1671 – Legal.

First recorded case of litigation in the Carolina colony was heard by Governor West and the Grand Council – an argument over timber rights of an area – John Norton and Originall Jackson against Mr. Maurice Mathews, Mr. Thomas Gray and Mr. William Owen.

1706 – Queen Anne’s War

The French raised a flag of truce, and Gov. Johnson sent a galley out to make inquiries. A French officer was brought to shore and kept at Granville Bastion before being escorted to the governor. As he was slow marched through the street, the Frenchman was greeted by militia stationed between buildings and on the side streets. It seemed Charles Town had more than four times the soldiers than they thought. He did not realize that he was actually seeing the same group of militia who were running from one street to the other, staying just ahead of the slow-marching prisoner.

Upon being received by Gov. Johnson the French officer demanded the city surrender within the hour. Johnson responded he “would not need a minute to reply in the negative.”

1805 – Deaths

Christopher Gadsden died in Charleston at the age of eighty-one. He had been suffering dizzy spells and one morning on his walk, he slipped and hit head while crossing a ditch. Governor Paul Hamilton ordered a thirty day mourning period. The day of Gadsden’s funeral, a salute was fired from Fort Johnson every ten minutes from dawn until his interment at 1:00 p.m. He was buried at St. Philip’s Church in an unmarked grave, following the instructions left in his will.