Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina
No. 5.  pp 12-14, Charleston, South Carolina,  1897.
Press of Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co.


IMMIGRANTS FROM 1680 TO 1690.

   It is well known that the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was made in
1685.  This event forms a memorable epoch in the history of the Huguenot
refugees. Notwithstanding the cordon of spies established around the kingdom for
arresting refugees who were endeavoring to fly from the Popish persecutions in
their native land to foreign countries, the Protestants succeeded in eluding the
vigilance of their pursuers and entire families as well as individuals
providentially secured asylums in England, Holland and Switzerland. The Lords
Proprietors of Carolina encouraged the settlement in the province of those
afflicted people and with this object in view directed instructions to their
governors and deputies to make them magistrates in the civil and military parts
of the Colonial government. To many of the immigrants they granted land to them
and their assigns forever.
   The dates which have variously been assigned to the arrivals of various
refugees are for the most part erroneous. In few instances only are there
certain data which enable us, with an assurance of correctness, to designate the
exact period of their immigration. The statement of Ramsay and Dalcho on the
subject are generally conjectural; and should be rejected, unless confirmed by
undoubted evidence. Isaac Mazyek and the two Manigaults, Pierre and Gabriel,
arrived in Charleston in 1686 [1] not in 1693 to 1695 as stated by Dalcho.
   After the Revocation there was a continuous stream of immigration to
Carolina, and as they left their native land for the enjoyment of religious
privileges, we may reasonably suppose that they organized a church agreeably to
the faith they professed at an early period, after they had become sufficiently
numerous to form a congregation of worshippers. It is not certainly known when
the congregation in Charleston was founded, but there can be no doubt that it
was in existence in 1687.
   The will of Cęsar Moze, a refugee, dated June 20th, 1687, determines this
fact. In it he bequeathes to the church of the Protestant French refugees (in
Charleston) £37- "trente sept livres," to assist in the construction of a temple
for the use of a congregation - un lieu d'assembléc - of the said protestant
refugees.
   Cęsar Moze was probably an arrival previous to the Revocation who had time to
prosper somewhat and seems to have had a plantation on the Cooper river, near
its dividing into the Western and Eastern branches, where it is called the T.
This would have been near the Orange quarter settlement, of which further on.
The executor of Cęsar Moze's will was le Boudinot, and the witnesses were Jacob
Guerard and Isaac Lenoir.
   The concurrent testimony of the annalists of the time would point to this
church of the Huguenots in Charleston as the first organized congregation of
Christian worshippers in the province of Carolina. There is no other that can
date its origin to so early a period from any well authenticated data. It is
true that Dalcho conjectures that the first Episcopal Church was established in
the city as early as 1681 or in 1682. He admits however, that the evidence is
not conclusive. Ramsay, on the other hand, states that it was built in 1690.
Holmes, in his American Annals, has made the singular assertion that the
"regular administration of the Ordinances of the Gospel had not been introduced
into Carolina until 1696.

---------------
[1] The date of arrival, 1686, as given by Mr. Gaillard, is not absolutely
certain.

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