USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 22
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" REVD SR :
"I am heartily sorry for ye mournful Occasion of my present writing : The Death of My Dear Bro' and Companion, the Revd Mr. Job Parker. He seem'd to be a Man of great Powers and Accomplishments for ye Ministry and stood fair for ye Character of a Compleat Divine ; His Death was pretty Sudden and Unexpected, both to Himself and Us, As His Distemper appear'd to have no malignancy in it, but a Proper Fever & Ague, which Seldom, if ever, Kills. At His Interment I gave ye People a Discourse from those Words-Knowing that I must shortly put off, &c. With a short sketch of His Character ; And the Lamentations at His Burial were of ye same Extent with yo Love and Veneration We had for Him living. There was a great intimacy subsisting betwixt Us, from the Time I was call'd to Charles-Town. Tho' He seem'd, in Some Points to lean to ye Arminian Scheme, which I am no friend to ; yet He was prudent eno' Not to bring ym into ye Pulpit, and His Modera- tion and Sweetness of Temper was Such, That We could Argue upon Them wth Calmness, and ye difference never interrupt Our harmony. The People among Whom he Ministered, have now Applyed to the Reverend Mr. President and Professor, for some Qualified Person to Succeed Him ; and because I can't Question, I need not Ask, Your good offices and Concurrence in it. I hope your Candidates will Consider, That the Welfare of two Societies depends on Their Complyance. The encouragement, I Think, is
* Rev. Mr. Baxter's Register.
207
MR. ROBERT URE'S WILL.
1730-1740.]
considerable, and likely to grow, for a Single Man, and should He alter His condition, I am of Opinion, He miglit do it, as I believe Mr Parker would have done, to His advantage among Us : But for Particulars, I refer to ye above mention'd Gentlemen .- There is at present a Suspension of ye Controversy Among Us, and no Paper-Contests ; But doubt, My Antagonists are privately endeavoring to Supplant Me .- My Bro' Bassett is in low Circumstances, Some say in a Consumption : If God deprive Us of Him, it will double The Necessity. of our present Application, and, I hope, have its weight and consideration.
"Mr Osgood is made choice of, to Succeed Mr Fisher in the Church of Dorches- ter, but Whom They will apply To for Ordination, is uncertain."
The Presbyterian church on JOHN's ISLAND enjoyed at this time the ministerial services, it is believed, of the Rev. Mr. Turnbull .* The beginning of his labors here we are unable to fix ; the date of his death has alone been preserved. The church received a valuable legacy by the will of Robert Ure, which was dated about this time. Robert Urie was among Scotland's banished ones, sent to Carolina in 1684. We know not if these names are the same or not.
By his will, dated in 1735, Robert Ure, of John's Island, supposed to have been a native of Scotland, bequeathed as follows :
" As to one moiety of my estate, unto Joseph Stanyarn, Wm. Holmes, and Thomas Upliam, and their assigns, in trust, and to the intent and purpose that the said Joseph Stanyarn, William Holmes, and. Thomas Upham, and their assigns, (in manner hereinafter to be appointed,) shall immediately, or as soon as conveniently may be, after the sale and division to be made as afore- said, put out the same at interest, on good and sufficient securities, and from time to time, and at all times thereafter, shall yearly and every year, well and faithfully pay, and apply the interest therefrom arising, to the sole use and behoof, and for the maintenance of a minister of the gospel, according to the Presbyterian profession, who is, or shall be thereafter, from time to time regularly called and settled on John's Island, in Colleton county, in said province, and who shall acknowledge and subscribe the Westminster Confession of Faith as the confession of his faith, and shall firmly believe and preach the same to the people there committed, or which shall hereafter be committed to his care and pastoral inspection."
It appears from the inventory and appraisement of the estate of Robert Ure, that the entire value of the estate was estimated at £3,656 12s. It appears that the Presbyterian church, or congregation, had been in existence a considerable time before the bequest, and its origin cannot be distinctly ascer- tained. Rev. Mr. Turnbull was buried October 25th, 1737.
These few notices, which are all we have been able to gather of the ministers of this period, are suggestive to us of the state of those churches which were not favored by the patron- age of government. They labored indeed under great griev- ances, yet they continued in existence ; and the word of God was
* Rev. Mr. Baxter's Register.
208
CAROLINA UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN. [1730-1740.
no doubt faithfully preached by those ministers who had now ceased from their labors and gone to their reward. There were occasionally the signs of a more indulgent and consider- ate spirit on the part of men in power towards the churches not established by law. On the 28th day of May, 1731, the Lower House of Assembly sent the following message to the governor and council :
" HONORABLE GENTLEMEN,
" This House, taking under consideration the great loyalty and affection of the Presbyterian Dissenters of this Province (of Charleston in particular) to his most sacred Majesty, as well as the great regard to the true interests of this his province, have thought it proper to give our assent to a donation of £1000, to be applied to the rebuilding and repairing the Presbyterian Meeting House in Charlestown, to be put into the ensuing year, and to which we desire the concurrence of your honorable Board.
"May the 28th, 1731."
" JOHN LLOYD, Speaker.
The sum also of £500 was allowed for the repairing of the Baptist meeting-house, blown down by the hurricane. The following appropriations for chapels (of the Established Church) were also made the same year :
For finishing the chapel of St. Paul's, £100; Goose Creek, repairing, £200 ; Christ's church, repairing church, £300; St. Helena's, finishing do., £200; St. John's, repairing do., £200; St. Thomas and St. Denis, repairing do., £200; St. George's, for enlarging do., £200; Wassamaw, for repairing chapel, £100 ; James Island, for building chapel of ease, £300 ; St. Barthol- omew's, for erecting church, £200. A bill was also passed to repeal an act to erect a chapel at Echaw, in St. James, Santee, and for erecting two chapels, and that the rector perform service in the English tongue, it having been performed in the French before. Ratified August, 1731.
The fortunes of Carolina were greatly advanced after it came into the possession of the British crown. The people pursued their employments with a more hopeful and satisfied spirit, and efficient measures were adopted for the prosperity of the colony. One of the most immediate in happy results xvas, the measures taken to propitiate the Indian tribes in- habiting the interior and upper portions of the State, and thus encouraging settlers to advance beyond the narrow bounds in which population had hitherto been confined. Sir Alexander Cumming arrived in the colony early in 1730, as commissioner from the king to treat with the Indian tribes, and advanced three hundred miles into the upper country, as far as Keowee, where he met Montoy, the chief of the Cher-
209
SETTLEMENT ON THE SAVANNAH.
1730-1740.]
okees, and other subordinate chieftains, in friendly confer- ence. He proposed that a delegation of their chiefs should visit England, and look upon the face of the British sovereign. The proposition was acceded to, and seven chiefs embarked in a British man-of-war, and while they were in England were treated with the greatest consideration. The result was a treaty of amity, which was respected for many years by the savage tribes, so that the country was laid open, even in the vicinity of these savage men, for the settlement of the whites. Large numbers of negro laborers were introduced -- fifteen hundred being imported in a single year; the lands rose in value, the produce was in a few years doubled, and trade largely increased. Charles Town now consisted of from five to six hundred houses, mostly of wood, covered with clapboards ; but about this time more skilful workmen found employment in the colony, and the style and comfort of dwellings was greatly improved .* This was the era of the first settlement of Georgia. The chief design of its benevolent founders was to rescue those in the old world that were suffering under the miseries of debt and imprisonment, and to open an asylum · for the victims of religious persecution. Their corporate seal exhibited on the one side silk-worms at work, with the motto, Non sibi, sed aliis-not for themselves, but others-expressing the disinterested motives which governed them. In Novem- ber, 1732, Oglethorpe, with one hundred and sixteen settlers, embarked for these shores, and on the 13th of January, 1733, arrived off the bar at Charleston. He was received with the greatest kindness by the civil authorities, and after a few days proceeded to Port Royal, where the colonists were provided for until he should determine upon a site for the proposed settle- ment. His party threaded in their canoe the inlets of the Caro- lina coast, till, entering the broad stream of the Savannah and bending their course upward, they landed at the foot of a bold bluff, covered with pines, which commanded a view of the river above and below, and of the low-lying banks of Carolina in front. On this bluff, at the northern extremity of which was the Indian village of Yamacraw, with its friendly chief, Tomochichi, he commenced his settlement, and laid the foun- dation of a new colony and State, whose fortunes, both civil and ecclesiastical, have ever since been interwoven with ours.
* " They had," says Hewat, "no chaises (nor carriages of any kind), and all travellers were exposed in open boats or on horseback to the violent heat of the climate."
210
SWISS EMIGRANTS TO PURYSBURG.
[1730-1740.
Of the generous aid received from Carolina in its foundation, grateful mention is made on the historic page.
John Peter Pury, who had been director-general of the French East Indian Company, of Neufchatel, in Switzerland, designing to leave his native country, came to Carolina, and procured a grant (September 1st, 1731) of forty thousand acres of land for a Swiss settlement on the north side of Savan- nah river. A town was laid out about thirty miles from its mouth, where the Yamassees had formerly resorted, which was called Purysburg, after the name of the enterprising founder. Pury published a glowing account of the new colony of South Carolina, which was signed in Charlestown on the 23d of September, 1731, by John Peter Pury of Neufchâtel, James Richard of Geneva, Abraham Meuron of St. Sulpy, in the county of Neufchatel, and Henry Raymond of St. Sulpy. This publication aroused the imagination of the Switzers, and one hundred and seventy accompanied him, in 1733,* to the
site which had been selected. These men were from the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, and were Presbyterians and Calvinists by education and profession. But, as was often the case with foreign Protestants, they desired to comply with the established religion of the country to which they emi- grated, and their minister, Rev. Joseph Bugnion, who came with them, received Episcopal ordination from the Bishop of London.t On November 16th, 1734, Col. Pury arrived with two hundred and sixty Switzers, and their minister, Rev. Henry Chiffele, who also saw fit to receive ordination from the hand of Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London. "One hundred and odd more," says the South Carolina Gazette, " are expected every day, and among them forty Protestants from the valleys of Piedmont." " A subscription has been made for them in England, where we hear James Oglethorpe, Esq., has sub- scribed £40 sterling. The Duc de Montague also, and several persons of distinction, have subscribed handsomely." " Col. Pury receives pay for his expense in bringing them over, and M. Chiffele his expense out."-(S. C. Gazette of November 16th and November 23d.) April 26th, 1735 : "Two hundred Swiss arrived at Purysburg. They received an allowance by
* The first colony arrived in November and December, 1732, and consisted of one hundred and fifty-two persons .- Dalcho, p. 385; Records of Gov- ernor and Council, December, 1732 ; Hewat and Holmes.
t February 21st, 1732, Petition of Joseph Bugnion, minister of the Swiss Settlement, praying for a salary, is recommended to the Lower House as very reasonable.
211
IRISH SETTLERS IN WILLIAMSBURG.
1730-1740.]
the king, out of his own purse, of £1200. The Swiss emi- grants began their labors with uncommon zeal, stimulated with the idea of possessing landed estates, so far beyond the hopes of European peasantry in their own land." In 1735 Purysburg contained nearly one hundred dwellings ; and this, perhaps, was the season of its greatest prosperity. Many of the colonists were cut off by diseases ; the hardships of set- tling a new country had not entered fully into their calculations ; and suffering under the accumulated ills of indigence and dis- tress, they sighed for the mountains, glens, and snows of Switzerland, and blamed Pury for the deceit which his glow- ing fancy had practised upon them. The Presbyterian cause was not much advanced by these emigrants from the land of Zuingle and Bullinger, and from the adopted country of Calvin and Beza. In December, 1736, Rev. Henry Chiffele petitions for his salary, and prays that the town of Purysburg may be erected into a parish .- (Records of Governor and Council.) Mr. Wesley, who was at Purysburg, April 27th, 1737, says, " Mr. Bellenger sent a negro lad with me to Purys- burg, or rather the poor remains of it. O, how hath God stretched over this place ' the lines of confusion and the stones of emptiness.'"-(Gillies' Collections, p. 301.)
The governor had received instructions to lay out eleven townships, in square plats, on the sides of rivers, containing each twenty thousand acres, and to divide the lands into shares of fifty acres for each man, woman, and child that should occupy them ; each township to form a parish, with various other provisions. In pursuance of this, two townships had been laid out on the Altamaha, two on the Savannah, two on the Santee, one on Pedee, one on Wacamaw, one on Wateree, and one on Black river. An Irish colony was moved, by the great advantages offered, to embark for America, and so escape the exactions of landlords and the clergy of the Establishment. On November 9th, 1732, James Pringle and other Irish Protestants petitioned the council that their pas- sage be paid. The council agreed " that if they will settle in a township according to his majesty's instructions, as the Swiss have done, they shall have the like encouragement." Colonel Parris was directed subsequently to provide for the Irish Pro- testants settled at Williamsburg, "8 hogsheads of corn, qt. 102 bushels ; 2 hgds. of pease, qt. 24 bushels ; 2 of salt, qt. 15 bls .; 18 barrels of beef, qt. 32 galls. each." On January 31st, 1733, "the Irish Protestants settled in Williamsburg' petitioned for a further supply of provisions " as is allowed by
212
THE WITHERSPOON FAMILY.
[1730-1740.
the law of this province for new comers," and the supply was ordered.
Williamsburg was so named by its inhabitants in honor of the Presbyterian king, William III., Prince of Orange. The township was one of those laid out by royal authority in 1731. It included an area of twenty miles square, and "was granted to these Irish Presbyterians with the full guaranty of enjoy- ing their own faith without intrusion. It was never an Epis- copal parish, nor were any of the lands within it ever granted to any other individuals, nor for any other religious purpose, than to the Irish Presbyterians, and their faith and mode of worship."-(Wallace's Hist. of the Williamsburg Church, p. 17.). " The town itself was laid out by the settlers, and called Kingstree, the name of which was derived from a large white or short-leafed pine which grew on the bank of Black river, near the bridge, which species of trees, with all gold and silver mines, were reserved for the king in all royal grants. These Scotch-Irish were the first settlers in this district, save that two men, Finley and Rutledge, had attempted a settle- ment north of this place, on two bays which still bear their names ; but failing in their culture of rice, they had returned to the district of Charleston, whence they came. Williams- burg constituted a Presbyterian congregation or parish, similar to those in Scotland. And the grants of bounty lands within this township seem to have been made between the years 1730 and 1745."-(Wallace, pp. 13, 18.)
The hardships which these early settlers endured in leaving their old homes and becoming domesticated in this new country, were often severe and discouraging. It is seldom that we find in these late days any authentic record of these trials. The following particulars are gathered from the "Genealogy of the Witherspoon Family," beginning as far back as 1670. and were written by Robert Witherspoon, who emigrated with his father's family in 1734-some of the family having come over in the first emigration in 1732. (The grand-parents of Robert Witherspoon had migrated from the vicinity of Glas- gow, in Scotland, to the county of Down, in Ireland, in 1695.)
" We went on ship-board," says Robert, " the 14th of September, and lay wind-bound in the Lough at Belfast 14 days. The second day of our sail my grandmother died, and was interred in the raging ocean, which was an afflietive sight to her offspring. We were sorely tossed at sea with storms, which caused our ship to spring a leak; our pumps were kept incessantly at work day and night; for many days our mariners seemed many times at their wits end. But it pleased God to bring us all safe to land, which was about the 1st of December." "We landed in Charleston three weeks before Christmas. We found the inhabitants very kind. We
213
THE WITHERSPOON FAMILY.
1730-1740.]
staid in town until after Christmas, and were put on board of an open boat, with tools and a year's provisions, and one still-mill. They allowed each hand upwards of sixteen, one axe, one broad hoe, and one narrow hoe. Our provisions were Indian corn, rice, wheaten-flour, beef, pork, rum, and salt We were much distressed in this part of our passage. As it was the dead of . winter, we were exposed to the inclemency of the weather day and night; and (which added to the grief of all pious persons on board) the atheistical and blasphemous mouths of our Patroons and the other hands. They brought us up as far as Potatoe Ferry and turned us on shore, where we lay in Samuel Commander's barn for some time, and the boat wrought her way up to ' the King's Tree,' with the goods and provisions, which is the first boat that, I believe, ever came up so high before. While we lay at Mr. Commander's, our men came up in order to get dirt houses to take their families to. They brought some few horses with them. What help they could get from the few inhabitants in order to carry children and other necessaries up they availed themselves of. As the woods were full of water, and most severe frosts, it was very severe on women and children. We set out in the morning : and some got no farther that day than Mr. McDonald's, and some as far as Mr. Plowden's; some to James Armstrong's, and some to uncle William James's." [These were emigrants who had preceded Wither- spoon, in the first emigration.] " Their little cabins were as full that night as they could hold, and the next day every one made the best they could to their own place, which was the first day of February, 1735. - My father had brought on ship-board four children, viz. : David, Robert, Jolin, and Sarah. Sarah died in Charleston, and was the first buried at the Scotch Meeting House grave-yard. When we came to the Bluff, my mother and us children were still in expectation that we were coming to an agreeable place. But when we arrived and saw nothing but a wilderness, and instead of a fine timbered house, nothing but a mean dirt house, our spirits quite sank ; and what added to our trouble, our pilot we had with us from uncle William James's left us when we came in sight of the place. My father gave us all the comfort lie could, by telling us we would get all those trees cut down, and in a short time there would be plenty of inhabitants, so that we could see from house to house. While we were at this, our fire we brought from Bog Swamp went out. Father had heard, that up the river-swamp was 'the King's Tree,' although there was no path, neither did he know the distance. Yet he followed up the swamp until he came to the branch, and by that found Roger Gordon's. We watched him as far as the trees would let us see, and returned to our dolorous hut, expecting never to see him or any human person more. But after some time he returned and brought fire. We were some comforted, but evening coming on, the wolves began to howl on all sides. We then feared being devoured by wild beasts, having neither gun nor dog, nor any door to our house. Howbeit we set to and gathered fuel, and made on a good fire, and so passed the first night. The next day being a clear, warm morning, we began to stir about, but about mid-day there rose a cloud southwest attended with a high wind, thunder, and lightning. The rain quickly penetrated through between the poles and brought down the sand that covered them over, which seemed to threaten to bury us alive. The lightning and claps were very awful and lasted a good space of time. I do not remember to have seen a much severer gust than that was. I believe we all sincerely wishied ourselves again at Belfast. But this fright was soon over and the evening cleared up comfortable and warm. The boat that brought up the goods arrived at ' the King's Tree.' People were much oppressed in bringing their things, as there was no house there. They were obliged to toil hard, and had no other way but to convey their beds, clothing, chests, provisions, tools, pots, &c., on their backs. And at that time there were few or no roads, and every family had to travel the best way they
214
THE WITHERSPOON FAMILY.
[1730-1740.
could, which was here double distance to some, for they liad to follow swamps and branches for their guides for some time. After a season some men got such a knowledge of the woods as to ' blaze' paths, so the people soon found out to follow ' blazes' from place to place. As the winter season was far advanced, the time to prepare for planting was very short. Yet people were very strong and healthy, all that could do anything wrought diligently, and continued clearing and planting as long as the season would admit, so that they made provisions for the ensuing year. As they had but few beasts, a little served them, and as the range was good, they had no need of feeding creatures for some years. I remember that among the first things my father brought from the boat was his gun, which was one of Queen Anne's muskets. He had her loaded with swan shot. One morning, when we were at breakfast, there was a travelling 'possum' on his way, passing by the door: my mother screamed out, saying, 'There is a great bear!' Mother and us children hid ourselves beliind some barrels and a chest, at the other end of our hut, whilst father got his gun, and steadied her, past the fork that held up that end of the house, and shot him about the linder parts, which caused poor possum to grin and open her mouth in a frightful manner. Father was in haste to give him a second bout, but the shot being mislaid in the hurry, could not be found. We were penned up for some time. Father at length ventured out and killed it with a pale. Another source of alarm was the Indians. When they came to hunt in the spring, they were in great numbers in all places like the Egyptian locusts, but they were not hurtful. We had a great deal of trouble and hardships in our first settling, but the few inhabitants continued still in health and strength. Yet we were oppressed with fears, on divers accounts, especially of being massacred by the Indians, or bit by snakes, or torn by wild beasts, or being lost and perishing in the woods. Of this last calamity there were three instances."
These fears were not groundless. January, 1737-8, the Welsh on the Pedee complained of their apprehensions from the Indians. The Waterees protested against the laying out of the Wateree township [Fredericksburg, around Camden], and a family on Pine-tree Creek was murdered. The Catawbas were to be inquired of respecting it. Six men were appointed to range on the Santee for the safeguard of the inhabitants. -(Journals of Council, 1737-8, pp. 73, 74.)
" About the end of August, 1736, my uncle Robert arrived here. The ship lie came in was called 'New Built.' She was a ship of great burden, and brought many passengers. They chiefly came up here, and obliged to travel by land, instead of provisions they had money given them by the publick, our second crop being in the ground when they came. As it was in the warm season, they were much fatigued in coming up, and many were taken with the fever and ague, and some died with that disorder, and many, after the ague ceased, grew dropsical and died. About this time the people began to form into societies, and sent to Ireland for a minister. One came, named Robert Heron. He stayed three years, and then returned to Ireland .*
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