Z12. 
 
 Colonial Dv^jclopmciit 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered by Ges'l I]dw. McCrady 
 
 BEFORE THK 
 
 SOUTH CAROLINA :«0C1ETY 
 
 OB' THE 
 
 Colonial X)amcs of Clmerica, 
 
 APIOL 2B, 1897. 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. C 
 
 LiTCAS & Richardson Co., Book vnd Job Printp-ks, 
 No. 130 East Bay StIvLIKt, 
 
 1.R97. 
 
Glass. 
 Book. 
 
 y-LlZ. 
 
 . AV»7 
 
'1. 
 
 
Colonial Development. 
 
 FROM AN EMIGRANT CAMP TO A WELL- 
 ORDERED STATE. 
 
 General Edward McCrady Addresses the Society of the Colo- 
 nial Dames of South Carolina on " The Social Development 
 of the Colony During the First Hundred Years of its 
 Existence "—Locke's Fundamental Constitutions and the 
 Foolish Attempt to Establish an Aristocracy and Deprive 
 Freemen of their Rights Under the Royal Charter— Social, 
 Political and Educational Characteristics of Life in this 
 Province— Particular Attention Paid to Education and 
 the Liberal Arts -The Highest Standard of Culture on 
 this Continent— Liberality in Gifts to Northern Colleges— 
 A Stinging Rebuke to John Bach McMaster and his Slan- 
 derous Historical Allusions to South Carolina. 
 
 Ladies of the Society of tlie Colonial 
 Dames of South Carolina: In accepting 
 the invitation wi'th which you have hon- 
 ored me 'to 'address you upon this occa- 
 sion— 'the first on which you commemoraite 
 the settlement of the province — I can pro- 
 pose for 'O'ur consideiraiion no subject more 
 suited to the purposes of your org-aniza- 
 tion than that of 'the siocial developmemt 
 of the co'lo'ny during the first hundred 
 years of Its existence. I shall ask you to 
 follO'W me then, while I briefly trace the 
 progress of this development from its 
 beginning in the emigrant camp on the 
 Ashley to the time when joining the other 
 American colonies in throwing off their 
 depemdence on the mother country South 
 Carolina sitood before the world a State— 
 a State fully equipped for political ad- 
 ministraJtion, posses'sing great wealth, 
 with a society already famed for its re- 
 finement, eduoat'i'on and initellectual pow- 
 er; ready at once to assume a leading 
 position in the confederacy which she 
 
 entered— a position of far more influence 
 than was warranted by the number of 
 her population. 
 
 When King Charles II, upon his restora- 
 tion, rew'arded wi'th a grant of the prov- 
 ince of Carolina his followers and favor- 
 ites—the great Earl of Clarendon; the 
 famous Gen George Monck, Duke of Albe- 
 marle; the old Earl of Craven, whom 
 Macauray describes ae famous in his youth 
 "in love and war;" Lord Berkeley— "Jack 
 Berkeley"— to whose care His Majesty 
 had committed His Queen in a 
 
 great emergency; Anthony Cooper, 
 Lord Ashley, tfie subtle and uncer- 
 tain politician whom it might be wiser 
 to please than to offend; Sir George 
 CaiPterelt, the last to lower the royal ban- 
 neir, which only he had done at the King's 
 command; Sir John Colleton, who had 
 spent a fortune in the King's cause; and 
 Sir William Berkeley, who had held Vir- 
 ginia for his Majesty while he was in 
 exile— it might have been supposed that 
 
a body, composed of men of such coin- 
 manding- ability and great political expe- 
 rience, men who had been eng'ag-ed in the 
 business of making and unmaking of 
 Kings 'and commonwealths, would have 
 possessed sufflcienit political sag-aci'ty 
 wisely to have provided for the founding 
 of a great province. But such was not 
 the result. At first, indeed, these great 
 and wise men, to whom the grant was 
 made because, as it was said, of their 
 •'laudable and pious zeal for the propaga- 
 tion of the Christian faith and the en- 
 largement of his Majesty's Empire and 
 dominion," did not seem to know what to 
 do with the viast domain committed to 
 their government. Besides forming them- 
 selves into a joint stock company, ad- 
 vertising for colonists, some feeble efforts 
 at exploration of the co'asts, appo'inl;- 
 ing Sir William Berkeley, one of their 
 number, then in Virginia, Governor, and 
 attempting a small settlement on the Cape 
 F'ear, "that the King may see we sleep 
 not on his grant," they did nothing until 
 1669, when Lord Ashley assumed a lead- 
 ing part. 
 
 THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITU- 
 TIONS. 
 It so happened that at this timie the 
 great philosopher, John Locke, was living 
 with Lord Ashley, at Exeter house:, his 
 lordship's London residence, as his private 
 secretary, and to him Lord Ashley com- 
 mitted the work of drawing up a scheme 
 of government for the province they 
 owned. Of the result of the philosopher's 
 labors, supported 'as it was by Ashley, 
 now become the Earl of Shaftesbury, it 
 is difficult to speak with moderation. Re- 
 co'llecting Shaftesbury's genius and his 
 character it is scarcely more possible to 
 believe that he really approved of this 
 preposterous production than that he 
 really credited the extravagant lies 
 of Oates, in which he also' professed belief. 
 But however that may be, under his in- 
 fluence Locke's famous "Fundamental 
 Constitutions,' as they were styled, were 
 gravely and solemnly adopted by the Pro- 
 prietors at a meeting at the Cock Pit in 
 July, 1669. This most extraordinary 
 scheme of setting up an aristocratic gov- 
 ernmenit in a colony of adventurers, in 
 j the wild woods amidst savages and wild 
 I bdasts, began with a recital that it was 
 to be made agreeable to monarchy, and 
 "to avoid erecting a numerous democ- 
 racy.' 
 
 The royal charter constituted the pro- 
 vince a county palatine— a term derived 
 from (Comes Palatii,) a title formerly 
 given to some great dignity of the royal 
 household, and becoming the title of a 
 Governor of some local district with the 
 authority and privileges of vice royally. 
 The first thing to be determined, therefore, 
 was who should be the palatine. To do this 
 tiie first clause of the Consti- 
 tution provided that the eldest of 
 the Lords Proprietors should be 
 invested with this vice reg-al dignity. 
 Then they provided for some other great 
 officers: an admiral, chamberlain, chancel- 
 lor, constable, chief justice, high steward 
 and treasurer. These offices were to be 
 enjoyed by none but the Lords Proprietors. 
 Having thus provided for each an office 
 of high sounding dignity, they seized upon 
 a clause in their charter which is found 
 in one or two earlier charters, but which 
 
 had never been thought applicable to the 
 beginning of a colony, namely, that which 
 empowered the Proprietors tO' confer upon 
 such of the inhabitants of the province 
 such marks of favor and titles of honor 
 as they shotild think fit— toj provide for 
 a provincial nobility. The. whole province 
 was to be divided into counties; each coun- 
 ty into eight signories; eight baronies 
 and four precincts; each precinct into six 
 colonies. Each seignory, barony and colo- 
 ny was tO' consist of 12,000 acres; the eight 
 signories to be the shares of the eight 
 Proprietors; the eight baronies, the shares 
 of the nobility; both of which shares, be- 
 ing each of them one-flflb of the whole, 
 were to be perpetually annexed the one to 
 the Proprietors, and the other to- the he- 
 reditary nobility, leaving the colonies, con- 
 sisting of three-fifths shares, to the people, 
 so that in setting out and planting the 
 lands, as they sententiously observed "the 
 balance of the government may be pre- 
 served." 
 
 LANDGRAVES AND CACIQUES. 
 
 Besides the Proprietors the nobility wae 
 to consist of Landgraves and Caciques. 
 These terms were chosen because by the 
 provision of the charter the titles be- 
 stowed were to- be unlike those of Eng- 
 land. The title Landgrave was borrowed 
 from the old German Court, and that of 
 Cacique from the style of the Indian 
 chief of America. There were to be as 
 many Landgraves as there were counties, 
 and twice as many Caciques and no more. 
 These were to- constitute the hereditary 
 nobility of the province, and by right of' 
 their dignity to- be members of Parliament. 
 Each Landg-rave was to have four baro- 
 nies and each Cacique two' baronies hered- 
 itarily and unalterably annexed to and set- 
 tled upon the dignity. It was provided 
 that "in every signory, barony and manor 
 all the leet men shall be under the juris- 
 diction of the respective Lords of the said 
 signory, barony or manor, without appeal 
 from him," Who were to be leet men 
 was not declared. 
 
 We have not time to follow further the 
 provisions of this remarkable scheme ex- 
 cept to- observe that in preparing and 
 adopting- them the Proprietors appear to 
 have been oblivious of the essential fact 
 that under the royal ^charter, l>y which 
 alone they could prescribe constitutions, 
 and laws for the province, such laws could 
 only be enacted "by and with the advice, 
 assent and approbation of the freemen 
 of the said province." Was it likely that 
 such freemen would ever consent to trans- 
 fer the rights which had been secured them 
 by the royal charter to an aristocracy, over i 
 whom they could have no control?. 1 
 
 The whole scheme was visionary, crude, 
 incomplete, impracticable and ridiculous. 
 For a province yet to be settled in which 
 society must build itself up from its very 
 foundation, at first at least, beginning in 
 its simplest and rudest forms, an artificial, 
 elaborate and intricate system was pro- 
 vided, among the regulations for which it \ 
 was deemed opportune to establish a Court 
 of heraldy with powers to regulate fash- 
 ions, games and sports! 
 
 LORDS PROPRIETORS ORGANIZE. 
 
 Having determined upon this model of 
 a government, the Proprietors met again 
 at the Cock Pit, on the 29th October, 1669, 
 and proceeded to organize under it. Th? 
 Bai-1 of Clarendon was in exile, alreadj 
 
deserted by his royal master, so fhe Duke 
 of Albemarle was chosen the first Pala- 
 tine., the Earl of Craven the first high con- 
 stable, the Lard Berkeley the first Chan- 
 cellor, Lord Ashley the first Chief Justice, 
 Sir George Carteret the first admiral. Sir 
 John CoiletO'n was already dead, and so 
 his son, Sir Peter, was made the first 
 hig-h steward. The next step was to pro- 
 vide .the means of starting- this g^rand 
 scheme in operation. So they entered into 
 an agreement that each should contribute 
 £500, to be' laid out in shipping arms, am- 
 munition, tools and provisions for a settle- 
 ment at Port Royal, and £200 per annum 
 for the next four years. A fleet of three 
 ships was purchased, and laden with stores 
 sufficient, as it was thought, for jjlanting 
 a colony of two hundred people, a number 
 which was supposed to be strong enough 
 for self-protection and to make a perma- 
 nent settlement. 
 
 The fleet was dispatched, not directly 
 across the Atlantic, but was sent first all 
 the way down to B'arbadoes, which lies, 
 you know, but a little north of Venezuela, 
 South America. There it was to- receive 
 a large addition, and to be sent back to 
 the coast of Carolina. At Barbadoes it 
 met with disaster. One of the vessels, the 
 Albemarle, was lost in a gale and both 
 the other vessels, the Carolina and the 
 Port Royal, were in.iured. Supplying the 
 place of the lost ship with another, the 
 fleet again set sail for Bermuda, but on 
 the way the Port Royal was cast away 
 on one of the Bahama islands. Obtaining 
 another vessel at Bermuda, the emigrants 
 again set sadl for the province they were to 
 colonize. The Carolina was the only one 
 of the original fleet to reach this coast. 
 The colonists first landed on the 17th of 
 March, 1670. This landing Was at Sewee, 
 Bull's Bay. . Thence they coasted along to 
 Port Royal, where they were instructed 
 to settle; but the Indians there being hos- 
 tile, they finally settled down, probably 
 some time in April, on the west bank of 
 theAshley at the place until but recently 
 famTTiarT>' known as "Old Town." 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF CHARLESTON. 
 Vfireater incongruity can scarcely be con- 
 
 cefv'^Trthan that which existed between 
 this little emigrant band that landed on 
 the Ashley and the grand fundamental 
 constitutions which they brcrtTg1iT~t>ut with 
 them as'^^tbe— pten and- -model of the gov- 
 ernment they were to- establish. We have 
 a list of the passengers on the Carolina, 
 the only one of the original fieet to arrive. 
 In the list of the ninety^three who came 
 out in this vessel sixteen were masters, 
 bringing out with them sixty-three ser- 
 vants, and thirteen persons without ser- 
 vaots. The rest of the emigrants, those in 
 the other vessels, were doubtless of the 
 same character. 
 
 Sir John Yeamans. whose father, an al- 
 derman Of BTtstoi, had been beheaded dur- 
 ing the revolution in England, and who 
 himselfTiad been knighted for his loyalty 
 to the King in Barbadoes, was expeeted to 
 have ee-me tiut from that island with the 
 colony, and a commission had been sent 
 him as Governor to be used with his own 
 name or that of such other person as he 
 s'hould appoint. He went from Barbadoes 
 with the colony as far as Bermuda, but 
 there abandoned it. appointing William 
 Sayle^ of Bermuda, an old sea captaTiTarnd 
 arTuTitan, as the Governor of a colony 
 
 charged with ©stablisihing the Church of 
 England as "the only true and orthodox 
 and the natural religion of all the King's 
 domains." It was a hard set which the 
 good, but bigoted, old man had to control, 
 and for which he had only the Funda- 
 mental Constitutions and a system of tem- 
 porary laws, scarcely less absurd, as his 
 guide. While Governor Sayle and other 
 leaders O'f the colony were doubtless men 
 of strong religious character, the company 
 generally was composed of adventurers o'f 
 the ordinary type— men no ddtiTn of irre- 
 ligious aiKfTeckless lives. And so we read 
 that on the 4th July, the Governor and 
 Council having been informed how much 
 the Sabbath day was profanely violated, 
 and of divers grand abuses practiced by 
 the people to the great dishonor of Al- 
 mighty God and destruction of good neigti- 
 borhood, took seriously into consideration 
 by wha.t means these evils might be re- 
 dressed. And here the absurdity of the 
 grand model of government with whidh 
 they had come encumbered, and the in- 
 adequacy and unsuitableness of their 
 powers, even under the instructions to the 
 Governor and Council, became apparent. 
 The Governor, Puritan as he was said to 
 have been, writes, in June, begging the 
 Proprietors to send them a minister, "a 
 Godly and orthodox minister," and partic- 
 ularly asks for on© "Mr Sampson Bond, 
 heretofore of long standing in Exeter Col- 
 lege, in Oxford, and ordayned by the late 
 Bishop of Exeter, the ole Do'r Joseph 
 Hall." And Florence O'Sullivan and Ste- 
 phen Bull and others again unite in Sep- 
 tember, in a letter urging the great want 
 of an able minister by whose means cor- 
 rupted youth might be reclaimed and the 
 people instructed." "The Israelites' pros- 
 perity decayed," they said, "when their 
 prophets were wanting, for where the Ark 
 of God is there is peace and tranquillity." 
 
 GLIMPSES OF EARLY SOCIETY. 
 
 Before Courts were regularly established 
 the Govefnor and Council, besides acting 
 in their legisTatrv'e capacities, administered 
 rough justiceln the colT)ny; and from frag- 
 ments of the journals which have come 
 down to us we catch some glimpses of the 
 state of s'ociety during the first two' years 
 of its existence. For instances — we find 
 the Council hearing a controversy by 
 John Norton and Original Jackson 
 against Mr Maurice Mathews, Mr Thomas 
 Gray and Mr William Owens, and decid- 
 ing that John Norton and Original Jack- 
 son sh^^ll have sixteen pieces of cedar tim- 
 ber desired, and one piece more claimed 
 by Messrs Mathews, Gray and Owens. 
 
 Then Capt Lieut Robert Donne, who had 
 come out on the Carolina as a servant to 
 Stephen Bull, has a sui tagainst Mr Henry 
 Hughes, whereupon it was ordered that 
 Henry Hughes should pay one bushel of 
 corn to the said Robert Donne for his la- 
 bor and pains on the said Henry Hughes's 
 plantation. And considering how indus- 
 trious and useful Richard Rowser and 
 Philip Jones, servants tO' John Maverick, 
 had been to the colony, tO' each of them 
 was given ten acres of land. And so on, 
 the Grand Council arbitrate matters and 
 settle disputes. But here we have a sad 
 case on the criminal side of the Court. 
 Mr Henry Hughes comes before the Coun- 
 cil and makes co^mplaint against Thomas 
 Screman, gent, "for that the said Thomas 
 Screman, upon the day of October, 
 
1671 at Charles Towne, in this province, 
 did feloniously take and carry away from 
 the said Henry Hughes one turkey cock 
 of the price of ten nence, of lawful English 
 money, contrary to the peace of our Sov- 
 ereign Lord, the King," etc. The Coun- 
 cil proceeded to try Thomas Screman, gent, 
 on this charge, and found him guilty, and 
 thereupon passed this sentence: "And it 
 is therefore, ordered by the said Grand 
 Council, that the said Screman shall be 
 stripped naked to his waist and receive 
 nine lashes, a, whip for that use provided, 
 upon his, naked back by the hand of John 
 Oldvs, who is adjudged by the Grand Co^ln- 
 cil 'to be stripped naked to his waist to 
 perform the same, for that the said 
 John Oldys, knowing of the felonious act 
 after it was committed, aided the said 
 Screman, and endeavored to conceal the 
 offence." But worse and worse! They 
 found that Capt Lieut Donne, in whose 
 favor they had just decreed a bushel of 
 corn, was also guilty of "comforting, aid- 
 ing and assisting- the said Screman to com- 
 mit the fact," and thereupon they ordered 
 him toi appear at the head of the com- 
 pany whereof he was captain lieutenant 
 with a sword on, which the marshal 
 should lake away from him,, and he be 
 cashiered from having any further com- 
 mand in the said company." Capt Lieut 
 Donne was not long in disgrace, however, 
 for we And him six months after made 
 a full captain and sent upon an expedition 
 against the Indians. 
 
 COLONISTS FROM BARBADOES. 
 It happened that just about the time of 
 t.he founding of the province of Carolina 
 there was quite a movement from Barba- 
 does. Trouble about the land titles, over- 
 crowded population, exhaustion of the 
 soil, and repeated hurricanes, caused quite 
 an exodus from that island to Carolina 
 and Jamaica. Sir John Yeamans and the 
 Colletonis secured a considerable part of 
 this emigration to this province. This 
 Barbadian influence was most potent in 
 the formation of the society of Carolina. : 
 T.hese people brought with them a colonial ' 
 society, already greatly developed. They 
 were not like the emigrants direct from 
 i England, new to colonial life, and new also' 
 to the rule and management of negro i 
 ■ slaves. To colonial ways they were accus-; 
 I tomed, and they broiight with them the) 
 laws and customs of Barbadoes with reJ 
 ; gard to slaves. T.he peculiar parish sys-j 
 /' tem, whichi existed until the late war, was' 
 I derived entirely from this source. Our 
 earliest statutes in many instances were 
 but copies of those of that island. This 
 is particularly true of our slave codes. 
 rThe English colonists who came out with 
 ,' Sayle were very jealous of this influence. 
 1 Besides a small number of Dutch from 
 \ Nova Belgia, or New York, these were 
 the only elements of population during 
 riie first ten years of the colony, while its 
 seat was at "Old Town" on the Ashley. 
 / In 1680 the first of the Huguenots came 
 /out under Peitit and Grinard. and upon the 
 I revocaition of the Edict of Nantes, in 1686, 
 ^■Kuiny more. Then in 1685 a very considera- 
 ble number of Disse-nters came, under 
 Blake. Morton ami Ax tell. There can be 
 noi doubt thait these last comers. Hugue- 
 nots and Dissenters, were, as a class, men 
 of higher charadter than tho'se who had 
 (come out under Wes't and Sayle. They 
 \were exiles for religion sake, and not 
 
 mere adventurers, seeking to better their 1 
 fortunes. In, tlhis little eo'I'ony there were i 
 aissembled. representaitives of all the pas- 
 slions and a,nimosiities which had distract- ' 
 ed England for the lasit half century. , 
 These emigrants had changed their skies, J 
 but nolt their minds, and the controver- I 
 siesi of the old country were all renewed i 
 here in miniaiture. 
 
 A BAD TIME THE WORLD OVER. 
 
 I eanno't picture to^ myself thait this 
 province Wais a pleiasant place to have 
 lived in during the flrsit thirty years of 1 
 its exisiteince. The colony was an outpost 
 planited to- assert the right of England to 
 disputed terri'tory. and hence it lived in 
 consltant dreiad of Spanish and French I 
 invasion and the tomahawk of the Indian, 
 while its co'as't wais plundered by pirates, 
 and within it wais, in, one continual politi- 
 cal turmoil. But would the eolonists have 
 been happier elsewherei? Would the Scot's 
 who were raided and slaughtered by the 
 Spaniards a-t Port Royal have been more 
 secure in their native land, while Claver- 
 house was harrying the hills and moss- 
 hag and slaying the Covenanters there? 
 Would the Huguenots on the Santee have 
 been miore peaceful in France under the 
 drag'onade which followed the revocation 
 of the Edict of Nantes? Were the Indian 
 tortures any more cruel than those in- 
 flicted upon the Covenanters in Scotland 
 and Huguenots in France? For instance, 
 did Lawson, whom the Indians stuck all 
 over with pine splinters, which they set 
 on fire, die a more agonizing death, think 
 you. thain those who expired in the pres- 
 ence of the- Privy Council of Scotland 
 upon "the extreme question" under the , 
 rack, the thumb-screw and the boot? or 
 tha,n the Huguenots in France who were , 
 tortured ait slow fires by roasting- their 
 handis and feet? Would Blake, Morton 
 and Axteill have been more content under 
 James had they remained in England? 
 Would even the churchmen have been 
 safe from the perjured accusations of ■ 
 Titus Oates in the Court over which Jef- 
 fries and Scruggs presided? Would any 
 Wave been more safe in Mas.sachusetts, 
 where they may have been burned for 
 witchcraft? or in Virginia, where they 
 may have been hung in Bacon's rebellion 
 by Governor Berkeley, one of the Proprie- 
 tors of Carolina? No! Those were the days 
 of fanaticism and cruelty everywhere. 
 
 There is nO' dull page in the history of 
 these times in Carolina. It was all move- 
 ment and life. First there was the long — i 
 controversy over the attempted enforce- . ( 
 ment of the absurd Fundamental Con- \ 
 stitutlionsi, and then over the Church Acts. J, 
 But all the while the colony was stea,dily, 
 if slowly, improving and becoming a com- 
 pact body of sOiCiety. 
 
 At the opening of the new century we 
 mu.st cease, says Rivers, to look upon 
 South Carolina as the home of indigent 
 emigrants struggling for subsistence. 
 While numerous slaves cultivated the ex- 
 tensive plantations, their owners, educated 
 gentlemen, had abundant leisure for social 
 intercourse, living, as they did, in prox- 
 imity to each other and easy access to 
 Charles Town, where the Governor re- 
 sided, the Courts and the Legislature con- 
 vened, and the public offices were kept. 
 The road which led from the fortified town 
 between the two broad rivers— known as , 
 the Great Path (what is now King street 
 
road)— sOi enchanted Governor Archdale 
 that he believed no* prince in Kurope, 
 with all his art, could make a walk for 
 the whole year round so pleasant and 
 beautiful. From the road to the rig-ht and 
 left avenues of oaks in mossy fes- 
 toons, and in spring-time redolent with 
 jessamines, gave the passer-by glimpses 
 of handsome residences. Hospitality, re- 
 finement and literary culture distinguished 
 the higher class of gentlemen. 
 
 BRIDGE TOWN AND CHARLES TOWN. 
 
 We have some slight sketches of the 
 manners of the times at the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century. It happens that 
 we have two almost cotemporaneous ac- 
 counts, one of Barbadoes and one of Caro- 
 linia, and from these it is easy to observe 
 the similarity of the manner of living in 
 the tw'O' places., and then of ascertaining 
 whence that of Carolina was derived. 
 Pere Labat, a French missionary, visited 
 Barbadoes about the came time as Law- 
 son, the adventurer among the Indians, 
 first visited Charles Town. Oldmixon, 
 doubtless following Labat, says that the 
 masters, merchants anjd planters in Bar- 
 badoesvHved like little sovereigns in their 
 plantatioihs; they had their servants of the 
 household and those of the field; their 
 tables were spread every day with a va- 
 riety of nice dishes, and their attendants 
 were more numerous than many of the' 
 nobility in England; their equipages were 
 rich; their liveries fine, and horses the 
 same; their chaises and all the con- 
 veniences of travelling magnificent. The 
 most wealthy of them, besides their land 
 teams, had their pleasure boats to make 
 the tour of the island^ in, and sloops 
 to carry their goods to ' and from the 
 Bridges i. e,, Bridge Town. Their dress 
 and tlVat of their ladies was fashionable 
 and costly, and, having been generally 
 bred in London, their behavior was gen- 
 teel and polite; in which, says the author, 
 they had the advantage of most of the 
 country gentlemen of England, who, living 
 at a distance from London, frequented the 
 world verj' little, and from carousing with 
 their dogs, horses and rude peasants, ac- 
 quired an air suitable to their society. The 
 gentlemen of Barbadoes were civil, gen- 
 erous, hospitable and very sociable. In 
 sihort, says Oldmixon, the inhabitants of 
 Barbadoes live as plentifully and some of 
 them as luxuriantly as any in the world. 
 They have everything that is requisite for 
 pomp and luxury. 
 
 Lawson found no such brilliant jewel- 
 lers' and silversmiths' shops in Charles 
 Town as Labat did in Bridge Town, for 
 Barbadoes was much older and as yet 
 much richer than Caro-Hna;-)3Ut the society 
 they describe is the same. The merchants 
 of Carolina, says Lawson. are fair and 
 frank traders. The gentlemen seated in 
 the coiuntry are very courteous, live very 
 nobly in their houses and give very gen- 
 teel entertainments to all strangers and 
 others that come tO' visit them. Both seem 
 equally struck with the well discijilined 
 militia, especially the cavalry. In Bridge 
 Town a review was held for Pere Labat, 
 in. which five hundred gentlemen turned 
 out, admirably mounted and armed. Law- 
 sen says that the horsemen in Carolina 
 are mostly gentlemen, and well mounted, 
 and the best in America. Their officers, 
 both infantry and cavalry, generally ap- 
 pear in scarlet mountings, and as rich as 
 
 in most regiments belonging to the Crown, 
 
 which, he observes, shows the richne'ss 
 
 and grandeur of the colony. 
 
 LANDGRAVE SMITH'S COURTING 
 
 DAYS. 
 
 There is, on the other hand, a tradition 
 coming, it is said, from the second Land- 
 grave Smith, of a much more simple state 
 of society. In his courting days, which we 
 may assume to have been the last years of 
 the century, he said young giris received 
 their iDeaus at 3 o'clock, having dined at 
 12, expecting them, to wit.hdraw about 6, 
 as many families retired to bed at 7 in 
 the winter, and seldom extended their sit- 
 ting in the summer beyond 8 o'clock, their 
 fathers having learned to obey the cur- 
 few toll in England. The rooms in those 
 days, from his account, were all uncar- 
 P'Sted, the rough sides of the apartments 
 remained the natural color of whatever 
 wood the house chanced to be built of. 
 Rush bottomed chairs were usuai. It must 
 be remembered, .however, that Landgrave 
 Smith belonged to the party in which the 
 stiff and rigid morals of the Puritans were 
 cultivated, and He watt tells us these were 
 made the object of ridicule by their neigh- 
 bors. In all probability the people were 
 as much divided in their habits and man- 
 ners as in their politics, and the division 
 ran along the same iines of Ciiurchmen 
 and Puritans. 
 
 If Ramsay's statement that the early 
 settlers had no sooner provided shelter and 
 the necessaries of life than they adopted 
 measures for promoiting the moral and lit- 
 erary improvement of themselves, and 
 particularly the rising generation, is some- 
 what strained and overdrawn, it is never- 
 theless remarkable, that notwithstanding 
 the constant political turmoil, the con- 
 tinued apprehensions of war and actual 
 and repeat'ed invasions of the province, 
 so mucli was conceived and attempted in 
 these respects. But few of the first set- 
 tlers, as may well be supposed, brought 
 with them wives or children. The neces- 
 sity for schools, therefore, did not begin 
 for some years after the founding of the 
 colony. But before the seventeenth cen- 
 tury had closed the number of children 
 began to demand schools and religious in- 
 struction. 
 EARLY ATTENTION TO EDUCATION. 
 
 Lawson S'ta,tes that froim the fact that 
 the people lived in a 'town they had 
 drawn "iingeoiSoius people of most sciences 
 whereby they had tutors among them 
 tlhat educated their youth a la mode." 
 "A free school," as it was called, was 
 estalbli'she.d in 1711. with the assistance of 
 the SO'Cie'ty for the Pro.pagatio.n of the 
 GoBipel. This school, it is true, was not 
 altogether a free school, for only a limited 
 number of scholars were educated with- 
 otit pay. But still it was an attempt in 
 that direction. This school, in connection 
 with St Philip's Chiu'ch, was m'aintained , 
 
 until the Revolution. ^^ 
 
 FIRST PUBLIC LIBRARY IN AMER- 
 ICA. 
 
 That mian.y of the colonists were edu- 
 cated and accustomed to liteirary pursuits 
 there is labundant eyidence. Indeed as 
 eariy as 1698, but thirity-flve years after 
 the first charteir of the province, but 
 twenty-eight after founding of the col- 
 ony, and thir'ty-'twO' years before Frank- 
 lin formed "The Junto" and debating 
 
 I 1 •: , 
 
society out of which grew the Philadel- 
 phia library, which he claimed to be the 
 moifher of all American subscription 
 libraries, a free public library had been 
 esifiabllshed in Charles T'own. This is be- 
 lieved to have been the firs't public library 
 in America. 
 
 The people of Carolina never accepited 
 the Fundamen'tal Constitutions, and so 
 never having the proper formal sanction 
 those laws were never cjonsititutionally of 
 force. But i't is undoubtedly true that 
 their partial enforcemenit liad a most de- 
 cided effect upon the institutions of the 
 colony and impressed upon the people and 
 their cust'oms and habits the tone and 
 temper of that insitrument. The province 
 was in fact, to a consiiderable extent, laid 
 out in seig'nories, baronies and colonies, 
 and landg-raves and caciques were actu- 
 ally appointed and took possession of 
 these sig-niories and baronies. Some tracts 
 of land are still called baronies and bear 
 the names then given tlhem. But large 
 tra:Cits 'Oif unprofitable lands could not well 
 sustain the dignity of a landgrave or 
 caciaue and quit-rents were hard to fol- 
 low." So, thoug-h intended to be perpet- 
 ually annexed to these grand titles, they 
 were soon sold piecemeal to commoners. 
 
 PROSPEROUS TIMES; 1728-1763. 
 The Proprietary Government was over- 
 thrown in 1719, but it was not until near 
 ten years after that the Royal Govern- 
 ment was fully established. Then fol- 
 lowed the days of prosperity. The years 
 that elapsed between 1728 and 1763, says 
 Mr .Justice Johnson, in his work upon 
 the life of Greene, were years of unprece- 
 dented prosperity. The increase of popu- 
 lation was immense, and in the enjoyment 
 of unexampled liappiness the people be- 
 came gay, polished and devoted to hos- 
 pitality. Among- those who passed the 
 m.eridian of life during that period it was 
 always affectionately remembered by the 
 appellation of "the good old times." So- 
 ciety, he observes, was at that time pre- 
 cisely in that state which is most favor- 
 able tO' the enjoyment of life. The luxu- 
 ries of the day were within the reach of 
 a moderate fortune, and few cared, he 
 said, to be elevated above one common 
 level. Hence social happiness was not dis- 
 turbed by the workings of envy or the 
 haughty demeanor of upstart pride. 
 , The first and second Georges, says Ram- 
 say, were nursing fathers to- the province, 
 and performed to it the full orbed duty of 
 Kings, and their paternal care was re- 
 turned with the most ardent love and affec- 
 ; tion of their subjects in CaroUna. T.he 
 ; colonists enjoyed the protection of Great 
 I Britain and in return she had a monopoly 
 ,of their trade. The mother country re- 
 ceived great benefits from this Intercourse, 
 and the colony under her protecting care, 
 became great and hapijy. The people were 
 fond of British manners, even to excess. 
 To such an extent wasi their prejudice 
 carried that Drayton adds they could not 
 imagine that elsewhere than in England 
 anything of advantage could be obtained. 
 They were not satisfied— it was said, but 
 which I very much doubt — unless the very 
 bricks with which- their houses were built 
 were brought from England. Though un- 
 suited to the- climate, they modelled their 
 houses after the houses in London, and 
 English country seats. Their furniture 
 and carriage horses and chairs or coaches 
 
 must all be imported. In vain did tlie 
 coach makers in Charle'stown advertise in 
 tlie Gazette that they could build as good. 
 The tailors and milliners brought out the 
 fashions from London. On February, 1751, 
 a peruke maker from St James, London, 
 advertises his arrival and that he lias 
 taken a shop in Broad street, w^here he 
 intends to follow his business, and has 
 brought over with him a choice assort- 
 ment of English hair, and other materials 
 belonging to his business, and he promi- 
 ses both ladles and gentlemen that their 
 business will be done according to the best 
 and newest fashions, and that they shall 
 be fitted to the greatest nicely, and that 
 the wigs shall never shrink on the fore- 
 top parts or come down, and he promises 
 the ladies that their "tetes" shall be made 
 in such perfect imitation of their own 
 hair that it will be difficult to discover 
 any difference. \ 
 
 The households were organized on the 
 English model, except in so far as it was 
 modified by the institution of slavery, 
 which modification was chiefly in the 
 number of servants. 
 
 COLONIAL HOUSEHOLD SLAVES. 
 
 In every well-regulated planter's house- 
 hold there were three high positions, the 
 objects of aimbition of all the negroes on 
 the plantation. These were the butler, 
 the coachman and the patroon. The but- 
 ler was chief of all about the mansion, 
 usually the oldest negro> man servant on 
 the premises; his head was often white, 
 the contrast of which with his dark skin 
 was striking and added much to the dig- 
 nity which lit was always his care and 
 pride to maintain. His manners were 
 formed upon those of the best of the so- 
 ciety in which his master moved, and, 
 with all, he possessed greater ease than 
 is usual in a white man occupying a sim- 
 ilar position. He became an authority 
 upon matters of table etiquette and was 
 quick to detect the slightest breach of it. 
 He considered it a part of his duty to 
 advise and lecture the young people of 
 the family upon the subject. He often had 
 enitire charge of the pantry and store 
 room keys and wasi faithful to his trus't. 
 He was somewhat of a judge, too, of the 
 cellar, but there are s)tories that show it 
 was scarcely safe toi allow him free access 
 to its contents. The coachman, to the 
 boys of the family at leas>t. Was scarceily 
 less a character than the bu'tler. He had 
 entire charge of the home stables, and 
 took the utmosit pride in the horseman- 
 ship of his young masters, to whom he 
 gave the first lessons in riding. The but- 
 ler might be the greatest man at home, 
 but he had never the glory of driving the 
 family coacih and four down the "Great 
 Path" to town and through its streets. 
 The oldest plantations were all upon the 
 rivers; indeed a water front and landing 
 Was an essential to such an establisih- 
 ment, for it must have the perriaguer for 
 pilantation purposes, and the trim sloop 
 and large cypress canoe for the master's 
 use. So'. besides the master of the horse, 
 the coachman, there Was a naval officer, 
 too, to eiach planter's household, and he 
 was called the patroon^a name no doubt 
 brought from the West Indies. The pa- 
 troon had cliarge of the boats, and the 
 sounding of his horn upon the river told 
 the famiily of his master's coming from 
 town. He, too, trained the boat hands 
 
to the oaiT and taugHt them the plaintive, 
 humorous, happy catches which they sang 
 as they bent to the stroke, and for which 
 the mother of the family often strained 
 her ear to catch the first sound which told 
 of the safe return of her dear ones. Each 
 of these had his underling-s over whom 
 he lorded it in imitation of his master. 
 The house was full, too, of maids and 
 seiamstre.s-ses of all kinds, who kept the 
 mistress busy, if only to find employment 
 for so many hands. 
 
 Outside of tlie household the "driver" 
 was tlie great man. Under his master's 
 rule he was absolute. He was too great a 
 man to work himself, and if tJie master 
 was anybody— that is, if the plantation 
 was of respectable, size, with a decent 
 number of hands, he must have a horse 
 tO' ride, for how else could he oversee all 
 his people? The driver was the executive 
 officer. He received his orders from .his 
 master and he carried them: out. He did 
 all the punishing. He was responsible for 
 the administration of the plantation. 
 
 A plantation was a community in itself. 
 It had its necessary artisans. There must 
 be carpenters, blacksmiths, coopers, tai- 
 iors and shoemakers. Then there was a 
 hospital for the sick, and a house for the 
 children while the mothers were at work. 
 All these required thorough organization 
 and complete system. There were no 
 doubt many and great evils inseparable 
 from the institution of slavery; but these 
 were reduced to a minimum on a well 
 ordered Carolina plantation. Generally the 
 slaves were contented and happy, and 
 shared in the prosperity which their labors 
 on the new rice fields were bringing to 
 their masters. 
 
 A LOVER OF HORSES. 
 
 The Carolinian, like a true Englishman, 
 was devoted to held sports. He rode from 
 his infancy. Attempts have been, made 
 to show that horses were natives of Amer- 
 ica, azid plausible arguments have been 
 adduced to establish the fact, but Bar- 
 tram, the best authority, informs us that 
 the horse was not originally found in the 
 possession of the Indians. Wherever in- 
 troduced on the coast by the colonists 
 horses multiplied rapidly, deteriorating, 
 however, in size. In the low-country, and 
 especially on the sea islands, a race was 
 produced known as "marsh tackies," 
 which when bred with fresh stock from 
 England, made the most superb riding 
 horses. Great attention was paid 
 to the breeding of these horses. 
 The finest stock was imported 
 from England for the purpose. They were 
 trained to. two gaits — the canter and the 
 w^alk — and in these they were unsurpassed. 
 The trot and pace were seldom used. These 
 saddle horses were excellent hunters, and 
 thong.h but of medium size would seldom 
 hesitate to take a six-rail fence at a leap. 
 The boys and giris learned to ride upon 
 the tackies, which were usually not more 
 than ponies in size. The low-country was 
 not suited to the chase. It was too much 
 cut up with mar.shy creeks and swamps to 
 allow a long run. The great sport was 
 deer hunting. There was a hunting club 
 in St Andrew's Parish as early as 1761. 
 The club house still stands on the grounds 
 of the church. The members brought their 
 hounds and guns there, once a month on 
 club days, and in turn provided the en- 
 tertainment. 
 
 HORSE RACING IN 1734. 
 
 The Carolinians were fond of horse rac- 
 ing. As early as Februarj', 1734, we find 
 in the Gazette a notice of a race for a 
 saddle and bridle, valued at £20, as the 
 prize — mile heats. This race took place 
 on a green on Cliarlestown neck. The 
 course was staked out for the occasion. 
 In the following year, 1735, owners of 
 horses were invited, through the Gazette, 
 to enter them for a purse of £100. This 
 year a course was laid out at the Quarter 
 House, about six miles from the town, 
 to which the name wtas given of the York 
 course, after that in England which was 
 then attaining celebrity as a race ground. 
 From year to year racing was continued 
 over the York course, either in the month 
 of February or the beginning of March, 
 the prize generally being a silver bowl or 
 a silver waiter or a salver, about the value 
 of £100 currency, probably from $75 to $100 
 of our present money. Silver, in some 
 form, continued to be the prize and the 
 plate of many families in the colony was 
 considerably increased by the prizes won 
 on the turf. The York course proved to 
 be too far from the town, so a new course 
 was established in 1754, and laid out on 
 what is still known as the Blake lands. 
 It was announced to the public as the 
 New Market course, about a mile from 
 the town. Races took place there for the 
 first time on the 19th February, 1760, un- 
 der the proprietorship of Mr Thomas 
 Nightingale. From this time an increased 
 interest was manifested in the sports of 
 the turf. Races were announced to take 
 place in vaa-ious sections. In 176S there 
 were races at Jacksonborough, in 1769 at 
 Ferg-uson's Ferry and at Beaufort, and 
 soon after at Childsbury and Strawberry. 
 The races at the last named place were 
 kept up by Mr Daniel Ravenel and the 
 Harlestons. The principal importers and 
 breeders of race horses appear to have 
 been Thomas Nightingale, Daniel Rav- 
 enel. Edward and Nicholas Harleston, 
 Francis Huger and Williams Middleton.' 
 Josiah Quincy. in his journal in 1773. when 
 he "happened" to be in Carolina for his 
 health. w^ich, however, was strong 
 enough, I observe, to have allOTved him to 
 go everywhere and to take notes of the 
 political opinions of the hour in this prov- i 
 ince. gave quite an interesting account of 
 his visit to the races in Oh'arlestown in 
 that year. 
 
 But malaria drove the planter to town 
 or to some summer retreat every spring 
 before the blossom of the highly-scented 
 magnolia had fairly opened, and there he 
 remained with his family until the next 
 hard frost, visiting his plantation from 
 week to week, usually in his well-manned 
 canoe, which the patroon brought for him. 
 These collections of planters and their 
 families during the summer months pro- 
 duced a society of wealth and leisure and 
 formed liabits of city life. For such a so- 
 ciety amusements and entertainments, 
 grave and trivial, must be provided. 
 
 MUSIC IN COLONIAL. DAYS. 
 The people were as fond of indoor amuse- 
 ments as of field sports, and music was 
 cultivated at a A-ery early period. The Ga- 
 zette of the 17th February, 1733, announces 
 that "at the Council Chamber on Monday, 
 the 26th instant, will be a consort"— (pre- 
 serving the old spelling a little later than 
 
usual)— "of vocal and instrumenlal music. 
 Tickets to be had at Mr Cook's and Mr 
 Saureau's, at 40 S. N. B.— None but Eng- 
 lisJi and Scotch songs." The next year a 
 similar advertisement appears for a "con- 
 sort" on the 19th of February, (1734,) wirh 
 a note that it would begin at 6 o'clock. 
 The "consort" was repeated this year on 
 the 18th of December, and in January and 
 March following two' more were given. 
 These were advertised for the benefit of 
 Mr Slater and tickets were to be had of 
 Mr Stephen Bedon and Mr Roper, in Broad 
 street. This 1735 was a gay year, notwith- 
 standing that the good Governor, Robert 
 Johnson, died and was buried in St 
 Philip's, near the chancel. 
 
 A THEATRE BEFORE 1735. 
 
 There were not only concerts, but a new 
 theatre was opened. And this leads us 
 to point out that there was then a thea- 
 tre in Charleston even before 1735. 
 In the Gazette of February, 1735, 
 we find an advertisement: "At the 
 New Theatre, Queen street, will 
 be acted on Monday next, a tragedy 
 called "The Orphan, or the Unhappy Mar- 
 riage.' " There must then have been a 
 theatre before this new one opened in 1735, 
 and that theatre was iindoubtedly the first 
 theatre in the American colonies, the 
 next being in 1749 in Philadelphia. On 
 the 2Sth (February, 1735,) there is an- 
 noiinced: "By the desire of the troop and 
 fooit companies, at the New Theatre, in 
 Queen street, will be acted on Tuesday 
 next a comedy called 'The Recruiting Of- 
 ficer,' with several entertainments, as will 
 be expressed in the hand bills." For 
 March, the 12th: "The London Merchant, 
 or the History of George Barnwell," is ad- 
 vertised. By the end of 1735 society had 
 advanced from the concert stage to that 
 of a public bail. On the 22d of November 
 we find in the Gazette this notice: "At 
 the Court room, on Monday, 15th of De- 
 cember next, will be a ball, to begin at 
 5 o'clock. No person admitted but by 
 printed ticket. Henry Hall, Master." 
 There was no society reporter in those 
 days, so we have noi account of hov^r long 
 the ball, which began at 5 o'clock, lasted. 
 Landgrave Smith must have had the fix- 
 ing of the hours. In January, 1737, is ad- 
 vertised to be performed "The Tragedy of 
 Cato, written by the late Mr Addison 
 with a prologue by Mr Pope." "Tickets 
 to be had at Mr Charles Sheppeard's, stage 
 and balcony boxes 30 shillings; pitt 25 shil- 
 lings; gallery 5 shillings. To begin exact- 
 ly at 6 o'clock." From' this time on we 
 find concerts, theatrical performances and 
 balls constantly occurring until May 23, 
 1774, when the Gazette announces that the 
 American Company of Com'adians finished 
 their campaign here on Friday last, having 
 acted fifty-eight plays from the 22d of De- 
 cember last, a list of which it promised 
 to in.sert in its next issue, and according- 
 ly on the 30th it has quite a long review 
 of the theatrical performances of this com- 
 pany, which, it says, were warmly coun- 
 tenanced and supported by the public. In 
 the catalogue of pieci^s performed during 
 this time we find all the standard plays 
 of t.he day. Of Shakespeare's they pre- 
 sented "Hamlet," "Romeo and Jul'et," 
 "Merchant of Venice," "R'chard HI," 
 "Henry IV," "Othello," "King Lear," 
 "Julius Caesar," "Macbeth" and "King 
 John." Of others "The Mourning Bride," 
 
 "She Stoops to Conquer," "Beggars' 
 Opera," "West Indietn," "Fair Penitent." 
 ""Tempest." 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE ST CECILIA SOCIETY. 
 
 On the 5th November, 1737, the Gazette 
 announces that at the New Theatre, on 
 Queen street, on Thursday, the 12th, being 
 St Cecilia's Day. will be performed a con- 
 cert of vocal and instrumental music. 
 This was probably the origin of the St 
 Cecilia Society, which was not formally ( 
 organized, however, until 17G2. Josiah ; 
 Quincy, on his visit m 1773. before referred \ 
 to, attended a concert by this Society, and 1 
 in his 'journal gives us quite a pleasant \ 
 sketch of the society he met. He describes ; 
 the concert hall as a large, inelegant i 
 building situated down a yard. At the 
 entrance he was met by a constable with 
 his staff. To this officer he offered his 
 ticket, which was subscribed by Mr David 
 Deas, who had given it tO' hirn. He was 
 directed to proceed by the officer and was 
 next met by a white waiter, who directed 
 him to a third, to- whom he delivered his 
 ticket, and was conducted in. The music, 
 he says, was good— the bass viols and 
 French horns were grand. He tells of one 
 Abercrombie, a Frenchman — curious name 
 ror a Frenchman— just arrived, who played 
 the first violin and solo incomparably bet- 
 ter than anyone he had ever heard. So 
 i rich was the Society that the violinist, who 
 I could not speak a word of English, had 
 ! a salary from it of five hundred guineas. 
 j Mr Qudncy gives a very interesting ac- 
 ' count of the entertainment. There were, 
 he says, two hundred and fifty ladies pres- 
 ent, and it was called no great number. 
 In loftiness of the head dresses, he says, 
 these ladies stoop to the daughters of the 
 North; in richness of dress surpass them. 
 In taciturnity during the performances, 
 greatly before our ladies; in noise and 
 flirtation after the music is over, pretty 
 much on a par. "If our ladies," he writes, 
 "have any advantages it is in white and 
 red, vivacity and spirit. The gentlemen, 
 many of them, dressed with richness and 
 elegance uncommon with us; many with ■ 
 swords on." Lord Charles (jreville Mon- 
 tague, the Governor, who was to sail the 
 next day for London, was present to bid 
 farewell to the people, among whom, not- 
 withstanding their political differences, he 
 had many personal friends, to whom he 
 was noi doubt much attached. Mr Quincy 
 was presented to his Exeeiiency by Mr 
 Deas and to Chief Justice Gordon and two 
 of the assistant Judges, recently arrived 
 from England, who were thus received by 
 the Society, thoug;h there was much sore- 
 ness upon the subject by reason of their 
 being sent to fill places of honor which of 
 right belonged to the many worthy men 
 in the province. I need not tell this audi- 
 ence that the St Cecilia Society has since 
 had a cointinuous existence to this day. 
 In the Act incorporating it in 17S4 is re- 
 cited that its members liy voluntary con- 
 tributions had raised a considerable fund 
 and collected a number of musical instru- 
 ments, books and other property for the 
 purpose of encouraging the liberal science 
 of music. Is it not a pity that it has lost 
 its musical character? 
 
 SOCIAL AND CHARITABLE SOCIE- 
 TIES. 
 Social and charitable societies were al- 
 most cpeval with the Royal Government; 
 
and in almost every instance education 
 was a part of their work. Both Hewatt 
 and Ramsay mention the South Carolina 
 Society, in whose hall we are now assem- 
 bled, as the oldest, but there were three 
 others before it. The St Andrew's Club, 
 which soon after became the present St 
 Andrew's Society, was founded in 1729. We 
 find in the Gazette of 25th April, 1733, a no^ 
 tice that "on Monday last (i. e.. 23d) was 
 established the 'St George's Society.' in 
 honor of the patron of England, and John 
 Bayly was chosen president, and at night 
 they had an elegant supper at the house 
 of Mr Robert Raper." There was a Welch 
 club, but we know nothing more of it than 
 a notice in the Gazette of rather an up- 
 roarious meeting on St David's Day, 1735. 
 upon which occasion some members fired 
 off guns after dark, contrary to law. The 
 ■ South Carolina Society was first organized 
 in ]73(?. under the name of the French 
 Club, sometimes called the Two Bit Club. 
 It was the club of the Huguenots. In 1751 
 it was incorporated as the South Carolina 
 Society. Its history and good works are 
 fa:mlliar to^ us all. The Winyah Indigo 
 Society, formed about the year 1740. though 
 not incorijorated until 1756, was originally 
 a social club, which met once a month 
 to discuss the latest news from London 
 and the culture of indigo. But upon the 
 abandonment of the culture of indigo the 
 work was wholly confined to education. 
 \ EARLY CARE FOR THE INSANE]. 
 
 The Fellowship Society deserves particu- 
 lar notice. It was begun on the 4th April, 
 1762, that day being a Sunday, but it was 
 no desecration of the Lord's day, for it 
 truly had good works for its object. Its 
 original purpose was that of founding an 
 infirmary or hospital for the reception of 
 lunatics, and other distempered and sick 
 persons in the province. It was incorpo- 
 rated in 1769 and had then collected by 
 small contributions from time to time a 
 considerable sum of money. There had 
 been but one attempt before this to make 
 provision for the insane, and that was 
 the establishment of a separate ward for 
 such persons in the Pensylvania Hospital 
 in 1752. This Society also had its school. 
 Later, 1777, the Mount Zion Society was 
 established for the purpose of providing 
 a school in the Camden District, at what is 
 now Winnsboro, and in the same year 
 the St David's Society, in the Old Cheraw, 
 for a similar purpose, and the next year 
 the Catholic Society, for the same purpose, 
 in the Wateree. All these societies ac- 
 cumulated large funds, almost all of 
 which were destroyed during the late war. 
 
 MUTUAL INSURANCE IN 1735. 
 Societies were formed also for other than 
 social, charitable and educational pur- 
 poses. It has been claimed that t.he first 
 American fire insurance company was or- 
 ganized in Philadelphia in 1752, to wit, 
 "The Philadelphia Contributor ship for the 
 Insurance of Houses Against Losses by 
 Fire," at the head of the directors of which 
 appeared the name of Benjamin Franklin. 
 But this is a mistake. As early as the 
 13th of December, 1735, a notice appears in 
 the South Carolina Gazette that gentle- 
 men who are willing to enter a society for 
 the mutual insurance of t.heir houses 
 against fire are desired to meet at the 
 house of William Pinckney, on the Bay, 
 on Tuesday next, at 5 o'clock on the after- 
 noon to carry out the design. On the 3d 
 
 Of February the company was organized 
 under the name of the Friendly Society. 
 John Fenwicke, Samuel Wragg and 
 Cbarles Pinckney were chosen directors. 
 John Crookat and Henry Peronneau, mer- 
 chants, (sic) Gabriel Manigault, treasurers. 
 G. Van Velsen and John Laurens, firemas- 
 ters. This, it will be observed, was seven- 
 teen years before the organization of the 
 Philadelphia company. 
 
 There were fashionable taverns— not sa- _^ 
 loons or bar rooms— 'nut old fashioned Eng- ! 
 lish taverns, w.here entertainments were ^ 
 had, and which gentlemen of leisure fre- 
 quented. Mr Dillon's, at the corner of 
 Church and Broad, "The Corner," as it 
 was called, and Mrs Poinsett's, on the 
 Bay, were the chief of-these. It was to 
 t.hem that the processions from the Lib- 
 erty Tree in honor of Wilkes, and the 
 Massachusetts Anti-Rescinders marched, 
 and tJiere the nnen went to refresh them- 
 selves, and there they met toi discuss the 
 affairs of the day. 
 
 Mr Horace E. Scudder, in his report of 
 the bureau of education. United States, in 
 1876, on "Public Libraries a Hundred Years 
 Ago." observes that the idea of a free pub- 
 lic library could hardly find acceptance 
 ! until the idea of free public education had 
 I become familiar lo men's minds, and the 
 I libraries existing at the time of the Revo- 
 I lution were necessarily representative of 
 the existing state of public opinion on the 
 subject of culture. They were, he says, 
 with scarce an exception either connected 
 directly with institutions of learning or 
 the growth of associations of gentlemen 
 having tastes or interests in common. Un- 
 der this last the colonists of South Caro- 
 lina claim a high position for education 
 and culture. We .have seen that before 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 before Franklin had begun the foundation 
 of his subscription library, such a library 
 had already been attempted in Charles- 
 town, and was actually existing before 
 1700, and continued to exist and to be 
 cared for until 1712, when an Act was 
 passed for its further preservation, but 
 .how long preserved we cannot tell, as we 
 have no further record or mention of it. 
 
 THE CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCI- 
 ETY. 
 
 But in the year 1748 some young gentle- 
 men, by contributing among themselves, 
 imported a few books, and associated 
 themselves for the purpose of raising a 
 small fund to collect new pamphlets pub- 
 lished in Great Britain. It will be recol- 
 lected that political writings were then 
 almost entirely confined to pamphlets. It 
 was in pamphlets that Addison and Steele 
 fought for the Whigs and Swift for the 
 Tories. Dr Johnson's poiitical tracts and 
 some of Edmund Burke's most valued I 
 writings are contained in such papers. The 
 troubles in America were the subjects of 
 pamphlets both in England and in this / 
 country. The last pamphlet from England ' 
 was therefore eagerly read by all who were 
 interested in the political world. These 
 young men advanced and remitted to 
 London £10 sterling as a fund to purchase 
 such pamphlets as had already appeared 
 during the current year, acting at first 
 under a mere verbal agreement and with- 
 out a name. From this small beginning 
 they soon perceived the great advantages 
 there might be if this scheme was en- 
 larged and prosecuted with spirit. Find- 
 
10 
 
 ing themselves alone unequal to the plan, 
 they invited others to associate with them 
 and were soon joined by other lovers of 
 books and encouragers of science. A pub- 
 lic library was projected, the idea met 
 with great applause, and was counte- 
 nanced by the first people of the place, 
 Who became members of the infant so- 
 ciety, extending its plan to endowing an 
 academy to encourage men of literature 
 to reside among them, and tO' instruct the 
 youths in the several branches of a liberal 
 education. Before the end of the year— on 
 the 28th December— rules for the organiza- 
 tion of the Society were ratified and 
 signed, when the name of the Library 
 Society was assumed; arrangements were 
 at once made for the acquisition of books 
 as well as of pamphlets. There was some 
 delay in obtaining a charter, which re- 
 quired the royal assent; the vessel in 
 which it was sent from England falling 
 into the hands of the French. This delay 
 of eighteen months appears to have been 
 considered very prejudicial tO' the enter- 
 prise. Great store was set upon a charter 
 as a means of enforcing its rules and pre- 
 serving its books. 
 
 The arrival of the charter at length gave 
 new life to the Society. His Excellency, 
 Governor Lyttleton. became - a member. 
 Thomas Smith was the first president, and 
 Daniel Crawford svicceeded him in 1757. 
 In 1758 Governor L-yttleton was made pres- 
 ident, and from that time the Governor 
 or the Lieutenant Governor, in the ab- 
 sence of a Governor, was the president, 
 with the exception of Goveriior Boone. 
 Thus Lieutenant Governor Bull was pres- 
 ident from 1761 to- 1768; the colonists re- 
 fusing to have any association with Gov- 
 ernor Boone. Lord Montague was presi- 
 dent in 1768-1769, and Lieutenant Governor 
 Bull again to the Revolution. Daniel 
 Crawford. Benjamin Smith and Peter 
 Manigault— the twoi latter Speakers of the 
 Commons — were vice presidents. The So- 
 ciety was thus closely connected wth the 
 Government, but it followed the popular 
 sentiment. Thus we find Boone's personal 
 unpopularity excluded him from the pres- 
 idency; nor could Lord Montague be re- 
 elected after the troubles of non-importa- 
 tion had begun. The Society was the cen- 
 tre of the intelligence, education and cul- 
 ture of the people. The library was burnt 
 in 1778. It then contained between 6,000 
 and 7,000 volumes. 
 
 THE TRUTH AS TO CAROLINA 
 SCHOOLS. 
 Upon the overthrow of the Proprietary 
 and other establishments of the Royal 
 Government the first Governor sent out 
 was the eccentric, but liberal. Sir Francis 
 Nicholson. Before his connection with 
 the province he had made a contribution 
 to the Provincial Library in 1712. and he 
 now brought with him instructions for the 
 encouragement of schools. Dr Ramsay 
 unfortunately made a statement that 
 there was no grammar school in South 
 Carolina prior to 1730, except the free 
 school in Charleston; that from 1730 till 
 1776 there were no more than four or five, 
 and all in or near Charleston. This state- 
 ment of Dr Ramsay was and has been 
 seized upon as the basis of the gravest 
 charges of ignorance on the part of the 
 colonists of South Carolina. Prof Mc- 
 Master, in the first volume of his history 
 of the United States, published in 1883, 
 
 has enlarged upon and misquoted it to the 
 great disadvantage of our people. 
 
 "In the Southern States," he says, "ed- 
 ucation was almost wholly neglected, but 
 nowhere to such an extent as in South 
 Carolina. In that colony, prior to 1730, 
 no such thing as a grammar school ex- 
 isted. Between 1731 and 1776 there were 
 five. During the Revolution there were 
 none. Indeed," he continues, "if the 
 number of newspapers printed In any 
 community may be taken as a gauge of 
 the education of the people, the condition 
 of the Southern States, as compared with 
 the Eastern and Middle, was most deplor- 
 able. In 1775 there were in the entire coun- 
 try thirty-seven papers in circulation, j 
 Fourteen of them were in New England, 1 
 four were in New York and nine in Penn- ' 
 sylvania; in Virginia and North Carolina 
 there were two each; in Georgia one; in 
 South Carolina three. The same is true 
 of to-day." 
 
 McMASTER'S SLANDERS NAILED. 
 
 As a citizen of the State, then but ordi- 
 narily informed upon the subject, I under- 
 took to reply to this gross slander upon 
 our people, and was enabled at once not 
 only to expose Prof McMaster's misqvio- 
 tation of what Dr Ramsay did write, but 
 from materials immediately at hand to 
 refute the charge and to show that Dr 
 Ramsay himself was mistaken. I was 
 able to show that at the close of the Rev- 
 olution there were certainly eleven public, 
 three charitable grammar schools, and 
 eight private schools; that is, twenty-two 
 schools in the twenty-four parishes and 
 districts into which the State was then 
 divided. Since that time I have pursued 
 the subject, and in addition to other 
 sources of information I have had the Ga- 
 zettes searched, and am now able to pre- 
 sent the following statement: 
 
 During- the time when Prof McMaster 
 states that no such thing as a grammar 
 school existed in the province, i. e., prior 
 to 1730, there was a free school in connec- 
 tion with St Philip's Church, in which the 
 Rev William Guy taught, from 1711 to 1728. 
 then Mr Thomas Morrett in 1728, and then 
 Mr John Lambert in 1729. There was an- 
 other free school at St Jam°s. Goose Creek, 
 in which Mr Benjamin Dennis had col- 
 lected a good number of pupils in 1710. and 
 taught until the school was broken iip by 
 the Indian war in 1715. To this school the 
 Rev Richard lAullam, when he died in 
 1728, bequeathed his estate, some £1.000 
 currency. In 1721 Richard Beresford de- 
 vised and bequeathed a large estate for the 
 support of the schoolmasters of St 
 Thomas and St Dennis. In 1720 Mr James 
 Child, laying out a projected town on the 
 western branch of Cooner River, called 
 Childsbury. now Strawberry, gave one 
 snuare for a "college or nnivprsitv." £600 
 and a lot for a free school and house, and 
 in 1725 Mr John Whitm^irsh left a legacy 
 of £1.000 for tho master of a fr^e school 
 in St Paul's Parish, and in 1730 Ellas 
 Horry devised a tract of land, containing 
 7.50 acres, to be sold and the proceeds of 
 sale to be appropriated to the creation and 
 ner'^etual endowment of a charity school 
 in Prince Ceorge's Parish. Thf>se were 
 free or public grammar schools, but Law- 
 son, as we have seen, stated that at the 
 time he wrote, 1708, the colonists had "in- 
 genious: people of most sciences" among 
 
11 
 
 therii, "that educated their youth a la 
 mode," that is, in private schools. 
 MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED TEACH- 
 ERS. 
 But the interest which the colonists of 
 South Carolina took in educational mat- 
 ters, and the number of the teachers and 
 schools in the province, appears infinitely 
 greater from a perusal of the Gazettes 
 from 1733 to 1774, than by the showing I 
 was enabled to make when I wrote, in 
 1883. During these forty years I have the 
 record of more than four hundred adver- 
 tisements relating to schools and school- 
 masters, and from these it appears that 
 instead of the five schools only which 
 Prof McMaster states existed in the prov- 
 ince, there were more than two hundred 
 persons engaged in teaching. These were 
 day schools, evening schools and boarding 
 schools, schools for boys and schools for 
 girls. A know'rdge of English, Latin and 
 Greek could be obtained at any time after 
 1712. French and music were taught con- 
 stantly after 1733, Advertisements for 
 teaching Italian appear in 1764, 
 for Spanish in 1767 and Hebrew 
 in 1769. "A young German of unde- 
 niable character" gives notice in 1770 to 
 "the nobility and gentry and public that 
 he can teach grammatically French, High 
 Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin." 
 In instrumental music lessons were given 
 upon the harpsicord, spinnet, violin, vio- 
 loncello, guitar and flute. There were 
 schools for fencing for the boys and for 
 needlework and embroidery for the girls. 
 The teachers were almost all from Eng- 
 land, many of them clergymen and mas- 
 ters of arts. There were many female 
 teachers for the girls. Several of them 
 came from London. Elizabeth Duneau, 
 from England, "who," as she advertises, 
 "has brought up many ladies of rank and 
 distinction," and "has kept one of the 
 genteelest boarding schools about Lon- 
 don," proposes, in 1770. to open a boarding 
 school for young ladies, in which she will 
 teach grammatically the French and Eng- 
 lish languages, geography, history and 
 many instructing amusements to improve 
 the mind," besides all kind of fashionable 
 needle work, and will provide good teach- 
 • ers in drawing, music, dancing, writings 
 and arithmetic. Limners advertises to 
 teach drawing as early as 17.36, and danc- 
 ing was constantly taught from 1734, In 
 this year a dancing school is opened, in 
 which the Master, Mr Henry Holt, lately 
 arrived in the province, advertises that 
 he has been taught by the most celebrated 
 master in England, and danced a consid- 
 erable time at the play house. 
 
 TIDDLEDY-IDDLEDY-RUM-TI-TUM. 
 
 In 1760 Nicholas Valois gave notice that 
 he continues tO' teach dancing and that 
 he has received from London "forty of 
 the newest country dances, jiggs. riga- 
 doons, etc, by the best masters in London, 
 which he proposes to teach." The next 
 year he advertises a ball which he will 
 give to his scholars, and will open the ball 
 by dancing a minuet with one of them. 
 There were two' other famous dancing 
 schools, each of which gave balls to their 
 pupils. Ramsay tells us that great atten- 
 tion was paid to music and that many ar- 
 rived at distinguished eminence in the sci- 
 ence. The advertisements in the Gazette 
 fully sustain this statement. In 1739 a per- 
 
 son, lately arrived, proposes to teach "the 
 art of psa^lmody, according to the exact 
 rules of the gamut in all the various 
 measures, both of the old and new ver- 
 sion." Similar advertisements continue to 
 appear. The organists of St Philip's 
 Church added to their salaries by teach- 
 ing music. 
 
 In addition to the schools there were 
 lectures upon educational subjects. In 
 1739 Mr Anderson lectures on natural 
 philosophy. In 1752 Mr Evans gave two 
 courses of lectures on philosophy. He lec- 
 tured every day, Sundays excepted. In 
 1754 Robert Skidday, A, B., gave a course 
 of lectures on natural philosophy, viz 
 astronomy, mechanics, hydrostatics and 
 optics. October 31, 1748, Samuel Domjen 
 announces in the Gazette that, having in 
 his travels in Europe studied and made 
 wonderful experiments in electricity, he 
 proposes to show the surprising effects 
 thereof at Mr Blythe's Tavern, in Broad 
 street, during the hours from 3 to 5 in the 
 afternoon of Wednesday and Friday, and 
 when desired will wait on ladies and gen- 
 tlemen at their houses to show the same. 
 "Each person admitted to see the same to 
 pay 20f, who also may be electrified if they 
 please." 
 
 132 YEARS BEFORE THE TROLLEY 
 CAME. 
 
 Again in 1765 Mr William Johnson ad- 
 vertises to give a course of lectures on 
 "that instructive and entertaining branch 
 of natural philosophy called electricity," 
 The course was to consist of two lecture.^;, 
 in which all the properties of that won- 
 derful element, as far as the latest dis- 
 coveries have made us acquainted there- 
 with and the principal laws by which it 
 acts, were to be demonstrated in a num- 
 ber of curious experiments, many of which 
 were entirely new. Among many other 
 particulars Mr Johnson proposed to show 
 that the electric fire commonly produced 
 by friction of glass and other electrical 
 substances isi not created by that friction, 
 but is a real element or fluid body diffused 
 through all places in or near the earth, 
 and that our bodies contain enough of it 
 at all times to set a house on flre. In 
 his second lecture this flre was to be 
 .shown tO' be real lightning, with many 
 curious experiments representing the 
 various phenomena of thunder storms. 
 
 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NEWS- 
 PAPERS. 
 Fortunately for the people of South 
 Carolina Prof McMaster. in his zeal to 
 establish their ignorance, appeals to 
 the number of newspapers as a gauge of 
 ■he education of a people, and by this 
 'criterion he declares that the condition 
 of the Southern people, in comparison 
 with the Eastern and Middle, was most 
 deplorable. For when we come to test the 
 education of the people of the colonies by 
 this measure we find in the colonies of 
 which we have an estimate of population 
 the ratio of newspapers to the number 
 of the people as follows: New Hampshire 
 had one paper to 82.200, Massachusetts one 
 paper to 50,285, Connecticut one paper to 
 49,340, Pennsylvania one paper to 36,666, 
 while South Carolina had a paper to every 
 20,000. In the whole country it was found 
 
12 
 
 that the average population to support one 
 paper was 64,575. In South Carolina 60,000 
 people supported three newspapers, or one 
 to every 20,000. In other \<'ords, the peo- 
 ple of South Carolina in proportion to 
 their numbers supported more than one 
 and a half as many newspapers as Penn- 
 sylvania, two and a half as many as 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut each, and 
 four times as many as New Hampshire. 
 By Prof McMaster's own test South Caro 
 Una was far the most highly educated 
 colony in America. 
 
 CHARLESTON'S NEWSPAPERS FROM 
 
 1732. 
 
 A very nearly complete file of these 
 Gazettes from 17.32 is preserved in the 
 Charleston library, and form a rich mine 
 of historical information. A Gazette had 
 always a column or two of news from 
 Europe— the doings of the Court and pro- 
 ceedings in Parliament. It had a page or 
 two of advertisements of all kinds, ship- 
 ping lists, etc. There was always short 
 local paragraphs, in which are preserved 
 most interesting items of personal and 
 local history, sometimes invaluable in fix- 
 ing definitely and decisively disputed dates. 
 In these arc notices of births, deaths and 
 marriages. In, announcing a marriage it 
 was the custom to make some complimen- 
 tary remark upon the bride: "She was a 
 young lady of great beauty and blessed 
 with the most valuable accomplishments." 
 * * * "A lady of celebrated beauty' 
 and merit, and endowed with every quali- 
 fication that can render the nuptial state a 
 happy one," etc. Sometimes her fortune 
 was mentioned. Then there were moral 
 and social essays, after the model and 
 style of those in the Spectator and Ram- 
 bler, all in the most approved Johnsonian 
 periods. All political subjects were dis- 
 cussed in the Gazettes. During the ex- 
 citement over the non-importation agita-- 
 tion the letters on this subject were often 
 very bitter. The celebrated discussion be- 
 tween Christopher Gadsden and William 
 Henry Drayton was carried on in this 
 way — the old patriot not hesitating to in- 
 flict seven or eight columns of his wrath 
 at a time upon his youthful but accom- 
 plished adversary, in a style rambling and 
 confused, Isut somehow always hitting 
 "ihis^ mark. Corrimissary Garden takes a 
 hand in the heated discussion upon t^he 
 subject of the treatment of smallpox. The 
 question of inoculation is discussed; 
 whether it is not tempting the wrath of 
 God in thus claiming to anticipate the 
 dread disea.?e. There were but few edi- 
 torials. But Timothy in the South Caro- 
 line Gazette was always warring against 
 the importation of negro slaves, because 
 of the danger from their increasing num- 
 ber in proportion to the whites. Wells, of 
 the American General Gazette, was earlj 
 accused of lukewarmness to the patriot 
 cause, an accusation which was confirmed 
 by his going over to the British when they 
 
 took the city, and his paper becoming the 
 Royal Gazette. 
 
 INTERCOURSE WITH ENGLAND. 
 ■ A marked difference between the people 
 of South Carolina and those of the other 
 colonies was in their intercourse with 
 England. Prof McMaster tells us that as 
 late as 1795 a gentleman, whO' had been 
 abroad, was pointed out in the streets, 
 even in large cities, with the remark: 
 "There goes a man who has been to Eu- 
 rope." There were few gentlemen in South 
 Carolina who had not been to Europe. 
 With the accumulating wealth of the pro- 
 vince it became the fashion after 1750, if 
 not before, to send the children of the 
 opulent to England for their whole edu- 
 cation. Many of the young men whO' came 
 into public life just before the Revolution 
 spent the whole of their youth in England 
 or Scotland, first at Eaton or some other 
 school, and then at Oxford or Cambridge. 
 Thus it was that Chief Justice Pinckney, 
 when removed from the Bench to give 
 place to Mr Peter Leigh, for whom the 
 ministry of England had to provide in 
 reward for doubtful services, and sent as 
 ihe agent of South Carolina to London, 
 took with him his two young sons, Charles* 
 Cotesworth and Thomas, and William 
 Henry Drayton. Mr Ralph Izard took 
 up his residence in England for the educa- 
 tion of his children, and left them there 
 at school. Besides these Arthur Middle- 
 ton, Thomas Heyward, Thomas Lynch, 
 .Ir, three of the signers of the Declaration 
 of Independence, were sent to England for 
 their education, the fourth signer, Edward 
 Rutledge, also going there to study law. 
 Christopher Gadsden, John Rutledge, 
 Henry Laurens, John Laurens. Gabriel 
 Manigault, Peter Manigault and William 
 Wragg were also educated in England. 
 Before and after the Revolution, says 
 Hugh S. Legare in a note to his essay on 
 classical learning, many, perhaps it would 
 be more accurate to say most, of the 
 youth of South Carolina of opulent fami- 
 lies were educated in English schools and 
 universities. There can be no doubt, he 
 adds, that their attainments in polite' 
 literature were very far superior to those 
 of their cotemporaries at the North, 
 and the standard of scholarship in Charles- 
 ton was consequently much higher than 
 any other city on the Continent. 
 
 FAVORITE ENGLISH PACKETS. 
 The merchants of Charleston went con- 
 stantly to England to order their goods. 
 The people of means, whether for busi- 
 ness or pleasure, were continually com- 
 ing and going between London and 
 Charleston. A voyage usually took from 
 six to eight weeks. For some years prior 
 to the Revolution the favorite packets 
 were the Beaufain, Capt Daniel Curling, 
 the London, Capt Alexander Curling, and 
 the Little Carpenter, so named after the 
 Indian chief. But Capt Daniel Curling was 
 the favorite of all. It was slow, but con- 
 
13 
 
 sidered sure, a.nd could obtain freight 
 while other vessels were idle, and its cabin 
 was preferred by all who wished to cross 
 or recross the Atlantic. It seldom sailed 
 without a full company of Carolinians. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL, BENEFACTORS. 
 
 The colonists of South Carolina were lib- 
 eral and public-spirited. Of this there is 
 abundant evidence. From the preamble 
 to the Act of 1710, establishing- the free 
 school, we learn that several charitable 
 and well disposed Christians by their 
 last wills and testaments had already 
 given several sums of money for the found- 
 ing of that school. Then had followed the 
 Ludlam devise and the Beresford bounty 
 fund. Then the Childs devise and be- 
 quest. The Ludlam bequest was liberally 
 added to by subscription for the school at 
 Goose Creek. Dr Dalcho, writing of the 
 year 1728, says the desire for the educa- 
 tion of the rising generation was now gen- 
 erally felt through the province. Many 
 pious persons had bequeathed portions of 
 their estates for this benevolent purpose, 
 and many contributed largely by their 
 subscriptions. In St Paul's Parish a con- 
 siderable sum was raised for founding a 
 free school for the education of the poor, 
 for which purpose John Whitmarsh be- 
 queathed a legacy of £1,000, and Mr Horry 
 left by his will a tract of land of 750 acres, 
 as we have mentioned. The old St Philip's 
 Church, which was built during the Pro- 
 prietary Government, and which Edmund 
 Burke described as "spacious, and executed I 
 in a very handsome taste, exceeding every 
 thing of that kind which we have in I 
 America," as well as St Michael's, built 1 
 some thirty years later, and which is still 
 famous for the beauty of its steeple, were 
 both built not only by funds derived from 
 taxation, but largely from private sub- I 
 scription. St Michael's bells, now so fa- j 
 mous, were purchased by public subscrip- 
 tion. [ 
 
 GAVE MONEY TO NORTHERN COL- | 
 LEGES. 
 
 It will probably astonish Prof McMas- 
 ter to be told that South Carolinians sub- 
 scribed largely to the founding of the 
 university in which he was formulating 
 his charge of their gross ignorance and 
 deplorable lack of interest in education. 
 
 But such is undoubtedly the fact. The 
 story is an interesting one, and, though it 
 is so late, I must briefly tell it. The habit 
 was, as we have stated, to send the young 
 men of Carolina to England for their ed- 
 ucation. But the differences with the 
 mother country warned our people of the 
 necessity of providing for the higher edu- 
 cation of their sons at home. "Carolina- 
 cus," writing in the Gazette of November 
 9, 1769, during the discussion of the non- 
 importation agreement, calls attention to 
 the great sums of money annually re- 
 mitted to England to maintain the chil- 
 dren there, and urges the example of our 
 Northern provinces in educating their 
 
 youths at home. Lieutenant Governor 
 Bull, absolutely opposed, as he himself 
 was, to the non-importation agitation, 
 seized upon the occasion, however, to take 
 up the subject. On the .30th January, 1770, 
 he sent to the Assembly a special mes- 
 sage, a very elaborate and able paper, in 
 which he urged more liberal provision for 
 the mas:ers of the free schools, and be- 
 yond that went on to advise the establish- 
 ment of a college. 
 
 In pursuance of this recommendation a 
 bill was drawn "for funding, erecting and 
 endowing public schools, and a college 
 for the education of the youth of the 
 j province;" a considerable part of this bill 
 i is in the handwriting of John Rutledge. 
 A board of trustees, of which the Gover- 
 nor and Speaker of the Commons were to 
 be ex-offlcio members, to be called "the 
 trustees of the College of South Carolina." 
 was to be appointed. There was to be a 
 president, who should be professor of di- 
 vinity at a salary of £350 sterling per an- 
 num; a professor of the civil and common 
 law and of the municipal laws of the 
 province, with a salary of £200 sterling; a 
 professor of physics, anatomy, botany and 
 chemistry, £200; a professor of mathemat- 
 ics and of natural and experimental phi- 
 losophy, £200; a professor of history, chro- 
 nology and modern language, £200. To 
 John Rutledge is usually attributed the 
 credit of having made the suggestion of 
 this college from the fact that the bill was 
 mostly in his handwriting; but the mes- 
 sage of Lieutenant Governor Bull clearly 
 indicates that he was the author of this 
 attempt to provide a plan for higher ed- 
 ucation in the colony, though no doubt he 
 had John Rutledge's hearty co-operation. 
 But the attention of the people was not to 
 be diverted from the political controversy. 
 They were all aflame on account of the 
 non-importation agreement and could 
 think of nothing but the meetings and 
 doings under the Liberty Tree. 
 TWO SOLICITORS FOR NORTHERN 
 
 COLLEGES. 
 While Governor Bull could not induce 
 the General Assembly to forego the dis- 
 pute with the Royal Government suffl- 
 ciently to attend to the matter of the pro- 
 motion of colleges for higher education, 
 the Northern colonies saw the opportuni- 
 ty of raising funds for the support of 
 their institutions and availed themselves 
 of it. The Gazette of the 15th February. 
 1770, announced: "We have now here no 
 less than two solicitors for benefactions 
 to colleges in Northern colonies, viz: The 
 Rev Hezekiah Smith, who collects for one 
 intended to be established in Rhode Isl- 
 and Government, the president whereof 
 always is to be a Baptist and the major- 
 ity of the trustees of the .same profession; 
 
 the other, the Rev Caldwell, who has 
 
 met with great success in gathering for 
 that established in Princeton, in New Jer- 
 sey, and we are told if this continues we 
 may expect annual visits for the support 
 
14 
 
 of those foundations. Surely if we can af- 
 ford this, we ought not to delay procur- 
 ing- an establishment here for the benefit 
 of our posterity." Two years later, March 
 26, 1772, the Gazette announces: "The Rev 
 Doct William Smith, we are assured, has 
 collected not less than one thousand 
 pounds sterling in the short time he has 
 been here by donations for the use of the 
 college, an evident proof of how liberally 
 and readily the inhabitants of this prov- 
 ince would contribute to promote so neces- 
 sary and desirable an establishment 
 among themselves. 
 
 OVER £1.000 STERLING FOR THE UNI- 
 VERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 In the minutes of the board of trustees 
 of the College of Philadelphia— now Uni- 
 versity of Pennsylvania — :n which Prof 
 McMaster wrote his charge of the ignor- 
 ance of South Carolina, there is an order 
 of date April 1.5, 1772, "that the names of 
 the several gentlemen who so> kindly con- ^ 
 tributed towards the college in collec- 
 tions made for the same in South Caro- 
 lina be inserted in the book as a per- 
 petual testimony of the obligation which 
 this seminary is under to them." The list 
 is headed by Lieutenant Governor Bull 
 himself with a contribution of £150 South 
 Carolina currency. Henry Middleton £350, 
 Thomas Smith £350, Gabriel Manigault 
 £700, Miles Brewton £275, Charles Pinck- 
 ney £147, Christopher Gadsden £140, 
 Thomas Ferguson £350, and so on, almost 
 every man in the colony of any promi- 
 nence contributing, and making up a sum 
 equivalent to £1,061 10s Id sterling. The 
 people of South Carolina thus contributed 
 to the establishment of three of the great 
 institutions of learning in the country- 
 Princeton, Brown University and the 
 Pennsylvania University. 
 
 EARLY PROMINENCE IN MEDICINE. 
 
 In a paper by J. M. Toner, M. D., founder 
 of the Jones lectures in Washington, pub- 
 lished by the bureau of education in Wash- 
 ington, Dr Toner says: "The Carolinas 
 from a comparatively early period fur- 
 nished numerous valuable contributions 
 to the literature of medicine and natural 
 history, and for some years led all the 
 States in the study of the natural sciences. 
 In support of this Dr Jones refers to- the 
 early and successful introduction of the 
 practice of inoculation at Charleston, to 
 the writings of Drs John Lining, Lionel 
 Chalmers, John Moultrie and Alexander 
 Garden. He states that William Bull, the 
 Lieutenant Governor, who was gradu- 
 ated at Leyden in 1734, was the first native 
 American who received the degree of M. 
 D. But this is a mistake, for George 
 Smith, son of the Ijandgrave, took such a 
 degree thirty-four years before — in 1700. 
 AN INTERESTING RECAPITULATION 
 
 The society of Charleston and of the 
 colony was in a more developed condition 
 than that of any city or colony in America. 
 
 There was in it more of city life. The next 
 in this respect was Philadelphia. This 
 will be recognized when we recall the fol- 
 lowing facts: The colonists of Carolina 
 were the first to establish a public li- 
 brary, i. e., before 1700, and the second to 
 found a subscription library, 1. e., in 174S; 
 the first subscription library being th* 
 Philadelphia Library, 1730-1742. The library 
 at Harvard, 1632, having been originally 
 but a clergyman's library, gi.ven to the col- 
 lege, and in no sense a public library; no 
 more so than the parochial libraries estab- 
 lished by the Act of 1704 in this colony. 
 They were the second to establish a 
 quarantine for preventing the spreading 
 of contagious diseases, 1. e., 1698— 
 the first quarantine was in Massachusetts 
 in 1648— the third in Pennsylvania, 1649. The 
 colonists of Carolina were far in advance 
 of any other colony in their code of laws, 
 general and colonial, adopted in 1712. 
 They were among the very first to 
 establish free schools, i. e., in 1710-12. 
 The people of Charlestown were the first 
 in America to establish a theatre, i. e., 
 in 1735, the next being that in Philadel- 
 phia in 1749. They were the first to form 
 a fire insurance company, i. e., in 1735; the 
 next being in Philadelphia in 17.52. They 
 were the second only to attempt provision 
 for the insane, i. e., 1762; the first being in 
 Philadelphia in 1752. The first two native 
 American graduates in medicine were 
 South Carolinians. South Carolina led all 
 the colonies in the sciences. The music 
 of the St Cecilia Society was the first to 
 be heard in America. Her agriculture, i. 
 e., of rice and indigo, was the most scien- 
 tific in the country, the former demanding 
 hydraulic engineering upon a large scale, 
 the evidence of her immense system of 
 internal drainage still remaining alike in 
 the great ditches and canals found in the 
 inland swamps and upon the pages of the 
 statute books of the time; the latter re- 
 quiring the closest observation and fol- 
 lowing of chemical operations in the pre- 
 paration of the dye, after the plant had 
 been successfully grown. Judged by the 
 standard of the number of newspapers 
 the colonists of South Carolina were the 
 most educated people in America; having 
 more newspapers in proportion to their 
 numbers than any other colonists; more 
 than twice as many as in New England. 
 
 Diaries were frequently kept. One by 
 the wife of a merchant, which has been 
 preserved, contains a record of births, 
 deaths and marriages of the friends of 
 the writer. Guests arriving, occasionally 
 breakfasting and frequently dining, sup- 
 ping or taking tea— all of whom are 
 named— are numerous— Governors Glen 
 and Lyttleton, with other guests, dining 
 with the family. Governor Boone does 
 not appear in the diary. Attendance at 
 private and assembly balls, and at plays, 
 with lists of plays performed. Attendance 
 on Whitefield's preaching; sitting for a 
 portrait by Theus. An'ival of troops, 
 
15 
 
 marching: of troops, officers' balls. Re- 
 joicing for the captures of Cape Breton 
 and Quebec. No dinners to Governors after 
 1770, when the troubles with the mother 
 country had become serious, though LrOid 
 William Campbell was connected with tlie 
 family. 
 MRS RAVENBL'S EXCELLENT WORK 
 
 But we are still more fortunate in hav- 
 ing a most extraordinarily valuable and 
 entertaining picture of social and domes- 
 tic life in South Carolina during the period 
 from 1737 to the Revolution in Mrs Rave- 
 nel's volume, entitled "Eliza Pinckney," 
 recently published by the Scribners in 
 their series of the women of Colonial and 
 Revolutionary times. This most charm- 
 ing book is based upon a number of 
 hitherto unpublished letters written by 
 ;ind to Mrs Pinckney, and depicting in 
 great detail and with an indescribable 
 charm the manners, customs and mode of 
 life of her day — thus having a decided his- 
 torical as well as intimate personal inter- 
 est. 
 A NORTHERN LOYALIST'S VIEWS. 
 
 J. P. D. Smyth, a Loyalist of Philadel- 
 phia, who travelled over the country im- 
 mediately after the Revolution, and whose 
 statements m,ust be taken with caution, 
 as he was much prejudiced, but the gen- 
 eral truthfulness of whose picture of the 
 state of society and manners of the peo- 
 ple of the colonies has been fully recog- 
 nized, describes the planters and mer- 
 cants of South Carolina as well bred, the 
 people showy and expensive in their dress. 
 Everytliing conapirod tO' make Charles- 
 town the liveliest, the pleasantest and the 
 politest place, as it is the richest, in all 
 America. The large fortunes, he says, 
 that have been acquired in the city from 
 the accession and circulation of its trade 
 must necessarily have had great influ- 
 ence on the manners of the inhabitants, 
 for of all the towns in North America It 
 is the one in which the conveniences of 
 luxury are most to be met with. Says an- 
 other, a more recent writer, the planters 
 were travellers, readers, scholars; the so- 
 ciety of Charleston compared well in re- 
 finement with that of any city of its size 
 in the world, and English visitors long 
 thought it the most agreeable in Ameri- 
 ca. 
 
 The m,erchants of Charlestown, unlike 
 those of New England, were prospering 
 and contented, and the planters in South 
 Carolina were growing rich, but the 
 very wealth of the province bore with it 
 the seeds of dissatisfaction. While the 
 merchants themselves were busy in their 
 trade, and the planters with their ever- 
 increasing crops, they cared little for the 
 spoils of office, w^ii.cn were enjoyed by 
 the placemen whom the lords of trade in 
 England were now sending out to fill the 
 best places in the province, still they had 
 begun to think that with their wealth the. 
 highest honors of the province should be 
 open to them. Josiah Quincy records that 
 he heard several of them say: "We, none 
 of us, when we grow old can expect the 
 honors of the State: they are all given 
 away to worthless, poor sycophants." The 
 young men returning home were more 
 restless under the condition of affairs. 
 For twenty-five or thirty years before the 
 Revolution, as we have seen, the Caro- 
 linians had been sending their sons to Eu- 
 rope for education, and these, coming 
 home, accomplished and highly educated 
 men, many of whom had been admitted 
 to the highest circles in England, and 
 filled with ambition, were not content to 
 see incompetent and sometimes vulgar 
 and insolent strangers filling the places 
 for which they felt themselves equal, and 
 to which they considered they had a right 
 to aspire. The cases of Lieutenant Gov- 
 ernor Bull and of Chief Justice Pinckney 
 were warnings to them that native char- 
 acter and ability were of no account when 
 places were to be found in the colonies 
 with which the ministry might reward 
 party services at home. Coming from 
 Westminster, where they had been ac- 
 customed tO' see Mansfield and Camden 
 presiding, they turned with disgust from 
 the Court in which Skinner, the buffoon, 
 sat and disgraced the Bench. The seat 
 in Council and on the Bench, where their 
 fathers and grandfathers had sat, bringing 
 to the service ol the Crown, without re- 
 ward, wisdom and ability and the most 
 devoted loyalty were now filled by hench- 
 men, whO' had come over to Carolina for 
 the sake of a few paltry pounds. This 
 was the canker which had begun to sap 
 the loyalty of the people of Carolina. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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