Extracted From:
The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina 
By Arthur Henry Hirsch, Ph.D.
1928, Duke University Press; reprinted 1962, Archon Books

   Posterity need not deceive itself concerning the greatness of such a name as
Hector Bérénger de Beaufain. He went to South Carolina probably with the Purry
group, but settled in Charles Town after a few years' residence in Granville
County. He was born in Orange, France, in 1697 and arrived in South Carolina in
1733. There he lived until his death in 1766.[1] For twenty-four years he was
Collector of Customs in South Carolina, to which office he was commissioned in
1742.[2] In 1747 he was appointed to membership in the Governor's Council, but
resigned in the thick of the political disturbances of 1756.[3] He was a Fellow
of the Royal Society of London, and though a foreigner, was "master of learned
languages" and a profound critic of the English language, a man of unshaken
integrity and of benevolent disposition.[4 ] In 1740 he was admitted to
membership in St. Andrew's Society of Charles Town, a fraternal, mutual
organization, founded by the Huguenots and others to relieve the suffering and
distress of the poor.[5] In 1753 he advanced £2,500 for the relief of poor
Protestants then arriving in South Carolina in large numbers.[6] His public
spirit and his interest in religious education are manifest in patronage by
subscription of the two-volume set of published sermons by the Rev. Richard
Clark.[7] He was an honored member and patron of the Charles Town Library
Society until his death.[8] His will bequeaths the income from his pew in St.
Michael's to the use of the poor. To the poor he also left £500 currency,
together with his house and its furnishings. How extensive his wealth was, is
not known, but his will disposes of £2,600, a library, a home and its
furnishings, unspecified amounts of land, an annuity of £50 to the mother of his
nephew, [-] de Beaufain, and an annuity to his sister, Clodre de Beaufain, also
possessions in England and in South Carolina.[9]
____________________________

1 S. C. Gaz., Oct. 31, 1766.

2 Commission, MS Council Jrnl., 1741-9, 19

3 MS Col. Doc. S. C., XXVII. 151; XXII. 250.

4 S. C. Gaz., Dec. 13, 1773.

5 List of members, MS Records, St. Andrew's Society.

6 Cooper, Statutes, IV. 5.

7 List of subscribers at 12-3-0 per set, in S. C. Gaz, Dec. 8, 1759

8 S. C. Gaz., Apr. 23, 1750, passim.

9 Will, "Gleanings from England", S. C. H. & C. Mag., XI. 132. Grants of land to
him total 2,800 acres in Granville County alone. See MS Grants, II. 41, 42, 213,
252.

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