1700

The Council elected James Moore governor of Carolina in a power coup led by the Goose Creek men, usurping the senior Landgrave, Joseph Morton, Jr.  

Moore originally arrived in Carolina in 1675 from Barbados, married one of Sir John Yeaman’s daughters and became a member of the Goose Creek faction, opposed to the Fundamental Constitutions. The Dissenters contested Moore’s “unjust election,”but the Lords Proprietors saw to it that Moore remained governor, and they made it clear that the Dissenters were no longer in favor.

Col. James Moore leading a raiding party against Native Americans.

Moore became the leading Indian trader in the colony. His father was Roger Moore (Rory O’More), one of the leaders of the 1641 Irish Rebellion against the anti-Catholic Puritan forces and evidently inherited his father’s rebellious nature.

On news of the outbreak of Queen Anne’s War in 1702, he led 500 colonists, 300 native allies, and 14 small ships on an invasion of Spanish Florida along the coast devastating the lands around St. Augustine. While the town of St. Augustine was razed, its central fortress, Castillo de San Marcos, where the Spanish and numerous allied Indians had taken refuge, resisted Moore’s siege. The 1702 campaign was viewed as a disaster due to the failure to take the fortress and the expenses incurred, and Moore resigned his post.

1826

James Petigru’s first born child, eight-year-old Albert, while playing inside the house, fell over the bannister thirty feet down the stairwell and was killed. His death devastated the family. Petigru’s wife, Amelia, deteriorated, suffering from severe headaches and became addicted to opiates.

1713 – Disasters.

A hurricane hit Charles Town.  Rev. William Livingston, pastor of the White Meeting House, survived the storm from his house on White Point. He wrote that the storm “beat off the weatherboards of the house, carried away the book that contained the church records and the furniture of the rooms on the lower floor.”

Thomas Lamboll recorded:

On September 5 came on the great hurricane which was attended with such an Inundation from the sea and to such an unknown height that a great many lives were lost; all the vessels in Charleston harbor, except one, were drove ashore. The new Look-out on Sullivan’s Island, of wood, built eight square and eighty feet high, blown down; all the front wall and mud parapet before Charlestowne underminded and washed away.

1774

The Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia. John Adams wrote some observations about the South Carolina delegates in his diary:

• John Rutledge: “No keenness in his Eye. No depth in his Countenance. Nothing of the profound, sagaciousness, brilliant or sparkling.”
• Edward Rutledge: “a perfect Bob o’ Lincoln, a Swallow, a Sparrow, a Peacock, excessively vain, excessively weak.”
• Christopher Gadsden: “Is violent against allowing Parliament any Power of regulating Trade, or allowing that they have any Thing to do with Us.”

1836

Robert Hayne, 1st mayor of Charleston

Robert Y. Hayne elected the first mayor of Charleston … previously, the office was called “the Intendent.”

1700 – Religion.

The Rising Sun arrived from Scotland, with several hundred Presbyterians, led by Rev. Archibald Stobo. Members of the White Meeting House met Rev. Stobo and invited him ashore to preach the next day. Stobo, his family and twelve other passengers disembarked.

1749 – Religion.

Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, c. 1812 by John Reubens Smith. Note: This building was destroyed by the 1838 fire but the smaller building pictured in the drawing survived and stands today on Hassel Street.

The first Jewish meeting in Charlestown took place. According to Jewish practice there must be a minyan, or ten males over the age of thirteen, for services to take place. They adopted the name Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim – holy Congregation of the House of God. They used a small wooden house on Union Street (now State) for their worship services until 1750, when the purchased land on Hasell Street. 

1780 – Laurens Captured

During Henry Laurens’ return voyage from the Netherlands, the British frigate Vestal intercepted his ship, the continental packet Mercury, off the banks of Newfoundland. Laurens tossed his dispatches overboard, but they were retrieved by the British, who discovered the draft of a possible U.S.-Dutch treaty, prompting Britain to declare war on the Netherlands. The British charged Laurens with treason and transported him to England for trial.

1783 – Treaty of Paris

Treaty of Paris was signed by Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams. Henry Laurens of Charleston, who had participated in the negotiations for the Americans, left Paris before the signing ceremony. In a letter to his wife Abagail, John Adams stated:

I have the Satisfaction to inform you that the definitive Treaties were all Signed yesterday, and the Preliminaries with Holland were Signed the day before. Dr. Franklin has fallen down again with the Gout and Gravel … Mr. Laurens , has a Brother declining, so that he will go to the south of France, untill he knows his Brother’s Fates.

1820 – New Intendent

James Hamilton was elected Intendent (mayor) of Charleston.