USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 7
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. efforts at colonization, found himself unable to proceed further, and made over his patent to a company of merchants and others.
It was not till 1590 that White was able to return to the colony, where he had left behind him a daughter and a grand-daughter, Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parents on the shores of America. He found the island of Roanoke an unin-
63
COLONIZATION OF NORTH CAROLINA.
1663-1685.]
habited desert. It had been agreed, that if any misfortune should befall the colonists, and they be compelled to desert their settlement, they should leave behind the name of the place to which they had gone; and that if they were in distress, this should be indicated by a cross. The name Croatan was found cut in the bark of a tree, but without any signal of distress. Lawson, the earliest European traveller through this wilderness, expresses his belief that, despairing of relief from England, the colonists had amalgamated with the native tribes, and brings in confirmation of this a tradition of the Hatteras Indians, ' " that several of their ancestors were white people, and could talk in a book." ".The truth of which," says he, "is confirmed by gray eyes being among these Indians, and no others." Raleigh did not throw off the responsibilities which he felt himself under to these unfortunate men. Purchas informs us that he had sent, at his own expense, in search of them, five several times previous to the year 1602.
In 1658-63, colonists from Virginia had settled upon the Chowan, in North Carolina, and this settlement was probably composed of dissenters from the Established Church. One of these was William Drummond, a native of Scotland, and prob- ably a Presbyterian, afterward made governor of the colony. A colony from Massachusetts had also planted itself on Old Town Creek, on the south side of Cape Fear River, as early as 1660 or 1661. A general contribution. was made through the settlement of Massachusetts for this infant colony in 1667.
New proprietors now obtained control, under whose auspices the permanent settlement of South Carolina was effected, although the distinction between North and South Carolina was not known till 1693, when the Santee was regarded as the dividing line. The present line upon the sea-coast was fixed by the royal order in 1738.
On the 24th of March, 1663, in the third year after the res- toration of the royal government, and of his reign as king of Great Britain, Charles II. granted a charter to Edward Earl of Clarendon, George Duke of Albemarle, William Lord Craven, John Lord Berkley, Anthony Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkley, and Sir John Colleton, to all the lands south of Virginia extending from 31° to 36º north latitude, and westward from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. This country, which had been called by the Spaniards and French, Florida, and by the English, Southern Virginia, received the name Carolina, in honor of the king.
These noblemen were among the highest in office and the
64
SETTLEMENT ON THE CAPE FEAR.
[1663-1683.
most influential in the realm. Two of them, the Duke of Cumberland and Anthony Ashley Cooper, from whom Ashley and Cooper rivers are named, held office under Cromwell, but were prominent in the restoration of Charles.
This vast territory was granted to these noblemen as a re- ward for their services to the royal cause. Their object in seeking it was their own aggrandizement; yet the charter speaks of them as being prompted by " a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian Faith, and the enlargement of the royal empire and dominions."
It does not appear that these proprietors used any direct efforts for the propagation of Christianity; but they certainly were governed not merely by a selfish policy, but showed a disposition to protect their colonists in the free enjoyment of their religious privileges, and in other respects to promote their prosperity. Soon after their charter was obtained they wrote to Sir William Berkley, one of the Lords Proprietors, then governor of Virginia, empowering him "to settle two governors," if he should see fit, over the emigrants who were already settled on the river Chowan, in North Carolina ; the reason for which was, " because some persons that are for lib- erty of conscience may desire a governor of their own propos- ing, which those on the other side of the river may not so well like ; and our desire being to encourage those people to plant abroad, and to stock well those parts with planters, incites us to comply always with all sorts of persons as far as we possi- bly can." * Previous to this they had received propositions from several gentlemen of Barbadoes, who wished to remove to Carolina. These they encouraged, and promised them " free- dom and liberty of conscience, in all religious or spiritual things, and to be kept inviolable." . A colony of English had also settled on the Cape Fear, where they arrived on the 29th of May, 1664, and founded a town, which they called Charles- town, about 20 or 30 miles from the mouth of the river. The gentlemen of Barbadoes sent out an exploring ship, called the Adventure, under Capt. Hilton, in August, 1663, who gave his name to Hilton Head, in the neighborhood of Beaufort, · and seems to have explored that region with a view to the pro- posed settlement.+ They determined, however, to settle on the Cape Fear; in pursuance of which determination a colony was conducted thither by Sir John Yeamans, and arrived in the autumn of 1665. In the following year this colony, created by
·* August, 1663.
t See Hilton's Relation.
1663-1635.]
FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS. 65
this two-fold emigration, is represented as consisting of about 800 persons, and to have erected good houses and good forts for their defence .*
On June 30th, 1665, a second charter was granted by the king, enlarging the territory southward to the 29th degree of north latitude, and providing " that no dissenter from the Established Church shall be in any way molested for any difference of opinion, so long as he behaves himself peacefully, any law or statute of England to the contrary notwithstanding." In 1669 the Fundamental Constitutions of South Carolina were drawn up by the celebrated John Locke, at the suggestion of the Earl of Shaftesbury; the first copy of which received the signature of the proprietors on the 21st of July of that year. These were intended to be the unalterable laws of the province. They were highly aristocratic in their character, establishing three orders of nobility, Barons, Cassiques, and Landgraves, each with large landed possessions. In these Constitutions, one article made the Church of England the established religion of Caro- lina, an article inserted, it is said, by one of the proprietors, against Mr. Locke's judgment.+ In other respects they pro- vided that "no man could become a freeman, or have any estate or habitation in Carolina, who did not believe in a God, and that he was to be publicly worshipped; but that Jews, Hea- thens and other dissenters from the purity of the Christian religion, were to be tolerated. Any seven or more persons agreeing in any religion might constitute a church, and should be protected in their worship. No person, however, over seventeen years of age, not a member of some church or religious profession, could claim the protection of law or hold any place of honor or profit."
These Constitutions breathe the liberal spirit of their framer, who was equally the friend of civil and religious liberty. And as this Constitution was a favorite with the Proprietors, it exhibits the singular spectacle of men who had a hand in en- forcing a strict uniformity of faith in England, and yet grant- ing, on principles of interest, and perhaps led on by their own honest convictions, the widest toleration of religion in their
* Brief Description of the Province of Carolina : London, 1666; Carroll's Collections, vol. ii.
+ The copy of the Constitutions first drawn up and sent out with Governor Sayle was without the clause relating to the introduction of worship according to the Church of England. The original is in the Charleston Library, and thought by some to be in Locke's handwriting .- See Rivers, South Carolina, Appendix, p. 334.
5
66
CHARACTER OF THE PROPRIETORS.
[1670-1685.
own domain of Carolina. The Earl of Clarendon and his associates were using their influence to bring back the days of persecution at home. Owen had been displaced and driven into retirement, and pursued by the soldiers of Charles. Bunyan was in prison, and Baxter, though a friend of royalty, and espousing the Restoration, was suffering with other Non- conformist divines, with the approbation of a majority of these very men. Only Lord Ashley, afterward Earl of Shaftes- bury, was found battling in the opposition in resistance to the Bill of Uniformity, and other measures directed against the Dissenters. It was by his advice that Charles published, in March, 1672, the celebrated declaration for suspending the execution of the penalties against the Nonconformists and Re- cusants, though in his views of toleration he did not go to the lengths of the philosopher Locke, who resided in the house of Shaftesbury, attached himself to his fortunes while living, and vindicated his memory after his death .* To. these men are chiefly to be ascribed the liberal features of these fundamen- tal laws, which for 40 years after their adoption were in force with the proprietors, though never received nor sanctioned by the colonists. Monk, too, could hardly have done otherwise than in his heart approve whatever of kindness they showed to the non-prelatical sects. He had befriended the Inde- pendents, had sided with the Presbyterians, and, aided by them, had restored the royal government to power.
The proprietors had now resolved on the establishment of a new colony in Carolina. A treaty between England and Spain, in 1667, had acknowledged the English title to its possessions in the New World, and Port Royal was fixed upon as the place of settlement. William Sayle was appointed governor of the proposed colony, and Joseph West commercial agent of the proprietors. Sayle had some experience in contending with the difficulties of planting new colonies. About twenty years before this he had conducted a colony to the Bahamas, com- posed in great part of Presbyterians who had emigrated from the Bermudas or Sommers Islands, the place of his own former residence.t The proprietary lords seemed to have planned
* Lord Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, was one of the five minis- ters of Charles II. known as the "Cabal," a word made up of initials of the names, viz., Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale. The word Cabal=the French Cabale-signifies a number of persons acting in con- cert, and is generally understood in a bad sense.
t Some few persons embarked with him from England, and " sailed to the Sommers Islands, where they took in Mr. Patrick Copeland, elder of that
67
PORT ROYAL.
1670-1685.]
this expedition with great wisdom and foresight. It sailed from England probably in January, 1670, in three vessels, with several hundred able-bodied men and necessary pro- visions, tools, and warlike stores. The fleet was to touch at Kinsale, in Ireland, to obtain 25 or 30 servants for the pro- prietors, who ordered that a plantation should be made, under the direction of Mr. West, in the vicinity of the settlement at Port Royal. The fleet was also to touch at Barbadoes, to pro- cure suitable seeds and plants for the new colony .* It arrived at the Bermudas in February. They reached Port Royal on the 17th of March. Their continuance there must have been but short. The reasons are unknown which induced them to desert the location on which the heart of the proprietors was set. Nothing can be imagined as a reason for abandoning so favorable a location save a dread of interference from the Spaniards of Florida, or some hostile indications on the part of the native tribes. They had removed to the western bank of the Ashley River in April of the year of their departure from England, and landing " on the first highland," in a spot "convenient for tillage and pasturing," there commenced lo- cating streets and lots, and erecting dwellings and a fortifica- tion. Their settlement was called by them Charles-Town. They seem to have been visited with sickness soon after their landing ; and in the month of September of this year Gov. Sayle, being "weak in body," added a codicil to his will, drawn up by him at Bermuda the February before, and gave his
church, a godly man of near eighty years of age, and so many of the church there, as they were in the ship in all seventy persons." 'They were greatly disturbed by "one Capt. Butler," who " could not endure any ordinances of worship." In their attempt to relieve themselves of his factious disturbance by a removal from the island they first reached, their vessel was cast away, and they were reduced to the greatest straits, being forced to live upon such game and wild fruit as the island afforded. Sayle, with eight others, reached the shores of Virginia, and brought them relief from the church there; and finding them in this miserable plight, persuaded them to remove to Eleutheria ; but when they saw his commission and articles, "they paused upon it (for the church were very orthodox and zealous for the truth), and would not resolve before they received advice from us. Whereupon," says John Winthrop, " letters were returned to them, dissuading them from joining with that people under those terms."-Hist. of N. Eng., by John Winthrop, Esq., first Gov. of the colony of Mass. Bay.
Sayle, according to Hewatt, had made a voyage of exploration in behalf of the Proprietors, in 1667. He had visited the Bahama Islands and sailed along the coast of Carolina. His representations to his employers induced them to apply to the King for a grant of the Bahamas, which was bestowed upon them by letters patent .- Hewatt, p. 48; Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. i .; Capt. John Smith's Hist. of N. England and the Sommers Islands.
* The expenses of the first colony amounted to £12,000 .- Hewatt.
68
DUTCH SETTLERS.
[1670-1685.
house at Albemarle Point * to his eldest son, Nathaniel, and soon after this died. Not only Gov. Sayle, but the majority of the first settlers, " were Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England."+ Joseph West succeeded Sayle as governor of the colony. In August, 1671, the proprietors', ship, the Blessing, Capt. Matthias Halsted commanding, arrived, bringing several families from England, for whom a town was directed to be laid out on Stono Creek, westward of Charlestown .; In August Capt. Halsted sailed for New York, and returned in December with a company of emigrants from the Dutch settlement of New Belgium. A number of families arrived also in the Pho- . nix from the same province ; and for the Dutch emigrants in these two vessels a town called James Town was laid out south- west of Ashley River, as we suppose on James Island, which was subsequently deserted by these emigrants, who spread themselves through the other settlements. The instructions which were sent out by Capt. Halsted gave information to the governor and council that Mr. James Carteret, Sir John Yea- mans, and Mr. John Locke had been created Landgraves, and ordered that their baronies, of 12,000 acres each, should be set out where they might desire. Sir John Yeamans had left his colony on the Cape Fear, and had returned to Barbadoes. He joined the colony established by Sayle on the Ashley River, though not permanently, until he was appointed Governor by the proprietors, upon which office he entered on the 19th of April, 1672. He brought with him from Barbadoes the first negro slaves who were seen in Carolina. Many of the settlers whom he had planted on the banks of the Cape Fear followed him to this colony, so that the former colony was at last quite deserted, and relapsed again into a wilderness.§ Their habi- tations were the narrow and rude shelters which first settlers
* The point made by the confluence of the Ashley River and Wappoo Creek.
t Petition of Joseph Boone and other inhabitants of Carolina .-- Rivers, Appendix, p. 462.
# The town was so laid out on a parcel of land containing twenty-five acres, whereof five acres were reserved for a churchyard. This town was probably the one called Newtown in the Order of Council of June 18th, 1672, providing that two "great gunns" be mounted there for its better defence .- Rivers, p. 100; Appendix, p. 379 ; see also p. 381.
§ Sir John Yeaman's entrance upon his new office was signalized by several important measures. The new Council then elected ordered the Surveyor General to lay out three colonies, or squares of 12,000 acres, one about Charles- Town, another at James-Town, and a third upon a place known as Oyster Point. The settlement of Charles-Town was now regularly laid out at this place in 62 town lots. The settlers having resigned the lots they had pre-
69
MILITARY PRECAUTIONS.
1670-1685.]
are always obliged to erect .* The necessities of the colonists required incessant labor and untiring vigilance. It was prov- idential to them that the native tribes contiguous to their settlement had been thinned off by a desolating sickness previous to their arrival. But the Kussoes, by whom they were surrounded, in about a year after the settlement was commenced became more and more hostile, and threatened by the aid of the Spaniards to cut off the colonists. All arms were made ready for service, the men were practised diligently in their use, the store of powder was divided into three parts and located at the safest and most convenient points, a con- stant night-watch was kept up, at which all were to take their turns,-the people of the town twice "in every revolution of the watches," and "those in the outward plantations" once. On any alarm, to be given by "two of the greatest gunns at Charles-Town, the entire inhabitants,"-except the negroes on the governor's plantation, who were left to defend the same, "being an outward place,"-were to assemble at their ap- pointed rendezvous ; and on the appearance of any "top- sayle vessell" "one great gunn" was to be fired, upon which all the freemen of the colony were to appear in arms, and no person except the pilot was allowed to go on board the same. Previous to the entire completion of these arrangements, war had been proclaimed upon the Kussoes, and Indian prisoners were taken. Diligence and thrift were enforced upon the colo- nists. Governor Sayle had been instructed to summon the freeholders and require them, in the name of the proprietors, " to elect twenty persons," who, together with the deputies of the proprietors, were to constitute his council or parliament. This parliament, elected under the proprietary regulations, constituted a popular assembly, who governed the little colony wisely and efficiently. In a season of scarcity, which occurred early in 1672, they ordained that no person should be supplied from the proprietors' stores who should not liave two acres well planted and cultivated for every member of his or her family ; that no mechanic should exercise his trade in town till the gathering in of the next crop, except under the tolerance of the Grand Council; and that every loiterer, whether male or female, should be put under the care of some industrious
viously occupied, received others according to the new arrangement. The lots were 62 in number, and the distribution of them to the several free- holders may be found in Dalcho, p. 17.
* The houses of James-Town, the Dutch settlement, were to be "20 feet long and 15 feet broad at least."-Rivers, p. 100.
70
RELIGIOUS CONDITION.
[1670-1685.
planter, for the better raising of provisions and their present maintenance. Thus, almost like the ancient Jews when Jerusalem was to be rebuilt, they wrought with their weapons in one hand and their implements of labor in the other,-vigi- lant in their defence, yet industrious in their pursuits. The distinction of master and servant existed; but except in the case of Governor Yeamans, those called servants were white persons, laboring for a term of service for maintenance or wages, or both. What attention was paid to matters of religion we know not. The reservation of a site for a church in their little town-plats, showed that the church was not quite
forgotten. The many sufferers for conscience' sake who had resorted to the new continent to escape oppression and perse- cution, would yet be mindful, in some measure, of their former faith. Their religious observances, however, may have been private and domestic rather than social, and their contest with the wild nature by which they were surrounded, their anxieties and many cares for the meat which perishes, may have led them proportionally to neglect that which endureth forever. The Fundamental Constitutions of Locke, which declared that " no man shall be permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any estate or habitation within it, that doth not acknowledge a God; and that God is publicly and solemnly to be worshipped ;" and that "no person above seventeen years of age shall have the benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honor, who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but one, religious record at once," though unwise provisions, would seem to mark this colony out as one peculiarly religious. The Rev. Atkinson Williamson, of the Episcopal Church, was in the colony in 1680, and Rev. Thomas Barret, a Dissenter, and probably a Pres- byterian, was living in South Carolina in 1685; and under these circumstances we can hardly believe that social and public worship was neglected. In the names of the first settlers we also find those who afterward contended for that liberty of conscience which the first constitutions promised. But besides this, there is nothing to assist us to interpret the characters of the colonists in this matter, which is so important. Sir John Yeamans himself was probably a zealous royalist, attached to the Episcopal Church, if any. His father was alderman of the city of Bristol, had been hung for his adherence to the royal cause in the days of the Parliament, and after the accession of Charles II. he had been rewarded
71
THE REVISED LAWS.
1670-1085.]
for the sufferings of his family with the title and rank of a baronet .* Col. West was created Landgrave and Governor in April, 1674. He is described as " a moderate, just, pious, and valiant person,"t and his administration was deservedly popular with the people and satisfactory to the proprietors.
The proprietors continued to invite settlers under the free toleration of their religious opinions. In 1672 certain per- sons in Ireland received overtures from them, in which they conceded to them the free exercise of their religion according to their own discipline .; A revised set of the Fundamental Laws were, however, sent out by the proprietors, and were received by Governor West in February, 1673. It proceeds to say, that " as the country comes to be sufficiently planted and distributed into fit divisions, it shall belong to the parliament to take care for the building of churches and the public main- tenance of divines, to be employed in the exercise of religion according to the Church of England; which being the only true and orthodox, and the national religion of all the king's dominion, is so also of Carolina; and therefore it alone shall be allowed to receive a public maintenance by grant of par- liament." These new constitutions were exceedingly distaste- ful to the people. They had acceded to the first ones, and the parliament utterly refused to accept them in the place of those to which they had originally sworn. Two-thirds of the settlers were dissenters from the English Church, and could not brook the prominence which the proprietors sought to give it. Small parties of settlers were coming into the colony with almost every vessel, and the proprietors sought industriously to add to the number of immigrants. In June, 1676, 12,000 acres were promised to John Berkley, Simon Perkins, Anthony Laine, and John Pettit, on their arrival.
The time now arrived for the transfer of the principal set- tlement to the present site of the city of Charleston. When the new survey and distribution of lots in old Charles-Town was made, in 1672, Gov. Yeamans had a site for a new town marked off at Oyster Point, at the confluence of Ashley and Cooper rivers. Accordingly, Oyster Point Town was laid off between the present Broad, Water, and Meeting streets. These lots were very gradually taken up; but in 1679 the inhabitants on the west bank of the Ashley began to remove thither. In December of that year the proprietors informed
* Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, ii., p. 247.
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