USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.1 > Part 14
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At a meeting of the Grand Council on July 2, 1672, it was promptly resolved to dispatch a party of thirty men against the Westoes, and on the 9th the inhabitants were organized into a military body. John Godfrey was
1 Chalmers, Political Annals, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 804.
2 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury ), London, 1889, 320.
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appointed Lieutenant Colonel ; Thomas Gray, Major, Captains, Maurice Mathews, John Robinson. Richard Conant, the seditious Florence O'Sullivan, and Robert Donne, who but six months before had been cashiered for abetting the stealing of a turkey. Donne, we must .pre- sume, was a good soldier, notwithstanding his foraging habits. On the approach of Colonel Godfrey with fifty volunteers. the Spaniards retreated to St. Augustine, and the Westoes were unwilling to risk an engagement while the intervening small tribes continued friendly to the English.1
Sir John Yeamans was about to be removed. The necessities of the people at the close of his administration were of so pressing a nature. it is said, as to occasion great disquietude, but these were relieved by the seasonable arrival of the Proprietor's ship. It is worthy of remark, however, observes Rivers, that there appears never to have been so great a scarcity of food as to endanger the lives of the people. There was no "starving time " in Carolina. as there had been in Virginia during its first settlement. There were failures at first in the attempt to raise such grains and fruits as were not best adapted to the soil and climate ; but fish and oysters, an abundance of game in the woods, the fertility of the land in producing Indian corn and peas, were sufficient to insure the settle- ment from any fear of starvation. Even in the times of greatest complaint in 1673, provisions were exported to Barbadoes. That Governor Yeamans engaged too exten- sively in these exports was perhaps the chief cause of the clamors and discontents of the people. To these was added the same causes of dissatisfaction that had existed at Chowan and Cape Fear. The Proprietors in their parsi- mony were unwilling to send any more supplies. They
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 112, 125; Appendix, 382,
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turned again to West, who, if less ambitious than Sir John, was more economical in his administration. But West was still only a Cacique. So, on May 18, 1674, the Pro- prietors send a patent appointing him a Landgrave and a commission as Governor, and declare that he has all along, by his care and fidelity and prudence in the man- agement of their affairs, recommended himself to them " as the fittest man for their trust." They had made West give way to Yeamans ; they now proceed to arraign Yeamans's conduct to West. They cannot forbear plainly to say, they wrote, though they had a great regard for Sir John Yeamans, that when Mr. West bore the man- agement of their affairs they had had some encourage- ment to send supplies, but immediately as Sir John had assumed the government the face of things had been altered. Their first reports from him were proposals for increasing their Lordships' charges, and in his last dispatches he had sent a scheme which would require disbursements of several thousand pounds. He had in- sinuated that their Lordships had dealt ill with the colo- nists because they would not continue to feed and clothe them without promise of returns. They had put a stop to the supplies, for they thought it time to give over a charge which was like to have no end ; that the country was not worth having at that rate. It must be a bad soil. indeed, that would not maintain industrious people. They would not be so silly as to maintain the idle. But it was not the fault of the soil. Indeed, some of the Proprietors were so well assured of this, that at their own individual charges they were going to settle a plantation in the Edisto without expecting assistance of the Proprietors generally. They were well satisfied that it was Sir John Yeamans's management that had brought things to this pass. His management had been to make this province
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subservient to Barbadoes. They referred to the frequent mention of wanting a stock of cattle, and declared the design of the Lords Proprietors was to have planters in Carolina, not graziers. If their intention was to stock the province, their Lordships could do better by their own bailiffs and servants, who would be more obedient to their orders. I
Sir John had previously retired to Barbadoes in feeble health, where he died in August, 1674, possessed of con- siderable wealth, but having lost much of the reputation which he enjoyed when he entered upon the government of the colony. Halsted. in a letter to the Proprietors, does not hesitate to charge Sir John and Captain Gray with complicity in the death of an Indian killed by the "noted villain" Fitzpatrick .? Nor was this the first charge of the kind which had been made against him. The Assembly at Barbadoes had accused him to Lord Willoughby. the Governor, in 1667, of conspiring against the life of a man "for noe other reason but that he had a mind to the other gentlemans wife."3 The truth is, that the glimpses we get through the records of the time, of the men who formed the first settlers of the colony on the Ashley. do not inspire us with great regard for their characters generally, or lead us to believe that they were others than such as might have been expected to be found in such an enterprise. They were adventurers whom one cause or another -domestic or political -had induced to seek in the New World fortunes they could not achieve in the Old. There was certainly little material among them for the " nobility " of Landgraves and Caciques under the Fundamental Constitutions, even though we do not
1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 1277.
2 Ibid., 604.
3 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 177.
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accept Archdale's description of them as "the most des- perate fortunes" who first " ventured over to break the ice," "being generally the ill livers of the pretended churchmen." 1
1 A Description of Carolina (Archdale), Carroll's Coll., 100.
CHAPTER VIII
1674-82
GOVERNOR WEST'S previous administration had been only temporary in its character, under appointment by Governor Sayle upon his death-bed, with the approba- tion of the Council, until the pleasure of the Lords Pro- prietors could be known. They had set him aside and appointed Sir John Yeamans, because, as they said, of Sir John's being a Landgrave. West was now regularly commissioned Governor and entered upon an administra- tion which was to last for eight years, during which the colony was to be settled upon a firm foundation. and by his wise and prudent conduct to enjoy for a short time the peace and order so necessary for its successful growth and prosperity,
The Earl of Shaftesbury had informed West in the letter which announced his appointment as Governor, that so satisfied were some of the Proprietors with the soil and advantages of the country that they intended to settle a plantation on the Edisto at their own indi- vidual cost. This they now proceeded to do, and to facilitate them in their new enterprise, the Proprietors, as a body, laid out for these individual proprietors a plantation on both sides of the Edisto. or Ashepoo, River, of which they granted a commission as Governor to Andrew Percival, limiting Governor West's jurisdiction to five miles south of the Ashley, and instructing Gov-
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ernor West to afford all countenance, help, and assistance to the plantations on Locke Island, as the settlement was to be called. In one respect. however, they did not make the plantations independent of that on the Ashley. They did not authorize Governor Percival to issue warrants for lands, but retained this power in Governor West's hands. instructing him, however, to affix the seal to all such grants as Percival should send to him. The scheme, which was the first attempt to plant an outpost between the colonists on the Ashley and unfriendly Indians, did not succeed. It was abandoned and Percival was appointed in June. 1675, Register of Berkeley County and other parts adjoining.1 The plan, it is supposed, originated with the Earl of Shaftesbury,2 possibly with Locke, in honor of whom it is probable the new government was named. This attempt presents another illustration of the uncer- tainty and impracticability of the plans of the Proprietors. The scheme of the Fundamental Constitutions was ab- surdly out of proportion. in its grandeur and elaborate- ness. even for a single government in a new country ; and yet here were their Lordships setting up another government within thirty miles of that on the Ashley, and with the commission to Percival sending also a copy of those extraordinary laws for his guidance and di- rection. They had now three separate governments in the province of Carolina, for which Landgraves and Caciques, and all the high officers required by the Con- stitutions, were to be provided. There was the govern- ment at Albemarle, that at Ashley, and now this attempt at one on the Edisto; and between that at Albemarle and that at Ashley had been the attempt at Cape Fear.
1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 121, Appendix, 387, 388 ; Public Records of So. Ca. ( MSS.), vol. I.
2 Hist. Sketches ( Rivers), 121.
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The Earl of Shaftesbury soon after. at his own expense, engaged Dr. Henry Woodward to enter upon the explora- tion of the country of the Westoes and Cussatoes. The result of this visit was a treaty of peace and friendship between these nations and the English in Carolina. LA comparison of the strength and resources of these Indians and the still feeble colonists induced the Proprietors (as they said) to shield the latter by restricting their inter- course with the tribes westward of Charles Town; but the restraints now put upon the Indian trade was not, says Rivers, free from selfish motives on the part of the Proprietors. They knew that furs and deer-skins, obtained in traffic for trifling articles, formed the principal source of gain to the industrious traders, among whom were the chief men in the colony. If frauds and abuses occurred, a prevention of them would not surely follow the restrict- ing of the trade to Proprietary agents. In April. 1677, Albemarle, Shaftesbury. Clarendon, and Colleton agreed to contribute each £100 to be placed in the hands of Mr. William Saxby, then secretary and treasurer, for carrying on the Indian trade, allowing one-fifth of the clear profit to Dr. Woodward. according to a previous contract be- tween him and the Earl of Shaftesbury. At the same time they issued an "Order and Command" to the " gov- ernor council and other inhabitants of our province of Carolina," forbidding any of them, under pain of prosecu- tion and severe punishment, to trade during seven years with these or other Indians living beyond Port Royal, but leaving open to the settlers the trade for a considerable distance on the sea-coast, "and any other way not less than one hundred miles from their plantation which is all they can pretend or expect from us," continue their Lordships, "it being in justice and reason fit that we should not be interrupted by them in our treaties and
N
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transactions with these nations that inhabit these distant countries with whom by our grant and charter from his Majesty we only have authority to treat or to inter- meddle." 1
Again we observe the utter disregard by the Pro- prietors even of their own favorite and "unalterable " Fundamental Constitutions. when the provisions even of those laws interfered in the least with their interests or views of the moment. By the terms of the Constitutions they had committed to the Grand Council the power "to make peace and war, leagues and treaties with any of the neighboring Indians." Under this authority the Council had acted ; they had declared war, made peace. and entered into treaties. It was scarcely to be expected that, situated as the colonists were, with their families exposed to the tomahawk and scalping-knife, they would leave the im- portant matter of their relations with the savages to be governed by the diplomacy of any set of men on the other side of the Atlantic.2 It is needless to add that they disregarded the instructions and took care of them- selves.
To the Earl of Shaftesbury is ascribed the credit of a more sensible measure; a measure which, if adopted, might have allayed, at least to some degree, the hostility of the irritable and warlike natives, and have secured at less cost the peace and safety of the settlers. The Pro- prietors claimed to be the sole owners of every acre of Carolina under King's grants, and they had expected the colonies to be established by driving the Indians away from the lands over which they and their ancestors had roamed from time immemorial. They were to be dealt with as savages deserved if they resisted the rights con-
1. Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 122, 123.
2 Ibid., 123.
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ferred by his Majesty King Charles II of England; and it had been forbidden to purchase land from them. Shaftesbury now proposed -and in this we can scarcely doubt the influence of Locke -to revoke this order. This was, of course, little better than resorting to fraud rather than to force. The so-called purchases were made for no adequate consideration from the Proprietors to the Indians. A few glittering trinkets and bright-colored ribbons and cloths, of little value, was the coin in which the Proprietors paid for the most valuable of all property, - land. There is, however, this to be said on the other side of the question; i.e. that the Indians themselves were selling what they did not own. They were selling and conveying land tenures, the nature of which they had no conception, and hence to which they had no rights. The chief value of the deeds which the Indians signed was really as a " color of title " against other Europeans.
The first deed of transfer on record was made in March, 1675, to Andrew Percival for the Earl of Shaftesbury and the rest of the Lords Proprietors, " for and in con- sideration of a valuable piece of cloth, hatchets, beads and other goods and manufactures." The territory ceded was that of "Greater and Lesser Casor lying on the River Kyewaw. the River Stono, and the fresher of the River Edisto." Perhaps to strengthen the deed of con- veyance, the signatures were taken of an odd assembly of Indians, there being the marks and seals of four Caciques, the marks of eleven war-captains and fourteen " woman captains." In 1682 and subsequently, lands were ceded by the Caciques of Wimbee. Stono, Combahee, Kussah, Edisto, Ashepoo, Witcheaw, and by the Queen and Captain of St. Helena, who generously surrendered (to please the English) their lands in a northwestward direction as far as the "Appalachian Mountains," although they had not
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even the claim of occupancy to any great distance from the sea-coast. All the northwest portion of the province was possessed by the populous and powerful Cherokees.1
The first accession to the number of original settlers, as we have seen, came from Barbadoes. Immigrants con- tinued to arrive in small parties from England in the Proprietors' ship the Blessing, from the West Indies in the Carolina, and in Captain Halsted's ship, in their respective voyages. Then had come the Dutch colony from Nora Belgia or New York. To induce immigration, the Proprietors had, in 1672. offered liberal concessions to freemen and servants from Ireland, particularly if they would come in sufficient numbers to make up a commu- nity and form a town by themselves "wherein they may have the free exercise of their religion according to their own discipline." In June, 1676. a whole colony of 12,000 acres was promised to Mr. John Berkly, Simon Perkins. Anthony Laine. and John Pettitt, upon their landing in Carolina.2 In March, 1679, René Petit, his Majesty's agent at Rouen, Jacob Grinard of Normandy, Gentleman, and Sir Thomas Dolmans petitioned the King for the transportation of several French Protestant families to Carolina. Their petition was referred to the Committee of Trade and Plantations3 in the Council at Whitehall. who recommended to his Majesty to give orders for the fitting out of two ships (neither of which may draw twelve feet of water) as may be fit to transport the said
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 123-125.
2 Ibid. ( Rivers). 120, 121.
3 The Committee of Trade and Plantations was one appointed by the Privy Council of Great Britain, to whom was referred all matters relating to the American colonies, and who had a general jurisdiction and super- vision over them. They were also called the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plantations. See Government of the Colony of So. Ca. (Whit- ney); JJohns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 18th Series, 1-11.
1
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families, provided that the said families should give a list of their names with sufficient assurance that they would take sufficient victuals and provisions for themselves for the voyage, and that the said families should come from abroad or had arrived in England for the purpose and design of going to Carolina. Several such families availed themselves of this offer, and on the 17th of De- cember the Lords Proprietors write to the Governor and Council in Carolina recommending them to their care, as, being skilled in the manufacture of certain commodities, they might instruct the English settlers. They directed a grant to René Petit and Jacob Grinard of 4000 acres of land each.1 One of these vessels was the frigate Richmond, which arrived in 1680, bringing out forty-five French refugees. A more considerable number soon followed in the other vessel. In the redistribution of the lots in old Charles Town, Richard Batin, Jacques Jours, and Richard Deyos received town lots. These are assumed to have been French Protestants, but upon what authority is not known. In 1677 grants were made to Jean Balton ; in 1678 to Jean Bazant and Richard Gail- lard.2 These were the first Huguenots in Carolina of whom there is record. It was expected that the French colonists would be very serviceable to the province by introducing the manufacture of silk and the culture of the olive and the vine. This expectation was not realized. The eggs of the silkworm hatched at sea and the worms perished for want of food ; nor did the other branches of industry sought to be promoted by them succeed.3
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 392; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. 1, 102 ; Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. 1, 242.
2 Howe's Hist. Presbyterian Church, 73. · .
3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. ( Rivers), 173, 174 ; Howe's Hist. Presby- terian Church, 73.
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In the list of emigrants from Barbadoes in the year 1679 we find the names of Robert Daniel, Thomas Dray- ton, John Ladson, and Arthur Middleton 1- names which have since been interwoven with the history of the State.
The Proprietors wished to build their chief town on some high land on the Ashley or Cooper, if such could be found free from the sickliness of the coast and the sudden inroads of an enemy's ship. But the explorations of Captain Halsted and the search of the committee of the Grand Council failed to find a more eligible situation than Oyster Point, to which the settlers began generally to move in 1679. Some had fixed their abode there as early as 1672. Such representations were made to the Lords Proprietors as caused them to write to Governor West and the Council on the 17th of December, 1679: " We are informed that this Oyster Point is not only a more convenient place to build a town on than that formerly pitched on by the first settlers, but that the people's inclina- tions turn thither; we let you know that Oyster Point is the place we do appoint for the port town of which you are to take notice and call it Charles Town."2 It was ordered at the same time that the public offices should be moved thither and the Grand Council summoned to meet there. In the spring of 1680 the removal was made, and during the same year thirty houses were erected. It was called for a while by some persons New Charles Town, to distinguish it from the old town, which now began to be abandoned ; from 1682 it was known for a period of one hundred years simply as Charles Town 3 or Charlestown.
The Richmond, his Majesty's ship which brought out
1 List of Emigrants to America. 1600-1700 (Hottin).
2 Hist. Sketches of So. Cu. (Rivers), 128, 129 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 102. 103.
3 Ibid. See note of Rivers giving reason for fixing the time of the removal as of the spring of 1680.
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the French Protestants under Petit and Grinard, was also charged with particular instructions to inquire into the state of the country, and T- A -- , Gentleman,1 a clerk on board of that vessel upon its return in 1682. published a description of the province and of its natural excel- lences. "The town," he says, "is regularly laid out into large and capacious streets, which to buildings is a great ornament and beauty. In it they have reserved ' con- venient places for a church, Town House and other pub- lie structures, an artillery ground for the exercise of their militia, and wharves for the convenience of their trade and shipping. "2 The site reserved for a church is that at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets, where stood the original St. Philip's Church, and now stands St. Michael's. So this spot, set apart at the very inception of the province, has remained until this day consecrated to the service of God, and separated from all unhallowed worldly and common uses. The first church was soon built. It was black cypress upon a brick foundation, and was described as large and stately, surrounded by a neat palisade. It was usually called the English Church, but its distinctive name was St. Philip's.3 It was probably begun during the last of the administration of Governor West, who was distinguished for his piety as well as for his justice and moderation. The Proprietors, as we have seen, had been repeatedly urged by the colonists to send out a clergyman, and they had agreed to allow Mr. Bond a grant of land and a stipend if he would come. He had not done so, but there was a minister of the Church of England in Charles Town at this time. The Rev. Atkin Williamson was here certainly in 1781, probably in 1680, but it is not known at what time previously he
1 T -- A-, supposed to be Thomas Ash. Carroll's Coll .. vol. I. Preface. 2 Carroll's Coll., vol. 11, 82. 3 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 26.
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came into the province.1 As early as 1671 Governor West had endeavored to restrain the licentiousness naturally arising among a new people living without the public ordinances of religion.2 In May, 1682, acts were passed for the observance of the Lord's Day, and for the sup- pression of idleness, drunkenness, and profanity. Besides these efforts for promoting the morality of the people, the close of Governor West's second administration was marked by the wisdom of laws enacted for the organization of the militia of the province, and for making high roads from the new town at Oyster Point through the forests that stretched into the interior.3
Samuel Wilson, secretary of the Proprietors, also pub- lished an account of Carolina about the same time (1682). He states that since the order of the Proprietors appoint- ing Oyster Point as the new town, about a hundred houses had been built, and more were building daily by the per- sons of all sorts that come there to inhabit from the more northern English colonies, the Sugar Islands, England, and Ireland. That many industrious servants who had served out their terms with their masters, at whose charge they were transported, had gotten good stocks of cattle and servants of their own, had built houses and exercised their trades. That many that went out as servants were then worth several hundred pounds and lived in a very plentiful condition, and their estates increasing ; that land near the town was sold for twenty shillings
1 Bishop Perry, in his Hist. of the American Episcopal Church, vol. I, 372, quotes a letter of Commissary Johnson, written in 1710, in which he states that Mr. Williamson had been in the province twenty-nine years, which would imply his arrival in 1681. But in a deed of Originall Jackson and Meliscent his wife giving a tract of land for another church. dated January 14, 19-0-81, Mr. Williamson is mentioned as then in the colony. The inference is that he had arrived at least as early as some time in 1680. 2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 130. 3 Ibid.
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