USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 16
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* Humphrey, p. 95.
149
LAWSON'S TESTIMONY.
1700-1710.]
arrived at the residence of Daniel Huger, the emigrant, above the Wambaw creek, and at the point of its confluence with the southern branch of the Santee : "The first Christian dwelling we met withal in that settlement; and were very courteously received by him and his wife. We lay all night at Mons. Eu- gee's, and the next morning (Sunday) set out further to go the rest of our voyage by land. At ten o'clock we passed over a narrow, deep swamp (Echaw creek). At noon we came up with several plantations, meeting several creeks by the way. The French were very officious in assisting with their small dodories to pass over these waters (whom we met coming from their church*), being all of them very clean and decent in their apparel, their houses and plantations suitable in neatness and contrivance. They are all of the same opinion with the church of Geneva, there being no difference among them respecting the punctilios of their Christian faith ; which union hath pro- pagated a happy and delightful concord in all other matters throughout the whole neighborhood, living away among them- selves as one tribe, or kindred-every one making it his business to be assistant to the wants of his countrymen, preserving his estate and reputation with the same exactness as he does his own, all seeming to share in the misfortunes, and rejoice at the advance and rise of their brethren. Towards the afternoon we came to Mons. L'Jandro ('Philip Gendron's'), where we got our dinner ; there coming some French ladies whilst we were there, who were lately come from England, and Mons. L'Grand ('Isaac La Grand'), a worthy Norman, who hath been a great sufferer in his estate by the persecution in France against those of the Protestant religion. The gentleman very kindly invited us to make our stay with him all night, but we being intended further that day, took our leaves, returning acknowl- edgments of their favors.
"About four in the afternoon, we passed over a large cypress run" (Santee, then called Labardee creek, which is about five miles above the Echaw) " in a small canoe. The French doc- tor sent his negro to guide us over the head of a large swamp," (which unites with the Fountain creek within a short distance
* What he called creeks were probably bodies of water occasioned by the great fresh in the river then prevailing. " The French and Indians affirmed to me, they never knew such an extraordinary flood there before." A writer, who, by liis acquaintance with the history of the French refugees, we suppose to be Daniel Ravenel, Esq., of Charleston, thinks (Presbyterian, April 20, 1850) from this, that the church built by the earliest colonists was between the Eehaw and the Santee creeks, which would be convenient to the seattered inhabitants, and not on the river where Jamestown was located.
150
PIERRE GAILLARD.
[1700-1710.
from the river, and has been since cultivated). "So we got that night to Mons. Galliar's, the elder," (John Gaillard), "who lives in a very curious-contrived house, built of brick and stone, which is gotten near that place .* Near here comes in the road from Charlestown, and the rest of the English settle- ment." He remarks upon the Santee and the swamp over which he was ferried the next day, " which," he says, "the overflowing of the freshes, which then came down, had made a perfect sea of ; there running an incredible current in the river." "We intended for Mons. Galliar's, junr.,t but was lost. When we got to the house, the French inhabitants treated us very courteously, wondering at our undertaking such a voyage through a country inhabited by none but savages, and them of so different nations and tongues. After we had refreshed our- selves, we parted from a very kind, loving, and affable people, who wished us a safe and prosperous voyage."
The description which this interesting and earliest traveller through the wilds of Carolina gives of this people, reminds us of the purest days of the church, and the most peaceful pic- tures which poetry has sketched of social and rural life. Im- mediately as he left this French settlement, he visited the "Seretees, or Santees" (Zantees), many of whose customs he describes. Thus this settlement then was, and long continued, the most advanced settlement of Europeans towards the inte- rior and northern portions of the province. Pierre Robert continued to be their minister through these first ten years of the eighteenth century. In September, 1705, the lords pro- prietors ceded to the French inhabitants a tract of land on
* " Vestiges of the foundation of this house may now be traced. It stood on the eastern margin of Fountain Creek, and about one mile from the river." -Daniel Ravenel, in South. Lit. Gazette of July 28, 1852, to whom I am in- debted for the local explanations interspersed in this extract from Lawson. + "The Huguenot refugees of this name, who emigrated to South Carolina, formed several distinct families-Pierre Gaillard, from Cherneux, Poitou, the ancestor of the several families bearing that patronymic in South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi; Joachim Gaillard, from Montpelier, Languedoc; Jean, Barthelemi, and Pierre Gaillard (brothers), &c .; Pierre and Richard Gaillard, who resided and probably died in Charlestown. The name Gaillard is enrolled among the persecuted Albigenses in the thirteenth century (Sis- mondi). In the year 1616, a Huguenot of that name was broken on the wheel at Bordeaux, (Browning). In 1659, M. Gaillard, a priest and minister in Mon- tauban, was banished from the kingdom by Louis XIV., and died a professor of theology in the University of Leyden, (Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes, &c). Refu- gees of the same name settled at Spital Fields soon after the Revocation, (Burns) ; and very recently a " priest Gaillard, who had abjured the Popish faith, mysteriously disappeared under circumstances which impressed upon the public mind the conviction of his having been assassinated, or immured in a dungeon by the papists."-Presbyterian, June 15, 1850.
151
ORANGE QUARTER.
1700-1710.]
the Santee for a town, or a plantation in common, as they should prefer. In January following, a town was laid out, with streets intersecting at right angles, in the middle of which a lot was appropriated for a church and cemetery. This town was settled and inhabited for a term of years, of what duration we are not informed. There is in existence a receipt signed by Philip Gendron, an elder (Ancien de l'Eglise François de Jamestown sur la Rivière de Santy en Caroline) of the French church of Jamestown, upon the Santee river, in Carolina, acknowledging the payment of £9 15s. 113d., by Rene Rave- nel, another elder (aussi Ancien de la dite Eglise) in said church, and the delivery of the registers and papers of said church, to which is attached the date, Nov. 8, 1708 .* Pierre Gaillard also bequeathed, by his will dated in 1710, £5 to the French church in Jamestown. Through this period, then, the French Huguenot church on the Santee retained its own dis- tinct organization, under its own pastor, Pierre Robert, not- withstanding the efforts made to conform it to the church then established by law. "Thursday, August 17th, 1704, Pierre Robert, minister of the holy gospel at Santee, married Mar- garet Huger to Elias Horry," and "January 25th, 1709-10, Daniel Huger was married to Elizabeth Gendron, by Mr. Pierre Robert, minister of the holy gospel."t
The Huguenot church in ORANGE QUARTER continued to be served by the pastor, the Rev. Mr. de la Pierre. The first Episcopal church out of Charleston, as has been already mentioned, was built on Pompion Hill, a Bluff on the eastern branch of Cooper river, in what is now the parish of St. Thomas and St. Denis, in 1703. When the parish church was completed, in 1709, this became a chapel of ease, of which the Rev. Mr. Hasell was pastor. The French still adhered to their own church and worshipped agreeably to its ancient model, unseduced by the English ritual.
The same is true of the Huguenots on the WESTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER. They adhered to their own worship through the lifetime of their own minister, M. Trouillart. "A good number of churchmen had settled there," says Dr. Humphrey, "but they had no house of worship till 1711. The Rev. Robert Maule, a missionary from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, arrived in Charleston in 1707, and was appointed to the parisli of St. John's, which included this
* It includes an acquittance-" dont je le decharge au nom de la Assem- blie, fait a Santy ce 8 Nov., 1708."
t Records of the Huger family.
152
THE ABBÉ DU CHAILA.
[1700-1710.
settlement of the French. By the courtesy of the French pas- tor, M. Trouillart, Mr. Maule frequently performed service in his church ; at other times in the houses of the planters in the different neighborhoods. Few of the French attended the service of the English church, partly for want of the lan- guage." *
Meanwhile in their native France, the Huguenots were again involved in suffering. After the peace of Ryswick, 1697, Louis renewed his project of compelling his subjects to a unity of faith. He was amazed to find that, though their pastors had been driven into exile, their churches levelled to the ground, and their assemblies for worship prohibited under penalty of death, their faith yet flourished in its pristine vigor. In pro- portion as their regular clergy had been removed, others arose among the peasantry, of rustic manners but of strong minds, to take their places and become leaders of the flock, whether in religious worship, or in those defensive, sometimes retalia- tive, measures, which the cruelties of their persecutors provoked. From the time Basville was made Intendent of Languedoc, and the Abbe du Chaila Inspector of Missions, these cruelties be- came more systematic and continued. Whenever the tortures of the abbe failed of effecting abjuration or the revelation of the hiding-places of other victims, the sufferers were thrown into narrow cells (ceps), where the impossibility of moving caused new and terrible torments. In 1702, a party of fugi- tives were overtaken by him at Pont de Mont-Vert on their way to Geneva, and placed in the ceps to await judgment. Great efforts were made with the abbe in behalf of several young ladies who were travelling in the party in male attire for their greater security. But he was inexorable, and threatened the guide, Massip, with certain execution. An appeal was made in their behalf to a Huguenot assembly, who after prayer, marched with such arms as they could command- swords, halberts, and scythes-to their rescue. They entered the place at nightfall, chanting a psalm, and surrounded the house where Du Chaila was lodged and demanded the libera- tion of his captives. Their demand was answered by a volley from his soldiers, and one of the party fell. The house was then forced, and while some were engaged in freeing the prisoners, others sought the abbe and called upon him to sur-
Humphrey, Soc. for Prop. the Gospel, pp. 89, 105.
153
WAR OF THE CAMISARDS.
1700-1710.]
render. The answer was another discharge of musketry. The enraged assailants then set fire to the house, and the abbé escaped from the window, but broke his leg by the fall. Being discovered, in the light of the conflagration, he was reproached with his cruelty, and abjectly begged for his life. He was in- stantly pierced with near fifty wounds, each blow being ac- companied with words like these : "This is for your violence to my father." "This for sending my brother to the galleys," &c. This proceeding gave rise to the war of the Camisards .* The perpetrators of these deeds then retired to the forests, and decided to defend themselves to the utmost. Seguier, one of their leaders, being taken, was burned alive. Others arose : Laporte, Castanet, and Roland each had their band of heroes. The first of these men was regarded as their commander- in-chief, and after he was cut off, Jean Cavalier, a native of Ribaute, a man in humble life, though but twenty-one years of age, became their leader. He is described as a man rustic in appearance, diminutive in stature, and ungainly ; but a man of remarkable vigor, and of great natural fluency and intel- lectual endowments. He held religious assemblies, and when- ever their little army was present he afforded protection to their worship. It was immediately resumed, and baptism and the Lord's supper administered, and marriages celebrated in all their towns. The greatest harmony prevailed among thiem, oaths and obscenity were unknown, they held their goods, as it were, in common, and addressed their chief as brother. Their enemies have insinuated that there was debauchery in their camps, and have adduced the presence of women among the slain in proof. But these were their wives and daughters, who carried them food, and were their means of communication with their friends in the towns. These could only be safe with
There have been many speculations as to the origin of this name. The most probable, says Browning, is that it is a corruption of Camisade, a noctur- nal attack. Some attribute it to a succor sent, during the wars of Louis XIII., to Montauban by the Duke of Rolian, in which the mountaincers, to distinguish each other, wore their shirts on the outside. Cavalier, one of the leaders, who published a History of the Wars of the Cevennes, says : "It was then that the name of the Camisards got its beginning or revived itself; and the reason was, our men commonly carried but two shirts, one on their backs, the other in their knapsacks; so that when they would pass by their friends, they would leave the dirty and take the clean in lieu thereof, not having time to spare to wash their linen. But having disarmed the citizens, they took clean linen from them and left the dirty."-Memoirs of the Wars of the Ce- rennes, translation, Dublin, 1726, p. 157. Another probable reason was that they ordinarily appeared in the smock-frock of the peasantry, the chemise provincially camise.
154
LUCRÈCE GUIGNON.
[1700-1710.
their husbands and brothers, and shared in all the hardships of this dreadful war. One of their chief resorts was Calignon, in the centre of the Vaunage, which before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes counted no less than thirty churches, and was known to them as La Petite Canaan. The punishments inflicted upon these poor people, who were convicted before the tribunals, were terrible. They were first broken upon the wheel, and then thrown, yet alive, into fires kindled at the foot of the scaffold. At Nismes, at Alais, and at St. Hypolite, the gibbets and scaffolds were always standing, and the executioner within call.
The Camisards were nerved not only by desperate courage, but with religious fervor, and the impetuosity with which they hurled themselves upon their foes was often irresistible. In January, 1703, the Count de Broglie overtook them at Val de Bane. Cavalier was absent, and the command devolved on Ravanel. About two hundred only were present. The ap- proach of the troops did not move the resolute band, who con- tinued singing the sixty-eighth psalm of their version,
Que Dieu se montre seulement, Et l'on verra dans le moment Abandonne la place ; Le camp des ennemis épars, Epouvanté de toutes partes, Fuira devant sa face, &c.
They received the first volley with one knee on the ground, and then replied with such effect that their enemy retreated. A youth struck Poul, the officer who led the attack, from his horse with a stone, killed him with his own sword, and, mount- ing the horse of the slain officer, joined in the pursuit. On another occasion, Nov. 13, 1703, Cavalier de Ribaute was sur- prised, at Nages, by the Count de Fimarcon. They had time, however, to retire to an eminence before they were attacked. About thirty women, who had carried provisions to their hus- bands and brothers, were with them when the alarm was given. A girl of seventeen, Lucrèce Guignon, stimulated her friends by her example. Shouting, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon !" she rushed with her companions on the foe, disarmed a wounded dragoon, and joined in the pursuit of the flying soldiers. Ca- valier himself was nearly taken in the onset. He had gone to reconnoitre, and was intercepted by a cornet and two dra- goons. He was within pistol-shot ere he perceived his dan- ger, and the cornet, calling him by name, offered him quarter.
155
ADVANTAGES OF THE EPISCOPALIANS.
1700-1710.]
He shot him immediately through the head with his musket. The dragoons advanced upon him. He awaited them with a pistol in either hand : each carried true, and Cavalier joined his companions drawn up in order of battle. After this gallant defence and victory, he proceeded to Clarensac, where he re- mained three hours, preached a sermon, and rendered defence- less the walls of the, town. One of Fimarcon's officers, La- borde, was defeated by him at Rogues des Aubais. Laborde had divided his dragoons into two bodies, to surround the Camisards. Cavalier did the same. The dragoons galloped down, sure of victory. They were met by a discharge of stones from slings from a band of sixty new recruits, who had no better arms. By this they were thrown into confusion. The main body of the insurgents, rushing forward, completed the defeat, and twenty-five dragoons lay dead on the field of battle. At length Cavalier made terms with the Marshal Villars, and, at the time of his death, was a general in the British army. But Roland, Ravanel, Castanet, and Catinat kept up the conflict. Roland was betrayed and slain ; Castanet died upon the wheel ; Ravanel and Catinat were put to the torture to induce them to make disclosures, and were burned alive .* These were times of new suffering to the oppressed church of France, but whether they added materially to the French population of this colony we are not apprised, though the French population was still increased by individual emigrants from time to time.
CHAPTER III.
ADVANTAGES OF THE EPISCOPALIANS.
THE Episcopal church was greatly aided by two causes during the first ten years of the eighteenth century. One was the assistance furnished it by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Mr. Samuel Thomas, their first mis- sionary, came into the colony in June, 1702, as a missionary to the Yamasee Indians, but by the advice of the governor settled at Goose Creek. He died in 1706, and was succeeded by Dr.
* Nap. Peyrat, Hist. des Pasteurs du Desert, Paris, 1842; Charles Coquerel, Ilist. des Eglises du Desert, Paris, 1841.
156
SOCIETY FOR PROPAGATING THE GOSPEL.
[1700-1710.
Le Jeau, also sent out by the society. Mr. Maule was sent out to St. John's parish in 1707. It is evident from his report to the society tliat the Independents and Anabaptists were there before him. He preached, as we have seen, in the French church, which their minister, M. Trouillard, kindly offered liim. Mr. Hasell was sent to the parish of St. Thomas in 1709. Mr. Dunn was sent as the society's missionary to St. Paul's, in Col- leton, in 1705, and a small church erected in 1708. He was succeeded by Mr. Mateland in 1708. Rev. Mr. Wood was sent to St. Andrew's, thirteen miles from Charleston, on the southi side of Ashley river, in 1707, but soon died. Rev. Gideon Johnston was sent as missionary to St. Philip's, in Charleston, in 1707, and Mr. Dennis appointed schoolmaster at Goose Creek in 1710. These great and signal advantages were enjoyed by the Episcopal church through the labors of this society, and that church is more indebted to it for its early clergy than to any other source.
The second advantage the Episcopal church obtained was its establishment by law as the religion of the State. There were several circumstances which concurred to accomplish it. The proprietors were almost all Episcopalians, and were using their efforts to give their own church the ascendency over all others. The original constitutions, which were sent out with Governor Sayle, ordained nothing in favor of Episcopacy. And, as we have before seen, the new constitutions had not been accepted by the colonial parliament. The maintenance which was voted to the Episcopal minister of St. Philip's, under Governor Blake, was not designed to be construed as a general church establishment. On the death of Governor Blake, Joseph Mor- ton, a landgrave, was elected by the Grand Council, but was displaced by an ambitious man, James Moore, who scrupled little by what arts he obtained power. Meanwhile, William of Orange, the Presbyterian king of England, who, while he maintained the Established Church, treated those of his own early church with great moderation and kindness, died March 8th, 1702, and Anne, second daughter of James II., succeeded to the throne. William of Orange, though not without his imperfections, was possessed of virtues which are rare in tlie palaces of kings ; among them, integrity, moderation, magna- nimity, simplicity, firmness, and undaunted courage were conspicuous. He presided over the Dutch Republic with energy and wisdom, and skilfully guided liis course in circum- stances of great difficulty on the English throne. He desired sincerely the union of all Protestants, but the most that could
157
QUEEN ANNE.
1700-1710.]
be gained was an act of toleration-" An Act to permit Al- mighty God to receive the worship of his creatures according to His own Word." (Brooks, Rel. Liberty, ii.) The king left the matters of the church much in the queen's hands, who, though the daughter of James II., was a woman of rare excel- lence, and a sincere disciple of Christ.
Anne was a woman of amiable disposition, and was gener- ally known among her people as " The good Queen Anne." Her reign was one of great prosperity and glory, by the merit and great abilities of her statesmen and commanders, and by the abilities and refinement of scholars and philosophers. Locke, Newton, Flamstead, Addison, Clarke, Steele, Arbuthnot, Halley, Bentley, and others, contributed to render this period, what it has often been termed, "The Augustan Age of Great Britain."
Anne had more of the spirit of the House of Stuart than her sister Mary. She had the same high notions of prerogative which had been entertained by her fathers. She was the dupe of the violent among the clergy. The cry was raised of " The Church in danger," and efforts were again made to abridge the privileges of those who dissented from the church as estab- lished. Now the names " High Church" and "Low Church" began to be bandied to and fro. Under the countenance of the queen, bigotry and High Church illiberality increased : the universities, especially Oxford, lent their influence to increase it, and a large share of the established clergy were men of little principle, imperious and ill-tempered, at least to those who differed with them in religion. About the same time Lord Granville was made palatine of the province, and Sir Nathaniel Johnson was appointed its governor. James Moore was at- torney-general, Nicholas Trott chief-justice, and Job Howes surveyor-general. The palatine, Lord Granville, was a big- oted churchman, and held all dissenters in great contempt. He had already vehemently supported in the English parlia- ment a bill to impose a severe penalty on all officers of gov- ernment who should enter a dissenting chapel. Johnson, the governor, was a non-juror and a zealous prelatist, and Moore and Trott were ready to sustain him. Everything being care- fully and skilfully prepared, a bill was introduced in the Com- mons House of Assembly requiring all persons hereafter chosen to the Commons House to conform to the Church of England, and to receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper according to the rites of the said church. It passed the House by a majority of one, some Episcopalians voting against it.
158
CHURCH ACT OF 1704.
[1700-1710.
Thomas Jones, John Beamer, Laurence Denner, William Edwards, John Stanyarne, Charles Colleton, and James Coch- ran entered their dissent. In the council, Landgrave Joseph Morton asked leave to record his protest, and leave was re- fused him. An act was also passed against blasphemy and profaneness, by which, whoever should speak against the Trinity or the divine authority of the Scriptures was to be deprived of holding office ; and if a second time convicted, was disabled from giving suit in a court of law, or being guardian, administrator, and executor, and in default of bail was to suffer imprisonment for three years. This was intended to cast re- proach upon dissenters, as if they were skeptics and blasphem- ers, and to arrogate to the ruling party a supreme regard for the interests of religion. In reference to this, the second Land- grave Thomas Smith, wrote, " I send you a copy of their act against blasphemy and profaneness, which they always make a great noise about, although they are some of the most pro- fanest in the country themselves." For these words Mr. Smith was taken into the custody of the messenger of the House. And in reference to the religious character of these gentlemen, Mr. Marston, the rector of St. Philip's, says, " that many mem- bers of the Commons House that passed this law are constant absentees from the church, and eleven of them were never known to receive the Lord's supper," though he had adminis- tered it in his church at least six times a year. On November 4th, 1704, an act for establishing the Church of England was passed, which divided the several counties into six parishes; enacted that six churches should be built, with parsonages, and glebes; that bricks, lime, and other materials, carpenters, join- ers, and other workmen and laborers, and slaves, should be pressed into the service of the supervisors of buildings ; and it appointed twenty lay commissioners, with full powers to ex- ercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to deprive ministers of their livings at pleasure.
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