1672 – Politics

Sir John Yeamans

Sir John Yeamans was proclaimed Governor at Charles Town. In the commission letter the Proprietors praised Joseph West’s service, but noted

the nature of our government … required that a Landgrove (titled landowner) should be preferred to any Commoner.

1672 – Move to Oyster Point

Ashley Cooper also gave notice that the settlement should permanently move from Albemarle Point to Oyster Point. The Albermarle settlement did not adhere to the “Grand Modell” specified by the Proprietors. The peninsula, formed by the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, also created natural harbor, perfect for a commercial port. Lord Ashley ordered that the new town be:

layd out into regular streets … six score squares of 300 feet each … the great street should not be less than 100 or six score feet broad; the lesser streets none less than sixty; alleys eight or ten feet.

Each owner of a lot was required to “build a house of two stories in height and at least 30 feet by 16 feet.” One could make the case that this plan of wide, regular streets, laid out in “broad and straight lines” was influenced by Sir Christopher Wren’s checkerboard plan for rebuilding London after the 1666 fire.

1732 – First Concert

The first advertised concert in Charlestown appeared in the Gazette as a “consort [concert] of Musick at the Council Chamber, for the Benefit of Mr. Salter.

1770 – Slavery

An advertisement appeared in the South Carolina Gazette for this runaway slave:

CAESAR: Absented himself from my Plantation . . . plays well on the French horn.