USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 8
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+ Archdale, Historical Collections of S. C., ii., p. 100.
# Rivers, App., p. 365.
72
REMOVAL TO NEW CHARLESTON.
[1670-1685.
Gov. West that they had appointed it to be the port town, and in 1680 the public offices were removed to the eastern side of the Ashley, and 30 houses were built there during that year. "At this town, in November, 1680," says Samuel Wil- son, " there rode at one time sixteen sail of vessels, some of which were upward of two hundred tons, that came from various parts of the king's kingdom to trade there." Writing in 1682, he says, "about a hundred houses are there built, and more are building daily by the persons of all sorts that come there to inhabit from the more northern English colonies, the Sugar Islands, England, and Ireland; and many persons who went to Carolina servants, being industrious since they came out of their times with their masters, at whose charge they were transported, have gotten good stocks of cattle and serv- ants of their own ; have also built houses, and exercise their trades."* Thomas Ash, who was sent out in 1680 to inquire into the state of the country by his majesty Charles II., and who returned in 1682, says, "The town is regularly laid out into large and capacious streets. In it they have reserved convenient places for the building a church, town-house, and other public structures, an artillery ground for the exercise of their militia, and wharfs for the convenience of their trade and shipping. At our being, there was judged to be in the country 1000 or 1200 souls ; but the great number of families from England, Ireland, Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the Caribees, which daily transport themselves thither, have more than doubled that number."f This town was at first called New Charles-Town, but since 1682 has been called Charlestown, and more lately Charleston. The site reserved for the Church of England was that now occupied by St. Michael's. The building erected there was built of black cypress on a brick foundation, and was commonly called the English Church, though its distinctive name was St. Philip's. Ramsay says it was built about 1690. Dalcho argues that it must have been erected in 1681 or 1682; Rivers, that it was probably begun in 1682. The reasons for this early date for the erec- tion of St. Philip's given by Dr. Dalcho are-1, that it is un- reasonable to suppose the Episcopalians should remain 20 years in Carolina without a church, which is supposed by Dr. Ramsay's date for the erection of St. Philip's; 2, that the
* Wilson's Account of Carolina, London, 1682, in Carol., ii., p. 24.
Description of Carolina, by T. A[sh], Gent., London, 1672; Carroll's Collections, vol. ii., p. 82.
73
FRENCH PROTESTANTS.
1670-1685.]
model of the town contained the site of the church ; 3, that art. xcvi. of the Fundamental Constitutions (2d set) provides for the maintenance of divines of the Church of England ; 4, that Originall Jackson, and his wife Meliscent, executed a deed of gift, January 14th, 1680-1681, of four acres of land for a house of worship to be erected, in which Atkin Williamson, cleric, may perform worship according to the form and liturgy of the Church of England. This land is not described as being in Charlestown. Jackson owned land on the Cooper River, August 3d, 1672. Yet there was no settlement large enough to afford a congregation out of Charleston in 1680. Nor is there any record of any Episcopal church out of town before 1703. These, with the knowledge that Rev. Atkin Williamson was in the colony in 1680, render it probable, though not by any means certain, that St. Philip's may have had the early date which is thus claimed for it.
During the years immediately preceding these dates, we begin to recognize more and more distinctly the accession of French Protestants. In the re-distribution of lots in Old Charlestown, July 22d, 1672, Richard Batin, Jacques Jours, and Richard Deyos received town lots with other freeholders. In 1677 grants were made to Jean Batton ; in 1678 to Jean Bazant and Richard Gaillard; to John Monke in 1682 ; and in 1683 to Marie Batton, wife of Jean Batton (ci-devant Mary Fosteen). In 1679 the petition of Rene Petit, for transporting French Protestant families to Carolina, came before the Com- mittee of Trade and Plantations, in the Council Chamber at Whitehall; and on the 29th of October the petition was granted, and his majesty Charles II. gave orders for fitting out two suitable ships for their conveyance. One of these vessels was the frigate Richmond, which arrived in 1680, bringing out forty-five French refugees. Charles himself bore the expense of their transportation. A more considerable number soon followed in another vessel, also at the expense of government. It was expected that these French colonists would be very serviceable to the province by introducing the manufacture of silk and the culture of the olive and vine. This expectation was not realized. The eggs of the silkworm hatched at sea, and the worms perished for want of food ; and the other branches of industry sought to be promoted by them did not thrive.
Some regard was had to public morality and virtue. To- ward the close of Governor West's administration, May, 1682, acts were passed for the observance of the Lord's Day, and
74
INCREASE OF DISSENTERS.
[1670-1685
for the suppression of idleness, drunkenness, and profanity .* West was superseded in his office by Landgrave Joseph Mor- ton, who, with Landgrave Axtell, according to Archdale, had procured the arrival in Carolina of more than 500 persons within the space of one month.t The proprietors continued to exert themselves to invite immigrants into their colony. At the desire of several wealthy persons wishing to remove thither, they "once more" revised the unalterable consti- tutions, relaxing them anew in favor of freedom.t " Many Dissenters went over, men of estates, as also many whom the variety of fortune had engaged to seek their fortunes, in hopes of better success in this new world. And truly such as better improved their new stock of wit generally had no cause to repent of their transplantation into this fertile and pleasant land."§ Under the administration of Governor Moreton, Joseph Blake, brother to the celebrated Admiral Blake, came into the province. He arrived in 1683, and " being a wise and prudent person, of a heroic temper of spirit, strengthened the hands of sober-inclined people, and kept under the first loose and ex- travagant spirit."" Many Dissenters came with him. About this time " the persecution raised by the Popish faction and their adherents in England was at its height, and no part of this kingdom suffered more by it than Somersetshire. The author of this history (Oldmixon) lived at that time with Mr. Blake, brother to the famous general of that name, being educated by his son-in-law, who taught school in Bridgewater, and remembers, though then very young, the reasons old Mr. Blake used to give for leaving England : one of which was that the miseries they endured, meaning the Dissenters, there, were nothing to what he foresaw would attend the reign of a Popish successor ; wherefore he resolved to remove to Caro- lina : and he had so great an interest among persons of his principles, I mean Dissenters, that many honest and substan- tial persons engaged to go over with him. I must prevent all
* Rivers, p. 130.
t Quoted by Rivers, p. 131. "Under Governor Morton, by order of the proprietors, the province, so far as inhabited, was divided into three counties -Craven county, to the north of the Sewee river ; Berkley county, between this and Stono Creek, embracing Charles-Town ; and Colleton, south of Stono Creek; of this, London (Wiltown) was to be the county seat, or place of election. It contained Port Royal and the lands in its vicinity for the distance of thirty miles."-Oldmixon, Hist. Coll., p. 316.
# Chalmers' Political Annals of Carolina, p. 315.
§ Archdale, ibid., p. 100.
Il Archdalc, p., 101.
75
JOSEPH BLAKE.
1670-1685.]
prejudice to what I have said, by declaring that this book is written by one who is not himself a Dissenter, but verily believes the true Church of England is the most orthodox and pure church in the world." "I say the more of Mr. Blake," adds the historian, "because his family is the most consider- able in this province. What estate he had in England he sold, to carry the effects along with him ; and though the sum was not many thousands, if it did at all deserve the plural number, yet 'twas all that his great brother left him, thoughi for several year's he commanded the British fleet, and in a time when our naval arms were victorious and the treasures of New Spain seldom reached home. By Mr. Blake's pres- ence in Carolina the sober party began to take heart, and the other to be discouraged in their irregular courses." " The governor, as we are told, married Elizabeth Blake, his daugh- ter, and by this alliance the strength of their party was so increased that we hear little of the other till Mr. Colleton's government."* Who this opposite party were, may be con- jectured in part by Archdale's description-" ill livers of pre- tended churchmen ;"+ and in part by Oldmixon's-" The two factions were that of the proprietaries and that of the planters, like court and country party in England." The Blakes were of the English Presbyterians of Somersetshire. His brother was returned by the Presbyterians as a member from Bridgewater of the Short Parliament, in 1640. He sat in the first two parliaments summoned by Cromwell; was the antagonist of the Dutch Admiral Van Tromp, and commanded the British fleet in the most brilliant period of her naval history ; was a blunt old man, of ready humor, fearless in the expression of his. opinions; a stanch repub- lican ; of a singularly fearless temper; straightforward, up- right, and honest in an unusual degree; never seeking his own advancement. In his temper he was liberal, and to his sailors ever kind. He was the first man who taught English ships to despise castles on shore ; who first infused proper courage into seamen, by teaching them what mighty things they could do when resolved; that they could fight in fire as well as upon water; and though he was very well followed, he was the first that gave the example of that kind of naval courage and bold and resolute achievement.§ His remains, with those of Cromwell's mother and daughter, and others,
* Oldmixon's Annals in Caroll's Collections, vol. ii., pp. 407, 408.
t Collections, ii., p. 100. # Ibid., p. 406. § Clarendon, iii., p. 602.
76
MACKEMIE.
[1670-1685.
buried in Westminster Abbey, had, in paltry and impotent revenge, been exhumed, and cast into a pit in St. Margaret's churchyard. In these high qualities his less illustrious brother shared. He was willing enough to escape from a sovereign who had shown himself a perfidious tyrant, and from a country where freedom to worship God was denied him. He was a Presbyterian of the English stamp, sincere in his religious convictions without bigotry. His wife* is found after- wards contributing liberally to the adornment of St. Philip's church, and he, as governor, favoring the interests of the same. Moreton was succeeded in the gubernatorial office by Sir Richard Kyrle, of Ireland, who was appointed in April, 1684. Much was expected from his energy and ability, but he died within a few months.t
About this time the colonists were re-enforced by an emigra- tion from Ireland, under the guidance of Ferguson (who was, it is supposed, of Presbyterian predilections), which mingled at once with the mass of the inhabitants .; In this same year the state of the Presbyterians in the counties of Derry and Donegal is represented as being "so deplorable, that the greater number of the ministers of the Presbytery of Lagan intimated to the other Presbyteries their intention of removing to America, whither some of them had been already invited, ' because of the persecutions and general poverty abounding in those parts, and on account of their straits and little or no access to their ministry,' "-a determination which seems to have been prevented by the death of Charles II. in the follow- ing year, and a change in the administration of affairs. Four of the ministers had been imprisoned for eight months for keeping a fast, on account of the distressed state of the Church, and refusing to take the oath of supremacy. It was in this season of trouble that Francis Mackemie must have emigrated to America. He was introduced to the Presbytery of Lagan in 1681 by his pastor, the Rev. Thomas Drummond, of Rathmelton, in Donegal county, believed to be the brother of William Drummond, first governor of North Carolina, a Presbyterian and valiant supporter of the maintenance of popular liberty, who was put to an ignominious death by Sir William Berkley, royal governor of Virginia, and one of the
* In the History of the Charleston Baptist Association, by Wood Furman, A.M., Charleston, 1811, it is said, "She and her mother, Lady Axtell, were members of the Baptist Church."-Dalcho, p. 26; Oldmnixon, p. 417.
+ Oldmixon, 410.
# Chalmers' Annals, p. 315.
1
77
MACKEMIE.
1670-1635.] .
original proprietors of Carolina. On an application from Col. Stevens of Maryland, beside Virginia, "for a minister to settle in that colony, he had been ordained; but in what year is not known, as the minutes of that Presbytery are defective, its clerk having been seized and cast into prison, and its meetings suspended for some years." In a letter to Increase Mather, of Boston, written from Elizabeth River, Virginia, July 22d, 1684, he speaks of his "design for Ashley River, South Carolina," that he went to sea in the month of May for the purpose of carrying it out, that " after several essays to the south," being · tossed by contrary winds and falling short of provisions, he was prevailed upon by Col. Lawson and others " to stay this season" at Lynnhaven, especially considering " the season of the year, and the little encouragement from Carolina." For the satisfaction of his friends in Ireland, he had sent one of their number to obtain further information respecting the place. In a letter of the date of July 28th, 1685, he again speaks of Ashley River, and says, "I have also wrote to Mr. Thomas Barret, a minister who lived in South Carolina, who, when he wrote to me from Ashley River, was to take shipping for New England." From this evidence it appears that serious thoughts had been entertained by Mackemie of settling at Charles- Town. Webster says, " he visited Carolina in the fall of 1683." In his determination to settle elsewhere, the new colony of South Carolina lost the services of one of the most active ministers of the Presbyterian Church, one who by Reid is said, though not with entire truth, to be the first Presbyterian minister who settled in North America," and one who, more than any other, has been regarded its founder.t Of Rev. Thomas Barret, living on Ashley River, at and before 1685, we have no further knowledge.
* . Mackemie speaks of a Dissenting minister from Ireland, as having pre- ceded him, and as being removed by death, at Lynnhaven Town, Norfolk county, Virginia .- Letter to Increase Mather, Mass. Hist. Soc., and Webster's Hist. of Pres. Ch., p. 207.
t Reid's Irish Pres. Ch., vol. ii., pp. 419, 424, 425, London, 1837.
78
LORD CARDROSS.
[1670-1685.
CHAPTER II.
THE COLONY OF LORD CARDROSS.
THE next colony was conducted into Carolina by Henry, Lord Cardross. He was descended from the Lords Erskine and the Earls of Mar, and Lady Erskine was daughter of Sir James Stuart. He had been in many ways a sufferer for resistance to oppression. His house had been entered by armed guards, and the private chaplain* of Lady Cardross seized and put to death. He had been mulcted in heavy fines, had been imprisoned for non-conformity to Episcopacy and his maintenance of the Kirk of Scotland, under Lauder- dale; and for non-payment of his fines he was outlawed, and his life-rents were escheated and given to his oppressor. His dwelling had been rifled, his estate had been wasted by the King's army when it lay at Stirling, his house had been gar- risoned for eight years by the English soldiers, by which the dwelling and gardens were quite destroyed.t He determined, therefore, to seek freedom of conscience in America. Nor was lie alone in this. A company of noblemen and gentlemen had entered into bonds with each other for making a settlement in Carolina. The subscribers were thirty-six in number. Among them were the names of Callender, Cardross, Yester, Hume of Polwart, Cockburn, Douglas, Lockhart, Gilmour, &c. Sir John Cochrane, of Ochiltree, and Sir George Campbell, had applied, towards the close of 1682, to the King for his encour- agement and protection in this scheme. The same commis- sioners had secured from the lords proprietors a county consisting of thirty-two plats of twelve thousand acres each.t The Fundamental Constitutions had been altered to secure to the Scots greater immunity from oppression ; the Indian title was to be extinguished by the proprietors by treaty and pur- chase. The place of settlement was to be the spot to which the first colony was despatched-Port Royal, the fame of whose harbor and the desirableness of whose situation had been so greatly extolled. This colony was to be independent of
* Rev. John King.
t Petition to the king in 1680 .- Wodrow, iii., p. 192.
# Wodrow, iii., pp. 368, 369; Collections of Historical Soc. of S. C., i., pp. 92, 93, 109.
79
REV. WILLIAM DUNLOP.
1670-1685.]
the one at Charleston, and Cardross understood himself to have co-ordinate jurisdiction with the governor there. He landed in 1683, and founded Stuart's Town, probably so called after the family of Lady Cardross .* Among those who came with him was Rev. William Dunlop. He was the eldest son of Rev. Alexander Dunlop of Paisley, and early devoted himself to the ministry. He entered upon it as a licentiate of the Church of Scotland, at the stormiest period of its history. He belonged to the moderate party of the maintainers of the Covenant, the Whigs, whose principles were engrafted on the English constitution in 1688. His party reluctantly resorted to the sword in defence of the rights of conscience, yet they did so in connection with fierce republicans at the ill-starred battle of Bothwell Bridge. He was at that time tutor in the family of Lord Cochrane, and in connection with Rev. Robert Wylie, drew up the declaration which it was hoped would be adopted by the army. He conveyed it in person to the camp. In the form in which it was presented it was rejected, and another similar but more objectionable paper was drawn up on its basis. Had the original paper been adopted, Wodrow contends that the rising at Bothwell might have been defended on the same ground as the revolution of 1688. Even at this early age he had that shrewdness and activity of mind which gave him an influence with his party far beyond what his years would otherwise have justified. This influence had been much increased by his marriage with Sarah, sister of Principal Carstairs, a name dear to Scotland, and honored in his own day throughout Britain for his shining piety, his universal and polite learning, and his candor and integrity, all of which qualities were insufficient to save him from imprisonment and cruel torture.t During his whole residence in America, Dunlop continued to be deeply inter- ested in the affairs of Scotland, but was an extremely useful
* She was daughter of Sir James Stuart .- Wodrow, iii., p. 193.
+ Carstairs was a Presbyterian clergyman who fled from Scotland under Charles II. He was taken prisoner in England, and upon suspicion of being concerned in the intended insurrection, for which Lord Russel and Algernon Sydney suffered, was sent to Scotland and put under the torture of the thumb- screw to extort confessions. There is a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, his sister, written from Leyden, March 14th, 1687 (whither he had retired after his release from prison), in which he refers to her contemplated voyage to Carolina ; but she had already gone there. This and various other letters to his wife, written from his prison, breathe an excellent spirit, and may be found in the appendix to Wodrow's History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland. He returned from Holland with William of Orange, was with him in all his
.
80
PERSECUTION IN SCOTLAND.
[1670-1685.
member of the infant colony at Port Royal, not only performing the functions of his sacred office, but acting as a major of militia, and promoting in various ways the prosperity and security of the place of his refuge.
It had been expected that some 10,000 emigrants would have been sent from Scotland to this colony of Port Royal, for the persecution consequent upon the rising of the west country, the skirmish at Drumclog, and the battle of Bothwell Bridge, was raging fearfully. But most writers speak of the number who came out with Lord Cardross as being small. About 10 families, says Rivers, among whose names were those of Hamilton, Montgomerie, and Dunlop, accompanied him. But Wodrow, a most veracious and exact historian, speaks of many others. Numbers were condemned by the Royal Commission at Glasgow-" a set," says Wodrow, " of the most violent persecutors of that time." The grounds of condemnation were large : if they would not condemn the rising at Bothwell ; if any had attended conventicles or bap- tizings in the field ; if, though they had attended at the pre- latical churches, their wives had gone elsewhere. This last ground of condemnation had been referred to the king. "The king," says Bishop Burnet, "determined against the ladies ; which was thought very indecent : for in dubious cases the nobleness of a prince's temper should always turn him to the merciful side. This was the less expected from the king, who had all his life expressed as great a neglect of women's con- sciences, as esteem for their persons."* The council banished many to the plantations. The privy council, May 27th, 1684, orders the commissions of Glasgow and Dumfries, "to sentence and banish to the plantations in America such rebels as ap- pear penitent, in the ship belonging to Walter Gibson, mer- chant, in Glasgow." "It is a knack peculiar, I think, to this period," says Wodrow, "to pretend kindness and grace in the greatest severities inflicted by them : thus last year and this, the taking the test was pretended to be a favor, and yet the country was forced into it, and now banishment to the plantations is another act of grace and favor to penitents,
campaigns, and liad his entire confidence. In 1704 he became Principal of the University of Edinburgh, and Professor of Divinity. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1708, 1711, and 1715, on the 2d of December of which year he died. There is also a very interesting letter of Mrs. Dunlop, dated Edinburgh, September 2d, 1686, directed to her husband " at Port Royall, Carolina," written previous to her voyage .- Wodrow, vol. iv., pp. 516-520. * Hist. of his own Times, ii., pp. 994, 995. London, 1725.
81
1 1
WODROW'S TESTIMONY.
1670-1685.]
much the same with the coup de grace in France." "June 19th, Sir William Paterson, who had been west, upon the con- venticles," reports to the council that two-and-twenty persons, prisoners in the Tolbooth of Glasgow, are now banished to the plantations in William Gibson's ship. And at the same diet at Edinburgh, the Lords, by sentence, appoint James McCachin in Dalry, John Creichton in Kirkpatrick, John Matthison in Closeburn, John McChisholm in Spittle, libelled for reset, and converse with rebels, found guilty by their confession judicially adhered to, to be transported to the plantations. And August 15th, about fifteen more are ordered to the same place." John Dick was banished to Carolina in June. "Some of his interrogatories and answers," says Wodrow, " deserve room here, he being a very sensible, knowing per- son." "Being asked if it was lawful to bear arms, answered, he thought it lawful for the defence of religion,- that is, when people are oppressed for adhering to their principles, pressed to deny them, and killed for not denying them,-and for per- sonal defence against robbers and murderers. He was fur- ther asked, 'But what if the king should carry on a course contrary to the word of God, may he be opposed by arms ?' The bishop or professor of divinity, he does not mind which, said, 'But I'll make it plain to you, from the word of God, that though the king carry on a course contrary to scripture, he ought not to be opposed.' John interrupting him, said, 'The world will never do that, for it is setting scripture against itself, and the like of it was never heard.' Then he was asked if he would kill one of the king's guards if he found them in the way. He answered he was of no such murdering princi- ples. They were very close upon him as to his praying for the king : and after many questions this way, they asked, 'Can you now pray for him?' He said, 'I can, as he hath a soul, and hath not sinned the unpardonable sin ; but to pray for him as he is king, and for the prosperity of his courses, I cannot do.'" "The original testimony of about two-and-twenty, who were banished to Carolina," says Wodrow, "is before me. They received their indictment, as they say in their paper, for not owning the king's supremacy (and indeed it was that, most of the country people meant, when they refused to own his au- thority), their declining to call Bothwell Bridge rebellion, and refusing to renounce the covenants. The names of the per- sons signing this joint testimony are James McClintock, John Buchanan, William Inglis, Gavin Black, Adam Allan, John Galt, Thomas Marshal, William Smith, Robert Urie, Thomas
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