While the colony was thus harassed with fears and troubles from rigorous landlords, to enhance their misery, their savage neighbours were also now and then making incursions into their settlements, and spreading havock among the scattered families. At this time a scalping party penetrated as far as the Euhah lands, where having surprised John Levit and two of his neighbours, they knocked out their brains with their tomahawks. They then seized Mrs. Borrows and one of her children, and carried them off with them. The child by the way, finding himself in barbarous hands, began to cry, upon which they put him to death. The distressed mother, being unable to refrain from tears while her child was murdered before her eyes, was given to understand, that she must not weep, if she desired not to share the same fate. Upon her arrival at Augustine she would have been immediately sent to prison, but one of the Yamassee kings declared he knew her from her infancy to be a good woman, interceded for her liberty, and begged she might be sent home to her husband. This favour, however, the Spanish governor refused to grant, and the garrison seemed to triumph with the Indians in the number of their scalps. When Mr. Borrows went to Augustine to procure the release of his wife, he also was shut up in prison along with her, where he soon after died: but she survived all the hardships of hunger, sickness, and confinement, to give a relation of her barbarous treatment. After her return to Carolina, she reported to Governor Johnson, that the Huspah king, who had taken her prisoner and carried her off, informed her, he had orders from the Spanish governor to spare no white man, but to bring every negroe alive to Augustine; and that rewards were given to Indians for their prisoners, to encourage them to engage in such rapacious and murderous enterprizes.
[Sidenote] Complaints against Chief Justice Trott.
By this time Chief Justice Trott being suspected of holding a private correspondence with the Proprietors, to the prejudice of the Carolineans, had incurred their hatred and resentment. Richard Allein, Whitaker, and other practitioners of the law, over whom he tyrannized, charged him with many base and iniquitous practices. No less than thirty-one articles of complaint against him were presented to the assembly, setting forth, among other things, "That he had been guilty of many partial judgments; that he had contrived many ways to multiply and increase his fees, to the great grievance of the subject, and contrary to acts of assembly; that he had contrived a fee for continuing causes from one term to another, and put off the hearing of them for years; that he took upon him to give advice in causes depending in his courts, and did not only act as counsellor in that particular, but also had drawn deeds between party and party, some of which had been contested before him as Chief Justice, and in determining of which he had shewn great partialities; with many more particulars; and, lastly, complaining, that the whole judicial power of the province was lodged in his hands alone, of which it was evident he had made a very ill use, he being at the same time sole judge of the courts of Common Pleas, King's Bench, and Vice-Admiralty; so that no prohibition could be lodged against the proceedings of the court, he being obliged, in such a case, to grant a prohibition against himself; he was also, at the same time, a member of the council, and of consequence a judge of the Court of Chancery."
Those articles of complaint, though they took their rise from the bar, and might have proceeded in some measure from envy, ill-will, or resentment, were nevertheless too well grounded, and the facts contained in the charge were supported by strong evidence before the assembly. But as the Judge held his commission from the Proprietors, he denied that he was accountable to the assembly for any part of his conduct in his judicial capacity; and declared that he would be answerable no where but in England. The assembly, however, sensible that he held his commission only during good behavior, sent a message to the Governor and Council, requesting they would join them in representing his partial and unjust conduct in his office to the Proprietors, praying them either to remove him from his seat in the courts of justice, or at the least to grant him only one jurisdiction, and the people liberty of appeal from his judgements. The Governor and major part of the council, convinced of the male-administration of the Judge, agreed to join the Commons in their representation. But being sensible of the great interest the Chief Justice had with their Lordships, they judged it most prudent to send one of their counsellors to England with their memorial, that it might find greater credit and weight, and the more certainly procure redress; and Francis Yonge, a man of considerable abilities, who had been present at all their debates, was pitched upon as one well qualified for giving their Lordships a faithful account of the whole matter. Accordingly Yonge, being furnished with all the instructions, powers, and credentials, necessary to a commissioner for the aggrieved party of the colonists, set sail for England, and arrived in London early in the year 1719.
[Sidenote] Laid before the Proprietors.
Soon after his arrival, he waited on Lord Carteret, the Palatine; but as his Lordship was preparing to set out on an embassy to the court of Sweden, he referred him to the other Proprietors for an answer to his representation. When the Proprietors met, Yonge presented to them a memorial, setting forth, "That he had been appointed by the Governor and Council of South Carolina, to lay before them, not only several acts of assembly passed there during their last sessions for their approbation, but also to inform them of the reasons that induced the Governor and Council to defer the dissolution of the assembly, in consequence of their Lordships commands; that he was instructed to shew their Lordships the arguments between the upper and lower houses of assembly, touching their Lordships right off repealing laws ratified and confirmed by their deputies; and presented to them a speech made by Chief Justice Trott at a general conference of both houses, together with the answer of the commons to it, and the several messages that passed between them, which he hoped would shew their Lordships, that no arguments or endeavours were wanting on their part, to assert the right the Proprietors had of repealing laws not ratified by them."
"At the same time, he was desired to request their Lordships to augment their Secretary's salary, to allow the members of the council so much money for the time and expence of attending the council on their service; to establish custom-house officers at Beaufort; to grant six thousand acres of land to the three garrisons at Congarees, Savanna Town, and Apalachicola; and liberty of appealing from erroneous judgements in law, which at that time the people had not, the whole judicial power in all the provincial courts being lodged in the hands of one man." Then he delivered to them a letter from Governor Johnson, the articles of complaint against Chief Justice Trott, and the joint address of the Governor, Council, and Assembly, praying to have him removed entirely from the bench, or confined to a single jurisdiction.
[Sidenote] Their answer.
This memorial, however, was far from satisfying the Proprietors, some of whom inferred from it, that the people seemed to be industrious in searching for causes of dissatisfaction, and grounds of quarrel with them, with a view to shake off the proprietary authority, and renounce their allegiance. Their letters from Trott served to confirm the truth, which intimated that Yonge, though an officer of the Proprietors, by mean subtilty and chicane had assisted the people in forming plausible pretences for that purpose. For three months Yonge attended the Palatine's court, to give the board all possible information about the state of affairs in their colony, and to accomplish the ends of his appointment. After all, he was given to understand, that the business on which he was sent was extremely disagreeable to them; that both the trouble he had taken, and the office he had accepted as agent for the people, were inconsistent with his duty as one of their deputies, bound to act agreeable to their instructions. They declared their displeasure with the members of the council who had joined the lower house in their complaints against Trott and removed them from the board, appointing others in their place, and increasing the number of members; and told Yonge, that he also would have been deprived of his seat but for the high respect they had for Lord Cartaret the absent Palatine, whose deputy he was. With respect to Chief Justice Trott, they had too much confidence in his fidelity and capacity to remove him from his office. On the contrary, they sent him a letter, thanking him for his excellent speech in defence of their right of repealing all laws made in the colony; together with a copy of the articles of complaint brought against him, on purpose to give him an opportunity of vindicating himself; at the same time acquainting him, that it was their opinion and order, that he withdraw from the council-board whenever appeals from his judgments in the inferior courts shall be brought before the Governor and council as a court of chancery.
[Sidenote] And letter to the governor.