The life of Henry Laurens, with a sketch of the life of Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens

Front matter

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L

HENRY LAURENS

Preface

SEVERAL years ago Prof. Charles W. Kent, of the University of Virginia, asked me to prepare a sketch of Henry Laurens for the Library of Southern Literature, to which in my ignorance I readily consented. I soon found that the sketches, eulogies, monographs, etc., from which one can usually throw together an article were in this case very much lacking. Dr. David Ramsay, who numbered Laurens as the last of his three eminent fathers-in-law, published a brief sketch in 1808 in his History of South Carolina, which has been variously pillaged, plagiarized, and distorted from time to time since, and which is invaluable as a character sketch, but otherwise very lean. Dr. Francis Wharton, in the sketches of the diplomatists of the Revolution in the first volume of his Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, gives a very incisive review and criticism of Laurens's life on the national stage which is, however, disfigured by filling in the plenteous gaps in his information by atrocious innuendoes, erroneous inferences and outright misstatements. Besides these there was a rather meager and widely scattered body of Laurens's published writings. I resorted to the Laurens MSS. in the South Carolina Historical Society collections and found them an unworked treasure field. With every spadeful my interest grew. I found that here was a great and good man who had lain for a century in an unjust neglect. My quickened interest in the historical material was equalled by my affectionate esteem for the man. I determined to write his life. I hope I have succeeded in bringing from a neglect, which is as unfortunate for ourselves as undeserved for him, a man whom Professor Tyler calls "the noblest Roman of them all — the unsurpassed vi Preface

embodiment of the proudest, finest, wittiest, most efficient, and most chivalrous Americanism of his time. "^

I have quoted largely from Laurens's papers, for the reason that he has never been heard in his own voice through the publication of his works. His extensive and forceful writings have been so inaccessible as to remain generally unknown even among students of American history.

A list of all the sources which I have used to any extent is found in the bibliography. More important than all others is the body of MSS. in the South Carolina Historical Society comprising thousands of pages of his letter books and occasional memoranda, all too few, of speeches, debates, quarrels, etc. All references to Laurens's letters are to these MSS. unless otherwise stated. Other important collections of Laurens's MSS. are in the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Long Island Historical Society Library, and the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; while the Charleston Library Society, the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and a number of others, possess valuable newspapers, pamphlets, and letters. The Carnegie Institution of Washington opened to me the valuable collection of transcripts of letters from many sources which are to be published as Letters from Members of the Continental Congress. Laurens's letters are among the most numerous in the collection. The few unpublished Laurens letters still, I have reason to believe, in private hands in New York and other places I have not seen. I can only hope that I have missed nothing essential. For the errors and oversights which I cannot hope entirely to have escaped I can only crave charitable indulgence.

In a work of this kind I do not see the use of stickling for every capital and punctuation mark's being exactly as in the original, as this often serves only to distract attention by its oddity. In a number of papers, especially when of particular importance, I have left punctuation and capitals exactly as in the original ; in most others I have modernized punctuation and capitals. Which usage is employed readily appears on

^ Literary History of the American Revolution, ii., 242-3.

Preface vii

the face of the extract. Beyond this, I have taken absolutely no liberty with the MS., not even, so far as I can recall, to correct that rare error, a misspelled word. I have concealed, twisted, glozed over nothing in either his private or public life, and under this treatment Laurens stands an unspotted man whose character could not be soiled by the publication of every line that has come down of the thousands of pages in which for forty-five years he recorded the activities of his life and the sentiments of his heart.

All dates previous to September 3, 1752, the first day of the corrected calendar, and called September 14, are either marked Old Style or are corrected to New Style except in the case of letters, statutes, etc., whose dates are always quoted as in the original for convenience in reference. The year is, of course, also corrected for all dates between January i st and March 24th, inclusive, before 1753. This may lead at times to apparent contradiction, as most writers on South Carolina history have not corrected the dates. I consider that it is essential to do so in order to be on the same basis as the rest of the world.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge obligations to many friends. If I may distinguish some apart from others, I would thank Mr. Henry Rutledge Laurens, the great-grandson of Henry Laurens and present head of the family, for traditions, anec- . dotes, and valuable details of family history; Mr. H. E. Ravenel and Dr. Yates Snowden for the loan of rare books and pamphlets. The librarians in charge of the manuscripts of the various libraries not only made my task as pleasant as possible, but in several instances supplied me with valuable facts from their own knowledge of the field. I am especially under obligations to Miss Mabel L. Webber, of Charleston, Mr. Wilberforce Eames, of New York, and Dr. I. Minis Hays, Mr. Bunford Samuel, and Mr. Ernest Spofford, of Philadelphia. My father and President H. N. Snyder, of Wofford College, have rendered the valuable service of reading the proofs. The help of other friends is acknowledged in footnotes. It is a pleasure to thank my wife for her interest and practical assistance. D. D. W.

WoFFORD College, Spartanburg, S. C, January 22, 1914.

Contents

CHAPTER

I Ancestry and Early Life, 1680-1749 ....

II Society and Industry in South Carolina in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century, 1740-60

Chapter I

SEE that swarthy, well-knit man, somewhat below the middle size walking straight down East Bay with a quick, decided, confident step. A prompt, busy-looking gentleman who, you may be sure, has his business well in hand. ^ That is Henry Laurens, the importer and commission merchant, as he goes along the wholesale quarter near the wharves and warehouses. The face is that of a man very much the master of himself, his resources and his moods and passions. Those lips, naturally so firm as not to need to be compressed, look suited to say sharp things if their owner chooses, and doubtless he will sometimes choose. The nose, not long but drooping just a little at the end so as to hide the nostrils, sorts well with such a mouth; the eyes are very watchful, eyes, said an unfriendly critic once, that warn an opponent to be upon his guard and having in them a quizzical, twinkling humor that carries the suggestion both of fun and biting wit. The whole man looks aggressive and just a bit cock-sure. As he sits to have his picture painted he leans forward and rests his knuckles

' Note his portraits; also his order for stockings in 1767 describing his legs as short and stout. He was practically never sick until a spell of several weeks' poor health in the autumn and winter of 1765-6, at the age of 41-2. Laurens to Fisher, Feb. 27, 1766, in Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

I on the writing-table as though impatient to return to his papers. The face is roundish, and firm about the jaws. It is in truth a "keen, intelligent, yet rather melancholy countenance, " the last particularly after the years had done their sad work. He might be a Frenchman of the soberer, more earnest type, perhaps a Huguenot. He is such a man, in blood and character as well — an American Huguenot, active, aggressive, successful, religious, and very decided. "I go to church and come home again, " he writes in 1767; "to the House of Assembly and return to my habitation, avoiding all disputes about tenets, refined politics, and party. At home I am always cheerful and never sad, which speaks the general state of my mind." This is Henry Laurens, the successful man of affairs, in his prime.

We are not able to trace the Laurenses into a very remote antiquity. The name was common in the west and southeast of France and was borne by many families having no known connection, so much so, indeed, that many years before our family left France there were numbers of Laurenses in New York, sometimes with the same Christian names as the ones we are tracing. ^ The family in which we are interested, however,

' De Ribbe, Une famille au X.VIe Steele, 107, n.; Baird's Huguenots; Collections of the Huguenot Society of America; Collections of New York Genealogical Society, ii., 137, etc. There appears to be no ground for the statement sometimes made in recent times that the family is descended from the distinguished Andr6 du Laurens, the physician of both Henry IV. and his queen, Marie de' Medici, Chancellor of the University of Montpellier, the author of extensive medical works and belonging to the lower nobility, Henry Laurens knew nothing of such a connection, as will appear below. There are ample reasons to render it highly improbable that any such existed, not to go further than the fact that Henry's father, from whom he drew his family history, the son of the refugee, shoidd not have known of it. The refugee, who left France only seventy-three years after the death of Andr6 du Laurens, was a man of intelligence and social standing and would have known and cherished his descent from one of the most distinguished savants of his time, a favored friend of his sovereign and moreover a member of a large family almost every son of whom attained eminence. He would also have been quite likely to keep his name Du Laurens, as that of the physician was as far back as we can go and remained as long as there was a descendant to bear it, as indicative of his aristocratic extraction. Aside from this and more to the same effect, the following seems to be conwere evidently people of good standing in France ; for some time after 1716 their descendants were generally too proud to follow trades ; the coat of arms appears to go back to the old French home ; the possession of old title deeds, and particularly of old commissions, by Henry Laurens's father indicates previous prominence, as does also the prosperity of a near kinsman in

elusive. The distinguished physican's family came from Savoy and settled in Provence. In the quotations which follow the writer is tracing the disappearance of the family which became extinct largely by reason of the celibacy of many of its members — bishops, abbots, and high officials in Catholic orders:

" Andr^, le mMecin de Henri IV., mort en 1609, avait eu de son mariage avec Anne de Sanguiti de Livry un fils et deux filles. Mais ce fils demeura stranger k la Provence; apres avoir 6t6 quelque temps d'arm^e, il devint gentilhomme de la chambre du Roi, et mourut sans posterity. Une des filles, nomm^e Marie, avait 6pous6, le 12 Mars 1627, Frangois du Culant, seigneur de Monceaux. " — Charles de Ribbe: Une famille au XVIe sihcle, d'apr^s des documents originaux. Alfred Mame et Fils, 6diteurs, Tours. MDCCCLXXIX, p. 132.

This follows immediately :

"Certes lorsque Jeanne (the sister of Andre, who wrote a sketch of the family) se montrait si justement fiere 'd'etre sortie d'une telle race ', celle-ci, bien que deja tvhs decimee, semblait avoir encore devant elle quelque avenir. Et cependant elle a disparu, ou, s'il en est reste quelques rejetons, la tradition s'est rompue pour eux. Des lors une question se pose: — N'a-t-U pas manque quelque chose aux du Laurens pour se perpetuer? " Then goes on to enumerate the virtues of the family and quote Scripture on the prosperity of such. — lb., 133.

Besides De Ribbe's Une famille au X Vie siecle, see article on Andre du Laurens in Firmin Didot's Nouvelle Biographie Generale. I am under obligations to Dr. Grasset of the University of Montpellier, who worthily carries forward the scientific ideals of his distinguished predecessor in the same institution, and his learned cousin, M. Emile Bonnet, for first directing me to the sources of information regarding Andre du Laurens.

Holland early in the eighteenth century. Henry Laurens's grandfather Jean Laurent (as it was sometimes spelled) was a merchant in Rochelle, and died before 1681, leaving his widow, Elizabeth Menigaut (Manigault) and a son Andr€. They resided in the parish of Saint Sauveur. Among the closest and oldest friends of the Laurenses were the family of Daniel Lucas, also a merchant of Rochelle, who owned a small farm near-by at Perigny. In 1682, when the pressure of persecution was waxing heavier, Andrd Laurens and his widowed mother and Daniel Lucas, his wife Jeanne Marchand and their four children, fled to England. Madame Jeanne Lucas soon died in her new home ; but the friendship between the families grew into a closer bond when the widow's son and the widower's daughter — Andre Laurens and Marie Lucas — were married in the French church in Threadneedle Street, February 22, 1688, Old Style, I presume.^

The Laurenses tried their fortunes in Ireland, and from Ireland they migrated to New York, which had already received many of their faith and name, if not of their kin. Others of the family fled from the persecution in France to Holland, where they showed the same thrifty intelligence as the American branch by likewise growing rich. Their correspondence gradually ceased and the connection was entirely lost.

The new-comers in New York were not among strangers, for the numerous colony whose interests centered around the French church were a sympathetic community, living very much its own distinct life, and there are several reasons for supposing that they had Laurens relatives in the town. We' find mother and son in 1 700 as witnesses at the marriage of a Jean Laurens and Marie Benereau.*

'Baird's Huguenots, i., 282-3. Both Baird and Ramsay (Memoirs of Mrs. Martha Laurens Ramsay, 11) say Marie Lucas and Andr^ Laurens were both born in Rochelle. Other spellings in the old records are Lorans, Lauran, Lauren, Luca.)

' Collections Huguenot Society of America, i., 74. The names as given are "Elizabeth Mangaux" and Andr6 Laurens. Women appear to be always called by their maiden names in these records. Men are sometimes recorded by only Christian names.

We have the record of the birth of two sons and a daughter to Andr^ Laurens in New York. March 30, 1696 (O. S.) , was born the son on whom the family name was to depend, the father of the subject of this biography, who was christened Jean Samuel, in honor, perhaps, of the new friend Samuel Grasset, of whom more anon, though the fine old Bible names were common enough in all the families for Marie Laurens to have had a brother Samuel to name their son for, as she did another son Auguste. ^

We know nothing further concerning the Laurenses in New York except the family of the girl who, upon the eve of their departure for Charleston, became the wife of young Jean and the ancestress of the family which was to attain distinction. This family, the Grassets, fled from France about the same time as the Laurenses and Lucases. "Augustus and Marie Grasset, naturalized in England, March 8, 1682 (O. S. I presume), came as early as 1689 to New York, where Grasset became a leading merchant and government official, and one of the * chefs de famille' of the French church. He was murdered in the negro insurrection, April 7, 1712."^ We find the Laurenses and Grassets standing godparents for each other's children. About 1700 appears a Samuel Grasset along with his wife Martha Poupin or Poupain, industriously registering his offspring, one of whom he named Auguste, we may infer, for his father. There were several Esther Grassets; the girl of this name born in 1700 whom young John Laurens married in about 1 7 1 5 or -i 6, was probably Samuel Grasset's daughter. ^ At all events we arrive at this very important fact : that the pure Huguenot Jean Laurens as a youth of about nineteen, in 1715 or -16, married the pure Huguenot Esther, or Hester, Grasset; and in that unmixed Huguenot ancestry lies very largely the explanation of Henry Laurens their son, the American statesman.''

» Collections Huguenot Society oj America, i., 47.

' Baird's Huguenots, i., 289, n. i.

3 Son Auguste was bom March 15, 1699, thus leaving some new arrival due to Samuel Grasset in 1700 whom we do not find otherwise specified. Collections Huguenot Society, i., 54, 63, et passim.

* The Laurens family record of today spells the name Grosset. The

Andr6 Laurens remained in New York, it seems, about twenty years ; but despite the fact that he was among his own people, the restlessness was upon him of a man driven from his first home and finding no place like the old one to place his foot. The widowed mother was no more, and in 1715 or -16 Andr6, now probably past fifty, gathered his family together and sailed for Charleston, where he found his fifth and last residence. His son, Jean Samuel, or as he is henceforth called simply John, brought with him his fifteen- or sixteen-year-old wife, Hester (or Esther) Grasset, the marriage, we may imagine, one of the last scenes in the old home, surrounded by friends in the old French church with feelings suitable for such a joining and such a parting.^

Andr^ Laurens, the refugee and immigrant, died soon after settling in South Carolina. Few as are the lines in which we can sketch him, yet he stands out as a man of piety, shrewdness and force. At the time when the htunble foundations were being laid for the great fortunes and family careers which the next two generations were to witness, he did his part in giving his children their start in the race. ' ' He had saved so much money as enabled him to set up four sons and one daughter with such portions as put them above low dependence."^

change of the letter can easily be understood. Grasset is certainly correct. The British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books has many Grassets but only two Grossets. I did not find Grosset in the old New York records until 1708, and then evidently changed by time, as it was attached to the same old Grasset family names. There was another Jean Laurens, older than our character, in New York at this time, and perhaps a kinsman. "Andr^ Lauran" and "Elyzabeth Mangaux, " our immigrants, witnessed his marriage in 1700 and Andr6 was godfather to his child, born May 30, 1713 (O. S.) after the father's death. Collections Huguenot Society of America, i., 75, 129.

' The will of Jane Berryman, of New York, March 24, 1701 (O. S.), is witnessed by " Andrew Laurens. " — New York Historical Society Cols., 1893, "Abstracts of Wills," ii., 82. The family record says the coming to Charleston was May 20, 17 16. Henry Laurens, in the latter part of 1774, quoted below, says "in 171 5." The family record gives the birth of Esther Grasset as in 1700. For other data see the letter of Henry Laurens, Feb. 25, 1774, below.

' Henry Laurens's letter of Feb. 25, 1774, below.

The establishment of the American-born John with his American-born wife as an independent householder in their new home in Charleston, away from the clannish group in which they had been born and reared, marked the beginning of a life fully incorporated with that of the general community. Though there was a Huguenot church in Charleston, he identified himself with the Episcopal St. Philip's, and was in a few years found occupying prominent positions in both church and city life. He seems to have been the "fittest" of his family by reason of having inherited practical sagacity from his father, while the others, lacking this, but endowed too freely with "the French pride of family, " died out in a generation or two or left the province. All else was secondary to economic independence, and John Laurens struck for this independence by the directest means he saw. He learned the trade of saddler and followed it with such industry as to make himself a much-respected citizen. Like many another distinguished American family, his was given at least a new start by the native vigor which did not balk at plain hard work. If the contrary were not so commonly taken for granted, it would hardly be worth while to call attention to the fact that the progenitors of aristocratic American families (if such a phrase may be used) were often in the colonial days of rice, indigo, rum, fur and slave trading, men of humble occupations, as may be observed in the moneyed aristocracy of today, rising by dint of their own ability out of the railroad, the mine, the oil-well or the factory. The principle is always the same, the application differing according to circumstances. E.g., the ancestor of a South Carolina family justly distinguished by ability and public service describes himself in an indenture of 1700 as "William Elliott of Berkley County in the said Province, bricklayer." ^ "Thomas Elliott carpenter and William Elliott bricklayer" (ancestors of the two branches of the family named), under date of January 23, 1689-90, are named as the executors of the will of William Cooke gentle -

' Colonial History of the Heyward Family of South Carolina, p. 13. — Nashville, 1907.

man/ "I, Thomas Heyward, of James Island, Berkley- County and province of South Carolina hatmaker," is the frank and unabashed description of himself, March 7, 1736-7. by a member of the third generation of the Heyward family in South Carolina.^ And so, "James Stanyame, tanner."^ The fact that these men frequently held positions in the legislature or other places of trust illustrates their own sterling qualities and the open character of Carolina society at that period. The same was true all over the colonies.

The evidence is overwhelming that Virginia society was founded on the mercantile population of England particularly. The founders of the more important famthes were nearly aU tradesmen. When WiUiam Hatton, of Yorke County, complained in 1662 that the county court was composed of "coopers, hog-trough makers, pedlars, cobblers, taylors and weavers, and not fitten to sit where they did sit," he uttered a partial truth. . . . Nevertheless, too much weight must not be laid on this either; for the pedigrees of England show that the proudest nobles were often descended from tradesmen, and it was the usual course of the younger sons of the English gentry to make their residence in the towns and enter the trades for a livelihood. *

John Laurens's and his son Henry's rise exhibit finely how the best and strongest were coming to the top by a process of natural selection in a new country whose resources and opportunities waited to be exploited by men who had the native force to grasp them, where the artificial props and bars of social convention, tending to keep things as they were without regard to the merits of the individual, had not become established. It was the free competition of all, out of which the aristocracy of talent was to rise, the fore-runner of the aristocracy merely of birth and inherited wealth. John Laurens did not dismiss his family pride; he only subordinated it to his family interest. He was, from the glimpses we catch of him, very much the same sort of man as his more distinguished son, his persistence,

' South Carolina Historical Magazine, xi., 65. ' Colonial History of the Heyward Family of South Carolina, 17-18. i lb., lo-ii.

* Review of Brace's " Institutional History of Virgina in the Seventeenth Century," in American Historical Review, xvi., 142.

sagacity, austerity and stubbornness differing only in the circumstances in which they were exercised. He prospered at whatever he touched; dealt extensively in real estate, as the abundant sprinkling of his name over the records of the mesne conveyances testifies; sold his saddlery and chaises right briskly, and was a prosperous, much-respected man, no longer merely a saddler, but an extensive merchant.^ He was only true to his stock. Says Lawson, writing of South Carolina about this time : " Since the first Planters abundance of French and others have gone over and rais'd themselves to considerable Fortunes. They are very neat and exact in Packing and Shipping their Commodities; which Method has got them so great a Character abroad that they generally come to a good Market with their Commodities, when often times the Product of other Plantations are forced to be sold at lower Prices." ^

The Laurenses were in general a very determined, selfwilled race. On account of some misunderstanding with her father, one of the daughters, Mrs. Mary Gittens, left his house. The dispute, sad to relate, waxed in their stubborn hearts so high that the daughter who had willfully left the parental roof was with equal willfulness forbidden to return. What the matter was we do not know. It could not have been that common cause of parental displeasure, marrying against his will ; for Henry reminds his sister, in relating to her that her father had left each daughter fifty pounds currency, that he had given to each on her marriage her full share of his estate. Mr. Nathaniel Gittens was a sadly unsuccessful creature and apparently of a lower standing than befitted a Laurens, whom old John does not appear to have cared to hand on to posterity as one of his connections, leaving it to the parish register and newspapers. Whatever tempests might arise would be aggravated by the successful old man's disgust at his unfortunate

' The fact that John Laurens began as a workman at the bench and later developed into a saddlery merchant seems to be established by Henry Laurens's statement: "Some of them (John's brothers) retained the French pride of family and were content to die poor. My father was of different sentiments; he learned a trade." See letter of February 25, 1774, below.

» Quoted in McCrady, i., 343.

son-in-law, who was even brought to advertise that plain "Mary Gittens" will teach children "Embroidery, plain Needle Work or Reading ... at the Sign of the Griffen, the Corner of Elliott street, fronting Church" ; and that dry goods, rum, and cordials might be had at the same place. Poor Nathaniel, selling his dry goods and wet goods with not too much success ; losing the baby boy, named John after the stubborn, prosperous old grandfather at that, and finally making an assignment "of all his estate real and personal" for the benefit of his creditors. The world remains very much the same and steam engines and trolley cars count for very little.^ The quarrel might easily have arisen out of the heart-burnings of the failure of 1744; for Henry, who in that year left Charleston for three years, says that he was without accurate knowledge as to the nature of the dispute. Plainly no great or essential matter. Henry, very reverent towards his recently buried parent, writes his sister that he is sure it must all have been her fault." The best the father would do was to forgive her before he died, which does not appear to have done much good. The value of the incident is that it shows quite plainly what sort of material went into the making of that part of Henry Laurens which was due to heredity.

The Gittenses appear to have gone to the West Indies between 1744 and 1747, seeking a new start in a new place, no doubt shortly after the failure of 1744. Passing to and fro between the Indies and Charleston was common then. Henry very kindly sent gifts of money to his sister through a correspondent in Antigua and invited her to come and live in Charleston; but it does not appear that he even ascertained her exact location after he heard about 1747 of her being at San ta Cruz . I think of her in poverty : ' ' the dismal streights ' ' and "the hardships yourself and children have been exposed

^ South Carolina Gazette, May 21-8, 1741, and July 23, 1744. The Parish Register — Salley, 246 — simply says, "1735-August: Then was buried John Gittens (Child)." Nathaniel and Mary were married September 1733-—Ib., 164.

' Laurens to Mrs. Mary Gittens, Sept. 18, 1747; Laurens to Stevens and Parker, Antigua, Oct. 20, 1747.

Ancestry and Early Life ii

to since you left your native clime," moving painfully from place to place in the West Indies, not concerning herself to ask or accept any favors, as proud and stubborn as any of her stock.

John Laurens's first wife, Hester or Esther, was buried April 3, 1742 (O.S.). Exactly three months later he married Elizabeth Wicking, ^ an event which those particularly averse to step-mothers and quick second marriages may connect in their imagination with the Gittens incident, stringing it thereto by Henry's statement after his own wife's death that he declined to jeopardize the affection subsisting between himself and his children by taking a second wife. In so quickly healing his broken heart John Laurens followed the custom of his times, which attended to such matters with an astonishing promptness. Elisabeth Wicking was an Englishwoman. John Laurens left her £1000 currency (one-seventh the value of sterling), the household goods which she might choose, and two slaves. Henry addresses her in terms of respect and affection. She returned to England about a year and a half after her husband's death, passing eastward upon the sea as Henry was returning westward from a disappointing journey to the old country.