USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.2 > Part 15
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 | Part 30 | Part 31
1 British Empire in Am., vol. II, 422.
: Hawks's Hist. of No. Cu., vol. II, 272.
& The Carolina Pirates (S. C. Hughson) ; Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 12 series, V, VI, VII, 59. + See Appendix VIIL.
566
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
of vessels in the Carolina trade had been made, and it became evident that unless some immediate action was taken the commerce of the colony would be destroyed. While the agents of Carolina in London were pressing. now the Proprietors, and then the Royal Government. for assistance in resisting Indians, the pirates had begun again their depredations on her commerce; and from neither Proprietors nor government could assistance of any consequence be secured.
Whether or not there was any truth in Randolph's charges as to Trott's complicity with the pirates while Governor of Providence, he acted now with great vigor against them. A number having been taken. a court was at once organized for their trial. Fortunately. Trott had not only the Proprietors commission as Judge of Admiralty, but he had also a commission from the King. No ques- tion could possibly arise, therefore, as to his jurisdiction. Among the English statutes under his compilation re- enacted here in 1712 was that of 27 Henry VIII. c. 4 : " For Pirates and Robbers on the Sea." In adopting the English statutes. it had been provided by this act of 1712 that the Governor and Council of the province should have all the power and authority relating to the execution of the enumerated statutes as by the same were given and possessed in England by the Lord Chancellor or the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England; and under the statute of Henry VIII pirates were to be tried by com- mission under the King's Great Seal directed to the Lord Admiral or to the Lieutenant or Deputy and to three or four such other substantial persons as should be named by the Lord Chancellor.1 In pursuance of these provisions, Governor Daniel and his Council. -- George Logan, Francis Yonge, and Samuel Eveleigh, -ou the 27th of November,
1 Statutes of So. Cu., vol. II, 413, 495.
567
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
1716, issued a commission for the trial of the captured pirates.1 A grand jury was organized and an indictment was given out against the prisoners, nine in number, six of whom were from England, one from Boston, one from New York, and one from Williamsburg. Virginia.' The grand jury returned a true bill, but upon the trial the petit jury failed to convict. Another party were, however, soon after captured. and brought to trial before the court on the 3d of July, 1717, and, as we shall see, were convicted and hung.2
1 By this commission the following assistant judges were appointed : Captain Thomas Howard, commander of his Majesty's ship the Shoram; the Hon. Charles Hart, one of the members of the Council in South Caro- lina ; the Hon. Thomas Broughton, Speaker of the House of Assembly in South Carolina ; Arthur Middleton, Esq., and Ralph Izard, Esq. ; Captain Philip Dawes; Captain William Cuthbert, commander of the Fortune frigate; Captain Allen Archer, commander of the brigantine Experi- ment ; and Samuel Deane and Edward Brailsford, merchants.
2 Admiralty Book, U. S. Dist. Ct. of So. Ca., A. and B.
CHAPTER XXV
1717
GOVERNOR CRAVEN, upon his arrival in England, attended upon the Lords Proprietors, who desired him to continue his office and to return to Carolina, but he stated that his affairs in England were of such a nature as to prevent his doing so, and requested to be excused. and that their Lordships would nominate another Governor to succeed him. The Proprietors thereupon agreed to nomi- nate Robert Johnson, son of Sir Nathaniel, as Governor, and the Secretary was instructed to prepare letters for the Royal approbation of the nomination. They ordered that a part of Mr. Johnson's instructions should be to make inquiry into the complaints of Governor Spots- wood ; that all arrears then due the Lords Proprietors and growing rents to the 1st of May. 1718, be given to the use of the public as the Governor and Council should think proper to appropriate. They also offered Governor Craven a present of $1000 for his services.1
It was not until April 30, 1717, that his Majesty's approval had been obtained and all other preliminaries arranged so as to allow the Proprietors to issue Mr. Johnson's commission. By his instructions Governor Johnson was, immediately on his arrival. to summon Alexander Skene. Nicholas Trott, Thomas Broughton. Charles Hart. Francis Yonge. Samuel Wragg. and
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 188.
588
569
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
(James) Kinloch to be the Council ; liberty of debate was to be allowed and votes upon all matters that should be debated. No member of the Council was to be suspended without good and sufficient reasons, which were to be at once forwarded to England. The Receiver General was to be aided in getting in fines and forfeitures. Their Lordships had received complaints of the exorbitant rates of bullion in Carolina, which they alleged proceeded only from an act to which they had always evinced great repugnance. called the " bank act." They recommended the reduction, as much as possible, of paper credit. Inventory was to be taken of all arms. ammunition, and stores, and storehouses were to be established through- out the province. Governor Johnson was to receive, as salary. £400 per annum, payable quarterly ; a full moiety of which in the event of his death or absence was to be paid to whomsoever might be appointed to the temporary administration of the government. Upon other points the instructions were the same as to previous Governors.1
A most curious and anomalous condition of affairs now existed as to the relations between the colony, the Pro- prietors. and the Royal Government. The Governor and Council were still in constant formal communication with their Lordships the Proprietors. But behind this regular channel of communication their Lordships were in private correspondence with Chief Justice Trott. On the other hand, while the Governor, Council. and Assembly had their regular agent, Landgrave Kettleby, in London to look after the bounties due and the affairs of the colony generally, under the instructions of a committee of corre- spoudence of the Assembly itself. that body had also their special agents. Messrs. Boone and Berresford. there directly
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 165.
570
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
appealing to the Royal Government, in which appeals, still more to complicate matters, Deputy Governor Daniel him- self was joining. 1 although he had objected to the appropri- ation of £2000 by the Assembly for Boone and Berresford, upon the ground that it was using the public funds to destroy the charter of the Proprietors.2
Thus. while the Proprietors were preparing their in- structions for Governor Robert Johnson, Messrs. Boone and Berresford were laying before his Majesty "The humble address of the Representatives and inhabitants of South Carolina," in which the memorialists say : 3-
" In our last humble address to your Majesty we took the liberty to inform your Majesty of the deplorable circumstances we then labored under, without any probability of seeing an end to our calamities. Our troubles instead of coming to a period, daily in- crease upon us, and we now see ourselves reduced by these, our mis- fortunes to such a dismal extremity, that nothing but your Majesty's most Royal and gracious protection (under God) can preserve us from ruin. Our Indians continue committing so many hostilities and infesting our settlements and plantations to such a degree, that not only those estates which were deserted at the breaking out of the war, cannot be resettled, but others are daily likewise thrown up to the mercy of the enemy to the impoverishment of several numerous families.
" We farther take the liberty to inform your Majesty that not- withstanding all these miseries, the Lords Proprietors of this Province instead of using any endeavours for our relief and assistance, are pleased to term all our endeavours to procure your Majesty's Royal protection the business of a faction and party. We most humbly assure your Majesty that it is so far from anything of that nature, that all the inhabitants of this Province in general are not only con- vinced that no human power but that of your Majesty can protect them, but earnestly and fervently desire that this once flourishing Province may be added to those under your happy protection."
1 Hewatt's Hist. of So. Ca., vol. I. 238.
2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 276, note.
3 Ibid., Appendix, 464.
571
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
This address to the King was signed by the Speaker and the rest of the members attending the Assembly.1 It was referred by his Majesty through Mr. Secretary Addison to the Board of Trade; and, on the 10th of May, 1717. Mr. Boone and Mr. Berresford. having been sent for, attended before the board and were questioned in regard to its representation. They said they had lately received and presented to Lord Carteret a letter from the Governor and Council to the Lords Proprietors, dated January 26. of which they produced a duplicate, which was read and copy taken. They stated that, upon the application to Lord Carteret, the Palatine, and pre- senting to him a printed "case " of the condition of the province, his Lordship had promised to lay the con- dition of affairs before his Majesty and to desire the necessary supplies, which they believed his Lordship had done. Being asked what number of men they thought necessary for subduing the Indians, and how long they proposed the men sent should continue in Carolina, they declared their opinion that not less than 600 would be ef- fective, 200 of whom might be disbanded in twelve months, 200 in eighteen months, and 200 in two years after their arrival in Carolina. Mr. Boone and Mr. Berresford added that Lord Carteret had declared to them his willingness to surrender his share in it if the not doing it were such an obstacle as to hinder the relief of the province.
Lord Carteret appeared before the board on the 31st. 1 "Signed by Mr Speaker and the rest of the members attending the service of the House of Commons
GEO. LOGAN. Speaker
David Durham. Ra: Izard. Benj : De La Conseillere. Thos : Summers. William Gibbon. Charles Hill. Thos Lynch. Wa: Izard. Jonathan Drake. Richard Harris, John Williams. Thomas Waring. John Godfrey. Thomas Satur. John Beamor. Arthur Hall. Hugh Hext. Roger Moore. John Woodward. Richard Batter, Jantes Cochran. John Russ. Thus Townsend ". Signed likewise by the rest of the inhabitants of this Province."
572
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
but he did not confirm what Mr. Boone and Mr. Berres- ford had said about his generous offer. On the contrary, he questioned the right of Messrs. Boone and Berresford to represent the Assembly in South Carolina, that body having been dissolved. But the persons styling them- selves such. he admitted. had desired him to present their paper to the King, which his Lordship had done. Since that, however. he had had private letters from Carolina - no doubt from Trott-which brought advice of a peace having been made with the Indians, which his Lordship observed was probable, since the Yamassees, the first au- thors of the war, were cut off. He then went on to belittle the whole matter. He said there had never been a regular war with the Indians in Carolina. Many set- tlements which had been too scattered and remote from each other had been destroyed at several times; but the whole colony was never in such danger of being lost as was suggested. He called attention to the fact that the Assembly had made no provision for the support of the men they asked for ; that the Lords Proprietors would be glad to have more men sent thither in any manner, but it could not be expected that his Majesty should send and maintain them there; that the province may have been run in debt. as alleged, but that the Lords Proprietors had applied all their profits towards its sup- port, and had purchased and sent 250 muskets, which they had heard had actually arrived in Carolina. He added he did not doubt but when Colonel Johnson, the present Governor, arrived, he would find all things quiet in the province ; his Lordship, therefore. desired the board to suspend their report to his Majesty until fresh advices should arrive from thence.1 This request of Lord Carteret appears to have been effectual for the time.
1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 250-282.
573
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
While these discussions between the agents of Caro- lina. the Proprietors, and the Board of Trade were taking place in England. the General Assembly had again met in Charles Town, and, under Daniel, the Deputy Governor. were proceeding with the legislation of the province. The salary of Colonel Alexander Parris, the Publie Receiver, was raised to 5400. and he was authorized to appoint a deputy.1 An act amendatory to the election law was passed. whereby the qualifications of voters and members of the Commons were raised. The voter was required to bave been a resident of the parish in which he offered to vote, and not merely a resident of the province, six months before the election, and to have a freehold of 50 acres of land, or to pay taxes for the sum of £50 current money of the province. The representative was required to be either a free-born subject of the kingdom of Great Brit- ain. or a foreign person naturalized by act of Parliament of Great Britain : to have been twelve months resident in the parish he was chosen for, and to have a freehold in that parish of 500 acres of land, or to be worth $1000 in leasehold or in cash or stock. From these provisions the voters and representatives from the deserted parishes of St. Bartholomew's and St. Helena were, however, ex- empted. There was a proviso allowing one to be elected a representative for a parish who owned a settled planta- tion of 500 acres, with ten negro slaves living on the same under the care of at least one white man, in any other parish of the same county. No person receiving any salary or perquisite from the Lords Proprietors was quali- fied to sit as a member of the Commons.2 In 1706 the building of wooden frame-houses in the town had been declared a common nuisance and prohibited, but now it was represented that bricks were not always to be had 1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. III. 1. 2 Ibid .. 3, 4.
574
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
but at such excessive rates as prevented the building up of waste places, and the act was repealed. Houses were allowed to be built of wood, provided the hearths and chimneys were of brick or stone. The act of the year before, for the encouragement of the importation of white servants. was found. so far from answering the purpose designed. to be " the chiefest discouragement " of their importation, and was also repealed.1
In April the province was further alarmed by news of activity on the part of the pirates in the West Indies ; and it being probable that the Shoram, the war vessel that had come to Charles Town during the Indian troubles, would shortly be ordered elsewhere, the Com- mons House addressed the Deputy Governor and his Council upon the subject. They had received informa- tion. they said, that the Governor of St. Augustine had been advised by the Governor of Havana to be on his guard. as the pirates on the Bahama Islands designed to attack them. The Commons said that they did not suppose that such persons as the pirates had any regard to or made any difference or distinction between the people of any nation whatsoever. and they ought to pro- vide for the safety and defence of the inhabitants of this province. The Commons conceived it to be proper to address Captain Howard, commander of his Majesty's ship, the Shoram, to desire him to stay some time longer with his ship, so as to deter the pirates coming here. They therefore desired the Governor and Council to appoint a committee of their House to form a committee of the Commons in a conference to draw up such an address to Captain Howard. For some reason the propo- sition was not acceded to by Daniel and his Council, and the Shoram sailed away to Virginia with orders to pro-
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. III, 6, 7.
575
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
ceed without delay to England, just at the time when there was most urgent need for her presence on the coast.1
But though Governor Daniel did not detain the Shorum, he promptly acted when, soon after. another party of pirates were taken. These were Stephen James de Cossey, Francis de Mont, Francis Rossoe, and Emman- uel Erandos, who were charged with taking the vessels the Turtle Dove. the Penelope, and the Virgin Queen, in July of the previous year. off the coast of Jamaica. Governor Daniel and his Council immediately issued a commission, appointing assistants to the Judge of Admi- ralty to try these men. The trial began on Monday, the 24th of June, and continued during the week. On Sat- urday, the 20th, the parties were convicted. They were sentenced on the 3d of July, and were executed.2
Notwithstanding the disastrous results of the attempted Scotch colony at Port Royal under Lord Cardross, and the immediate rising of the Indians at the instigation of the Spaniards upon the settling of the town of Beaufort, another proposition now came from Scotland to establish a colony between St. Augustine and the Carolina settle- ment. Sir Robert Montgomery proposed to the Pro- prietors to carry over at his own charges several families for settling and fortifying the most southern part of the
1 The Carolina Pirates (S. C. Hughson) ; Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, V. VI, VII, 64 ; Commons Journal.
2 Carolina Pirates, supra, 65; Admiralty Book, U. S. Dist. Ct. of So. Ca., A and B.
The commission named as assistants to the Judge of Admiralty : Charles Hart and Francis Yonge, two of the members of the Council ; the Hon. Alexander Skene; Hon. George Logan, Speaker of the Lower House of Assembly ; Hon. Colonel Thomas Broughton ; Ralph Izard, Bag .; Captain Philip Douces: Captain William Cuthbert, commander of the Fortune frigate; Captain Michael Cole, commander of the Sarah frigate: Samuel Fram, Edward Brailsford, and Charles A. Hill, mer- chants. Those whose names are in italics sat in this court.
576
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
province of Carolina beyond the Savannah. - thus to form a barrier to any sudden incursion of the Indians. - on the ' condition. however, that Sir Robert should be the Gov- ernor for life. The new province -for such, in fact, it was to be-was to consist of the territory between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers, and was to be known as the Margravate of Azilia.
The proposition was submitted by the Proprietors to his Majesty for his concurrence ; for they now realized the delicate relations in which they stood to the Royal Govern- ment and were afraid to take such a step without the Royal approval, lest it might be. construed as a violation of their charter. His Majesty referred the matter to the Board of Trade. To this board it was represented that the proposed colony would be a barrier against both Spaniards and Indians : that the commodities to be raised, varying from those then produced by the English planta- tions, would increase the revenue of the customs; would be to the advantage of the British trade to the Mediter- ranean: would be a check to the encroachment of the French : and would plant an honest English colony in the room of the horde of pirates at the Bahamas. The Attor- ney General's opinion was obtained that there was nothing prejudicial to thé interests of the right of the Crown in the proposition, but he doubted whether the power of government granted to the Proprietors could be divided by them so as to exempt the new province from liability to the laws of South Carolina, which were made for the whole province. He suggested that it would be better for the Proprietors to surrender their powers of govern- ment to his Majesty in the territory to be erected into a new province, reserving to themselves the property in the lands, a similar arrangement to that which then existed
1 Call. Hast. Sor. of So. Ca., vol. II, 282, 233, 234. 256.
577
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
in Maryland in regard to the Baltimore patent.1 This the Proprietors were probably unwilling to do, fearing that it was but an entering wedge to be inserted in their grant to the province at large. The suggestion of the Attorney General was not accepted by the Pro- prietors. and the scheme languished, but was appar- ently not altogether abandoned when the Proprietary Government was overthrown four years after. Then the Proprietors found themselves more willing to listen to the suggestion of the Attorney General. In 1720 we find Colonel John Barnwell, who was sent to England, as we shall see, by the Convention which overthrew the Proprie- tary Government, assisting the Proprietors with his infor- mation in regard to this territory and recommending the scheme. In 1720 he published a pamphlet in London, showing the title of the Proprietors to the territory and their right and authority to make the grant of the land contained in it. and in a letter written at the Carolina Coffee House. addressed to Sir Robert Montgomery, offers his testimony to the importance of his design and gives a glowing description of the country, especially of the islands on the coast. He writes : -
"As to the four Islands which you have assign'd to the Purchasers who are concerned in your settlement, they are called St. Simon, Sapella, St. Catarina and Ogeche. to which last before I came thence I left the Name of Mont- gomery. You have given them a general Denomination which I think they may well deserve, of the Golden Islands for as to convenient Pasture, pleasant Situation profitable fishing and fowling they surpass any thing of that kind in all Carolina." etc. : 2
The project fell through, and it was left to Oglethorpe.
1 Maryland. Am. Com. series.
2 An Account of the Golden Islands, by John Barnwell, London, 1720.
27
578
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
fifteen years after, to establish the colony of Georgia in the place of Sir Robert Montgomery's Azilia.
In the meanwhile Governor Robert Johnson had arrived at Charles Town. and assumed the government. . He met the General Assembly for the first time October 29, 1717. Unfortunately, however much personally esteemed his father, Sir Nathaniel, and himself were, he had come to sustain the tottering powers of the Proprietors, whose own folly and greed were to baffle his efforts and over- come whatever influence he might otherwise have exer- cised. Still more unfortunately for the peace and stability of his rule was the influence of Trott and Rhett, who stood before the people as more really, if less officially, the rep- resentatives of the Proprietors than himself. His first communication to the Assembly -speech as it was now termed -- arrayed the Commons at once against him.
" Mr Speaker and Gentlemen," 1 he said, " I have had the honor to be appointed your governor. I think it a peculiar happiness I am not a stranger to you, and that I have for many years been privy to all the publie transactions that have passed both in England and here relating to the country which enables me the better to judge of your interests in order to be serviceable to this province. And I flatter myself I have had justice done me to be esteemed one that has been desirous and ready upon all occasions since my being in England to promote the welfare and prosperity of it to the utmost of my ability without partiality or private interest whenever I had an opportunity. And I hope a mutual confidence in each other's good intentions to pro- mote the public welfare will be the consequence of our acquaintance."
To all of these, no doubt. the Commons cordially re- sponded. for the Speaker was much beloved. But now he came to the point of difference : --
" I am obliged for your sakes," he continued. " to give you my opinion touching the disrespectful behaviour that has of late been shown to the Lords Proprietors in not consulting them in the applica-
1 Commons Journal (MISS. ).
579
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
tions and remonstrances in England. Such proceedings were very unjustifiable and impolitic. It disconcerted the measures their Lord- ships had taken of employing their ntmost zeal and interest to serve you. And you must allow had they been consulted from time to time they were better judges than you can be how to make a proper application. Their Lordships notwithstanding the emissions from hence and vain attempts upon their prerogatives like good christians and patriots commiserated the calamity this province has laboured under, and whenever they could understand what your requests were, have more than once (particularly our Palatine) personally laid your remonstrances and supplicatious before his sacred Majesty. If it be supposed their charter is a bar to your relief, it is a mistake. His Majesty and his Parliament are too just to divest their Lordships of their properties without a valuable consideration." 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.