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RAMSAY'S HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
From ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1670 TO THE YEAR 1808.
by David Ramsay, M.D. 
Preface dated "Charleston, December 31st, 1808"
1858, by W.J. Duffie, Newberry, S.C.
1959, by The Reprint Company, Spartanburg, S.C. 
Volume I, Chapter IV, pp 58-61

CIVIL HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.  CHAPTER IV.
Royal Government from 1720 to 1776.
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   About the beginning of the year 1731, Robert Johnson, who had been
proprietary Governor of Carolina, arrived with a commission, investing him with
a similar office in behalf of the crown. He brought back these Indian chiefs,
possessed with the highest ideas of the power and greatness of the English
nation, and pleased with the kind and generous treatment they had received.
   This new Governor, from his knowledge of the province, was well qualified for
his high office; and had a council to assist him, composed of the most
influential inhabitants. Thomas Broughton was appointed Lieutenant Governor, and
Robert Wright, Chief Justice. The other members of the Council were William
Bull, James Kinlock, Alexander Skene, John Fenwicke, Arthur Middleton, Joseph
Wragg, Francis Yonge, John Hamerton and Thomas Waring.
   Mr. Johnson had acted with great spirit in opposing the Carolinians in 1719,
when they threw off the proprietary government; but they had liberality enough
to consider him as having acted solely from a sense of duty and honor. He was
not only well received in his new office, but the Assembly honored him after his
death by erecting a handsome monument to his memory in St. Philip's church,
highly applauding his administration.
   For the encouragement of the people, now connected with the mother country,
several favors were granted them. The restraint upon rice, an enumerated
commodity, was partly taken off; and that it might arrive more seasonably and in
better condition at market, the colonists were permitted to send it directly to
any port southward of Cape Finisterre. A bounty on hemp was also allowed by
parliament. The arrears of quit-rents, bought from the proprietors, were
remitted by the liberality of the crown. For the benefit of trade, their bills
of credit were continued, and seventy-seven thousand pounds were stamped and
issued by virtue of an act of the Legislature, called the appropriation law.
Seventy pieces of cannon were sent out by the King; and the Governor had
instructions to build one fort at Port Royal, and another on the river
Alatamaha. An independent company of foot was allowed for their defence by land,
and ships of war were stationed on the coast for the protection of trade. From
these and several other benefits conferred on the colony, it soon began to
emerge from the depths of poverty, and rapidly rose to a state of ease and
affluence.
   As a natural consequence of its domestic security the credit of the province,
in England, increased. The merchants of London, Bristol and Liverpool, turned
their eyes to Carolina as a new and promising channel of trade; and established
houses in Charlestown for conducting their business with the planters, and
poured in slaves for cultivating their lands, and manufactures for supplying
their plantations, and furnished them with both on credit and at a cheap rate.
With this increased force, the lands were cleared and cultivated with greater
facility. The lands rose in value, and men of foresight and judgment began to
look out and secure the rich spots for themselves. The produce of the province
in a few years was doubled. From this period, its exports kept pace with the
imports, and secured its credit in England.
   Hitherto, Carolina had made small progress in cultivation. The face of the
country appeared like a desert, with little spots here and there cleared. The
colonists were slovenly farmers, owing to the vast quantities of lands and the
easy and cheap terms of obtaining them. They were more indebted for a good crop
to the natural richness of the soil, than to their own culture and management.
They had abundance of the necessaries and several of the conveniences of life.
But their habitations were clumsy, miserable wooden huts. Charlestown, at this
time, consisted of between five and six hundred houses, mostly built of timber,
and neither comfortable nor well constructed. Henceforward the province improved
in building as well as in other respects. Many ingenious artificers and
tradesmen of different kinds, found encouragement in it, and introduced a taste
for brick buildings, and more neat and pleasant habitations. As the colony
increased, the face of the country exhibited an appearance of industry and
plenty.
   For the farther security of Carolina, the settlement of a new colony between
the rivers Alatamaha and Savannah was, about the year 1732, projected in
England. This large territory lay waste without any civilized inhabitants. The
new province was called Georgia in honor of the King, who greatly encouraged the
undertaking.
   While the security of Carolina against external enemies, by this settlement
of Georgia, engaged the attention of the British government, the means of its
internal improvement and population were not neglected.
   John Peter Pury, of Neufchatel in Switzerland, having formed a design of
leaving his native country, paid a visit to Carolina, in order to inform himself
of the circumstances and situation of the province. After viewing the lands he
returned to Britain. The government entered into a contract with him, and agreed
to give lands and four hundred pounds sterling for every hundred effective men
he should transport from Switzerland to Carolina. Pury having drawn up a
flattering account of the soil and climate,* and of the excellence and freedom
of the provincial government, returned to Switzerland and published it among the
people. Immediately one hundred and seventy Switzers agreed to follow him, and
were transported to the fertile and delightful province as he described it. Not
long afterwards two hundred more, came and joined them. The Governor, agreeably
to instructions, allowed forty thousand acres of land for the use of the Swiss
settlement on the northeast side of Savannah river ; and a town was marked out
for their accommodation, which was called Purysburg, from the name of the
principal promoter of the settlement. Mr. Bignion, a Swiss minister, whom they
had engaged to go with them, having received Episcopal ordination from the
Bishop of London, settled among them for their religious instruction. The
Governor and Council, happy in the acquisition of such a force, allotted to each
of them, his separate tract of land and gave every encouragement in their power
to the people. The Swiss emigrants began their labors with uncommon zeal and
energy; highly elevated with the idea of possessing landed estates. But in a
short time they felt the many inconveniences attending a change of climate.
Several of them sickened and died, and others found the hardships of the first
state of colonization much greater than they expected. They became discontented.
Smarting under the pressure of indigence and disappointment, they not only
blamed Pury for deceiving them, but repented their leaving their native country.
   According to a new plan, adopted in England, for the more speedy population
and settlement of the province, the Governor had instructions to mark out eleven
townships in square plats on the sides of rivers consisting each of twenty
thousand acres; and to divide the land within them into shares of fifty acres
for each man, woman, and child that should come to occupy and improve them. Each
township was to form a parish, and all the inhabitants were to have an equal
right to the river. So soon as the parish should increase to the number of an
hundred families they were to have a right to send two members, of their own
election, to the Assembly and to enjoy the same privileges as the other parishes
already established. Each settler was to pay four shillings a year for every
hundred acres of land, except the first ten years ; during which term they were
to be rent free. Accordingly ten townships were marked out; two on river
Alatamaha, two on Savannah, two on Santee, one on Pedee, one on Wacamaw, one on
Wateree, and one on Black river.
   By this time accounts of the great privileges granted by the Crown, for the
encouragement of settlers in the province had been published through Britain and
Ireland ; and many industrious people had resolved to take the benefit of the
royal bounty. Multitudes of laborers and husbandmen in Ireland oppressed, by
landlords and bishops, and unable to procure a comfortable subsistence for their
families, embarked for Carolina. The first colony of Irish people had lands
granted to them ; and about the year 1734 formed the settlement called
Williamsburg township. But notwithstanding the bounty of the Crown they remained
for several years in low and distressing circumstances. The climate proved fatal
to numbers of them. In consequence of hard labor and scanty provisions at the
commencement of the settlement a considerable number, debilitated in body and
dejected in spirits, sickened and died. But as this township received frequent
supplies from the same quarter, the Irish settlers amidst every hardship
increased in number. Having obtained credit with the merchants for negroes they
were relieved from the severest part of their labor. By this aid and their own
industry, spots of land were cleared, which in a short period yielded them
plenty of provisions and in time became fruitful estates.

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   * This may be found in Anderson's History of Commerce. It proceeds on the
idea that countries lying in the 32d degree of North latitude, (the site of
Palestine and of South Carolina,) are remarkable for their fertility ; the
production of the most valuable commodities, and other good qualities. 

[To be continued....]

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