LIFE OF MARION.
Chapter I. (EARLY HISTORY)
Birth of Gen. Marion. His Ancestry. First Destination of
Going to Sea. Voyage to the West Indies and Shipwreck. His
settlement in St. John's, Berkley. Expedition under
Governor Lyttleton. A Sketch of the Attack on Fort
Moultrie, 1776. And the Campaign of 1779.
FRANCIS MARION was born at Winyaw,* near Georgetown, South Carolina, in the year 1732;—memorable for giving birth to many distinguished American patriots. Marion was of French extraction; his grandfather, Gabriel, left France soon after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in 1685, on account of his being a protestant, and retired from persecution to this new world, then a wilderness; no doubt under many distresses and dangers, and with few of the facilities with which emigrants settle new, but rich countries, at the present day. His son, also called Gabriel, was the father of five sons, Isaac, Gabriel, Benjamin, Francis, and Job, and of two daughters, grandmothers of the families of the Mitchells, of Georgetown, and of the Dwights, formerly of the same place, but now of St. Stephen's parish.
* This is in error—The Marion family moved to Winyaw when
Francis was six or seven years old. Francis was probably
born either at St. John's Parish, Berkeley, or St. James's
Parish, Goose Creek; the respective homes of his father's
and mother's families. 1732 is probably correct as the year
of Francis's birth, but is not absolutely certain. Despite
beginning with this error, the author's remoteness from this
event is not continued with the events mentioned later in
the book, to which he was a witness. Those remarks should be
given their proper weight.—A. L., 1997.
Of the education of FRANCIS MARION, we have no account; but from the internal evidence afforded by his original letters, it appears to have been no more than a plain English one; for the Huguenots seem to have already so far assimilated themselves to the country as to have forgotten their French. It was indeed a rare thing, in this early state of our country, to receive any more than the rudiments of an English education; since men were too much employed in the clearing and tilth of barren lands, to attend much to science.