USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.1 > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
Edward Randolph, the Collector of the King's customs in America, had been complaining of the neglect and vio- lation of the navigation acts and of the favor shown pirates not only in Carolina, but in all the colonies, had been urging the King to suppress all the Proprietary governments, and had suggested a scheme for consolidat- ing all the English provinces. South Carolina and the Bahama Islands he recommended should be put under his Majesty's immediate authority : that North Carolina should be annexed to Virginia ; the three lower counties of Dela- ware to be annexed to Maryland: the province of West Jersey to Pennsylvania: East Jersey to New York; and Rhode Island to Massachusetts.2 This grand scheme for the reduction and consolidation of the colonies did not suc- ceed; but his agitation of the subject caused the passage of an act of Parliament, in 1695, for preventing frauds and
1 HIist. Sketches of So. Ca. ( Rivers), 187.
2 Colonial Records of Vo. Ca., vol. I, 141,
294
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
regulating abuses in the plantation trade. This act, which was a reenactment of the navigation laws in more stringent form, required the Proprietors of all the Pro- prietary governments to submit to the King, for his Majesty's approval. the appointments of Governors they proposed to make, and the Governors when so appointed were required to take oaths to observe the acts in regard to the plantation trade ; and all officers appointed by the Governor to perform duties under these acts were re- quired to give security to the commissioners of customs in England.1
Randolph saw, even at this early day, that resistance to the navigation laws would end in independence, and be- lieved that even then that was its purpose. He thought the government in America too loose, and desired to have their bonds to that at home drawn in and strengthened. He advised that fit persons should be appointed Governors of Carolina and Pennsylvania, to prevent the illegal trade carried on by Scotchmen and others in vessels belonging to New England and Pennsylvania; and that a Court of Admiralty with a Judge. a Register, a Marshal. and an Attorney General should be appointed in each colony to enforce the act of Parliament just passed to prevent frauds in the plantations.2 The Lords of Trade approved his suggestion as to the establishment of Courts of Admiralty, and directed him to nominate fit persons for these offices.3 He recommended the appointment of one person as Attor- ney General for the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Penn- sylvania, North Carolina, and West Jersey: of another, for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire ; and of another. for New York, East Jersey, and Connecticut. He made no recommendation for South Carolina.4
1 Statutes of the Redu, vol. VII, 103. 3 Ibid., 482, 463.
2 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 461.
+ Ibid., 403, 464.
295
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
He again addressed the commissioners on the 10th of November, 1696:1 _
"The chief end of granting these vast tracts of land (now called proprieties ) to noblemen and others." he wrote, "was doubtless to encourage the first undertakers to plant & improve them for the benetitt of the Crowne, & to be always subject & depending on England & conformable to the Laws thereof. Great numbers of people are now seated in some of these proprieties but have been long endeavoring to break loose & set up for themselves having no sort of regard to the Acts of Trade, and discountenancing appeals from their Courts to his Majesty in Councill. The persons appointed by the Proprietors to be their Governors are generally men of very indiffer- ent qualifications for parts & Estates. Their maintenance is incon- siderable which renders their Government precarious also," etc.
But it was not only in regard to the customs that Ran- dolph complained. He was most sweeping and reckless in his charges against the colonies for harboring pirates. The Bahama Islands, of which Nicholas Trott was then Governor, had been and were, he said, a common retreat for pirates and illegal traders. Charles Town in Carolina, of which Mr. John Archdale. a Quaker, was Governor, as one of the Lords Proprietors during his son's minority,2 was free for trade to all places. He wrote : -
"They trade to Carasaw,3 from whence the Manufacture of Holland is brought to Charles Towne and carryed by New England men and other illegal traders to Pennsylvania Boston etc : and returns are made for them in Plantation Commodities which are carryed from Carolina to Carasaw and thence to Holland; about 3 years ago 70 pirates having run away with a vessel from Jamaica came to Charles Towne bringing with them a vast quantity of Gold from the Red Sea, they were entertained and had liberty to stay or goe to any other place. The vessell was seized by the Governor for the
1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. 1, 466.
2 It will be recollected Archdale had taken the title to Sir William Berkeley's share. which he had purchased from Lady Berkeley in his son's name.
3 Curaçoa ?
296
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Proprietors as a Wreck & sold, they have no regard to the Acts of Trade. The present Governor (Archdale) is a favourer of the illegal trade," etc.
The inlets of Carituck and Roanoke, he charged, were the resorts of pirates and runaway servants from Virginia. The Governor of Pennsylvania entertained pirates from the Red and South seas. Providence, Rhode Island, was' a free port to illegal traders and pirates from all places. etc.
The Commissioners of Trade called on the Proprietors of the various colonies to answer these charges, and the Proprietors of Carolina, Pennsylvania, the Jerseys. and Connecticut did so. Protesting their loyalty, but resting their rights under their grants, they claimed that their charter implied the grant of the Admiral's jurisdiction and power of erecting Courts of Admiralty and constituting judges and officers for them. The reason they had not hitherto erected such courts was that under the acts of Parliament violations of the navigation acts were cogniza- ble in the common-law courts, and the establishment of Courts of Admiralty would have occasioned salaries and other great and expensive charges. They apprehended that there was no necessity for such courts. unless for the condemnation of prizes, few or none of which had been brought into the provinces. They were, nevertheless, ready and willing, they said, to erect such courts if re- quired.1
The Board of Trade, however, insisted upon his Majesty's right to his own Courts of Admiralty, notwithstanding the charters : whereupon the Proprietors wisely gave up their claim of right and prayed that the Governors of the several provinces might have commissions to be Vice Admirals with the same powers as the Governors of the provinces under Royal authority.2 But this his Majesty was not willing to
1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 471. 2 Ibid., 473.
297
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
allow. The Board of Trade preferred to look after the enforcement of the navigation acts themselves, and to ap- point their own Courts of Admiralty. In the persons to constitute the court, however, the preferences of the Pro- prietors were evidently consulted. Sir Charles Hedges, . Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, on the 29th of April, 1697-98, appointed as admiralty officers for South Carolina Joseph Morton, late Governor. Judge; Thomas Cary, Archdale's son-in-law, Register; Jonathan Amory, Speaker of the Commons, Advocate, and R. Pollinger Marshal.1
Another turn was taken against the Proprietary govern- ments. The act of 1695 had required that his Majesty's approval should be obtained for the appointment of their Governors, but now it was further required that the Gov- ernor of any Proprietary province should give bond in a penalty of not less than £2000 nor more than £5000 (i.e. from $40,000 to $100,000), according to the trade of the province, for the faithful execution of the navigation acts. The Proprietors protested that this was unnecessary since the recent act requiring the approval of the King for the appointment of a Governor. The objection was over- ruled and the bond was required.2
The Proprietors now found it necessary to pay some attention to their courts in Carolina, and to provide some- thing better for the administration of justice than a Judge and Sheriff combined, without a prosecuting officer. They appointed and sent out a Chief Justice and an Attorney General. The Attorney General was first commissioned. This was the same Nicholas Trott who had been Governor of the Bahamas, and whom Randolph had denounced as a harborer of pirates : and as if in defiance of this accusation.
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 207.
: Colonial Records of No. C. vol. 1, 476, 477, 557.
298
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Trott was not only appointed Attorney General, but Ad- vocate General of Admiralty and Naval officer. He was commissioned as Attorney General February 5, 1697-98, and a month after his instructions were made out. His duties were prescribed to be: to communicate such in- structions to the Governor and Council as were requisite ; to peruse the acts of Assembly before confirmation, - so as to see that they were not repugnant to the laws of England, and to report the same to the Lords Proprietors. He was to prosecute and take care of all matters criminal ; to advise and consult with the Collectors of the King's customs, and the better to secure the King's customs they constituted him also Naval officer. He was instructed to inquire into the Indian trade and its abuses. He was to be allowed access to all public records in the grantings of office, and of all documents whatsoever. His salary was fixed at £40 (i.e. about 8800) per annum. As Naval officer he was to make entries of all ships inward or outward bound, to obey all instructions and directions from the Proprietors or the Commissioners of the Customs.
The Chief Justice was Edmund Bohun, who was com- missioned on the 22d of May, 1698. He was one of the few settlers in Carolina who was entitled by birth to be called a cavalier. He was of the family mentioned by Macaulay as one of those untitled families descended from knights who had broken the Saxon ranks at Hastings and scaled the walls of Jerusalem.1 Mr. Bohun was a man of
1 " There were untitled men well known to be descended from knights who had broken the Saxon ranks at Hastings and scaled the walls of Jerusalem. There were Bohuns Mowbrays De Veres nay kinsmen of the House of Plantagenet with no higher addition than that of Esquire and with no civil privileges beyond those enjoyed by every farmer and shopkeeper." - History of England, vol. I (ed. Hurd & Houghton), 1575, 42; Introductory Memoir to Diary and Autobiography of Edmund Bokun.
299
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
learning : he was the author, compiler, editor, or translator of many books.1 but he was not a professional lawyer. His qualifications for the judicial office were only those ac- quired by experience on the magisterial bench, on which he had sat for many years by no means regardless of its responsibilities, and upon the duties of which he had pub- lished a tract, in 1084, entitled The Justice of Peace, his Calling : a Moral Essay. Mr. Bohun, bred a dissenter from the religion of the established church, a great admirer of parliaments, and taught betimes to fear monarchy and arbi- trary government, became one of the sturdiest advocates of hereditary monarchy, but was, nevertheless, a most zealous and uncompromising Protestant. Upon the over- throw of James. he held, with others, that the most sub- missive slaves of "passive obedience were not bound to remain forever without a government" or actively seek the restoration of a prince who had sought to enslave the nation and overthrow the Protestant church. Holding fast the theory of non-resistance, he thanked God that he, by his own " particular providence, had rejected a king who had notoriously invaded and destroyed all our civil and religious rights and liberties." His abandonment of the cause of James cost him the friendship of Archbishop Sancroft and the loss of his seat on the magisterial bench. But upon the return to power of the Tories in the Parlia- ment of 1690, Mr. Bohun was given the post of licenser of the press. Here the perversity of his character or fort- une again asserted itself. While his known opinions and published writings laid him open to strong suspicion of Jacobitism on the one hand. his avowed allegiance to Will- iam and Mary exposed him. on the other, to a charge of gross inconsistency. He held the office but five months. His Protestant zeal had occasioned his expulsion from the
1 For list of works by him see Allibone's Dictionary of Authors.
.
300
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
magistracy under James; restored to it under William and Mary, he was again removed by the Whigs because of his Toryism. A sincere and earnest Christian, a scholar and writer of great ability, he appears to have been a man without tact in the vigorous expression of his opinions, to which misfortune his irascible temper and the acrimony of his style added bitterness. It is not known through what medium he obtained the office of Chief Justice of South Carolina. His inducement to seek it was probably that his eldest son, Edmund, had settled as a merchant in the colony.1
On the 16th of August, 1698, the Proprietors wrote to Governor Blake and Council : 2-
"Gentlemen : wee are intent upon making you the happy settle- ment in America ; in order to which wee sent you by Major Daniell (who we hope is safely arrived) constitutions of government in which wee have been more hearty in securing your liberty and property than any particular advantages of our owne. With him went a Mr. Marshall a minister recommended by us, who wee hope and doubt not will both by example and preaching encourage virtue, and that he will not want encouragement from you. And because good laws without due exercise are a dead letter, and the reputation of a just execution of them is inviting wee have commissioned Edmund Bohun Esq a person who has had a very good reputation in the exe- cution of the laws of England to be your chief justice ; who besides the advantage of his owne estate which will be transmitted to him is allowed by us a very good salary to keep him beyond the reach of temptation of corruption. Gentlemen your very affectionate friends Bath Palatine " etc.
To obtain for their colony a reputation of the wise ad- ministration of its laws, the Proprietors sent out a mere Justice of the Peace of England as Chief Justice of the province : and to secure him against the temptation of cor- ruption, they allow him, as a very good salary, £60 a year
1 Introductory Memoir to Autobiography. 2 Ibid.
12
301
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
(about $1200), but in addition to which there were also perquisites of fees and costs.
John Ely was commissioned as Receiver General on the 26th of July, and the Governor and Council were in- formed of his appointment at the same time as they were informed of the appointment of the Chief Justice. Mr. Ely was charged as Receiver to settle, or to introduce. a trade to North Carolina and the Bahamas, so as to produce a profitable revenue to Charles Town. He was to inform himself of the fines imposed upon persons for misdemeanors, and to collect the same; to inquire con- cerning forfeited and escheated estate; to take charge of their share of wrecks ; to get information in regard to all lands granted, and to frame a regular rent-roll. He was to pay the salaries of the officers, to receive a certain com- mission himself, and to present his accounts once in every three months. At the same time the Rev. Mr. Samuel Marshall was sent out and appointed Registrar of the colony.
The Proprietors were thus attempting - in a niggardly way, it is true-to provide a better government ; but they were becoming a less and less influential body. Their hold upon the province was being weakened and loosened both at home and in Carolina. At home. in England, Pro- prietary governments were falling into disfavor, and the Royal authorities were on the alert to find some good cause of forfeiture or suppression. In Carolina the colo- nists were becoming more and more restive under the con- trol of a weak board, sitting thousands of miles away, and giving to their vital interests no regular attention, but only the idle moments of lives devoted to other purposes. Randolph had ronsed the Board of Trade at Whitehall to a stricter enforcement of the navigation acts, and the pos- sibilities of a larger revenue from his Majesty's customs.
302
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
He was now turning his attention particularly to South Carolina, where he proposed to make his residence in the winter time to avoid the extreme cold of the northern plantations.1 From Charles Town, on the 16th of March, 1698-99. he addressed a long and interesting letter to the Commissioners of Trade.2 From this letter it appears that Blake had not been confirmed as Governor by his Majesty's order, because the act of 1695, requiring the King's approval, had not been noticed by the Proprietors. He gives an estimate of the population as not above 1500 white men, and throughout the province a proportion of four negroes to one white man; not more than 1100 fami- lies English and French. He tells the story of the de- struction of Lord Cardross's colony in 1686, and of the projected invasion of St. Augustine, the design of which. he had heard, was to establish a trade with the Spaniards. He finds great alarm at the rumors of the French settling on the Mississippi, " not far from the head of the Ashley River "; charges the Lords Proprietors with neglect in not furnishing ammunition during the French war; pro- poses a scheme for soldiers to be sent over at half pay for two or three years, then to maintain themselves (this could be done at small charge until they numbered 1000) ; submits a proposal by one of the Council. a great Indian trader who had been 600 miles up the country west from Charles Town, to discover the mouth of the Mississippi in five or six months at an expense of about £400 or £500.3 The great improvement made in the prov- ince he attributes to the industry and labor of the in- habitants. They had applied themselves to make such commodities as might increase the revenue of the Crown,
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca. vol. I, 209.
2 Ibil., 230 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 443.
3 Colonel James Moore, Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 208.
303
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
as cotton wool, ginger, indigo, etc., but finding them not to answer the end. they were set upon making pitch. tar, and turpentine, and planting rice, of which they could make great quantities if they had any encouragement from England, having about 50,0001 slaves to be em- ploved in that business; but they had lost most of their vessels, which were but small, some by the French and some by the Spaniards, so that they were not able to send those commodities to England for a market; neither were there sailors there to man their vessels.
He recommends that his Majesty should, for a time, suspend the duties upon rice, and should encourage the planters to fall vigilantly upon making pitch and tar, etc. Charles Town he represented as the safest port for vessels bound from the West Indies to the northern plantation. He had formerly presented their Lordships with proposals for supplying England with pitch, tar, masts, and all naval stores from New England ; and he had observed. when in New York, great abundance of tar brought down the Hudson River, and great quantities also from the colony of Connecticut; but since his arrival in Carolina. he finds he had come to the only place for such commodities upon the Continent of America. Some persons had offered to deliver in Charles Town Bay, upon their own account, 1000 barrels of pitch and as much tar, others greater quan- tities, provided they were paid for it in Charles Town in Lyon dollars,2 passing here at five shillings per piece. The season for making these commodities in this province being six months longer than in Virginia and the more
I Doubtless a clerical error or typographical error for 5000.
2 By net of 1691, fixing the value of Spanish coins, it was enacted "that pieces of eight of the coyne of Mexico Pillar . . . Peru Lion dollar and other coynes containing full thirteen penny weight troy and upwards shall be currante money and pass in this part of this province at tive shillings the piece of eight," etc. - 2 Statute, 95.
-------
304
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
northern plantations, a planter here could make more tar in one year with fifty slaves than the inhabitants of northern plantations could do with double the number in those places, these slaves living here at very easy rates,and with few clothes. He encloses a statement of the number of French Protestants living in Carolina, which he had received from Mr. Girard. He finds these people industri- ous and good husbandmen ; but they were discouraged be- cause they were denied the benefit of being the owner and master of vessels which other subjects of his Majesty's plantation enjoyed. He concludes his account of Carolina by saying that, if the place was duly encouraged, it would be the most useful to the Crown of all the plantations upon the Continent of America.
The new courts did not work smoothly. A vessel was seized and condemned in the Court of Admiralty as a prize; Morton, the Judge, refusing to receive the evidence of witnesses that it was owned by English subjects and over- ruling all defences. Randolph, as usual putting the worst construction upon the affair, charged corruption, in which he implicated the Judge in Admiralty and the Governor, his brother-in-law. The matter was taken up in England and gave considerable trouble.1 As might have been ex- pected from the over punctiliousness and scrupulosity of the new Chief Justice, and his general unfitness for such a position amidst the discordant elements of the colony, with the meddlesome Randolph at hand to be stirring up new difficulties, Mr. Bohun was soon in as much trouble in Carolina as he had been at home. He was at once in as much opposition to Governor Blake as he had been first to King James, and then to King William. Nor did he find the colonists of Carolina any more disposed
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Cu., vol. II, 200, 201 ; Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. 1, 510.
305
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
to acquiesce in his assumption of superior morals than had been the Whigs or Tories in England.
We have no record of the immediate occasion of the difficulty which arose, but it is apparent that the attempt two hundred years ago to establish in Carolina a dual gov- ernment, with a dual system of judicature, gave rise at once to jealousies and collisions as it has done afterwards in our own times under the Federal and State constitu- tions. The Lords Proprietors duly forwarded to their Governor and Council the orders and instructions of the Royal Government relating to the trade and navigation laws with instructions to observe them, and to pay all due respect to his Majesty's officers; but they were very jeal- ous of the Court of Admiralty, and did not hesitate to express their chagrin that Landgrave Morton, one of their Council, should have accepted a commission from any other source than themselves. even though it was that of a judicial office from his Majesty himself.1
On the 21st of September, 1699. the Proprietors address two letters, one to the Governor and Council and the other to the Chief Justice.
To the former they write : 2 -
"Gentlemen: wee are not willing to let any ship goe from hence without a line from us. And truly you do manage matters on all hands that wee have occassion more than enough. We are sorry that the sincere love and hearty care wee have for our colony should pro- duce no better effect, and wonder you can't see the benefit that will always accrue to you and your posterity by a judge who does not de- pend on the will and pleasure of a governor. For as we will not act arbitrarily ourselves, so we will always endeavour that nobody shall. Wee expected that you and our councill should have countenanced our judge; but wee easily discerne that you raise him all the enemys and troubles that you can, and in some things in an extraordinary way
1 Call. Hist. Soc. of No. Cu .. vol. I, 148. 149.
2 Note to Introductory Memoir to Autobiography of Edmund Bohun.
X
306
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
to say no otherwise of it. Not that wee judge him altogether blameless ; but there have been faults on all hands. And wee expect and earnestly desire that which is past may be forgot and that for the future you will give him due encouragement and assistance as we shall require of him to carry himself with all respect to you and justice and kindness to the people. Gentlemen your very affectionate friends. Bath palatine," etc.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.