History of Charleston South Carolina

1698 erection of St philip's the glebe house History of Charleston

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St. Philip's was said to be "large and stately" and to
have a neat palisade around it in Charleston. It shows the good feeling
between the sects that Mrs. Blake (sometimes, as the wife
of a Landgrave and Proprietor, called " Lady Blake "),
who was the daughter of Landgrave Axtell, should have
contributed liberally to the adornment and completion of
St. Philip's, although herself a Baptist. It was endowed
by the piety of that true daughter of the Church, Mr
Affra Coming, who in 1698 " for love and duty
" bestowed
upon it seventeen acres of land just outside the walls.
This land in Charleston , now covered by the "Middle Western" part of
the city, has, as Glebe land, been of great value. Glebe
Street and Coming Street in Charleston keep the memory of the gift and
the donor. A large old-fashioned brick house on the east
side of the former street was, until a comparatively recent
period, the Rectory of St. Philip's, and was always known
as the " Glebe House of the old town of Charleston."

The building of Charleston in the early 1700s

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In Charleston the work of building went on. It seems
extraordinary that the colony should have been founded
for fourteen years before any attempt was made to erect
a church in Charleston. The uncertainty of occupation of Albemarle
Point was probably the cause of this delay, or perhaps the
small number of churchmen among the original Charleston settlers.
Old Governor Sayle had indeed selected and laid out a
graveyard, adjoining the old town o Charleston , of eighty acres (surely
a liberal provision), in which we may presume that he
himself was interred, but not until 1682 was St. Philip's
begun.
It was placed where St. Michael's now stands, at the
corner of Broad and Meeting streets just opposite the half
moon and drawbridge, and was built of the black cypress
which Mr. Maurice Mathews, correspondent of Lord
Shaftesbury, had strongly commended ten years before.
" The black cypress is wonderful large and tall and
soother, of a delicate grain, and smells. It will hereafter
be a good commodity to ye prying planter who looks
abroad." Its value as a building material was now
known. The foundation was of brick, and this mode of
building, namely a cypress house on a brick foundation,
was long esteemed and continued in the colony. For lime
they burnt the old Indian heaps of oyster shells, which
Sandford had described as piled thick along the river
banks near the coast of Charleston , where are many still to be seen.
This lime makes the strongest possible mortar. Walls
and whole buildings were often made of a concrete,
called "
tappy," or "
pise," — composed of these shells
mixed with the lime which becomes hard as stone. The
only building now standing in Charleston known to have
been erected in the seventeenth century, the old Powder
Magazine in Cumberland Street, which was attached to the
small fort at Carteret Bastion at the northwest corner of
the old wall, is built of this "
tappy."

History of Charleston south carolina indian trading between 1679 to 1700

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Most of the chief planters in those early days
of Charleston were merchants as well ; the Indian trade in Charleston was long the
chief source of wealth. "Charles Town- Charleston trades for 1000
miles into the continent," one old writer says. The Proprietors
tried to restrict the fur trade in Charleston to within one hundred
miles of the town, reserving all beyond to themselves;
but although they appointed Indian agents to enforce
the laAV, it was continually eluded. In troubled times
some of these agents in Charleston became persons of great importance.
Besides the furs, they had for exports, as has been already
said, the products of the forest, lumber of all sorts, tar,
pitch, and turpentine. To these, in defiance of the objections
of the Proprietors of Charleston , there was added salt-beef and
bacon. What was a man whose estate numbered thousands
of acres to do but to graze it ? The cattle throve
and multiplied enormously in a climate where food was
plentiful all the year, and a bracken bush could keep the
cow in the severest weather. Wolves prevented the
increase of sheep as worthless dogs do now, but most
planters protected a small flock, to supply the family with
mutton and with wool for the ever whirling wheels.
Swine could take care of themselves; they fattened on the
acorns of the oak groves, and soon became an important
article of export, while as yet crops were small and
inadequate.
These sources of prosperity had so increased the wellbeing
of the little community in Charleston that when Thomas Ashe,
clerk of the ship Richmond, came out in 1680 with the first
Huguenot colony in Charleston , he declared in the " View of Carolina '
which he published on his return to England, that there
was no longer any suffering or want of food to be apprehended
; that the settlers in Charleston were well established, had all
sorts of European grains and fruits and "
twenty sorts of pulse not known in England, all of them good for food."
It would be interesting to learn what they were. Most
families in Charleston kept an Indian, who for a mere trifle would supply
a household of twenty people with an ample quantity
of game, venison, turkeys, ducks, etc. This custom lasted
down to the Revolution in Charleston , and in some cases still later.

History of Charleston south carolina the Barbadians and other west indies settlers

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The Barbadians and other West Indian Islands were arriving in Charleston in 1679.
Thomas Drayton, William and Arthur Middleton, and Robert
Daniel, all names of note in Carolina, came to Charleston in 1679.
Moore, Ladson, Grimball, Cantey, Boone, Thomas Smith,
Schenking, and Izard appear in Charleston soon after. All of these took
up lands in Charleston ; many of the original grants still remain, and
the Council Journals show the extent, as " Lands granted
on Goose Creek to Edward Middleton, Gent., one of the
honourable persons of this Province." This land became
afterward the beautiful plantation"
Crowfield," long considered
the handsomest landscape garden in the Province of Charleston.
Another grant of a thousand acres in Charleston to the same person
was the " Oaks," the stately avenue of which still remains.
Mr. Thomas Amy is to have twelve thousand acres
(a barony)
" In consideration of his great services
"
(in encouraging
emigration), and John Gibbs, Esq., kinsman of
the Duke of Albemarle, is to " have every attention paid to
him, and three thousand acres rent free." This last is a
very rare order; the quit-rent, which made much trouble,
was generally to be paid. But although the chief residences
of these gentlemen were on their plantations in Charleston , they
were likewise important citizens; in fact the country for a
radius of twenty miles around was but a greater Charleston.

The Huguenot emigrants 1680 History of Charleston the french Church

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The Huguenot emigrants, who only arrived in Charleston 1680 to
1686, began their "French Church" in Charleston about 1687 in the
upper part of Charlestons Church Street on land conveyed by Ralph
Izard and Mary his wife (a Miss Middleton) for that pur-
pose. Isaac Mazyck, one of Charlestons earliest and wealthiest
emigrants of their race, gave generously to Charleston. At the other end of Church Street were the
Baptists, on land in Charleston given by William Elliott, and the Quak-
ers had a " Friends' Meeting House ' outside the walls,
near to the present King Street in Charleston.

Thus in ten years from the founding of Charleston  or
CharlesTown there was no lack of places of worship; it is remarkable
that although no one of the original buildings in Charleston remains
churches still stand upon each of these sites, belong-
ing to the same organizations and denominations. The
" Friends' is the only exception to this. The building
was destroyed by fire, and there being no Quakers now in
Charleston  it was never rebuilt ; but the lot is kept sacred,
and is still owned by the society.

So far the people of all these various denominations
were, with the exception of a few Dutch, from Nova-Belgia,
descendants of Great Britain, subjects of the King ; but now
from 1680 to 1688 came the French Huguenots, strangers
and aliens, into this English community.

History of Charleston South Carolina Sir Henry seige 1780

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Charleston had not seen the last of Sir Henry.
He came back  to charleston with an army in February, 1780,
and advancing this time by way of  John's and James Islands,
crossed the Ashley River above the city  of charleston and laid
siege to it from the rear on the main land. About the same  time,
the fleet, mindful of its former drubbing, ran past Fort Moultrie,
under a heavy fire, without attempting to engage it, and, in 
conjunction
with batteries erected on James Island, threatened the  city of
charleston
from the south and west.   A shot from one of these batteries, that
stood near
the conspicu-  ous point called the " Hundred Pines," left a mark
in Charleston
which may still be seen. At the intersection of Broad and Meeting
streets there was then placed a statue of William Pitt, raised by
the
grateful colonists in recognition of that statesman's fearless
 espousal
of their cause in the British Parliament, in resisting the Stamp
Act
and other oppressive measures.   A cannon shot from James Island,
 unmindful
of the distinguished  statesman at home, and of the fact that he
 was then
upholding his  government manfully in the pending struggle, struck
the statue.
carrying away its arm, and otherwise mutilating it. It now stands
in Washington Square, hard by its former location, with its beauty
still sadly marred by what was a home bullet if not a ** home 
thrust."
General Lincoln, who commanded the American forces, should
not have attempted to stand a siege the city of Charleston,
but should have  saved his little army — sadly needed elsewhere
while yet there was  time. He was in a cul-de-sac, without hope
of relief, was largely  outnumbered, and his capitulation was only
a question of time.

History of Charleston 1677 - 1783

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It is old as cities go in America,
its settlement in its present location
dating back to 1677, but it was not
 incorporated under the name  of Charleston
until 1783. Previously to that it had been called
Charles Town,
named in honor of the very virtuous king of Great
Britain, Charles IL, who, by
charter
in 1663, ''was graciously pleased  to grant " to certain "
Lords Proprietors " a vast region, larger  than his own "
tight little island,"
comprising both the Carolinas  and a great deal more
 besides, of whose real extent
either he or  they knew very little. The trifling
circumstance that the land was not
his to give was of small consequence. Charles was
 " hard up,"  if it be proper to
apply that expression to royalty, and there, as
elsewhere in America, it was
expected
of the colonists to quiet both  the question of
title and the real owners at
the same time, if  need be.   The names or titles
of these Lords Proprietors of Charleston are
preserved in  the two Carolinas in the names of
counties,south Carolina; the towns
Charleston and counties of Beaufort in  both States;
Albemarle Sound and the counties of Carteret,
 Craven  and Granville,
in North Carolina, and others their names
remain, but their authority in
Charleston south carolina was of short duration,
 the government of the Province
of Carolina having been transferred to the Crown
 in 1719 — so far as it concerned
Charleston and  South Carolina.

History of Charleston the years from 1679 to 1689

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In the years from 1679 to 1689 colonists were continually
arriving. The accession of James II. quickened
the emigration from England. Five hundred dissenters,
led by Morton and Axtell, who were made Landgraves for
their services, came out in a single month. Mr. Benjamin
Blake was an important person in this connection.
The Barbadians continued to come, and gentlemen from
the other West Indian Islands and from England also.
Thomas Drayton, William and Arthur Middleton, and Robert
Daniel, all names of note in Carolina, came in 1679.
Moore, Ladson, Grimball, Cantey, Boone, Thomas Smith,
Schenking, and Izard appear soon after. All of these took
up lands; many of the original grants still remain, and
the Council Journals show the extent, as " Lands granted
on Goose Creek to Edward Middleton, Gent., one of the
honourable persons of this Province." This land became
afterward the beautiful plantation
"
Crowfield," long considered
the handsomest landscape garden in the Province.
Another grant of a thousand acres to the same person
was the " Oaks," the stately avenue of which still remains.
Mr. Thomas Amy is to have twelve thousand acres
(a barony)
" In consideration of his great services
"
(in encouraging
emigration), and John Gibbs, Esq., kinsman of
the Duke of Albemarle, is to " have every attention paid to
him, and three thousand acres rent free." This last is a
very rare order; the quit-rent, which made much trouble,
was generally to be paid. But although the chief residences
of these gentlemen were on their plantations, they
were likewise important citizens; in fact the country for a
radius of twenty miles around was but a greater Charles
Town. Most of the chief planters in those early days
were merchants as well ; the Indian trade was long the
chief source of wealth. "Charles Town trades for 1000
miles into the continent," one old writer says. The Proprietors
tried to restrict the fur trade to within one hundred
miles of the town, reserving all beyond to themselves.In troubled times
some of these agents became persons of great importance.
Besides the furs, they had for exports, as has been already
said, the products of the forest, lumber of all sorts, tar,
pitch, and turpentine. To these, in defiance of the objections
of the Proprietors, there was added salt-beef and
bacon. What was a man whose estate numbered thousands
of acres to do but to graze it ? The cattle throve
and multiplied enormously in a climate where food was
plentiful all the year, and a bracken bush could keep the
cow in the severest weather. Wolves prevented the
increase of sheep as worthless dogs do now, but most
planters protected a small flock, to supply the family with
mutton and with wool for the ever whirling wheels.
Swine could take care of themselves; they fattened on the
acorns of the oak groves, and soon became an important
article of export, while as yet crops were small and
inadequate.
CBFNHCP2Y55G

The founding of the city of Charleston SC The Huguenot

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Governor West was a grave and sober-minded
man, and can but have been amused at the magnificent
directions which Lord Ashley sent for the building of
the chief town of a province which had at that time only
twelve hundred inhabitants. It should, His Lordship said,
have at least sixscore squares each of three hundred feet
and " it is necessary that you lay out the great Port Town
into regular streets, for be the buildings never soe meane
and thin at first, yet as the town increases in riches and
people, the voyde spaces will be filled up and the buildings
will grow more beautyfull. Your great street cannot be
less than one hundred or six score broad, your lesser streets
none under 60, your alleys 8 or ten feet. APallisado round
the Towne with a small ditch is a sufficient Fortification
against the Indians. There is a necessity that you leave
a Common round the Towne soe that noe Enclosure may
come nearer than the 3rd part of a mile to the Pallisado,"
etc.
For the carrying out of these directions West had the
assistance of his committee of Council. Surveyor-general
Culpepper had already drawn a plan and Stephen Bull
(afterward surveyor-general) took an active part.
Stephen Bull was, next to West and Woodward, the most
important of all the emigrants who came with Governor
Sayle. He came bringing many servants, and at once took
up a large body of land on Ashley River and named it
Ashley Hall." He was Lord Ashley's deputy, a member of Council, master of ordnance, and held a dozen other
important offices. Of most consequence to the colony
was the fact that as an explorer among the Indians he became
so friendly with them that they chose him for their
Cassique, and he thus was enabled to make an advantageous
treaty with them in 1696. A small one-storv
brick house built by him at Ashley Hall is still standing,
the oldest on the river. The estate remained in the
possession of the family for over two hundred years, and
in all those years there was hardly a time in which one of
the name did not go out to take part in the government
of South Carolina.
The committee does not seem to have attempted to execute
Lord Ashley's plan in full. Everything, however,
is comparative, and the wide streets of that day are the
narrow ones of this. Not even the most devoted Charlestonian
would now call Tradd, Elliott, and Church streets
" broad," but Mr. Thomas Ashe, clerk of the ship Richmond,
writing in 1682 says,
" The town is regularly laid out into broad and capacious streets"!
It really was a narrow parallelogram about four squares
long by three wide. The first street fronted on the Cooper
River, extending on the south from a creek (Vander
Horst's), which ran where Water Street is now, to another
on the north over which the City Market now stands.
On the west the present Meeting Street was bounded
by a wall in which wTas a half moon, with a gate and drawbridge
giving access to the country without. The wall
also extended along the three sides of water front, and had
bastions and small forts at the corners. Of course all
this was not constructed at once, but it was as described
in a very few years. From the river front projected
wharves, and soon " sixteen merchant vessels sometimes
rode at once in the harbour." There was a place reserved,
Ashe says, for a church and a Town Hall and a parade
ground for the militia. The streets running north and
south were Bay Street, Church, and Meeting; east and west
were Tradd, so named in honour of the first male white
child born in the town, Elliott, Broad, and Dock, now
Queen. The early maps show these only extending from
the Bay to Meeting Street, but in 1700 they are said to
reach from river to river. Some persons lived outside of
the walls on little farms, and the Council ordered that the
peninsula should be cleared of all trees and bushes that
might conceal a lurking enemy. There was a court of
guard, and watch was kept, both there and upon Sullivan's
Island, for "Topsayle Vessels" and other suspicious
craft.

History of Charleston sc -1671 Lord Ashley letter to Sir John

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In September of 1671 Lord Ashley wrote to
Sir John, "Above all things let me recommend to you the
making of a Port Town upon the River Ashley," etc.
Sir John was evidently of the same mind as his old
predecessor, and took the first steps by negotiating with
the persons who had taken up the land between the two
rivers. Accordingly in February, 1672, Mr. Henry
Hughes and " John Coming and Affra his wife
"
appeared
before the Grand Council and surrendered their land,
" nere a place upon Ashley River known as Oyster Point
to be imployed in and towards enlarging of a Towne and
Common of Pasture there intended to be erected."
" Mr. John Coming and Affra his wife
"
are perhaps the
most interesting people of that early time, because it is
impossible not to suspect a romance concerning them.
For why should " Mistress Affra Harleston of Mollyns,
daughter of John Harleston Gent., of a family long seated
at South Ockenden Essex, and having estates in Ireland,"
come out to America as servant to Mr. Owens, but for a
sentimental reason? Her father's house, as described in
the inventory, contained "seller, parlour, kitchen, larder,
great chamber, painted chamber, nurserie, butterie, gallerie
to the garretts," etc. Why, having everything thus
handsome about her, did she leave it all, if it were not to
marry John Coming, first mate of the Carolina, and
afterward captain of the good ships Edisto and Blessing?
Coming was a hardy Devonshire sailor of the
race of Drake and Raleigh and Kingsley's heroes. The
family tradition says, that having lost a ship some time
before he had been accused of cowardice, whereupon he
had with his own hands built and rigged a longboat, in
which he had crossed the Atlantic. He must have been
a man of means, for on first arrival he settled a place on
Ashley River and afterward one on the Cooper. His
name lives in " Comings Point," the southern cape of
Charleston Harbour, charted by him in 1671, and in the
fine plantation" Coming-tee," now in possession of his
collateral descendants, the Balls.
This may have been the first runaway match in South
Carolina.

Charleston sc history Letter to Lord Ashley 1671

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It was during Sir John's term of office that the question
of removing the first town was mooted, and Mr. Dalton,
secretary to the " Grand Council," wrote the following
letter to Lord Ashley, who had proposed a new " Towne
of Trade" in January, 1671.
" We cannot reasonably believe that the world is now
asleep, or that the Spaniard has forgot his sullenness,
therefore as it has been the practice of the most skilful
settlers, soe it will become us, to erect townes of safety as
well as of Trade, to which purpose there is a place —
between Ashley and Wando rivers, about six hundred
acres left vacant for a towne and Fort, by the direction of
the old Governor Coll. Sayle, for that it commands both
the Rivers. It is not a mile over between River and
river, with a bold landing free from any marsh, soe as
many shipps as can may ride before the Towne at once,
and as many shipps as can come into the River under the
protection of the fort, if one should be there.
" It is as it were a Key to open and shut this settlement
into safety or danger ; Charles Towne [their first town]
indeed can very well defend itself, and that's all ; but
that like an iron gate shutts up all the Townes that are or
may be in these rivers ; besides it has a full view of the
sea, being but a league or a few miles from the mouth of
the river and noe shipp can come upon the Coast but
may be seen from thence and may receive the benefit of a
Pilott from that Towne."
" The settlements being thick about it, it cannot be
surprised [he probably means by Indians] it is likewise
the most convenient for building and launching of shipps
as large as can come into this harbour. It must of necessity
be very healthy, being free from any noxious vapors,
and all the summer long being refreshed with continual
cool breathings from the sea, which up in the country men
are not soe fully sensible of."
No better description of the site of Charleston and of
its harbour could be written to-day. Its inhabitants are
still "all the summer long refreshed with cool breathings
from the sea" ; and for its strength, the fleets of France
and Spain, of England, and of the United States, have all
tried to force the iron gate, —and failed.

Governor Sir John Yeamans charleston sc history

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Yeamans was the son of an alderman of Bristol who
had suffered death for his fidelity to the crown. He
himself had warmly supported the royal cause in Barbadoes,
already a thriving colony. For so doing and
for prospective services in colonization he, Sir Peter
Colleton, and some other gentlemen of like principles, had
been made baronets ; — the old people used to refer to
them as "only-badian Baronets." He had. provoked the
colonists by not accompanying them on their voyage and
they vainly protested against his appointment now. In
many respects he made a bad Governor, oppressing the
people by his exactions, and offending the Proprietors by
demands for buildings and fortifications, which although
needed they had no mind to give.
Still, he had the advantage of understanding the needs
and resources of a new colony, putting the place into a
tolerable state of defence, and pointing out the agriculture
suited to the climate. He also showed the resources
of the forests, cutting and sending to Lord Ashley twelve
great logs of cedarwood, as the first-fruits of his new
possession. From that time the demand for cedar was as
constant and eager as was that of Solomon upon Hiram,
King of Tyre.
A still more important service was, that by his advice

and influence many rich planters from Barbadoes and
other West Indian Islands came to the Province, bringing
their negroes with them. They settled themselves chiefly
on a small affluent of the Cooper, called, from the fancied
resemblance of its winding course to the curving neck of
the goose,
" Goose-creek. ' Thence, they and their friends
on the Ashley and Cooper were known as the " Goose creek
men."
They differed from the "
plain people
" — mostly dissenters
—who had come out with Sayle, in being generally
of a higher class, wealthy, and members of the Church of
England. Thus began — and not from the fanciful nobility
— that untitled class of landed gentry which, perfectly
well understood and accepted during the colonial
period, survived the Revolution and formed a distinct and
influential element of Charleston society down to 1865.
Long after Yeamans had been removed this movement
continued, and gentlemen of wealth and position arrived
from England and the Islands to the great benefit of the
Province.

Charleston Sc early charter and slaves brought from barbados in the 1600s

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This charter was for a long time as dear to the people
of Carolina as is Magna Carta to the English. In
addition Lord Ashley (not yet Lord Shaftesbury), calling
to his aid the great philosopher John Locke, prepared
the " Fundamental Constitution," which enlarged
and added to the statutes of His Majesty. Among
other things it arranged for the proposed "-nobility," "in
order to avoid a too numerous democracy." This nobility
was little more than a plutocracy, depending upon the
amount of land owned by a man, which might be bought
by him, without regard to birth or breeding, or service
to the State. The titles passed by purchase as well as by
descent.
As land was held at a penny an acre, it did not require
a large fortune to become a " baron " with twelve
thousand acres, a cassique with twenty-four thousand,
or even a landgrave (these were the titles chosen) with
forty-eight thousand. The estates were called "
baronies,"and there were many which long kept the name, as the
" Wadboo," the "Broughton," the "Colleton," the " Fairlawn
Baron. but no one was addressed as "baron"or "cassique," and the landgraves, who were generallygiven the title to qualify them as governors (there weresome exceptions), simply prefixed the title to their surnames.
No man was landgrave of Edisto or of Accabee,
but Landgrave Morton or Landgrave Smith. Neither
did any" lord of the manor "exercise manorial rights over
white leetmen or negro slaves. Furnished with this constitution
and with some more practical" Temporary Laws," the colony began its career. A contemporaneous, facsimile copy of this constitution
(commonly called " Locke's ") is among the treasuresof the Charleston Library, and may be seen by the
curious.
Governor Sayle had brought with him only one hundred
and sixty persons, bat the number of inhabitants
was rapidly increased by subsequent immigration.
Especially was this the case when Governor Sir John
Yeamans came from Barbadoes, bringing with him negroes
accustomed to the agriculture of the islands and
to labour under tropical suns. By so doing he decided
the institutions and conditions of Carolina for all future
time.

Charleston sc The Proprietors code of law

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For the government of their colony the Proprietors
had prepared a singular code of laws. By their charter
from the King, Avhich granted them all the territory
now comprised in the states of North and South Carolina
and Georgia, with an indefinite extension westward " to
the South Seas," they were enjoined to establish the
Church of England, and permitted to grant liberty of
conscience. They might make iaws, but only with the
consent of the "
greater part' of the people (a most
unusual provision for those days) ; they were to establish
a nobility, but not to give the nobles English titles;
and place and people were ever to remain " of His
Majesty's allegiance."
The Province was to be created a County Palatine,
and the Proprietors, the oldest of whom, for the time
being, was to be the Palatine, were authorized to build
forts, castles, towns, etc., to appoint governors and
officers, to make laws, levy taxes and customs, establish
the Church of England, wage war, pursue their enemies,
put down rebellion, tumult, and sedition. All these
powers they were "to have, use and enjoy in as ample
a manner as any Bishop of Durham in our kingdom of
England ever heretofore held, used, or enjoyed."
A "
County Palatine '
is a frontier province where,
for the prompt action needful when enemies are close
at hand, the King delegates the supreme power to a
"
Palatine," who can exercise for the time all regal functions.
Such had been the English counties of Chester,
Lancashire, and Durham, in the days when the Welsh
threatened the west country, and the Cathedral of Durham
was " half Church of God, half tower against the
Scot." Of the three, in the reign of Charles II., Durham
alone kept its ancient privilege ; and so the powers of
that feudal potentate, the Lord Bishop, were cited as the
model for those of the Proprietors of Carolina.

Charleston sc territory claimed by england

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The territory which he gave had not always been
claimed by England; indeed, its very name "Carolina"
had been given a hundred years before, by a luckless band
of French Huguenots sent by the great Admiral Coligny
to find a refuge for "men of the religion' in the New
World. They, led by the Sieur Jean Ribault, had landed
at the " fair entrance ' to which they gave the name of
Port Royal. Delighted with the beauty and fertility of
the country, they claimed and named it for their king,
Charles IX. of France ; built a fort and raised the
French flag. But misfortune overtaking them, they
abandoned the place, only to be done to death by the
Spaniards at St. Augustine,—dying for their faith and
scorning to abjure.
In the reign of Charles II. a ruined fort, a broken
column carved with the fleur-de-lys, and the names " Carolina
" and " Port Royal" alone remained to tell the tale.
The country had, for nearly a century, "lain like a
derelict' to be taken by the first comer, so England
stepped in and claimed it for her own. There were
many difficulties and delays, but the Proprietors sent
exploring expeditions, on one of which a bold captain,
Robert Sandford, coasting along from the Cape Fear to
Port Royal, landed and " took seizin by turtle and twigge'
of the territory in the name of the King and realm of
England.

History of Charleston SC -The Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina

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IN the year of our Lord 1679 the Lords Proprietors of
the Province of Carolina on the Continent of North
America ordered the Governor of their said province to
remove his " Towne of Trade" (a small settlement on the
west bank of the Ashley River) to the peninsula opposite,
tying between what we call the Ashley and the Cooper
rivers, but which were known to the Indians as the Kiawah
and the Wando.
The Lords Proprietors were certain nobles and gentlemen
to whom his Most Sacred Majesty King Charles II.
had, in gratitude for services rendered to his father and
himself, given all that territory
" situate between the southernmost
parts of Virginia, and the river San Mathias,"
the northern boundary of the Spanish dominions.
These gentlemen were : Lord Clarendon, the great historian
; the Duke of Albemarle, who, as General Monk,
had brought back the King from exile to "
enjoy his own
again"; the sagacious statesman, Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper, Lord Ashley (afterward Earl of Shaftesbury) ;
Lord Craven, the preux chevalier of the age, who, like a
knight of old, had vowed life and fortune to the service
of the beautiful Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia—
and of Hearts ; Lord Berkeley ; Sir George Carteret ; Sir
John Colleton; and Sir William Berkeley, —all gallant
and loyal cavaliers.

All these had done and suffered much in the service of
the to secure and settle a province was an easy way to pay
a debt of gratitude. Moreover, the King expressly stated
in the charter, or patent, which he granted them, that he
did so, finding that they
" were incited by a laudable and
pious design of propagating the Christian religion and the
enlargement of the English empire and dominion," —
matters which the Merry Monarch was suspected of not
having deeply at heart.two Charleses, and to allow them, at their own expense.

Welcome to the history of Charlesto South Carolina

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Welcome to our Blog the history of Charleston South Carolina.
We are excited about the oportunity to share the wonderful history of the old town of charleston.
most of the information here is derived from the public domain-feel free to use it as needed.
List get started on this journey of the History of Charleston South Carolina..

Tuffy