Charleston, the place and the people, by St. Julien Ravenel. With illustrations by Vernon Howe Bailey

Front matter

I 3 1M30 OEfcEbOl^ 2 liiiiiiiiii

UNIV. OF MO. COLLEGE PARK

/I Mi

Preface

This book has not the slightest pretension to be the continuous history of the City of Charleston.

The writer has simply chosen from the story of its two hundred and fifty years such events as seem to her to have had most to do in shaping the fortunes of the men who made the town, or best *to illustrate the character of their children who have lived in it.

What that fortune and character were, it is to be hoped the book may show. The writer has made no attempt to judge her people ; has only tried to draw them as they appeared to themselves and to their contemporaries.

With this view she has used, wherever possible, the accounts of the actors in the drama, or of those who knew them best, — the earliest histories and memoirs to be found, especially the publications of the Hon. William A. Courtenay, and of the Historical Society of South Carolina, the " Shaftesbury Papers," and others.

She is under great obligations to friends who have assisted her with letters or information in their possession, — to Mrs. Julius Heyward of Middleton Place; to Mrs. John Kinloch (daughter of the historian and novelist of Carolina, W. Gilmore Simms) ; to Miss Pringle, Miss Alston and Miss Conner ; to the Hon. James Simons, Vice President-General of the Cincinnati; to Captain Thomas and Captain C. C. Pinckney; to Dr. Henry Middleton Fisher; of Philadelphia; to D. Huger Bacot, Esq.; to Professor

v

VI PREFACE

Yates Snowden, University of South Carolina; and to Theodore D. Jervey, Esq. Also to Miss R. M. Pringle, Miss R. P. Ravenel, and others who have recalled to her the tales and legends of bygone days. These latter, when resting on tradition only, are introduced by " there was a story" or "the legend was."

It is hardly necessary to mention the extraordinary obligation which every student of the Annals of Carolina must be under to her chief historian, the late General Edward McCrady.

For the chapter entitled " Confederate Charleston," the authorities are the " Life of General Beauregard," by Alfred Roman, papers published in the " Year Books of Charleston," and the " Defence of Charleston Harbour," by John Johnson, engineer in charge, — now rector of St. Philip's.

For the reminiscent tone which has crept into the last chapters, the writer apologizes. She could not write otherwise.

HARRIOTT HORRY (RUTLEDGE) RAVENEL.

Charleston, South Carolina, June 20, 1906.

CHAPTER XXI Confederate Charleston. The End 486 INDEX 509

ILLUSTRATIONS

St. Michael's Church Frontispiece

PAGE

Old Town Plantation 3

Along Goose Creek 8

Ashley Hall Plantation 14

Glebe House 19

The Huguenot Church 21

Congregational Church, Dorchester 24

Avenue of Oaks at "The Oaks," Goose Creek opposite 38

Goose Creek Church "58

Mulberry Castle, "Broughton's Fort," Cooper River . 64

A Corner of the Battery Garden 79

Drayton Hall 88

Magnolia Gardens, on Ashley River . . . opposite 90

The Second St. Philip's Church 96

St. Michael's Church from Broad Street ... 98

St. Philip's from the Huguenot Churchyard . . . Ill Early Brick Houses on Tradd Street .... 115 Under the Portico, South Carolina Society Hall,

Meeting Street 118

A Bit of a Typical Charleston Garden .... 121 The Pringle House, King Street . . . opposite 128

Court House Square 135

xi

Xll ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Old Building at Ashley Hall, where Indian

Treaty was Signed 142

St. Michael's from Meeting Street 157

The Rhett House, Hasel Street » 167

The William Huger House, Meeting Street . . . 171

The Statue of Pitt opposite 172

St. Michael's Churchyard 17-4

St. Michael's Alley 181

The " Corner," Broad and Church Streets . . . 1S6

Entrance to Fort Moultrie 192

Relic of Tappy Wall 262

Old Powder Magazine, Cumberland Street . opposite 268

The Old Exchange, Foot of Broad Street . . . 272

The "Provost" 277

House at Corner of Tradd and Orange Streets, from

which it is said General Marion Fell . . . 285

Gadsden's Wharf 333

Charleston College 347

Typical House in Meeting Street 351

The Live-oaks at Otranto 353

The House where President Washington stayed, in

Church Street 361

Castle Pinckney at Present Time 374

General William Washington's House .... 407

Judge Grimke's House 429

End of Drawing-room of the Pringle House . opposite 432

The Pringle House 436

Stoll's Alley 439

The Mansion House — "Eliza Lee's" 460

ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

PAGE

The Old Planters' Hotel 462

Old Wharves along the Harbour Front .... 465 The Simonton Gateway, Legare Street .... 470

The Sea Wall — East Battery 477

The East Battery opposite 480

The South Portal and Gates, St. Philip's Church . 483

St. Philip's Church opposite 484

Fort Sumter " 488

Old Warehouses near East Bay 493

Looking over the City toward the Cooper River opposite 496 Gateway, St. Michael's Churchyard 502

Chapter I

HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY. THE LORDS PROPRIETORS

IN the year of our Lord 1679 tlie Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina on the Continent of North America ordered the Governor of their said province to remove his " Towne of Trade " (a small settlement on the west bank of the Ashley River) to the peninsula opposite, lying between what we call the Ashley and the Cooper rivers, but which were known to the Indians as the Kiawah and the Wando.

The Lords Proprietors were certain nobles and gentlemen to whom his Most Sacred Majesty King Charles II. had, in gratitude for services rendered to his father and himself, given all that territory " situate between the southernmost parts of Virginia, and the river San Mathias," the northern boundary of the Spanish dominions.

These gentlemen were : Lord Clarendon, the great historian ; the Duke of Albemarle, who, as General Monk, had brought back the King from exile to " enjoy his own again " ; the sagacious statesman, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley (afterward Earl of Shaftesbury) ; Lord Craven, the preux chevalier of the age, who, like a knight of old, had vowed life and fortune to the service of the beautiful Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia — and of Hearts ; Lord Berkeley ; Sir George Carteret ; Sir John Colleton; and Sir William Berkeley, — all gallant and loyal cavaliers.

All these had done and suffered much in the service of the two Charleses, and to allow them, at their own expense, to secure and settle a province was an easy way to pay a debt of gratitude. Moreover, the King expressly stated in the charter, or patent, which he granted them, that he did so, finding that they " were incited by a laudable and pious design of propagating the Christian religion and the enlargement of the English empire and dominion," — matters which the Merry Monarch was suspected of not having deeply at heart.

The territory which he gave had not always been claimed by England ; indeed, its very name " Carolina " had been given a hundred years before, by a luckless band of French Huguenots sent by the great Admiral Coligny to find a refuge for "men of the religion" in the New World. They, led by the Sieur Jean Ribault, had landed at the " fair entrance " to which they gave the name of Port Royal. Delighted with the beauty and fertility of the country, they claimed and named it for their king, Charles IX. of France ; built a fort and raised the French flag. But misfortune overtaking them, they abandoned the place, only to be done to death by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, — dying for their faith and scorning to abjure.

In the reign of Charles II. a ruined fort, a broken column carved with the fleur-de-lys, and the names " Carolina " and " Port Royal " alone remained to tell the tale.

The country had, for nearly a century, "lain like a derelict " to be taken by the first comer, so England stepped in and claimed it for her own. There were many difficulties and delays, but the Proprietors sent exploring expeditions, on one of which a bold captain, Robert Sandford, coasting along from the Cape Fear to Port Royal, landed and " took seizin by turffe and twigge " of the territory in the name of the King and realm of England.

Three years later the first settlement was made by a colony sent from England via Barbadoes and Bermuda, commanded by Captain William Sayle. Sayle, after ex-

ISfeM

Old Town Plantation

Site of the first Charleston. The present city lies across the Ashley River, in

the distance.

amining St. Helena Island and Port Royal, decided upon going northward to what the Spaniards called St. George's Bay, but which Sandford, in honour of the Proprietor who had taken the chief interest in the matter, had named the "River Ashley."

Here they landed and built a little town and called it " Albemarle Point," afterwards " Charles Town," a small place of nine acres, with the river on one side, a creek on the other, and a little ditch and palisade between it and the boundless forest at the back, — the forest in which were terrible beasts and yet more terrible men — the men of the " shaven head and the painted face," who had laid St. Helen's waste only a year before. In this little company of one hundred and sixty souls were several women. Surely the women of those days must have been heroic creatures ! What did they think and feel, those mothers of Carolina, as they looked from their low bluff upon the wilderness around ? Had they the prophetic vision of comfort and plenty and happy homes for their children, or did the trials and privations of the present fill their hearts? However they may have felt, no word of fear escaped them ; the letters tell of suffering, but never of despondency.

At Albemarle Point they endured all the first horrors of colonization. Want, hunger, sickness, danger from Indians, and so on. Their food was for a time reduced to one pint of " damnified peas " a day, and but for the help of the friendly Indians they might have starved. These were their neighbours, and their friendship was gained chiefly by the wisdom of one man, a " brave chirurgeon," Mr. Henry Woodward, who, having accompanied Sandford on his exploring expedition, had offered to remain for a whole year alone among the savages, to learn their language and interpret for his people when they should return. The nephew of the chief, " the Cassique of Kiawah," had taken his place on Sandford's ship in order to learn English, and had great influence in deciding the choice of Ashley River as the place of settlement.

Woodward had gained the favour of his Indian hosts and was thus enabled to avert dangers which would have overwhelmed the little band.

For the government of their colony the Proprietors had prepared a singular code of laws. By their charter from the King, which granted them all the territory now comprised in the states of North and South Carolina and Georgia, with an indefinite extension westward "to the South Seas," they were enjoined to establish the Church of England, and permitted to grant liberty of conscience. They might make laws, but only with the consent of the " greater part " of the people (a most unusual provision for those days) ; they were to establish a nobility, but not to give the nobles English titles; and place and people were ever to remain " of His Majesty's allegiance."

The Province was to be created a County Palatine, and the Proprietors, the oldest of whom, for the time being, was to be the Palatine, were authorized to build forts, castles, towns, etc., to appoint governors and officers, to make laws, levy taxes and customs, establish the Church of England, wage war, pursue their enemies, put down rebellion, tumult, and sedition. All these powers they were " to have, use and enjoy in as ample a manner as any Bishop of Durham in our kingdom of England ever heretofore held, used, or enjoyed."

A " County Palatine " is a frontier province where, for the prompt action needful when enemies are close at hand, the King delegates the supreme power to a " Palatine," who can exercise for the time all regal functions. Such had been the English counties of Chester, Lancashire, and Durham, in the days when the Welsh threatened the west country, and the Cathedral of Durham was " half Church of God, half tower against the Scot." Of the three, in the reign of Charles II., Durham alone kept its ancient privilege ; and so the powers of that feudal potentate, the Lord Bishop, were cited as the model for those of the Proprietors of Carolina.

This charter was for a long time as dear to the people of Carolina as is Magna Carta to the English. In addition Lord Ashley (not yet Lord Shaftesbury), calling to his aid the great philosopher John Locke, prepared the " Fundamental Constitution," which enlarged and added to the statutes of His Majesty. Among other things it arranged for the proposed "nobility," "in order to avoid a too numerous democracy." This nobility was little more than a plutocracy, depending upon the amount of land owned by a man, which might be bought by him, without regard to birth or breeding, or service to the State. The titles passed by purchase as well as by descent.

As land was held at a pennv an acre, it did not require a large fortune to become a "baron" with twelve thousand acres, a cassique with twenty-four thousand, or even a landgrave (these were the titles chosen) with forty-eight thousand. The estates were called " baronies," and there were many which long kept the name, as the " Wadboo," the " Broughton," the " Colleton," the " Fairlawn Barony," but no one was addressed as " baron " or "cassique," and the landgraves, who were generally given the title to qualify them as governors (there were some exceptions), simply prefixed the title to their surnames. No man was landgrave of Edisto or of Accabee, but Landgrave Morton or Landgrave Smith. Neither did any "lord of the manor " exercise manorial rights over white leetmen or negro slaves. Furnished with this constitution and with some more practical " Temporary Laws," the colony began its career.

A contemporaneous, facsimile copy of this constitution (commonly called " Locke's ") is among the treasures of the Charleston Library, and may be seen by the curious.

Governor Sayle had brought with him only one hundred and sixty persons, but the number of inhabitants was rapidly increased by subsequent immigration. Especially was this the case when Governor Sir John Yeamans came from Barbadoes, bringing with him negroes accustomed to the agriculture of the islands and to labour under tropical suns. By so doing he decided the institutions and conditions of Carolina for all future time.

Yeamans was the son of an alderman of Bristol who had- suffered death for his fidelity to the crown. He himself had warmly supported the royal cause in Barbadoes, already a thriving colony. For so doing and for prospective services in colonization he, Sir Peter Colleton, and some other gentlemen of like principles, had been made baronets ; — the old people used to refer to them as "only-badian Baronets." He had provoked the colonists by not accompanying them on their voyage and they vainly protested against his appointment now. In many respects he made a bad Governor, oppressing the people by his exactions, and offending the Proprietors by demands for buildings and fortifications, which although needed they had no mind to give.

Still, he had the advantage of understanding the needs and resources of a new colony, putting the place into a tolerable state of defence, and pointing out the agriculture suited to the climate. He also showed the resources of the forests, cutting and sending to Lord Ashley twelve great logs of cedarwood, as the first-fruits of his new possession. From that time the demand for cedar was as constant and eager as was that of Solomon upon Hiram, King of Tyre.

A still more important service was, that by his advice and influence many rich planters from Barbadoes and other West Indian Islands came to the Province, bringing their negroes with them. They settled themselves chiefly on a small affluent of the Cooper, called, from the fancied

Along Goose Creek

resemblance of its winding course to the curving neck of the goose, " Goose-creek. " Thence, they and their friends on the Ashley and Cooper were known as the " Goosecreek men."

They differed from the " plain people " — mostly dissenters — who had come out with Sayle, in being generally of a higher class, wealthy, and members of the Church of England. Thus began — and not from the fanciful nobility — that untitled class of landed gentry which, perfectly well understood and accepted during the colonial period, survived the Revolution and formed a distinct and influential element of Charleston society down to 1865.

Long after Yeamans had been removed this movement continued, and gentlemen of wealth and position arrived from England and the Islands to the great benefit of the Province.

It was during Sir John's term of office that the question of removing the first town was mooted, and Mr. Dalton, secretary to the " Grand Council," wrote the following letter to Lord Ashley, who had proposed a new " Towne of Trade" in January, 1671.

" We cannot reasonably believe that the world is now asleep, or that the Spaniard has forgot his sullenness, therefore as it has been the practice of the most skilful settlersv soe it will become us, to erect townes of safety as well as of Trade, to which purpose there is a place — between Ashley and Wando rivers, about six hundred acres left vacant for a towne and Fort, by the direction of the old Governor Coll. Sayle, for that it commands both the Rivers. It is not a mile over between River and river, with a bold landing free from any marsh, soe as many shipps as can may ride before the Towne at once, and as many shipps as can come into the River under the protection of the fort, if one should be there.

" It is as it were a Key to open and shut this settlement into safety or danger ; Charles Towne [their first town] indeed can very well defend itself, and that's all ; but that like an iron gate shutts up all the Townes that are or may be in these rivers ; besides it has a full view of the sea, being but a league or a few miles from the mouth of the river and noe shipp can come upon the Coast but may be seen from thence and may receive the benefit of a Pilott from that Towne."

" The settlements being thick about it, it cannot be surprised [he probably means by Indians] it is likewise the most convenient for building and launching of shipps as large as can come into this harbour. It must of necessity be very healthy, being free from any noxious vapors, and all the summer long being refreshed with continual cool breathings from the sea, which up in the country men are not soe fully sensible of."

No better description of the site of Charleston and of its harbour could be written to-day. Its inhabitants are still "all the summer long refreshed with cool breathings from the sea " ; and for its strength, the fleets of France and Spain, of England, and of the United States, have all tried to force the iron gate, — and failed.

In September of the same year Lord Ashley wrote to Sir John, "Above all things let me recommend to you the making of a Port Town upon the River Ashley," etc.

Sir John was, evidently of the same mind as his old predecessor, and took the first steps by negotiating with the persons who had taken up the land between the two rivers. Accordingly in February, 1672, Mr. Henry Hughes and " John Coming and Affra his wife " appeared before the Grand Council and surrendered their land, "nere a place upon Ashley River known as Oyster Point to be imployed in and towards enlarging of a Towne and Common of Pasture there intended to be erected."

" Mr. John Coming and Affra his wife " are perhaps the most interesting people of that early time, because it is impossible not to suspect a romance concerning them.

For why should " Mistress Affra Harleston of Mollyns, daughter of John Harleston Gent., of a family long seated at South Ockenden Essex, and having estates in Ireland," come out to America as servant to Mr. Owens, but for a sentimental reason? Her father's house, as described in the inventory, contained "seller, parlour, kitchen, larder, great chamber, painted chamber, nurserie, butterie, gallerie to the garretts," etc. Why, having everything thus handsome about her, did she leave it all, if it were not to marry John Coming, tirst mate of the Carolina, and afterward captain of the good ships Edisto and Blessing? Coming was a hardy Devonshire sailor of the race of Drake and Raleigh and Kingsley's heroes. The family tradition says, that having lost a ship some time before he had been accused of cowardice, whereupon he had with his own hands built and rigged a longboat, in which he had crossed the Atlantic. He must have been a man of means, for on first arrival he settled a place on Ashley River and afterward one - on the Cooper. His name lives in " Comings Point," the southern cape of Charleston Harbour, charted by him in 1671, and in the fine plantation " Coming-tee," now in possession of his collateral descendants, the Balls.

This may have been the first runaway match in South Carolina !

Mrs. Affra has kept the town waiting, but in fact it waited long. Sir John Yeamans fell into disgrace with the Proprietors, as before said, and was superseded before anything more was done. He withdrew to Barbadoes " with much estate but small esteem." His wife, " Dame Margaret," had been known in a right womanly way while in the Province. Two unfortunate men had been condemned to death for desertion, but were pardoned "on account of the warmest sollicitations of Margaret Lady Yeamans and the rest of the ladyes and gentlewomen of this Province." Her daughter married James Moore, afterward Governor, and has left numerous descendants in Carolina.

It was probably owing to this and other troubles that it was not until '79 that Lord Ashley wrote authoritatively to Governor West, " We let you know that Oyster Point is the place we do appoint for the New Towne, of which you are to take notice and call it Charles Town."

West appointed a commission to carry out these orders, and in the course of the next year the move was made. The first settlement, gradually abandoned, and despoiled even of its name, became at length a plantation, still known as " Old Town Plantation," and the new Charles Town arose in its stead, the capital of the " Colony of Ashley River."

Chapter II

THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY. THE COMING OF THE HUGUENOTS

GOVERNOR WEST was a grave and sober-minded man, and can but have been amused at the magnificent directions which Lord Ashley sent for the building of the chief town of a province which had at that time only twelve hundred inhabitants. It should, His Lordship said, have at least sixscore squares each of three hundred feet and " it is necessary that you lay out the great Port Town into regular streets, for be the buildings never soe meane and thin at first, yet as the town increases in riches and people, the voyde spaces will be filled up and the buildings will grow more beautyfull. Your great street cannot be less than one hundred or six score broad, your lesser streets none under 60, your alleys 8 or ten feet. APallisado round the Towne with a small ditch is a sufficient Fortification against the Indians. There is a necessity that you leave a Common round the Towne soe that noe Enclosure may come nearer than the 3rd part of a mile to the Pallisado," etc.

For the carrying out of these directions West had the assistance of his committee of Council. Surveyor-general Culpepper had already drawn a plan and Stephen Bull (afterward surveyor-general) took an active part. Stephen Bull was, next to West and Woodward, the most important of all the emigrants who came with Governor Sayle. He came bringing many servants, and at once took up a large body of land on Ashley River and named it " Ashley Hall." He was Lord Ashley's deputy, a member of Council, master of ordnance, and held a dozen other important offices. Of most consequence to the colony was the fact that as an explorer among the Indians he became so friendly with them that they chose him for their Cassique, and he thus was enabled to make an advantageous treaty with them in 1696. A small one-story brick house built by him at Ashley Hall is still standing,

Ashley Hall Plantation Remains of the steps of Ashley Hall iu the foreground.

— the oldest on the river. The estate remained in the possession of the family for over two hundred years, and in all those years there was hardly a time in which one of the name did not go out to take part in the government of South Carolina.

The committee does not seem to have attempted to execute Lord Ashley's plan in full. Everything, however, is comparative, and the wide streets of that day are the narrow ones of this. Not even the most devoted Charlestonian would now call Tradd, Elliott, and Church streets

" broad," but Mr. Thomas Ashe, clerk of the ship Richmond, writing in 1682 says, " The town is regularly laid out into broad and capacious streets"!

It really was a narrow parallelogram about four squares long by three wide. The first street fronted on the Cooper River, extending on the south from a creek (Vander Horst's), which ran where Water Street is now, to another on the north over which the City Market now stands. On the west the present Meeting Street was bounded by a wall in which was a half moon, with a gate and drawbridge giving access to the country without. The wall also extended along the three sides of water front, and had bastions and small forts at the corners. Of course all this was not constructed at once, but it was as described in a very few years. From the river front projected wharves, and soon " sixteen merchant vessels sometimes rode at once in the harbour." There was a place reserved, Ashe says, for a church and a Town Hall and a parade ground for the militia. The streets running north and south were Bay Street, Church, and Meeting; east and west were Tradd, so named in honour of the first male white child born in the town, Elliott, Broad, and Dock, now Queen. The early maps show these only extending from the Bay to Meeting Street, but in 1700 they are said to reach from river to river. Some persons lived outside of the walls on little farms, and the Council ordered that the peninsula should be cleared of all trees and bushes that might conceal a lurking enemy. There was a court of guard, and watch was kept, both there and upon Sullivan's Island, for " Topsayle Vessels " and other suspicious craft.

In the years from 1679 to 1689 colonists were continually arriving. The accession of James II. quickened the emigration from England. Five hundred dissenters, led by Morton and Axtell, who were made Landgraves for their services, came out in a single month. Mr. Benjamin Blake was an important person in this connection.

The Barbadians continued to come, and gentlemen from the other West Indian Islands and from England also. Thomas Drayton, William and Arthur Middleton, and Robert Daniel, all names of note in Carolina, came in 1679. Moore, Ladson, Grimball, Cantey, Boone, Thomas Smith, Schenking, and Izard appear soon after. All of these took up lands; many of the original grants still remain, and the Council Journals show the extent, as " Lands granted on Goose Creek to Edward Middleton, Gent., one of the honourable persons of this Province." This land became afterward the beautiful plantation " Crowfield," long considered the handsomest landscape garden in the Province. Another grant of a thousand acres to the same person was the " Oaks," the stately avenue of which still remains.

Mr. Thomas Amy is to have twelve thousand acres (a barony) " In consideration of his great services " (in encouraging emigration), and John Gibbs, Esq., kinsman of the Duke of Albemarle, is to " have every attention paid to him, and three thousand acres rent free." This last is a very rare order; the quit-rent, which made much trouble, was generally to be paid. But although the chief residences of these gentlemen were on their plantations, they were likewise important citizens; in fact the country for a radius of twent}^ miles around was but a greater Charles Town. Most of the chief planters in those early days were merchants as well ; the Indian trade was long the chief source of wealth. "Charles Town trades for 1000 miles into the continent," one old writer says. The Proprietors tried to restrict the fur trade to within one hundred miles of the town, reserving all beyond to themselves; but although they appointed Indian agents to enforce the law, it was continually eluded. In troublous times some of these agents became persons of great importance. Besides the furs, they had for exports, as has been already said, the products of the forest, lumber of all sorts, tar, pitch, and turpentine. To these, in defiance of the objections of the Proprietors, there was added salt-beef and bacon. What was a man whose estate numbered thousands of acres to do but to graze it ? The cattle throve and multiplied enormously in a climate where food was plentiful all the year, and a bracken bush could keep the cow in the severest weather. Wolves prevented the increase of sheep as worthless dogs do now, but most planters protected a small flock, to supply the family with mutton and with wool for the ever whirling wheels. Swine could take care of themselves; they fattened on the acorns of the oak groves, and soon became an important article of export, while as yet crops were small and inadequate.