Charleston Raconteurs in Charleston, SC

HISTORY TOLD WITH WIT AND SKILL

1758
Feb. 28 -- Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet, who author Walter J. Fraser Jr. (Charleston! Charleston!) called a "brash thirty-eight-year-old British soldier-of-fortune" demanded that the colonial Assembly pay for his officers' housing needs. The Assembly refused his request. Soldiers' housing would become one of colonists' complaints as the country moved toward revolution.

March 18 -- The Assembly denied Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet's demand that they pay for his soldiers' housing. Among those who were opposed were Peter Manigault, Christopher Gadsden, Charles Pinckney, Henry Laurens and Rawlins Lowndes, writing "Officers and Soldiers cannot, legally or constitutionally, be quarter'd in private Houses, without the special Consent of the Owners or Possessors of such Houses."

1760
Jan. 9 -- Gov. Lyttleton and his soldiers marched (somewhat) victoriously down Broad Street and at noon cannons fired to welcome the troops back to Charleston after having concluded a peace treaty with the Cherokees near Keowee. The treaty was hastily made as a raging smallpox epidemic was ravaging the tribe, and the soldiers feared catching it.

Jan. 12 -- Three days after Gov. Lyttleton's return, the worst epidemic to date of smallpox broke out within the colony.

1761
Dec. 17 -- Early Patriot leader Christopher Gadsden wrote an editorial in the Gazette accussing Lt. Col. James Grant, a Scottish officer in the British Army, of not having been aggressive enough in his attacks on the Cherokees, claiming he did not permit his men "to cut the throats of as many as they could have." In Charleston! Charleston!, author Walter J. Fraser Jr. suggests the criticism may have been fueled, at least in part, by "personal jealousies increasingly common in relations between British regular officers and provincial officers" (p. 95).

1764
Aug. 19 -- Arthur Middleton married Mary Izard, "a Lady who is one of the first of her sex for sense, politeness and every female accomplishment."

1765
Sept. 4 -- Christopher Gadsden, Thomas Lynch and John Rutledge set sail for the illegally called Stamp Act Congress in New York City. Gadsden, ever the ardent Patriot, served as chair of the committee that drafted resolutions condemning the act.

Oct. 24 -- An angry mob seeking the whereabouts of the destested tax stamps issued through the Stamp Act stormed a number of notable residences in downtown Charleston, including that of Henry Laurens, who said that under the guise of "Patriotism ... committed at length Burglary & Robbery." (Fraser Jr., West J. in Charleston! Charleston!, p. 109)

Oct. 26 -- Leaders of a rebel mob spread rumors that Charles Town's two local stamp agents, George Saxby and Caleb Lloyd, were hiding out at Fort Johnson on James Island. Over the next two days, the mob rampaged through the streets of Charles Town, threatening to kill the agents if they did not resign their office. (Source: Charleston, Charleston!, p. 109, by Walter J. Fraser Jr.)

Oct. 28 -- Because of the murderous threats by an angry rebel mob two days before, Charles Town's stamp agents, George Saxby and Caleb Lloyd, announced that to ensure the peace of the province (and save their lives), they would not enforce the hated Stamp Act. The Sons of Liberty poured into the streets and unfurled the blue flag of "Liberty." (Source: Charleston, Charleston!, p. 109, by Walter J. Fraser Jr.)

Dec. 17 -- Amid rumors of a possible slave rebellion, Acting Governor William Bull called an emergency Council meeting. A hundred militia men were deployed to patrol the city and the captains of ships moored in the harbor had their sailors stand sentinel at night. The holidays passed peacefully, though the patrols continued both day and night through early January (Charleston! Charleston! by West Fraser Jr., p. 113).

1766
Jan. 1 -- Becoming increasingly alarmed at the ratio of the enslaved vs. white population in Charles Town, the Assembly imposed heavy import duties on all slaves brought into the colony as of this date.

June 6 -- Elizabeth Thomas Broun dies and is buried in the St. James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease churchyard.

1768
Oct. 1 -- In preparation for the upcoming Assembly elections, Charles Town's mechanics nominated candidates who opposed the Quartering Act, Stamp Act, and Sugar Act. Led by Patriot Christopher Gadsden, they met at the Liberty Tree "where many loyal, patriotic and constitutional toasts were drank." The company then marched on to Dillon's Tavern to continue the celebration.

1769
July 22 -- The colonial Assembly appointed a Committee of Thirty-Nine, which included an equal number of merchants, planters and artisans, thus for the first time granting the laboring classes a significant voice in the colony's government. (Source: Walter J. Fraser Jr. in Charleston, Charleston!, p.125)

Dec. 8 -- The S.C. General Assembly voted to send 1,500 pounds Sterling to John Wilkes, a member of England's Parliament who had been arrested and imprisoned for criticizing the King. As Patriotic tensions here grew, they felt a kinship with Wilkes's cause. Unfortunately, the King's counselors saw the gift as a slap in the face to their sovereign, which did nothing to mellow the rebellous tensions that were brewing. (Source: Walter J. Fraser Jr. in Charleston, Charleston!, p.126)

1770
Jan. 30 -- Lt. Gov. William Bull recommended to the General Assembly the establishment of a provincial college, which became what we know today as the College of Charleston (and my Alma Mater).

Dec. 13 -- Charlestonians voted a local boycott against the importation of British goods (with the exceptions of tea and luxury items) as a result of the repeal of the Townshend Act. (Source: Walt Fraser in Charleston. Charleston! page 127)

1773
Jan. 12 -- Though authoritative accounts vary, what may indeed have been the first public museum in America was established, The Charleston Museum.

Nov. 19 -- The so-called "Club Forty-Five" met at the Liberty Tree to agitate for independence from English rule.

Dec. 2 -- The English ship London dropped anchor in Charles Town harbor with 257 chests of tea aboard. As the tension of the impending revolution filled the air, it was clear that if the colonists allowed the cargo to be delivered with its three-pence-per-pound duty collected as authorized by Parliament, it would be an admission that the colony was answerable to the governing body of England so far away. Christopher Gadsden was incensed. He and his friends posted handbills all over town calling for a meeting the next day at the Old Exchange Building to discuss what should be done. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 136)

1774
Oct. 22 -- Henry Middleton was elected President of the first Continental Congress.

1775
April 14 -- News reached Charles Town that Parliament was sending additional troops to enforce British policies (and taxation) in the colonies. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 141)

April 26 -- In response to the news that British troops were being dispatched to the colonies, the Secret Committee of Five, created by the Provisional. Congress and led by William Henry Drayton, seized the arms and powder that were being stored in local magazines and hid them in private houses throughout the city. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 141)

June 8 -- Two Charlestonians who remained loyal to the Crown, a small-time merchant named Laughlin Martin and another man named James Dealy, were tarred and feathered by locals calling for revolution, based on an accusation that they had cheered rumours that enslaved Blacks, Catholics, and Native Americans were to receive arms from British forces to help quell the rebellion. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 143)

June 16 -- A slave named Jemmy said in a depostion to Revolutionary authorities that he had been approached by his brother-in-law Thomas Jeremiah to "take a few guns" to a runaway slave named Dewar. The weapons, he said, were "to be placed in Negroes hands to fight against the inhabitants of this Province" to support the British. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)

August 11 -- The slave Thomas Jeremiah went on trial under the Negro Act of 1740 for helping to arm other enslaved Blacks in support of the British cause. Found guilty, he was sentenced "to be hanged, and then burned to ashes." (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)

August 12 -- A local mob seized a British soldier "for some insolent speech he had made," tarred and feathered him, and "putting him in a cart paraded through the Town ... using him very cruelly all the time." But the afternoon, the crowd had grown to 400, who roamed through the streets, stopping at the houses of suspected Crown sympathizers, using the soldier to demonstrate what their fate might be if they continued their support of the Crown. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 145)

August 17 -- Jemmy, the slave who testified against his brother-in-law Thomas Jeremiah, recanted his testimony that Jeremiah had been involved in transporting British arms to this enslaved colleagues. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 146)

August 18 -- Despite his brother-in-law's recanted tesimony that he was distributing British arms to enslaved Negros, Thomas Jeremiah was hanged anyway, then burnt to ashes as his sentence decreed. He had maintained his innocence to the end. S.C. Gov. William Campbell believed Jeremiah was innocent, as did the Royal Attorney General, saying Jeremiah was the victim of local hysteria. (Source: Charleston, Charleston! by Walt Fraser, p. 146)

1776
June 3 -- S. Smith published "A View of Charles-Town, the Capital of South Carolina, from an Original Picture Painted at Charlestownin the Year 1774," painted by Thomas Leitch and engraved by Samuel Smith.

GO BEYOND THE POPULAR TOURIST SITES

Book Your Tour Today!

THE KING'S COLONY

1721-1757

1721
May 22 -- Having successfully pulled off America's "First Revolution" to make Charles Town a royal rather than proprietary colony, Charlestonians welcomed their first Royal Governor, Francis Nicholson, who arrived on this day.

1722

Dec. 28 -- Eliza Lucas was born into a wealthy and privileged English family on Antiqua.

1723
Jan. 12 -- Sir William Rhett, one of the colony's leading men and the captain who captured the notorious Stede Bonnet and other pirates, died.

Dec. 11 -- The Rev. Thomas Morritt, who had been sent from England by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, wrote to his superior that he had recently proposed to the colony's Assembly the possibilty of creating a college . (Source: A History of the College of Charleston, p. 2)

1726

July 20 -- John Pight, a registered trader in enslaved Native Americans and owner of 700 acres on the south side of Goose Creek, wrote his will. (Source: The Goose Creek Bridge, p. 53)

1730
Nov. 21 -- William Moultrie, future S.C. Governor, General and Patriot hero of the American Revolution, was born.

Nov. 22 -- The day after William Moutrie's birth, Edward Rutledge, also a future S.C. Governor and the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born.

Dec. 15 -- Robert Johnson arrived to become Charles Town's new Royal Governor.

1732
Jan. 8 -- Thomas Whitmarsh, who had once worked for Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, published the first edition of the South Carolina Gazette.

April 15 -- Charles Lowndes paid Henry Gibbes 330 English pounds to "lease" five slaves in order to enlarge his "family" so that he would be eligible to acquire a new land grant based on how many people were in his household. Grants were based on how many people were in one's household.(Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, . 86)

April 21 -- Charles Lowndes paid James Kinloch 600 pounds to lease seven enslaved people, because by increasing the size of his "household," he would qualify to enhace the size of his land grant. (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History Vol. 1, p. 86)

July 5 -- Margaret Johnson, "am amiable, sensible Lady,/Of Exemplary Piety, Charity and Oeconomy," according to her memorial stone, and the wife of Proprietary and Royal Gov. Robert Johnson, died and was buried in St. Philip's churchyard. Unfortunately her stone was destroyed in the fire of 1835.

Sept. 17 -- Col. Charles Pinckney was born.

1733

June 11 -- Frances Brewton, the sister of wealthy merchant Miles Brewton and the future wife of Col. Charles Pinckney and mother of Charles Pinckney, an architect of the U.S. Constitution, was born.

1734
Feb. 2 -- The South Carolina Gazette resumed publication under its new editor, Lewis Timothy.

1735
Jan. 24 -- A troupe of traveling actors, in league with local musicians, staged the colony's first theatrical season in the "long room" of Shepheard's Tavern, located on the northeast corner of Broad and Church streets. The season opener was "The Orphan, or the Unhappy Marriage." Tickets cost 40 shillings each.

Jan. 18 -- Planter Charles Lowndes advertised his 1,000-acre Goose Creek plantation for sale in the South Carolina Gazette. (Source: Goose Creek, A Definitive History. See May 22 below.)

Feb. 18 -- The first documented opera to be performed in America, "Flora, or Hob in the Well," opened in the "long room" of Shepheard's Tavern on the northeast corner of Broad and Church street.

May 3 -- "Good Governor" Robert Johnson, who served under both proprietary and royal rule of the Charles Town colony, died and was buried in St. Philip's churchyard. Unfortunately, his memorial stone wa destroyed when the church burned in 1835. (See July 5, 1732, above.)

May 22 -- Charles Lowndes, being heavily in debt, fatally shot himself in jail, where he was being held for his failure to financially support his estranged wife. Considered to be a gentleman, he had been allowed to keep his firearm during his incarceration. (Source: Goose Creek, A Definitive History)

1736
Feb. 12 -- The Dock Street Theatre presentd its first performance, a comedy titled "The Recruiting Officer."

1737

March 8 -- The journal of the Commons House of Assembly authorized payment for "beef killed" and used by the Goose Creek Company during the "time of the Negro insurrection," providing documentation of one of the Lowcountry's slave uprising. (Soutce: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, p. 90)

March 12 -- Thomas Monck, a planter from Goose Creek, advertised in ithe South Carolina Gazette offering a five-pound reward for the return of his enslaved Angolan man named Cudja. He described him as being "branded on his right breast 'T Monck.'" (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, p. 90)

June 15 -- Rebecca Brewton (m. Motte) was born to Robert and Mary Loughton Motte.

Nov. 19 -- Charles Theodore Pachelbel arrived in Chalreston.

Dec. 3 -- Samuel Dyssli, an indentured white servant wrote home to his family saying "I am over here, thank God, hale and hearty, and doing at present quite nicely. I am working with an English master. He gives me every week ... 50 shillings, and ... plentiful ... food and drink."

1738

Jan. 19 -- Captain Morris offered 100 acres in Goose Creek free for experimentation with growing silk. He also requested that the Commons House of Assembly appeal to Parliament to reduce the duty on silk. (Source: Goose Creek, A Definitive History, Vol. 1, p. 99)

May 4 -- The South Carolina Gazette reported that several recently imported slaves had small pox and suggested that readers "take all imaginable care to prevent" its spread.

May 8 -- Daniel Cartwright sold his land, which included today's Hampton Park, to John Braithwaite.

June 26 -- As the terrible small pox epidemic of 1738 subsided, acting Royal Governor William Bull proclaimed June 26 as "a day of publick Fasting and Humiliation" to remember the many deaths in Charles Town.

1739

Jan. 25 -- The South Carolina Gazette advertised the sale of James Moore's "very good brick two-story House" at his Goose Creek plantation. (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, p. 97)

Sept. 9 -- The bloodiest slave revolt in colonial America began near what is today the Stono River Bridge on Highway 17, about 20 miles south of Charleston.

1740
Apr. 5 -- Concerned about the ever-increasing ratio of enslaved blacks to whites, the Assembly imposed a prohibitively high import duty on African slaves.

Nov. 18 -- One of Charleston's most destructive fires began around 2 p.m. "in a Sadler's House" at the corner of Broad and Church streets, destroying not only private residences, but the heart of the city's commercial warehouse district.

1741
Jan. 8 -- Believing that the Great Conflagration of 1740 was a sign of God's displeasure of Charles Town's sinful society, Anglican evangelist George Whitfield wrote in an article that ran in the Gazette saying that even the colony's clergy were robbers who did not follow in "the Footsteps of our True Sheperd." He was soon thereafter arrested and upon his release, returned to England.

Aug. 15 -- As reported in the Gazette, an enslaved man named Boatswain was brutally excuted after being named as a co-conspirator in an arsonist's plot. The disturbing article shows evidence of the increasing fear whites had as the enslaved black majority of the colony grew larger.

1742
June 26 -- Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born.

Oct. 25 -- A visitor to Charles Town noted: "matters between the whites and the blacks here are such that one fears to be seen outside the house." (Source: Charleston! Charleston!)

1743
Dec. 18 -- Upon his arrival in Charles Town aboard the Tartar, Royal Gov. James Glen described the colony as being "... in Ashes, Defenseless, Declining."

1744
May 27 --Eliza Lucas married widower Charles Pinckney.

Nov. 18 -- Shepheard's Tavern reopened after its destruction in the Fire of 1740.

1747

Jan. 1 -- George Lucas died in French captivity during the War of Austrian Succession. He left his 17-year-old daughter, Eliza, to manage his Wappoo, Garden Hill and Combahee plantations.

1748

Dec. 28 -- The Charles Town Library Society began raising money for the establishment of an academy, an educational initiative that eventually resulted in the College of Charleston. (Source: A History of the College of Charleston, p. 5)

1750

March 6 -- The Rev. Robert Stone wrote in a letter: "in Goose Creek ... health was so bad that fourty-five was considered the common age of man." (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, p. 56)

1752
Jan. 9 -- Archibald Broun, who would go on to be a Patriot hero of the American Revolution, was born at Brounsfield Plantation, about 22 miles north of Charles Town.

Feb. 17 -- Royal Governor James Glen laid the cornerstone of St. Michael's Church at the intersection of Broad and Meeting streets "with great ceremony, an official dinner, and toasts to King George II." (Source: A Short History of Charleston, p. 40; Broad Street and Beyond, p. 40.)

Sept. 14 -- The first breezes of what would become the Great Hurricane of 1752 began to pick up late in the afternoon.

Sept. 15 -- One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the East Coast came ashore, blowing a large ship anchored in Charleston Harbor up Vanderhorst Creek (today's Water Street), and striking the meeting house of a group of Baptists who had recently split from the city's main congregation. The ship finally came to rest near Meeting Street.

1753

April 21 -- An act was passed by the Provencial Assembly to build the Four Hole Swamp bridge in upper Goose Creek Parish. (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History Vol. 1, p. 110, 112.)

1754

Sept. 17 -- Col. Charles Pickney bought Snee Farm plantation (715 acres at the time of purchase) and soon afterward built a house there.

1756
June 1 -- William Henry Lyttleton arrived in Charles Town aboard HMS Winchelsea to assume his new position as the colony's Royal Governor. Author Walter J. Fraser Jr. describes him as "a short, slim, thirty-one-year-old man, well connected with England's aristocracy by birth and marriage." A great crowd turned out to greet him; Henry Laurens expressed the feelings of many: "We are much in want of a new Governor. We mean a good one." (Source: Charleston! Charleston!)

July 2 -- News reached Charles Town that England had declared war on France. Royal Gov. Lyttleton received the Assembly's support in raising funds for the war effort by raising taxes on run, bread and flour. Wealthy legislators, however, stopped short of further taxing real estate and chattel property.

1757

May 4 -- Keeping active militias for maintaining the local peace was common throughout in the Lowcountry before the American Revolution. On May 4, the Goose Creek Council Journal listed the Four Hole Company muster roll serving under Col. Walter Izard: Lt. Col. Robert Rivers, Maj. Benjamin Singleton, Capt. Peter Fauer, and Lr. Ludovic Linder. (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, p. 106.)

June 3 -- Alexander Wood recorded the value of his inventory, including "10 slaves: Ophella, his wife Jenny an Indian woman with two children, 7 yrs. old girl Phillis & 5 yr. old boy Frank; York an Indian fellow one of the hunters, old Moll almost past labor an Indian woman; Pompey black a carpenter; Hannibal black a field slave; Nero black a boy & hunter; Peter black." (Source: Goose Creek: A Definitive History, Vol. 1, p. 88)

Oct. 26 -- Charles Pinckney, son of Col. Charles Pinckney and Ruth Brewton and a future architect of the U.S. Constituion, was born.

Nov. 23 -- Dr. Robert Broun died and was buried in the St. James Goose Creek Chapel of Ease churchyard.

Nov. 28 -- The American Navy was established, an entity that would play a huge role in Charleston's -- indeed, in South Carolina's -- 20th century history.

Though there are no authenticated portraits of Sir Francis Nicholson, that above is considered by many to be of him. Learn more about American's real first Revolution on our Day on the Cooper River tour. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Patriot Archibald Broun's son Robert laid this memorial in his father's honor. Broun's grave is one of those we visit on our Day on the Cooper River tour. (Image: Charleston Raconteurs)

The saga of the Gentleman Pirate Stede Bonnet is a part of our Lost Charleston tours. (Photo by Leigh Handal.)

A history of the Charleston Naval Base can be found in Lost Charleston.

More Charlestonians have been lost to epidemics that through all its wars and natural diasters put together. Learn more about Charleston's deadliest diseases.

The Dock Street Theatre is included in our Charleston Overview and Charleston Renaissance tours.

Though Shepheard's Tavern itself (seen here in an artist's rendering) is long gone, we discuss the tavern, and many of the stories that occurred here, on our Charleston Overview tour.

We visit the memorial of Col. Charles Pinckney at Christ Church on our French Santee Tour. (Image: Christ Church archives)

American evangelist George Whitfield

The Laurens-Rutledge House, 117 Broad Street, home of Edward Rutledge, is included in Charleston Then & Now. (Image: South Caroliniana Library, c. 1895, public domain)

We interpret the site of the Stone Slave Rebellion on our tours to Beaufort and Savannah. (Image: WikiMedia Commons, public domain)

An artist's interpretation of what Shepheard's Tavern may have looked like. We interpret this historic site on our Charleston Overview and Lost Charleston tours.

We visit the memorial marker of Col. Charles Pinckney on our French Santee Tour.

Rebecca Brewton Motte inherited her brother's fine mansion at 27 King Street. It is included on our Charleston Overview Tour. (Image: WikiMedia Commons, public domain)

We visit the site of Declaration of Independence signer Arthur Middleton on our Middleton Place tour.