ships, but when they perceived that they Avere to be carried away they escaped, leaving all the gifts they had received. Ribault then proceeded to take possession of these regions in the name of his king and of his country, and erected a stone pillar engraved with French armorials upon a hillock on an island Avhich is believed to be that now knoAvn as Lemon Island, about three leagues up Broad River.1 Leaving twenty-six of his folloAvers, who volunteered to remain under Captain Albert de la Pierria, whom he appointed to command them, Ribault returned to France to report to Admiral Coligny Avhat he had accomplished and to procure further aid in establishing a permanent settlement.

On the 11th of June, 1562, Ribault and his companions took leave of his garrison and fired a salute to Fort Charles, as they had named the fort they had built, and from AA'hose battlements the flag of France first Avaved in North Amer ica. Ribault arrived in France on the 20th of July, after an absence of five months. He entertained no fear of danger to the small garrison he had left at Fort Charles ; but the civil Avar breaking out in France, his return was delayed. The natives in the neighborhood of Port Royal Avere disposed to be very friendly to the French, and the garri- 1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 24. son maintained their friendship by presents of knives, hatchets, clothing, toys and trinkets, and the still more effi cacious influence of the Indian dread of their firearms and superior deadly weapons.

But the Indians were im provident, planting no more corn than would serve for one season. The safety of the garrison depended, therefore, on their oavii tilling of the fertile lands adjacent to the fort and laying in a supply of food, for which they had ample time, but Avith the unthrifty habits of soldiers they Avere as improvident as the Indians. When, however, their pro visions first began to run short they were abundantly sup plied by a powerful Indian chief named OA'ade, whose friendship they had won ; but through their carelessness the provisions thus obtained were accidentally burned. Ovade again came to their assistance, and assured them that as long as he could aid them they should not want. He gave them also some pearls, and silver ore which he said could be found among the mountains toAvard the north at a distance of ten days' travel.

The Avealth of the mountains of NortliAvestern South Carolina and Western North Carolina, which is just ik>av being opened, thus ap pears to have been known to the Indians at that time. But the greatest troubles of the garrison left by Ribault were at hand. Captain Albert Avas a man of imperious temper and rigid in the discipline which he attempted to enforce, Avhile, on the other hand, the privations to which the soldiers were reduced rendered them less subordinate. Albert greAV more stern and harsh. A drummer was executed, and another of the garrison banished to an island three leagues from the fort. Upon this the garrison broke into open muthry, murdered Albert, and bestoAved the com mand upon Nicholas Barre". Despairing of the return of Ribault, the garrison began to seek the means of venturing upon the ocean in an attempt to return to France.

They had carpenters among them, and a forge and iron and tools. What they needed most were sails and cordage. Resin they procured from the pine, and moss from the oak, with which they calked their vessel. They turned their shirts and sheets into sails, and their Indian friends taught them to make cord age from the inner bark of trees. Unfortunately Avhile taking their artillery, forge, and munitions of war in this Aveak vessel they took but a small supply of food, though they had an abundance on hand. Sailing Avith a favorable Avind, they had gone only about one-third of the distance across the Atlantic, Avhen calms befell them. Their provisions were soon so diminished that the daily alloAvance to each man was but tAvelve grains of millet. They were soon compelled to eat their shoes and leathern jackets and to drink the Avater of the sea.

Some died of hunger. The boat leaked on all sides and required constant bailing. A storm arose and injured their frail vessel so much that in their despair they ceased their exertions and laid them down to die. Then, inspired Avith hopes by one more courageous than the rest, they agreed that one should die that the rest might live. Lots were cast, and it fell to Lachere, the man Captain Albert had banished and whose life his comrades had saved, noAV to die for them. He Avillingly gave back this boon to his starving friends. Soon after this they met an English vessel and Avere carried to England. As soon as peace Avas partially restored in France, the Calvinists having secured the freedom of Avorship in the toAvns they held, Coligny revived his project of colonization, and Laudoniere was dispatched in command of three ships, and reached America in June, 1564.

He must have received information of the abandonment of Fort Charles, for he did not visit it again, but proceeded to Florida, where he built a fort on the May River, which he named Fort Caroline. This fort Avas afterwards, Avhile under the command of Ribault, who had returned and superseded Laudoniere, destroyed by the Spaniards from St. Augustine, under Menendez, and the garrison massacred. The story is told that beneath the tree on whose branches Menendez hung his French prisoners Avas placed an inscription, " I do not this as to Frenchmen ; but as to heretics." This was avenged by the Chevalier de Gourges, Avho sailed from France with an expedition raised at his OAvn expense for the purpose, and hanging the Spaniards to the same trees, altered the inscription to read, " I did not do this as to Spaniards nor as to infidels ; but as to traitors, thieves, and murderers."

Thus ended the first attempt to establish a colony of Huguenots in Avhat is iioav Carolina ; but these simple yet heroic people Avere again to come and to impress their gentle manners, their gallantry, their frugality, and above all their religious tone upon those Avith whom they Avere to form the people of South Carolina. The attempted settlement at Port Royal forms an epi sode in the history of the territory. It gave to the whole region the name of Carolina in honor of Charles IX of France, and to the river on Avhich it was planted, that of Port Royal. These names are all that remain of Ribault's enterprise. And except these names, and per haps some tradition which may still have existed among the Indians when the English colonists arrived in the century after, and which may have influenced their conduct to the new adventurers for good or evil, it left no impression whatever upon the history Avhich folloAvs.

No other settlement Avas effected in Carolina for more than a hundred years after the abandonment of the French colony at Port Royal. In the meanwhile Sir Walter Raleigh's attempted colonies on the Roanoke in 1585 and 1587 had likeAvise ended disastrously ; but later English colonies had been successfully planted in Virginia in 1607 ; in Massachusetts in 1620 , the NeAV Netherland Com pany had been formally established on the Hudson in 1614, another settlement by the Dutch at Bergen opposite New York in 1617, permanent settlements in Connecticut by the same people in 1633, and on the DelaAvare in 1639 ; Lord Baltimore's emigrants had settled at St. Mary's in 1634. Companies from Massachusetts had spread them selves into Connecticut in 1634-36, and into Rhode Island in 1636-39. Attention has recently been called to the historical fact that as early as the 10th of February, 1629, French Prot estant refugees in England Avere in communication Avith Charles I for planting a colony in what is noAV South Carolina ; and that the patent issued to Sir Robert Heath as sole proprietor of this extensive region grew out of the proposals of Soubise, Due de Fontenay, representing French refugees in England, and of Antoine de Ridonet, Baron de Sance, his secretary ; and that in 1630 a colony of French Protestants actually sailed for Carolina in the ship Mayflower.

Could it have been, it is asked, the same vessel that carried the Puritans to Plymouth Rock ? From some unexplained cause these Huguenots were landed in Virginia, for which miscarriage the OAvners of the vessel were made to pay £600 damages.1 In 1630 a grant Avas made by King Charles I to Robert Heath of all the territory knoAvn as Carolina ; but no colony was established under it. The first English colony 1 Hon. AVilliam A. Courtenay. In Memoriam, Daniel Ravenel. See also Coll. Hist. So. Ca., vol. I, 199, 200. E planted in what is noAV South Carolina Avas that sent out under the charters of 1663-65 of Charles II. The Spaniards claimed Florida, the northern limits of Avhich Avere undefined, and Menendez, who had destroyed Fort Caroline and massacred its garrison, had in 1665 laid the foundation of St. Augustine and built the fort of San Mateo, Avhich Avas so long to be a thorn in the side of the Carolina colonists.

As Rivers observes, notAvithstanding the favorable de scription Avhich Verrazzano had given of our climate and country, and Ribault's account of the beautiful and com modious harbor of Port Royal, a prejudice had arisen in favor of the more northern situations. But the success and prosperity of the colonies already established had aAvakened great interest in the mother counts, and the vast and unexplored territory known as Carolina lying between Virginia admittedly under the domain of Great Britain, and Florida equally recognized as belonging to Spain, Avith its undefined boundaries, could not be allowed by his Majesty the King of England to remain unclaimed and unoccupied. So in the second year after the restoration, Charles II readily granted to some of his adherents and courtiers to whom he was indebted for dis tinguished services, and who claimed to be excited " with a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Chris tian Faith and the Enlargement of our Empire and Domin ions," a charter with extensive powers, for all the region lying south of Virginia extending from 31° to 36° north latitude, and Avestward within these parallels across the Continent, which Avas to be called Carolina, as it was noAV said, in honor of his Majesty, the said Charles II of England.

Chapter II

European governments claimed their several possessions in America by right of discovery, by occupancy, by conquest, and by treaties Avith the Indians. It was deemed a sufficient ground for a king, upon Avhich to base a claim, that a subject had sailed along a coast, and perhaps landed a boat's creAV and proclaimed possession, and this to Avarrant the grant of lands beyond the shore, the nature and extent of Avhich Avere entirely unknoAvn. A foothold once obtained, dominion Avas asserted by occupancy over so much at least as the number of the colony enabled them securely to hold, Then folloAvecl in some instances so called treaties — bargains by Avhich for a feAV trinkets the natives Avere held to have ceded whatever right in the soil they may have had ; or else upon some pretext of Avrong, war was declared, the natives driven aAvay or slaughtered, and title claimed by right of conquest.

England claimed her possessions as conquered or ceded territory, in Avhich it Avas held that the King might make, alter, and change the laAV at Avill ; and that the common laAV therefore had no alloAvance or authority in them, they being no part of the mother country, but distinct though dependent dominions. They Avere subject, hoAvever, to the control of the Parliament, though not bound by any act unless particularly named.1 1 Blackstone's Com., vol. I, 108 ; Jacob's Law Dictionary, title "Plantation," vol. V, 160. See the discussion of the doctrine in the U. S. Senate by Calhoun and AVebster on the proposition to establish territorial government in New Mexico and California, February 24, 1849. The governments of the English Plantations or Colo nies in America Avere of three sorts. 1. Royal or Provincial establishments, the constitution of which depended on the respective commissions issued by the croAvn to the governors and the instructions which usually accompanied their commissions ; under the authority of Avhich provincial assemblies were constituted with the power of making local ordinances not repugnant to the laws of England. 2.

Proprietary governments, granted out by the crown to individuals in the nature of feudatory principalities with all the inferior regalities and subordinate poAver of legislation which formerly belonged to the OAvners of counties palatine ; yet still Avith these express conditions, that the ends for which the grant Avas made be substan tially pursued and that nothing be attempted Avhich might derogate from the sovereignty of the mother country. 3. Charter governments, in the nature of civil corpora tions Avith the power of making by-laAvs for their own interior regulation not contrary to the laws of England ; and with such rights and authorities as are specially given them in their several charters of incorporation.1 This is the order in which Blackstone stated the three forms of colonial government of England ; but chrono logically the reverse is the order in which they were established.

In June, 1579, Queen Elizabeth issued letters patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, authorizing him to dis cover, occupy, and possess such remote "heathen lands not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people as should seem good to him or them"; but although he disposed of his patrimony and all he possessed in fitting out a fleet to avail himself of this gracious permission of his Queen, the enterprise failed. The first step in the 1 Blackstone's Com., vol. I, 107-109. work of English colonization of America Avas the grant, six years after the permission given to Gilbert, to his half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. This grant Avas in the nature of a charter. It gave to him "and to his heires and assigns for euer free libertie and licence from time to time and all times for euer hereafter to discouer, search finde out and view such remote heathen and barbarous lands countreis and territories not actually possessed of any Christian Prince nor inhabited by Christian people," ect.

The people in those remote lands he Avas given poAver and authority to correct, punish, pardon, govern, and rule, " according to such statutes, lawes, and ordinaces as shall bee by him the saide Walter Raleigh his heires and assignes and euery or any of them deuised or established for the better governement of the said people as aforesaid." Then folloAvs a proviso Avhich in some form is found in all the subsequent charters : — " So always as the said statutes lawes and ordinance may be as neere as conveniently may be agreeable to the forme of the lawes statutes government or policie of England and also so as they be not against the true Christian faith nowe professed in the Church of Eng land, nor in any wise to withdrawe any of the subjects or people of those landes or places from the allegiance of vs our heires and suc cessours as their immediate soueraigne vnder God." l Under this charter Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched five fleets in succession in the years 1585 to 1587, and planted three small colonies on the coast of Avhat is now North Carolina, which disappeared one after the other and left no trace.