[751] In the Reports of the Historical Committee of the Charleston Library Society, prepared by Benj. Elliott, Esq., and published 1835, this MS. is spoken of as a present from Robert Gilmor, Esq., of Baltimore, but is not accurately described in the report of the committee. My copy of it is dated 21st July, and is not divided into numbered sections.
[752] A third set was sent out (dated January 12, 1682), and to please the Scots who were willing to emigrate, further alterations were made, and a fourth set (dated August 17, 1682, and containing 126 articles) was despatched to Governor Morton. Last of all, a fifth set (dated April 11, 1698, and containing only 41 articles), was sent out by the hands of Major Daniel, and with it, as an inducement for a favorable reception, six blank patents for landgraves and eight for cassiques. When the third set was sent, the sentiments of the people with regard to the whole subject may be fairly represented as in the letter to Sothel in 1691,—that, inasmuch as their lordships, under their hands and seals, had ordered that no person should be a member of the council nor of parliament, nor choose lands due to him, unless he subscribed his submission to this last set of the Constitutions; “the people remembering their oaths to the first, and deeming these not to be agreeable to the royal charters, which direct the assent and approbation of the people to all laws and constitutions, did deny to receive the said Fundamental Constitutions.” Governor Morton, in 1685, actually turned out of parliament the majority of the representatives for refusing to sign the third set, though they had sworn to the first set. In consequence, the laws that year enacted were enacted by only seven representatives and by eight of the deputies of the Proprietors.
[753] A fac-simile of Smith’s commission is given in Harper’s Monthly, Dec., 1875.
[754] MS. Journal of the Commons, May 15, 1694.
[755] As inferred from the Statutes (ii. p. 101, sec. 16).
[756] Archdale in Carroll’s Hist. Collections, ii. p. 109.
[757] At this time, one passed, in riding up the road, the plantations of Matthews, Green, Starkey, Gray, Grimball, Dickeson, and Izard, on the Cooper River; and further up, those of Sir John Yeamans, Landgrave Bellinger, Colonel Gibbes, Mr. Schenking, Colonel Moore, Colonel Quarry, and Sir Nathaniel Johnson. On the left, Landgrave West, Colonel Godfrey, Dr. Trevillian, and Mr. Colleton, had plantations. Westward from Charlestown lived Col. Paul Grimball, Landgrave Morton, Blake (a Proprietor), and Landgrave Axtel; while many residences in the town, as those of Landgrave Smith and Colonel Rhett, were said to be “very handsome buildings,” with fifteen or more “which deserve to be taken notice of.” From these residences could be seen entering the harbor vessels from Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the Leeward Isles, from Virginia and other colonies, and the always welcome ships from England. An active and lucrative commerce employed many ships to various ports in North America, and also twenty-two ships between Charles Town and England; about twelve were owned by the colonists; half of these had been built by themselves. The inhabitants (1708) numbered nearly 10,000; the whites and negroes being about equal, with 1,400 Indian slaves. (Letter of Governor and Council, Sept. 17, 1708, in S. C. Hist. Soc. Coll., ii. p. 217.) For a few years the whites had decreased in number on account of epidemics and disaffection with regard to the tenure of lands (the nature of this disaffection may be noticed in what is recorded in the preceding narrative sketch of North Carolina); while negroes were regularly imported by the English traders and by Northern ships, as the plantation work extended, particularly the culture of rice, which had become the most valuable export. A little later (1710) the whites were computed at .12 of the whole inhabitants, negro slaves .22, and Indian subjects .66. Of the whites, the planters were .70, merchants about .13, and artisans .17. With respect to religion, the Episcopalians were then computed to be .42, the Presbyterians, with the French Huguenots, .45, Anabaptists .10, and the Quakers .03. (Inserted in Governor Glen’s Description of South Carolina.)
[758] MS. Journals of the House.
[759] Rev. Mr. Marston says, “Many of the members of the Commons House that passed this disqualifying law are constant absentees from the Church, and eleven of them were never known to receive the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper,” though for five years past he had administered it in his church at least six times a year. (“Case of Dissenters;” and Archdale.) The same assembly had passed an act against blasphemy and profaneness, “which they always made a great noise about,” wrote Landgrave Smith, “although they are some of the most profanest in the country themselves.” See Sketch of the Hist. of S. C., p. 220.
[760] Yonge’s Narrative.