USA > South Carolina > A sketch of the history of South Carolina to the close of the proprietary government by the revolution of 1719. With an appendix containing many valuable records hitherto unpublished > Part 7
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and 100 acres for every woman servant, or man servant under sixteen years of age; and all servants should have 100 acres apiece, as their own, when their term of service should have expired. If such persons arrived after the above date and before 25th March, 1671, they should be entitled to less land ; and to still less if they arrived in the year ending 25th March, 1672.
As the tenure of land was of great importance to the settlers, it was ordered that when the claim of any person to a certain portion of land was made ap- parent to the governor and council, they should issue a warrant to the surveyor-general, who should lay out the land, and the same having been recorded, and the person having sworn or subscribed allegiance to the king and fidelity to the Fundamental Constitutions, a grant should be issued by the governor in the name of the proprietors, entitling him and his heirs and as- signs to the land forever; provided that, after the 29th September, 1690, he should pay to the proprie- tors the annual rent of a penny, or the value of a penny, for every acre. This grant should be signed by the governor and three of the council, and being recorded, should be a " full and prime conveyance of the land."
The governor and council were also instructed to control the furnishing, from the stores of the proprie- tors, of victuals, clothing and tools, to such of the poor settlers as should need them; and to direct the amount of presents, from the same stores, that should be given to the neighboring Indian chiefs to secure their goodwill and friendship.
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Suitable instructions of the same date were pre- pared for Mr. Joseph West, who was commissioned " governor and commander-in-chief" of the "fleet and the persons embarked in it bound for Carolina," until his arrival at Barbadoes.
He was first to sail to Kinsale, in Ireland, to ob- tain twenty or twenty-five servants for the proprie- tors, whose object was to form a plantation in the vicinity of the first settlement at Port Royal, under the management of Mr. West. In the various soils experiments were directed to be made in vines, olives, ginger, cotton, indigo, and different vegetables, such as Indian corn, beans, peas, turnips, carrots and po- tatos; and he was wisely told "never to think of making any commodity your business further than for experience sake, and to have your stock of it for planting increase till you have sufficiently provided for the belly by planting store of provisions, which must in all your contrivances be looked upon by you as the foundation of your plantation." He was also instructed to fence off a piece of ground for cattle, to be obtained from Virginia, and to get hogs from Bar- badoes while on his voyage to Port Royal.
Mr. West was appointed also storekeeper in the colony for the goods sent out by the proprietors, and which he was instructed to put in store-houses within the fort at Port Royal, and to deliver every week, to such persons as the governor and any three of the deputies should direct, certain portions of beef, peas, flour, oatmeal or bread, and tools, clothes, and fish- hooks; but on a credit of three months, after which such persons were required to give their obligations
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to a recorder for the amount received, and were charged interest at ten per cent. for the time it should remain unpaid.
If there should be no money in the settlement, pay- ment could be made in articles of produce at specified rates, as two pence or three pence a pound for ginger, according to its preparation, and other rates for indigo, silk, cotton, wine, olive oil, wax, and pipe staves; for such commodities it was then supposed would be the products of the colony.
The warlike stores were also to be kept within the fort, under the charge of Mr. John Rivers, and guns, powder, and shot could be procured by the settlers on the same terms.
One of the ships commanded by Mr. Henry Braine, after the landing of the settlers, was to return to Barbadoes or to Virginia, for the purpose of convey- ing passengers or freight again to Port Royal. He was thence to sail to whatever port Governor Sayle, Mr. West, and himself should decide upon.
Thus we perceive how carefully, and in many re- spects how wisely, the lords proprietors projected the first settlement of South Carolina. They provided, it is true, for their own interests in the political, agri- cultural, and commercial arrangements which they designed ; yet the security and welfare of the settlers were not neglected ; and a people willing to submit to the peculiar plan of government and to the proposals of the proprietors, might have found in their condi- tion nothing wanting to make them happy but indus- try and contentment.
We are , left in doubt with regard to the time at
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which the expedition set sail. It is said to have left England in January, 1670. The care and prepara- tion bestowed by the proprietors upon the preliminary plans of the settlement, were followed by equal energy and solicitude in their execution. At their joint expense they sent out three vessels and several
. hundred able men, with provisions for eighteen months, and tools, ammunition, and whatever else was thought necessary for a new settlement .* The majority of the settlers, including Governor Sayle, were in religion dissenters from the Church of Eng- land ; a fact worthy of notice on account of its con- nection with the Fundamental Constitutions under which they were about to be governed .;-
The fleet, whether it sailed to Ireland and Barba- does or not, we are certain reached the islands of Bermuda in February, 1670 .¿ It sailed thence and arrived at Port Royal, in Carolina, on the seventeenth day of March.§
In the absence of minute records we can only pre- sume that, in accordance with his instructions, Go-
* Appendix. Wilson's Pamphlet, 1682. Letter to Sothill in Appendix. t See Petition of Boon-Appendix.
# Appendix-Sayle's Codicil.
¿ See Appendix. Council Journal-case of Christopher Edwards and Richard Deyos. The decision was made by West and others who had arrived in the first expedition. By Sayle's Codicil they were at Bermuda in February. The instructions of the proprietors directed then to Port Royal, and early accounts state that they went there. Wilson, secretary to the proprietors in London, in his pamphlet dedi- cated to the palatine, asserts the first arrival of the colonists at Ashley River to have been in April. By antedating the two years in the case of Edwards and Deyos, the arrival at Port Royal I give on 17th March, 1670.
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. vernor Sayle immediately summoned the freemen who accompanied him, and that they elected five persons to constitute the grand council in conjunction with the governor, who represented the palatine (the Duke of Albemarle), and with five other deputies respec- tively of the Earl of Craven, Lord Berkley, Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret, and Sir Peter Colleton ; who, it seems, were at that time the proprietors re- siding in England.
By the advice of this council the place for building a fort and a town was to be selected. Their determi- nation not to begin their settlement at Port Royal was no doubt in consequence of its exposure to the attacks of the Spaniards from St. Augustine by sea and land, and the evident connection of the neigh- boring warlike Indian tribes with the Spanish inter- ests. No cause less than the security of the infant colony could have justified the abandonment of the situation chosen by the proprietors. Probably before the vessels were sent on the voyages to which they had been ordered in England, Governor Sayle and his colonists were transported to Charleston Harbor, which was called by the Spaniards St. George's Bay. In the following month of April, they disembarked on the first high land on the western bank of the Keawaw or Ashley River, on a neck of land which they named Albemarle Point." Here they entrenched themselves, and began to lay off streets and town lots, and to build a fortification and dwelling-houses. It appears that it was not till the following year that
* At present a part of the plantation of W. M.K. Parker, Esq.
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the name of "Charles Town" was given to their place of settlement.
Scarcely had the settlers entrenched themselves, when the jealous Spaniards sent from St. Augustine a party to attack them, although peace then subsisted between Spain and England. The vessel of the Spaniards entered Stono inlet, but having found the colonists stronger than they expected, they hastily returned to St. Augustine.
In September, Governor Sayle was so reduced by sickness that he made a final disposition of his pro- perty, bequeathing his "mansion house and town lot in Albemarle Point" to his son Nathaniel. Within a few months afterward he died. No record or tra- dition informs us of the spot where repose the remains of the first governor of South Carolina.
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CHAPTER V.
Joseph West administers by choice of the Council-a Parliament formed-Powers of the Grand Council-Condition of the Goverment -Arrival of Settlers and Towns laid off for them-Temporary Laws and Instructions of 1671-Instructions to Capt. Halsted-Remarks on the Conduct of the Proprietors-War with the Kussoes-Acts passed by Parliament-Sir John Yeamans claims the office of Go- vernor -- Denied by the Council-Appointed Governor by Proprietors -His Administration -- Introduction of Negro Slaves -- The Pro- prietors dissatisfied with Yeamans-Popular Disturbances -- Incur- sion of the Spaniards-West appointed Governor -- Prosperous Con- dition of the Colony-Popularity of Gov. West-Alteration of the Fundamental Constitutions of 1669-A second Set sent out-Re- jected by Parliament -- Temporary and Agrarian Laws of 1672- Political Parties begin in the Colony-Accession of Settlers- Plantation of Long Island under Governor Percival-Proprietors take the Indian Trade into their own hands -- Cession of Land by the Indians-War with the Westoes-Removal of Charles Town to Oyster Point -- Condition of the Colony-Policy of the Proprietors . - West superseded as Governor.
COLONEL JOSEPH WEST was probably nominated by Gov. Sayle, during whose last sickness or imme- diately after whose death, he was chosen by the grand council to act as governor, in accordance with the first instructions of the proprietors. We are certain that he was filling this office on the 10th April, 1671.
The grand council elected by the freemen on the arrival of Sayle, continued to govern the colony until the proprietors' ship, the Blessing, brought further instructions in August. On account of the loss of records, we have no knowledge of a parlia- ment during the administration of Gov. Sayle. That 9 Ǥ
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which was now elected chose, on the 25th of the same month, five of their members (Thomas Gray, Maurice Mathews, Henry Hughes, Christopher Port- man, and Ralph Marshall) to be members of the grand council, in conjunction with the governor- and deputies of the proprietors (Capt. John Godfrey, Stephen Bull, William Owens, Sir John Yeamans, and John Foster).
The powers of the council were extensive and in- definite. The governor acted as ordinary and pre- siding judge. The council directed the military affairs of the province, the police regulations of the town, the disposal of lands, the commerce of the port ; and, as a court, heard and decided causes of almost every nature. Complaints and petitions were made to them; and committees or arbitrators were appointed, whose reports were acted upon, and exe- cution ordered according to the evidence submitted. Their decisions were respected even when heavy fines and severe punishments were inflicted. The only instance of disregard of their authority, was the abusive conduct of the commander of the Blessing, who for "contempt of the honor of the lords' pro- prictors, and the present government of this pro- vince," was forthwith committed into the custody of the marshal, until he gave security "for his good behavior." ·
The representatives of the people, or Commons House of Assembly, elected at this time, seem to have possessed but a small share in the administration. The upper house, which completed the legislature, were the governor and council, by whom all acts were
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first passed and then proposed to the Commons. But most of the acts of a legislative character were passed as ordinances of the council alone. The other officers were a secretary of the province (Mr. Joseph Dalton) and a marshal (Mr. Thomas Thompson). The mili- tary companies were commanded by Capt. John God- frey and Capt. Thomas Gray. A night patrol was performed by all the inhabitants in turn, the town people performing duty twice as often as the owners of the adjacent farms, which required a constant watch against the spoliations of surrounding Indians. Care was taken to have the people well supplied with arms; and by law the gunsmiths in Charles Town were bound promptly to refit all firearms that needed repair. It was not till May, 1672, that the fortification was finished, when Stephen Bull was " commissioned Master of the Ordnance and Captain of the fort in Charles Town."
The inhabitants generally were observant of the regulations established among themselves. The slight- est infringement on the rights of property, or any in- subordination on the part of the lower class of emi- grants (such as had come as servants from England) was not permitted to pass unredressed. A spirit of faithful allegiance to the King of England, and obe- dience to the lords proprietors, characterized the set- tlers; while great activity was shown by the grand . council in their meeting weekly, and at times more than once a week, to attend to the various duties which devolved upon them.
. For the encouragement of the seamen of the Blessing (who were ten in number), the grand coun-
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cil gave them the same proportion of land as was given to immigrants, provided they would settle upon it or send a servant to do so within the time required of other settlers. Such seamen as had pre- viously received grants of land, were now also re- quired to have it settled within two years from the time of their grant. By the same ship several fami- lies had arrived, no doubt from England, for whom lands and a town were ordered to be laid out on Stone Creek, westward of Charles Town, and in its vicinity.
Since the adjacent lands were rapidly taken up by the selection of the settlers, provision was made in October, 1671, for the accommodation of future immi- grants by appointing a committee of five members of council to examine the banks of the Ashley and Wando or Cooper River, for suitable places for towns, which should be reserved wholly for this purpose.
Pursuant to an order of council on the 18th of August, Capt. Halsted had proceeded to New York, and returned in December with immigrants. The ship Phoenix also brought a number of families from the same place. The principal of these newcomers was Mr. Michael Smith, with whom a committee of council were directed to select a place for settlement on a creek south of Stono, and to lay off a town to be named James Town, the houses in which should be " twenty fect long and fifteen feet broad at least." It was ordained also that in future a list of all immi- grants should be recorded in the secretary's office, and that captains of vessels should give bond not to carry off any of the inhabitants without a special
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license. Before the furnishing of such list and bond no vessel could land any part of its cargo.
Capt. Halsted at his last arrival had brought three letters from the proprietors, addressed to Gov. Sayle ; and these no doubt contained the temporary laws and instructions, dated in London, May 1, 1671, at which time the death of Sayle was not known to the proprietors. They had, however, received informa- tion of the settlement made on Ashley River in the spring of 1670.
The temporary laws were intended for the go- vernment of the colony until the increase of the in- habitants would admit of the administration according to the Fundamental Constitutions.
It was ordained by these laws, that the Palatine should name the governor, and each of the other proprietors a deputy, who with an equal number chosen by the parliament, should continue to be the council. And when landgraves and caciques should be created by the proprietors, as many of them as should equal the number of the deputies of the pro- prietors should also be members of the council, that " the nobility may have a share in the government, and the whole administration may still come as near the form designed as the circumstances of the grow- ing plantation will admit." This grand council should have all the powers prescribed for it in the Fundamental Constitutions, and also of the "other courts," till they should be separately instituted.
The dignities assumed by the lords proprietors should entitle them respectively to the appointment of all the chief officers in the colony, and the num-
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ber of their deputies was directed by suitable arrange- ments always to be kept full. Besides securing to themselves the largest share in the administration, the principle was announced that the balance of the government chiefly depended on the proper propor- tion of landed estates held by the proprietors, the nobles, and the people.
An addition was subsequently made to these tem- porary laws, that no Indian upon any occasion or pretense whatsoever should be made a slave, or car- ried out of the country against his will. [About 1683.]
In these laws, reference was made to a set of Fun- damental Constitutions, different from those first sent out and not yet made known to the colonists. An- other set were really prepared which were not as favorable to the religious liberty of the settlers, and which, when made known, in February, 1673, were rejected by them and gave origin to an active opposi- tion to the plans of the proprietors.
The instructions of the same date, which were addressed to Gov. Sayle at Ashley River, consisted of twenty articles, directing that the freeholders should choose twenty representatives to be joined with the council as a parliament, which should be convened in November every two years. They were, as a first act, to choose five. members to the grand council. Liberal grants of land were promised to settlers and their servants. Particular directions were given for laying out a town, and a plan or model was sent. The governor was told to persuade the people, if possible, to settle high up in the country,
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" to avoid the ill air of the low lands near the sea, which may endanger their health at their first com- ing." (This advice must have been in consequence of sickness that occurred in the summer of 1670, and which had destroyed the health of the governor himself.)
It was also intimated that the first convenient healthy highland upon the river Ashley "might be a fit place to build the chief port town on, for unload- ing of ships that shall come to Carolina."
The governor was instructed, in case of invasion from the the Indians, to do all that should be requi- site for the defense and security of the settlement, yet to use every means to gain the friendship of the surrounding tribes. Since beads were highly prized by these savages, particular care should be taken not to allow every settler to barter beads with them, lest such articles should become too common and cheap in their estimation.
The settlers who were indebted for stores furnished. might work out their debts by felling and preparing timber " at moderate rates" for a cargo for the vessel of Capt. Halsted, who would sell it in the West Indian Islands for the proprietors.
In this letter it was announced that Sir John Yeamans, James Carteret, and John Locke had been created landgraves of Carolina, and 12,000 acres of land should be set out for each, whenever they should desire it.
The instructions to Capt. Halstead, which embrace eighteen articles, almost wholly concern the cause of mercantile adventure upon which he was dispatched ;
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but his voyage should particularly subserve the trans- porting of passengers or settlers to the colony, when- ever they offered themselves. He was also directed to explore the Ashley, Wando, and "Sewa" rivers ; and to communicate to the settlers all useful informa- tion that he could obtain of the best modes of raising agricultural products, as tobacco, indigo, cotton, mul- berry trees for silkworms, &c. He was also in- structed to tell the Carolina settlers, with reference to the supply of provisions which he carried to them, that the proprietors had " been so much out of purse" for their good, that it was expected of them in return to be " fair and punctual" in repaying what they had got, "upon which fair dealing of theirs will depend the continuation of our supplies."
We cannot refrain from remarking that the " true and absolute lords" of the immense region of Caro- lina, (with all its mines, quarries and fisheries,) whose object was declared to be the diffusion of the Chris- tian religion among those who knew not God,-must now have appeared to the colonists to abandon their dignity and best policy for sordid calculations. In- stead of the gospel, the Indians were offered only glass beads ; and the needy colonists, who were yet struggling to maintain themselves, were required to repay what had been granted them (with 10 per cent. interest) by preparing cargoes of timber "at moderate rates." Their lordships were already " so much out of purse" for their benefit, that unless punctual payment should be made, the settlers should expect from them no more ammunition or fish-hooks, blankets or provisions. At the same time a nobility
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was thrust upon them, the first set of the unalterable Fundamental Constitutions was repudiated, and an- other set with essential alterations substituted, and numerous laws established without the concurrence of the people (as the charter required) and to which they were expected to yield an unmurmuring obedience.
All these circumstances, however, were not yet known in the infant colony, and complete harmony still prevailed through the prudent management of Gov. West, who looked rather to the necessities by which he was surrounded than to plans and theories that emanated from the other side of the Atlantic.
The tribe of the Kussoes were the first among the neighboring Indians to assume an attitude of hos- tility toward the English settlement. They and their confederates in the small tribes southward of Charles Town, began, in the summer of 1671, to withdraw themselves from their usual familiar intercourse with the colonists, and to discourage other Indians who were friendly and in the habit of visiting the town for the purpose of traffic. The Kussoes declared themselves to be in favor of the Spaniards, with whose aid, they said, they intended to destroy the English settlement. Day by day their behavior became more insolent; and on every slight occasion they threatened the lives of the whites, whose property and provisions they looked upon as objects of plunder. Every unguarded farm suffered from their nightly depredations. More open acts of hos- tility were only prevented by the constant vigilance of the settlers.
On the 27th September, the governor and council
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met and ordained that war should be forthwith begun against the Kussoes and their confederates. Com- missions were granted to Captain Godfrey and Cap- tain Gray. Two Kussoes, who were then in town, were immediately seized and placed in custody. So accustomed were the colonists to be on the alert, and to have weapons in hand to protect themselves from surrounding dangers, that within seven days com- panies were formed, the enemy's country invaded and surprised, and many of the Indians taken captive, ' and ordered, on the 2d October, to be transported from Carolina, unless the remaining Kussoes sued for peace, and paid such a ransom for the prisoners as should be thought reasonable by the grand council.
This bold and effectual movement was made by the colonists when their condition was so essentially weak that the companies were obliged to act as a guard upon the captives whom they had taken, and their remuneration for services in the expedition was the ancient soldiers' pay, namely, the sale or ransom of their prisoners.
In the winter of 1671 a scarcity of provisions rendered it probable that the settlers would suffer great distress. With the habitual forethought of Gov. West, it was ordained that the supplies in the store of the proprietors should be frugally distributed to the needy ; that all occupations, (except those of carpenters and smiths,) should be suspended for the planting and gathering of a crop of provisions; that in future no one should be entitled to assistance from the public store who had not two acres well planted
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