USA > South Carolina > The history of South Carolina under the proprietary government, 1670-1719, V.2 > Part 3
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of Granville's wishes to accomplish the purpose as a part of the politics in England. But it was not true that mem- bers of the British Parliament were obliged to conform to the Church of England by receiving the sacrament. And it is extraordinary that such a statement should have been made with the sanction of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who himself had been a member of Parliament.
There was no law nor custom requiring a member of
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 218.
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Parliament to do so. The Test and Corporation acts af- fected the membership of that body, but partially and by indirection. Of the two constituent parts of the House, the knights of the shire and the borough members. they could reach only one. The knights of shires, i.e. the county members, who were. however, usually churchmen. were not affected by them. They operated only upon the members of corporations as electors of burgesses. But their effect, even as to these, had been, in a great meas- ure, avoided by the custom of " occasional conformity." There was no precedent at home, therefore, for the strin- gent measures by which the churchmen in Carolina were outstripping the Tories in England, in their efforts to ex- clude the dissenters from participation in the government.
Based upon this false premise, the act required that every person thereafter chosen a member of the Commons House should receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to rites and usage of the Church of England in some public church upon some Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday ; and should deliver to the Speaker a cer- tificate of his having done so under the hand of a minister, or make proof by two credible witnesses. Apart from other hardships and injustice of this requirement was this, that there was but one church as yet outside of Charles Town. i.e. Pompion Hill chapel on Cooper River. so that to comply with the act - if assented to- would require every member elected to journey to the town or to Pom- pion Hill on some Lord's Day for the purpose. But there was a difficulty in the way of this act on the part of some, at least, of its supporters. Some of them, though profess- ing to be members of the church, were not themselves communicants. Indeed. it was charged that some of them were blasphemers and hard livers. Mr. Marston. the min- ister of St. Philip's Church, who became involved in the
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controversy, declared that many of the members of the Commons House that passed the aet were constant ab- sentees from the church and that eleven of them were never known to have received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, though for five years past he had administered it in his church at least six times a year. This charge is countenanced by a provision which would cover just such cases. It was provided that, as some persons might scru- ple to receive the sacrament by reason of their fears that they were not rightly fitted and prepared to partake of that ordinance, who did nevertheless, out of real choice, conform to the Church of England and sincerely profess the same, such persons upon making oath to the fact, and that they usually frequented the church for public wor- ship, and did not avoid the communion from any dislike of the manner or form of its administration as used by the Church of England and prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer, and making profession of conformity as required by the act, were declared sufficiently qualified to be mem- bers of the House.
As might be supposed, the bill met with vehement oppo- position. In the House Thomas Jones, John Beamer, Laur Denner, William Edwards, and John Stanyarne entered under leave their dissent in these words, "that King Charles II having granted a liberty in his charter to the people for the settling of this colony, we think the above bill too great an infringement on the liege subjects of his Majesty ": Charles Colleton, "that the said bill is not proper for the inhabitants of the colony at this time "; James Cochran because " contrary to the liberties of the inhabitants of the province, which liberty hath encouraged many persons to transport themselves into the province." In the Council Landgrave Joseph Morton was denied leave to enter his protest against the act. There being
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no further use for the Assembly, it was prorogued till October.1
Colleton's objection was the correct one. The act was not a proper one for the colony. But an appeal to the Royal charter would not have helped the opponents of the measure. That instrument did not guarantee the right of participation in the government to persons of all religious denominations. It provided that no person should be molested or called in question for any differences of opinion or practice in matters of religious concernment, who did not actually disturb the peace; but that did not ' give the right to dissenters, any more than to Roman Catholics. to take part in the government. The religious liberty and freedom which the charter guaranteed related only to the exercise of religion without molestation; and even in that it was restricted to such indulgences and dis- pensations as the Proprietors should think fit to grant. Nor could appeal be made to the Fundamental Constitu- tions, for the Church of England was declared by those laws to be "the only true and orthodox and the national religion of all the King's dominions."
But all the churchmen in the colony did not approve the measure. It met with opposition from a quarter little to have been expected. and became involved in other issues.
Upon the death of Mr. Marshall, in 1699. the Governor and Council had written to the Lord Bishop of London telling him of Mr. Marshall's death ; of the great virtues he had exhibited during his short life in the colony : how that by his easy, and, as it were, natural use of the cere- monies of the church, he had taken away all occasion of
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 218, 219. quoting Journals.
The term " prorogue" is used in cases in which the Assembly is adjourned by the Governor from time to time. The term "adjourn " is used in cases in which the Assembly ends its session by its own motion.
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scandal at them, and by his prudent and obliging way of living and manner of practice he had gained the esteem of all persons ; and praying that his Lordship would send them such another. The same encouragement and pro- vision as was made for Mr. Marshall, they said, was settled by act of Assembly upon his successor, a minister of the Church of England : viz. £150 yearly, a good brick house and plantation, two negro slaves. and a stock of cattle, besides christening, marriage, and burial fees.1
Before learning of the death of Mr. Marshall, the Pro- prietors had secured the services of the Rev. Edward Marston. M.A., for Pompion Hill chapel in the neighbor- hood of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the settlements on Goose Creek and Cooper River.2 Mr. Marston had been recom- mended not only by the Bishop of London, but by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Upon his arrival, in 1700. he was put in charge of St. Philip's Church in the place of Mr. Marshall. And the Rev. Samuel Thomas, the first missionary sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, designed for a mission to the Yamassee Indians, coming out soon after, but the disturbed condition of the country in consequence of the Spanish invasion and St. Augustine expedition rendering service among the Indians impracticable, Governor Johnson had substituted him to the care of the people upon the three branches of Cooper River in the place of Mr. Marston; his principal place of residence to be at Goose Creek.
Unfortunately, Mr. Marston was of a very different character from that ascribed to Mr. Marshall, whom he
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 37.
2 This was the first Episcopal or English Church in the province out- side of Charles Town. It was erected by the parishioners, with the liberal assistance of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, on the east branch of Cooper River. It was built of cypress, thirty feet square, upon a small hill usually called Pompion Hill.
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succeeded. Though recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury as well as by the Bishop of London. he had been a notorious Jacobite ere his coming to the province, and was for a time imprisoned in England for railing against the government.1 He brought over with him the same violent passions and contentious disposition. A Jacobite in England in the reign of William, he turned with equal rancor against the churchmen in Carolina under Queen Anne. He threw himself into violent opposition to the act which now so excited all parties, and vehemently assailed from his pulpit not only the measure itself, but all who sup- ported it. He was thereupon ordered by the House to lay the minutes of two of his sermons before its bar. This he refused to do, and the House addressed the Governor upon the subject before its adjournment. This Mr. Marston still more resented, and in a sermon preached the Sunday before the Assembly reconvened in October, he again attacked the House. charging it with calumniating and abusing him. Again the next Sunday. that is, the Sunday after the meet- ing of the Assembly, he boldly declared that though he had been ordered to lay his sermons before the House, he did not think himself obliged to do so, and asserted that he was in no wise obliged to the government for the bountiful revennes they had allowed him; that he did not think himself inferior to them or obliged to give an account of his actions to them; that though they gave him a maintenance, he was their superior, his authority being from Christ. He compared the members of the House to Korah and his rebellious companions.
Mr. Marston had meddled in another matter with which he had no concern. The Colleton members, who had withdrawn from the House the year before, had sent Mr. Ash to Europe to lay their grievances before the Lords
1 Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. 1, 376.
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Proprietors, and, if necessary, before the Royal Govern- ment itself. Apprehending that if the purpose of his voyage was known he might be in some way detained. Mr. Ash had hurried to Virginia, to sail thence instead of em- barking for England from Charles Town, and there Land- grave Smith had addressed him letters reflecting very sharply upon the conduct of the House. Just before the adjournment of the Assembly, Smith wrote to Ash, June 30, 1703, the House had passed "a noble vote" interpreting the " Regulating Bill," that is, the law regulating elections so that foreigners, as well as natural-born subjects, should have the liberty to vote if they were worth £10 and had been in the province three months; "and honest Ralph," he said, "who loves slavery better than liberty moved your Honorable assembly to bring in a bill to naturalize all foreigners next spring . .. so that unless we have a Regulating Bill and some other acts passed in England for the good government of this country I cannot see how we can pretend to live happy here." Again, on the 25th of July, Smith wrote to Mr. Ash: "Enclosed you will find another copy of the famous vote of our Assembly for fear the same should not come to your hands ; also a copy of their Act against Blasphemy and Profaneness which they always made a great noise about, although they are some of the most profanest in the country themselves ; yet you know great pretenders to religion and honesty for a colour for their Roguery." 1
These letters fell into the hands of Governor Johnson. Oldmixon says they were betrayed into his hands upon the death of Mr. Ash, which occurred in England soon after his arrival there. Governor Johnson, on the reconvening of the Assembly on the 5th of October, laid the letters before the House, that they might. he said, take such
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 56, moting MISS. Journals.
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measures as should make Mr. Smith sensible of his fault and might deter all others for the future from committing like offences against the government. Landgrave Smith attended the House on the 9th and acknowledged the letters, whereupon he was taken into the custody of the Messenger.
This was certainly a most arbitrary and unwarranted proceeding, appertaining more to the military character of Sir Nathaniel than illustrating his prudence and justice as a civil administrator. Mr. Smith had certainly the right to express his opinion of the proceedings of the House in a private letter to his personal correspondent. even though that person was on a journey to complain of the conduct of the government to the authorities in England. He had committed no contempt of the House in doing so; the Governor's conduct was not above the criticism of the humblest citizen. But all this was none of Mr. Marston's business as a minister of the church. He had no more right to arraign the government from his pulpit than the House had to arrest Landgrave Smith for opinions ex- pressed in private letters. But. burning to be prominent in all affairs, he again preached at the House, denouncing it as having proceeded illegally and arbitrarily against Mr. Smith; and ostentatiously visited him while in the custody of the officer. Upon this the House, which appears on the other hand to have been ridiculously sensitive as to its dignity and unnecessarily disposed to assert it, summoned Mr. Marston to its bar. The reverend gentleman appeared, but continuing in his controversy, the Governor, Council, and House deprived him of his salary, and in doing so, thus addressed him: -
"Now as to your Office and Ecclesiastical function we do not pretend to meddle with it, although by your Carriage of late you have deserved to be taken notice of,
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but we leave those matters to your Ecclesiastical Governors and Ordinary to proceed against you for this House doth not pretend to meddle with your Function. But for your imprudent carriage and behaviour above recited it's the Resolution of this House, and it's ordered that whereas £150 is to be paid yearly to the Minister or Incumbent of Charles Town by the Public Receiver that you be deprived of the Salary during the pleasure of this House, and that you continue so deprived until such time as by an Order of this House upon Amendment better Behaviour and Submission you be restored to the same."
Mr. Marston refused to hear this censure and withdrew. The House from regard for his profession, as it declared, "did not order him into the custody of the messenger," but directed him to be served with a copy of the cen- sure.1
When the Assembly met in October, none of those who had protested against the disqualifying act appeared at first in their seats. Much time was consumed in settling Mr. Marston's case, Notwithstanding Mr. Marston's con- duct, the churchmen proceeded to provide for the estab- lishment of religious worship in the province according to the Church of England. This much was undoubtedly con- templated by the charter and provided for in the Fundamen- tal Constitutions, which the dissenters were now represent- ing to the Proprietors to be the accepted law of the land. But in the measures proposed a clause was inserted, di- rected, as Governor Johnson subsequently admitted, to meet the case of Mr. Marston, " the pest of the country " as he termed him. Mr. Marston was undoubtedly the im- mediate cause of the provision, but Oldmixon, who so vehemently assails the act as uncanonical and unjust, in his account of the West Indies has given the strongest
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 57, 58.
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evidence of the necessity of some provision for the super- vision of clergymen coming out to the colonies.
Mr. Ralph Izard - " honest Ralph " of Landgrave Smith's letter -introduced the bill. It was entitled "An act for the establishment of religious worship in this Prov- ince according to the Church of England, and for the erect- iny churches for the public worship of God, and also for the maintenance of ministers and the building of convenient Houses for them." 1 The act prescribed that the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the sacrament, and other rites and ceremonies of the church, the Psalter or Psalms of David, and Morning and Evening Prayer therein contained, should be read by every minister or reader set- tled and established by law, and that all congregations and places of worship, for the maintenance of whose ministers any certain income or revenue was raised or paid by law, should be deemed settled and established churches.
Charles Town and the neck between Cooper and Ash- ley Rivers were made into a distinct parish by the name of the parish of St. Philip's in Charles Town. The church in Charles Town (i.e. that which stood where St. Michael's now stands), and the ground thereunto adjoining enclosed and used for a cemetery or churchyard, were declared to be the parish church and churchyard of St. Philip's, Charles Town.
Berkeley County was divided into six parishes : "one in Charles Town, St. Philip's ; one upon the southeast of Wando River : one upon that neck of land lying on the northwest of Wando and southeast of Cooper River; one on the western branch of Cooper River: one upon Goose Creek : and one upon Ashley River." Six churches were to be built, one in each of the five parishes outside of Charles Town, and one on the south side of Stono River
1 Statutes of So. C., vol. 11, 236 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 58.
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in Colleton County, which territory was not. however, made into a parish. Lands were to be taken up from the Lords Proprietors. or purchased for glebes and recto- ries. The expense of building these churches, parsonage houses, etc .. were to be defrayed out of any subscriptions made for that purpose; the balance to be paid out of the public treasury. Supervisors for building these churches and parsonages were appointed, with power to press bricks, or lime, and other material, and to compel carpenters, joiners, workmen, and laborers to work under the same provisions and penalties as were prescribed for building the entrenchments and fortifications of the town. The supervisors had also power to press slaves for work upon these buildings. In addition to the glebe, parsonage houses, negroes, etc., which should appertain to each, the incumbent of each parish church was to draw a salary of £50 per annum from the public treasury. It was pro- vided that the ministers of the several parishes should be chosen by the major part of the inhabitants of the parish that were of the religion of the Church of England and conformed to the same, and were either freeholders within the parish or contributed to the public taxes. Then fol- lowed the clause providing for the lay commission, with power to remove or suspend incumbents from their bene- fices.
As we have before intimated, though probably the ap- proximate cause. Mr. Marston's conduct was not the sole inducement to the enactment of the provision. The posi- tion of the clergy of the Church of England in the colonies was peculiar. The jurisdiction of the Bishop of London was generally acceded to in the American colonies, but not universally : no provision had been made by the civil government or by the Church of England for the Episco- pal supervision of the clergy who came out to America. 2 E
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In the early settlement of Virginia. Bishop King. the then Bishop of London, who had taken great interest in that colony. had in consequence been chosen a member of the King's Council for that province. In this position it was but natural that in all ecclesiastical matters he should be consulted. and there grew out of his personal interest the recognition, to some extent, of his spiritual jurisdiction.1 Beginning probably in this way, Episcopal jurisdiction of the colonies was generally assumed by Bishop King's suc- cessors, the Bishops of London. Other reasons were also assigned for its support. Here it was said to be because. as London was the commercial city of England, by a fiction the Bishop of London's jurisdiction went with London commerce. However originating. the Bishop of London's jurisdiction, or at least the right to his especial care and oversight, had hitherto been accepted and acted upon in the colony. Governor Blake and his Council, as we have just seen, acting upon it. had. upon the death of Mr. Marshall, immediately applied to Bishop Compton. asking him to send out a successor. But this jurisdiction was elsewhere questioned. It was disputed in Maryland.2 and was denied in the West Indies. In Jamaica it was barred by the laws of the colony. and the Governor, as the supreme head of the provincial church, not only inducted
1 Hist. Am. Ch. (Bishop Perry ), vol. 1, 74.
Anderson, in his History of the Colonial Church. gives another version. He attributes the origin of the Bishop of London's jurisdiction to a letter from Archbishop Laud to the merchants at Delph. and instructions to Mr. Beaumont to certify to the Bishop of London any disobedience of the King's ordinance entoreing the canons and liturgy of the church. (Vol. I, 4100. He admits, however, that he cannot find any other meas- ure by which Virginia was formally constituted a part of the diocese of London than Bishop King's connection with the King's Council. Thil. 261.
2 Maryland, Am. Commonwealth ( Brown), 192; Anderson's Hist. of the Colonial Ch., vol. III, 179.
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clergymen into their benefices, but was vested with power also of suspending a clergyman for lewd and disorderly life upon the application of his parishioners.1
Fortunately for the church in South Carolina. as it hap- pened. blessed with the aid of the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel, in the benefits of which she was the first of all the colonies to participate, and by the care of her Governor and Council, her clergymen generally were men of character fully worthy of their high calling. Gov- ernor Craven in 1712. recommending provision for their remuneration, could truthfully say: "We may boast as learned a clergy as any in America, men unblemished in their lives and principles, who live up to the religion they profess ; some of them have been long amongst us to whom a particular regard is due; always indefatigable in their functions, visiting the sick, fearless of distempers and never neglecting their duty," etc .? However contentious and contumacious was Mr. Marston, not even in his case, it must be recorded, was there breath of suspicion of im- moral conduct. But, unhappily, such had not been the character always of the clergymen of the church. who had been sent out to America. They had been often the out- casts of the church at home. Oldmixon himself. in his history of Jamaica, has given. on the authority of other writers and on his own testimony, a most deplorable ac- count of the clergy of that island. They were of vile character, and with few exceptions the most finished of all debauchees. They troubled themselves little about the church, the doors of which were seldom opened.3 The same complaint, he says, was general over all the colonies. In Maryland "the Reprobate Coode, "a blatant blasphemer
1 Hist. West Indies ( Bryan Edwards), vol. 1, 208.
2 Public Records So. Cu. 3 British Empire in Am., vol. II, 874-418.
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and drunkard. was intriguing and disturbing the peace of the Commonwealth, and the good Dr. Bray, the commis- sary of the Bishop of London, with his disputed title, found no easy task in his efforts at the reformation of others.1 Though the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London was not questioned in Virginia, even there the authority of his Commissary Blair was found a very insufficient substitute for the superintendence of a faithful bishop.2 Men repre- senting themselves as clergymen of the church presented themselves without letters. and there was no means of as- certaining whether they really had orders. The litigious and erratic Marston was followed by a fugitive from Mary- land, Richard Marsden by name, who claimed to be a clergy- man, and accounted for the absence of his letters by the improbable story that they had been blown overboard by the wind at sea, when he was drying them after a storm.3
It was in this condition of the Church of England in America, that the Governor and Assembly in South Caro- lina found themselves. while endeavoring to establish the church in the province, in actual contention with a clergy- man for whose support they were providing, while he was in open defiance of their authority. It is not improbable that had there been no trouble with Mr. Marston, the pro- vision for removing incumbents, when necessary, would yet have been made. as similar provisions then existed in the West Indies. Mr. Marston's conduct was, neverthe- less, the immediate inducement to its adoption. The rea-
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