The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina 
By Arthur Henry Hirsch, Ph.D.
1928, Duke University Press
reprinted 1962 by Archon Books
(pp 232-234)

  With the Manigaults we may in some respects rank the family of Maz’cks. Isaac
Maz’ck, the first one of the family to emigrate to America, began his commercial
career in Charles Town in 1686,[94] according to the Maz’ck manuscript
account.[95] The parents of Isaac Maz’ck, namely Paul Maz’ck and Helizabeth Van
Wick, were Walloons of wealth, who went from Holland to France about 1685,
following the Huguenot exodus of the Revocation.[96] Isaac Maz’ck, the emigrant
to South Carolina, had £1,500 with which he purchased a cargo of goods in London
and then sailed for his new home in America. This cargo of merchandise became
the basis for his great fortune. In Charles Town he was intimately associated
with Jacques Le Serrurier, Sr., his father-in-law, and James Le Serrurier, Jr.,
his wife's brother, with Pierre and Lewis Perdriau and with Pierre De St.
Julien, all of whom were ship-owners and merchants.[97] With Charles Town as
home port, and with Isaac Maz’ck as the leading figure in the firm, they
operated a business here many years. Their transactions involved trade with
Barbadoes, Portugal, Madeira, the West Indies and ports in North America.[98]
They have been styled the first Huguenot syndicate in America.[99] When Isaac
Maz’ck landed in South Carolina in 1686, he encountered a civilization unique
and alien to English and French experiences. The absence of social restraints on
production and exchange were especially inviting to persons used to the customs
of the old world. The province held numberless untested possibilities for the
development of wealth, especially for men of financial skill. By his bold
mercantile genius, he became a "merchant prince", amassed a great fortune, and
helped to lay the foundation of commercial prosperity in Carolina that gave her
the great economic strength she possessed at the time of the American
Revolution. His ships are said to have done the largest amount of commerce of
any ships in the colony,[100] and he is said to have been the largest land owner
in the province.[101] He was conspicuously active as a commissioner in the
erection of the first Huguenot Church in Charles Town, in 1691, and liberally
supported it during his life.[102] In his wi11 he bequeathed £100 sterling for
the maintenance of a minister of the Calvinistic faith in his beloved
church.[103] Grave and careful, bold in speculation, yet exact and methodical in
business affairs, he was considered a model merchant. Though wealthy, he took no
active part in politics, but was a staunch adherent to the doctrines and
practices of the Reformed Church of France. This fact probably helped to exclude
him from prominence in matters of public politics, for the Established Church
and local political affairs were closely related. His commercial interests and
his importance in business affairs on both sides of the water are indicated in
the extent of his land holdings, letters that are still preserved, mortgages,
his will, his endorsement of extensive financial ventures, etc.[104] His will
disposes of £44,800 and over 4,000 acres of land in addition to a large amount
of personal property.[105]
   His eldest son was born in Charles Town, March 6, 1700.[106] Unlike his
father he entered actively into politics and was for thirty-seven years a
prominent member of the Assembly.[107] In 1740 he was appointed Assistant
Judge.[108] He died in July, 1770,[109] and was buried in the French
Churchyard,[110] as was also his mother, who died in 1732.[111] The fact that
both he and his mother were held in high esteem by the people of Charles Town
and vicinity is shown in the fact that she was the only woman, except the wife
of Governor Johnson, of the period, who was honored with an editorial obituary
notice in the South Carolina Gazette. The notice states that her funeral was
attended "by most of the chief Merchants and public officers of the Province
that were then in town".[112] The marriage, birth and baptismal notices of the
family, bearing date of 1694 and later, are found in the old family Bible.[113]
___________________

94 Council Jrnl. (Salley), 1692, 61, states that Isaac Maz’ck (Massique) arrived
in April, 1692, in the ship Loyal Jamaica. Daniel Horry, Peter Gerrard, Jr.,
Peter Gerrard, Sr., and Peter La Salle came in the same vessel.

95 Maz’ck MS in possession of Mrs. Arthur Maz’ck, Charleston.

96 Ibid.

97 MS Pr. Ct. Rcd., 1694-1704, 366.

98 Maz’ck MS.

99 T. H. S. S. C., XIV. 39.

100 Ibid., IV. 33.

101 Maz’ck MS.

102 MS Pr. Ct. Rcd., 1732-36, 397 f.

103 Ibid. A group of beautiful miniatures of Stephen Maz’ck, Isaac Maz’ck, the
immigrant, his son and his grandson, all three of the same name, done in oil on
ivory, and mounted in gold, are in the possession of the family of the late Rev.
Robert Wilson, D.D., of Charleston.

104 MS Letter, Blondel to Godin, Sept. 16, 1726. S. C. MSS, folio 33, 1700-1732,
Library of Congress.

105 MS Pr. Ct. Rcd., 1732-6, 397.

106 Maz’ck MS.

107 S. C. Gaz., July 31, 1770: "Last Wednesday Morning departed this Life, after
a lingering Indisposition, Isaac Maz’ck, Esq., aged 71 Years, and a Native of
this Province, whose Death is much regretted by all who had the Pleasure of his
Acquaintance. . . . He was descended from an ancient and respectable Family in
the Isle of Rhe, that fled from the Persecutions in France and settled in this
Country about the year 1685. . . . He had served Thirty-Seven Years as a Member
of the Honourable the Commons House of Assembly of this Province."

108 Ibid.

109 Ibid.

110 Ibid.

111 Record in Maz’ck Bible, in possession of Mrs. Arthur Maz’ck, Charleston.

112 S. C. Gaz., Apr. 8, 1732.

113 In possession of Mrs. Arthur Maz’ck Charleston.

==== SCROOTS Mailing List ====