USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.2 > Part 16
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
" Let me therefore Gentlemen recommend to you," said the Gov- ernor, " a dutiful and respectful behaviour to them that we may merit their interest favour and protection which you may then be assured of, an earnest of which their Lordships have already shown by their donation to the public of all the arrears that are due to them. whether from lands sold or for rent and all growing rents that shall become due to the first May 1718, the charges of the civil government only deducted."
He recommended several matters to their immediate consideration : the providing for the defence of the country for the ensuing year, the acts upon the subject being about to expire; the repairing of the fortifications of Charles Town and Johnson Fort. He advised them to find some more effectual method to prevent fraud in packing pitch, and for the better hulling and cleaning of rice, for want of which these commodities bear but a low price in proportion to those of other countries at home. i.e. in England; to consider the deplorable condition the public credit. trade. and the colony in general are reduced to by the currency of so great a quantity of paper money. and to fall on some sudden and effectual means to remedy the same.
"The Lords Proprietors." the Governor said, "expect
580
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
their former price of three pounds per hundred acres of land. according to an net of 6 of Queen Anne. The great disproportion the money now has, has obliged me and my Council to give orders to the Receiver General to take twelve pounds per hundred acres being now but an equiva- lent. That order I hope will be but of short duration since I promise myself you will coneur in some measures to make the money better."
He advised them to make the acts of Assembly more gen- erally useful . by their being methodized fit for the press " and sent to England to be printed ; to consider seriously of the very great rates of all provisions in Charles Town. to remedy which he advised the Assembly not only to regulate the prices of butcher's meat in the town, but also to lay a duty on the exportation of all provisions, rice only excepted ; and to take off any duty then on any provisions imported. This, he added, will enable us, if there should be occasion, to assist Sir Robert Montgomery or any other new settler. He wished a state house and public prison built. for want of the latter of which he said criminals and debtors escaped daily, to the impoverishment of creditors, to the great detriment of trade and encouragement of offenders, to the eluding of justice, and endangering the public peace.
But. above all. he recommended to the Assembly to let true religion and virtue be their constant care, which he doubted not would naturally induce them to bring in a bill for the better support and maintenance of the clergy, and thereby give sufficient encouragement for good, pious, and learned men to come among them.
The committee appointed to answer this address were instructed by the House to " touch slightly (but not by way of argument or submission) on what the last two Assemblies had done heretofore in addressing his Majesty to take the province under his protection. And as to the
581
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
donations of the Lords Proprietors to the said province that they take notice of the design of the House to con- sider thereof at the proper time." 1 They did not regard the taking £12 for £3 as a donation. But if there were right and justice in any matter on the part of the Pro- prietors. it was surely in this. They had agreed to let their lands for £3 per hundred acres at a time when the value of the pound in currency was equal, or nearly so, to the pound sterling.2 They were objecting to the emissions of paper money in Carolina on general public grounds. to which the Governor's speech called the atten- tion of the Assembly; they certainly were not called upon themselves to take the objectionable paper which now would pass only at the rate of four to one-that is to say. twenty shillings for five 3 - in payment of the pound for which they had bargained. But the House was in a quarrelsome mood, and sneered at the muniticence of the surrender of their arrears by the Proprietors, which, by the Governor's notice, was now limited to extend only to the 3d of May, 1716. The Assembly declined the dona- tion. Governor Johnson was anxious that they should accept it, and desired them to order a rent-roll made for the benefit of the Proprietors. "As the Assembly is to pass wholesome laws," he said. "even to private persons. much more to the Lords Proprietors who are our masters!" The Assembly took offence at this and replied: "We cannot but approve of your Honor's care of these Lord- ships' interests who are. as you say, your masters." "If you look over their charters," was the answer, "you will find them to be your masters likewise. "+
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 281 ; Commons Journal ( MISS.).
2 Statutes of No. Ca., vol. II, 709.
3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 250, note ; Council Journals * Ibid., 281.
(MISS.).
582
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Among the measures for the defence of the colony which had been adopted immediately after the raid of the Spaniards and the destruction of Lord Cardross's colony, was the passage of an act providing for the maintenance of a store of powder. In those days all merchant ships, as well as others, were more or less armed for their defence against pirates, and carried a supply of ammunition. The act levied a tax in kind upon powder from every ship entering a port of the province ; and in case of failure to deliver this tax in kind, the ship was assessed £9 for every ton which the ship measured. The Governor was authorized by this act to appoint a person to receive the powder, or its equivalent in money. The act was amended from time to time, reducing the amount of the tax, but continuing the plan for maintaining a store of powder for emer- gencies. But as in the case of the Receiver General in his father's administration, the Assembly had taken the appointment of this officer to themselves. Governor Johnson. determined to gather in as far as possible all powers yielded to the Assembly in former administra- tions, took the opportunity of the appointment of this officer to try conclusions with that body, and to regain the ground lost for the Proprietors on that occasion. The House had elected Colonel Michael Brewton to be powder-receiver. " The keys . of the magazine." said Johnson, "shall be kept only by the officer appointed by the Governor who is military chief, and grants commis- sions ; the House shall forthwith order the keys- de- livered to Maj. Win. Blakeway whom he has commissioned .commander of the fortification and to take charge of the magazines which office cannot be separated from that of powder receiver." The House refused to proceed in business if this demand was insisted upon, and prepared
583
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
an advertisement to be made public in such a case. The Governor partly yielded, and proposed for the sake of peace that both officers might be appointed. .. My officer shall keep the magazine and give receipts to your officer for all powder delivered into his keeping." " What is the use." replied the House, "of a powder- receiver who don't keep the powder?" "But I insist on keeping it," said Johnson. " for I am his Majesty's the King's Lieutenant." The following advertisement was immediately fixed up at the watch-house by order of the Assembly : -
" Whereas in and by an act entitled an act declaring the right of the House of Commons for the time being to nominate the Public Receiver and duly ratified in open Assembly the 5th day of July 1707, among other things therein contained, it is enacted that the power riglit and authority of nominating and appointing the public receiver. and comptroller, powder receiver and all such officers who receive a settled salary out of the public treasury of this province, shall always remain and be solely in the disposal of the House of Commons for the time being, who shall put out, call to an account, and put in place from time to time all such officers according to their discretion; and whereas this present House of Commons did on Saturday the 7th of December instant nominate and appoint Col. Michael Brewton to be powder-receiver in this province, and in that station to act and do in all things as the laws thereof now or hereafter to be in force shall direct and order him :- These are therefore to give notice and require all masters and commanders of ships and vessels, liable by law to pay any powder to the powder-receiver, who shall after the date hereof clear out and depart this province, that they pay the powder due and payable according to law for the several respective ships they shall happen to be masters or commanders of, nnto Colonel Michael Brewton appointed powder-receiver as aforesail, and to no person else inhabiting in the same whatsoever, as they will answer the contrary by being prosecuted as the law directs. Signed by order of the House. George Logan Speaker." 1
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. ( Rivers), 282, 233.
,
584
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
But notwithstanding these disagreements between the Governor and Commons, some legislation was accom- plished at this session. Above all things, the Governor had recommended to the care of the Assembly the main- tenance of true religion and virtue and the support of the clergy. To this the Assembly responded without reli- gious controversy. They erected another parish in the upper part of St. Andrew's, to be called St. George's.1 and passed an act for the further encouragement of the clergy of the province by advancing their salaries, by which the rector of St. Philip's, Charles Town, was given an additional salary of £100 per annum, and the rectors of the other parishes $50.2 An elaborate act for the bet- ter governing and regulating of white servants was also enacted.3 By another, the Governor was empowered to enlist 140 men, to be drawn from the companies through- out the province, and to organize them for its defence.+ An additional act to that for laying an imposition on liquors, goods, and merchandise, of the 30th of June, 1716, was passed. by which the duty of £30 on each slave brought into the province was continued and cer- tain doubts in regard to the same were removed. A new feature of the act, which was to be another cause of dif- ference with the Proprietors, was that all liquors, goods, negroes, wares, merchandise, imported into the province in any ship or vessel owned by the inhabitants of the province and built in the province, were declared free of all duties ; and all such goods, etc., imported in ships or vessels built here, whose owners lived out of the province, should be liable to but half duties ; and goods imported in ships or vessels built out of the province. but owned by inhabitants of it, were liable to but three-
1 Statutes of So. Cu .. vol. III, D. 2 [bid., 11. a Ibid., 14. 4 Ibid., 23.
585
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
quarters duties.1 An additional act was also passed to continue the currency of the bills of credit.2
The pirates were again on the coast and demanded the attention of the new Governor.
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. III, 32. 2 Ibid., 34.
CHAPTER XXVI
1717-18
BEFORE sending Captain Rogers and his small fleet to New Providence, the King had issued a proclamation promising pardon to all pirates who should surrender themselves within twelve months. This proclamation was published throughout Carolina, On the 3d of De- cember, 1717, Governor Johnson sent in a message to the Commons upon the subject.
"His Majesty," he said, " being pleased to issue out his Royal Proclamation extending his pardon to all pirates that shall lay hold on the same, and surrendering them- selves according to the time limited in said proclamation ; and we having several of our inhabitants that unwarily and without due consideration have engaged in that ill course of life and are now resident at the Bahama Islands, and other places adjacent, I think it a duty incumbent on me, with all speed to send his Majesty's proclamation thither to let our people see that they may return hither again in safety to us, if in time they embrace his Majesty's royal favor ; therefore some proper person must be thought of to carry this proclamation to them; and Col. Parris being willing to undertake the same (who is very well known to all the inhabitants of this Province) if you can spare him from the Public business ; I shall give him my instructions accordingly." 1
1 Commons Journal (S. C. Hughson), Johns Hopkins Univ. Stetics, 2 series, V, VI, VII, 67. In the following account of the operations of
556
587
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
There is no record that Colonel Parris ever went to the Bahamas with the King's proclamation, or of the ac- ceptance of its offers by any of the inhabitants of Carolina, who had so " unwarily " engaged in that ill course of life ; nor is there any record of the numbers who had left the province for that purpose. There is no reason to believe that there were many. Governor Johnson speaks of them as " several," which may be any small number more than two; but there were not enough to arouse sufficient in- terest to induce further action in regard to the matter of their pardon. The author of the essay upon the sub- ject to which we have had repeated occasion to refer is mistaken in supposing that Governor Johnson referred to Carolinians in his communication to the Proprietors, in which he complains that the proclamation of peace had worked no good effect upon the pirates, as they shortly returned to their evil courses. The Governor was. in this letter, speaking of the pirates generally ; there is no allu- sion in this paper to any from Carolina. In a community in which there were constantly new-comers, adventurers from all parts of Europe and America, it would have been strange if there had not been some ready to join in the wild life of the buccaneers, which had. until so recently, been encouraged by the powers that were now attempting to suppress them. There were no doubt some such, as ob- served in the introductory chapter, but the title of the essay to which we have referred. to wit. The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce, is misleading. Pirates infested the coast of Carolina : but they were in no sense Carolina pirates. Of the forty-five who constituted the
the pirates on the Carolina coast, the resistance of the colony and their ultimate defeat, the facts are taken generally from this most exhaustive study of the subject by Mr. Hughson, and his statement often followed with but little change in phraseology.
588
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
party taken in 1699, there were Englishmen, Frenchmen. Portuguese, and Indians, but no Carolinians ; among the thirty-eight pirates seized and brought into Charles Town for trial 1716-18, there were but three who claimed to have been formerly inhabitants of the province. Upon their trials one of these was acquitted ; two were among the convicted. Judging from the citizenship of those who were taken and tried, and most of whom were exe- cuted, it would have been more in consonance with the facts to have spoken of them as British pirates on the coast of Carolina. They came from England, Scotland. Ireland, and the West Indies.
Captain Rogers arrived at New Providence in July, 1718, and took possession of the colony for the Crown. He found a large number of pirates there, most of whom surrendered and took the oath. But one. Charles Vane, refused to do so. He pursued a more desperate course. When he heard that Rogers had arrived off the bar. he wrote him a letter offering to surrender, on the condition that he would be permitted to dispose of what spoil he had in the manner that suited himself. Receiving no as- surances, he determined to escape. In crossing the bar. he was met by two of Rogers's vessels, with whom he ex- changed shots, and. after several exciting adventures, suc- ceeded in getting safely to sea with ninety men, in a sloop belonging to one of his officers named Yeates, and made for the Carolina coast, where he engaged in several pirati- cal exploits. While the action of the British authorities did much to relieve the West Indies. it greatly aggravated the situation in Carolina, at the instance of the colonists of which the expedition had mainly been undertaken. Finding themselves driven out from New Providence and the Bahamas generally, the pirates established themselves on the North Carolina coast ; and. before many months
589
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
had passed, they swarmed into the Cape Fear and Pamlico rivers in greater numbers than the government of that weak colony could possibly oppose.1
While Rogers was on his voyage to New Providence. early in June. Edward Thatch.2 who. under the sobriquet of " Black Beard," had spread terror along the entire North American coast, suddenly appeared off Charles Town with a powerful equipment, and began a series of most fla- grant outrages. It is said that he had come in under the King's proclamation in January, and surrendered to Governor Eden of North Carolina : but the temptations of the old free life proving too strong, before the end of the winter he again fitted out from North Carolina, and was once more harrying the coast, and capturing vessels of all nations. It was during one of these cruises that he visited the Bay of Honduras, where he met Stede Bonnet. late of Barbadoes, and the two returned to Carolina together. taking numerous prizes by the way. From the captured vessels he recruited his force so that by the time he reached the South Carolina coast he was in command of a fleet consisting of a ship of more than forty guns, and three attendant sloops, on board of which were above 400 men.
On the 18th of June, 1718, Governor Johnson writes to the Proprietors : "About fourteen days since. four sail ap- peared in sight of the town. immediately took the pilot boat which was stationed on the bar, and in a few days took eight or nine outward-bound vessels with several of the best inhabitants of Charles Town on board."3 Among the passengers thus taken was Samuel Wragg, a member
1 S. C. Huchson, Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 2 series, V, VI, VII, 66. 2 Also spelled .. Teach," but Hughson, whom we closely follow in this account, adapts the spelling in the text.
" Call. Hist. Soc. of So. C ... vol. 11, 296.
590
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
of the Council of the province, and his son William, then but four years of age, who became one of the most dis- tinguished men in the American colonies, and to whose memory there is a tablet in Westminster Abbey. - How the pirates became aware that they had made so distin- guished a prisoner, says Hughson, is not known: but. having ascertained the fact, they determined to make the best of their good fortune. At this time the fleet was in need of certain medicines, and Thatch directed his sur- geon to prepare a list of the desired articles, and sent him to demand them of Governor Johnson. Arming a boat, he sent it up to the town in command of one of his offi- cers named Richards. The officer was accompanied by a Mr. Marks. a captured citizen who was ordered to lay the situation before the Governor, and to inform him if the necessary supplies were not immediately forthcoming and the men permitted to return unharmed, the heads of Mr. Wragg and the other Charles Town prisoners would be sent to him. Marks was given two days to accomplish his mission, and the prisoners, who had been acquainted with the demand, and the penalty of its refusal, awaited, it may well be imagined, with the most intense anxiety the return of the embassy. Two days passed. and the party did not return. Thatch suspected that his man had been seized by the Governor. and notified Wragg that the other prisoners and himself should prepare for immediate death. He was persuaded, however, to stay this cruel order for at least a day. and, while awaiting the expira- tion of that time, a message was received from Marks that their boat had been overturned by a squall, and that. after many difficulties, they had succeeded in reaching Charles Town. This explanation satisfied Thatch for a while, and he gave the prisoners the freedom of the vessel until the third day, when, losing patience, he again swore that he
. . ..
591
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
would be revenged on the colony for the supposed arrest of his men. by putting Wragg and their other captive to death. The story is told by Johnson in his History of the Pirates. that. in order to save themselves, the prisoners agreed to pilot the fleet into the harbor and assist Thatch in battering down the town ; but Hughson, in his study of the subject, very properly discredits the story. Wragg's high character would, of itself, be a sufficient ground for refusing it belief unless substantiated by higher evidence than that of the pirates themselves. It is not improbable that the pilot captured off the bar would have been forced to bring in their ships had the pirates so desired; but it is altogether improbable that Thatch would have vent- ured his forty guns against the 100 which lined the forti- fications of the town, and risked his vessels in the harbor where Governor Johnson and Rhett would have had bim under such disadvantage. He could enforce his terrible threat upon the lives of valued citizens without danger to himself, as he lay outside the bar ; to have come in would have lessened his power over his prisoners, and endangered his own safety.
In the meantime the greatest consternation prevailed in the town. The friends of the captives were strong and numerous. Would the Governor sacrifice their lives rather than allow these people, even though they were pirates, a few dollars' worth of medicines? Might he not now save the lives of valued citizens, and afterwards avenge the insult to the province? Governor Johnson convened his Council and laid the situation before it. The demands of the pirates were acceded to. The medicines were pre- pared without delay, and in a few hours Marks, accom- panied by his guard, was on his way to the bar. A large quantity of rich spoil having been secured from the capt- ured vessels, Thatch sent Wragg and the rest of the
592
HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
prisoners ashore in a half-naked condition. After suffer- ing numerous hardships they made their way back to Charles Town. glad to escape with their lives. Thatch is said to have secured 86000 in specie from Wragg alone.1
From Charles Town Thatch went to North Carolina, where he remained for some time in comparative idleness; then. resuming his course, his depredations were extended up the coast as far as Pennsylvania. not infrequently vis- iting Philadelphia. His career was, however, soon ended. His crew was captured and himself slain by a party organized by Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, and fitted out to clear the coasts of that province.
In his letter of the 18th of June, Governor Johnson had appealed to the Board of Proprietors for a frigate or two to cruise about for the protection of the Carolina com- merce. " Hardly a ship goes to sea," he wrote, " but falls into the hands of the pirates."2 But no assistance came. During the summer the pirates gave little trouble to the few vessels which sailed with their indifferent cargoes ; but as soon as the autumn set in, familiar as they were with the Carolina trade, they began to prepare for active operations. as it was at that season when the rice and other products of the province brought the rich mer- chantmen to the town with their goods and specie for exchange. During the months of September and Octo- ber their career found its culmination in a series of exploits unparalleled in audacity since the days of the previous century, when the buccaneers in the West Indies, under the leadership of the infamous Henry Mor- gan, held the seas against the Heets of the then powerful kingdom of Spain.
In company with Thatch on several of his cruises, in-
I Hughson, ante. 2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca. vol. II, 257.
593
UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT
cluding that off Charles Town harbor just related, there had been one, the most remarkable of all the sea robbers of this period, and whose destiny it was to perish upon the gallows in the town he with Thatch had so insulted. This was Major Stede Bonnet. the last man, as it has been said, who could have been expected to have launched out upon such an abandoned and desperate career. A man past the meridian of life, of good antecedents, possessed of wealth. and of a considerable degree of education and refinement. as such accomplishments were in those rude times, there was every reason for him to remain at home and end his days in peace and honor. He had served with some distinction in the Army of Barbadoes, had been honorably retired after attaining the rank of Major, and was residing at Bridgetown at peace with all the world. and in good favor with the citizens of that thriving colony. Besides this, Bonnet had no knowledge of the sea, and knew so little of the requirements of a sailor's life that his first experiences resulted only in disaster. Indeed, it was said, and probably with truth, that his mind was disordered.
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.