Carolina, by Hilton,* at the rate of five hundred acres of land for every thousand pounds of sugar so paid, and to those that shall settle the said land before the 25th of March next, by sending one or more people to possess it, and do keep possession thereof.

"Now these are to notify the Governor and Council of Albermarle Point in Ashley river,† in the said Province of Carolina, that Thomas Lake, Esq. of Barbados, hath adventured and paid one thousand pounds sugar, on said account, whereupon we desire that accordingly five hundred acres of land may be laid out for him, he taking care to possess it as above mentioned. We are

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"Your friends and servants,

"JOHN YEAMANS,

"THO. COLLETON.

Barbados, 24th Dec. 1670."

Lands were soon taken up on the east side of Ashley river, and settlements were formed in various parts of the neighbourhood. A part of the present site of Charleston, had been taken up by Henry Hughes, and John Coming. Mr. Hughes appeared before the Grand Council, February 21, 1671-2," and voluntarily surrendered up the one half of his land near a place upon Ashley river, known by the name of the Oyster Point, to be employed in and toward enlarging of a town, and commons of pasture, there intended to be erected. Mr. Coming and Affera, his wife, came likewise before the Grand Council, and freely gave up one half of their land near the said place for the use aforesaid." The offer of Mr. Coming was relinquished by the Council, September 8, 1672, in consequence of the inhabitants refusing his land for the site of a town.

Does this allude to Colonel Sayle's first voyage to explore the coast of Carolina? Probably, Hilton commanded the ship, or was the companion of Sayle, and that Hilton Head derives its name from him. If so, the voyage must have been made immediately after the Lords Proprietors obtained their charter, and not in 1667, as stated by Hewatt, So. Ca. i. 47. 48. and Ramsay So. C. i. 33.

This is another evidence of the removal of the Colony to Old-Town in 1670.

The Grand Council met at Charles-Town, April 19, 1672, when "it was advised that a proclamation be issued out to dissolve all Parliaments and Parliamentary Conventions, heretofore had or made in this Province; and that a summons likewise be proclaimed requiring all the freeholders in this Province, to come before the Grand Council, at Charles-Town, to-morrow, being the 20th April, inst. then and there to elect a new Parliament." The proclamation was issued the same day, and on the next, the election was held, and the following persons returned and presented to the Governor and the Lords Proprietors Deputies: Stephen Bull, Captain Florence O'Sullivan,* John Culpepper, John Robinson, Christopher Portman, Ralph Marshall, John Mavericke, John Pinckard, Captain Robert Donne, Amos Jefford, Richard Conant, Peter Herne, Richard Chapman, John Yeamans, Timothy Biggs, James Jones, Edward Mathews, Samuel West, Richard Cole and Henry Hughes.† This is the first popular election on record in SouthCarolina, that has come down to us. The records of the preceding Parliaments and elections are not extant.‡

Sullivan's Island derives its name from this person. He was appointed, May 30, 1674, to take charge of a cannon directed to be "mounted in some convenient place near the river's mouth, to be fired upon the approach of a ship." It was placed on that Island.

↑ Ramsay dates this election two years later, and considers it as the first which was held in the Province. South-Carolina, i. 34.

The following Letter from the Lords Proprietors to the Governor, dated September 30, 1683, gives an account of the extraordinary manner in which the popular elections were conducted in Carolina :

"In our last we gave you directions that of the twenty members to be chosen this month for the biennial Parliament, ten of them should be chosen at Charles-Town, in Berkley County, out of the inhabitants and freeholders that have five hundred acres in that County; and the other ten at London, (a) in Colleton County, out of the inhabitants and freeholders so qualified in that County. Now forasmuch as we are not certain that those orders arrived to you soon enough, and that the Parliament was not so chosen, we do hereby Order, that you forthwith dissolve the present Parliament, and call another to be chosen according to those Orders, and that in the writ you direct them to be chosen at both places in one and the same day; but if it were so chosen, that then, that you do not dissolve the same.

"We are informed, that there are many undue practices in the choice of members of Parliament, and that men are admitted to bring papers for others, and put in their votes for them, which is utterly illegal and contrary to the cus(a) Wiltown, in St. Paul's Parish,

The Parliament were organized the same day, when they chose out of their own body, five Counsellors, viz: Stephen Bull, Christopher Portman, Richard Conant, Ralph Marshall, and John Robinson. These, with the Governor, and Colonel Joseph West, Captain Thomas Gray, Captain John Godfrey, Maurice Ma-. thews, and William Owens, the Lords Proprietors Deputies, formed the Grand Council. At their first meeting, April 23, 1672, the Grand Council "advised and resolved, that warrants be forthwith issued out to the Surveyor-General for the laying out of three Colonies, or squares, of twelve thousand acres, that is to say, one colony or square of twelve thousand acres about Charles-Town; another at James-Town, and a third upon a place known at present by the name of Oyster Point."

Arrangements were now made for the improvement of Charles-Town. It was regularly laid out, and divided into 62 lots. The settlers then surrendered to the Grand Council, July 22, 1672, the lots which they had previously occupied, and received others according to the new arrangement. The following are the names of the persons to whom they were delivered, and the numbers of the lots they received: Thomas Ingram, No. 58, Samuel West, 31, William Owen, 32, 23, Captain Henry Braine, 30, Lieutenant Henry Hughes, 3, John Coming, 29, Captain Florence O'Sullivan, 5, 6, 26, 27, John Williamson, 7, Ralph Marshall, 8, Captain Stephen Bull, 25, 24, Captain Joseph Bayley, 9, Sir John Yeamans, 22, Richard Deyos, 19, James Jours, 14, Thomas Turpin, 33, Priscilla Burke, 28, Major Thomas Gray, 10, John Foster, 11, Richard Batin, 13, Henry Wood, 15, George Beadon, 40, 20, Ensign Hugh Carteret, 18, Captain George Thompson,

tom of Parliaments, and will in time, if suffered, be very mischievous, you are, therefore, to take care, that such practices be not suffered for the future, but every man must deliver his own vote, and no man suffered to bring the vote of another; and if the Sheriffs of the Counties shall presume to disobey herein, you are to commissionate other Sheriffs in their rooms.".

D

bought of William Kennis, 16, 17, Captain Nathaniel Sayle, 59, 60, Thomas Hurt, for his wife, 61, the Lords Proprietors, 50, 51, 52, 53, 62, Captain Maurice Mathews, 37, 54, Michael Smith, 38, Thomas Thompson, 55, Captain Gyles Hall, 12, Thomas and James Smith, 41, 57, Richard Cole, 42, Joseph Dalton, 44, John Pinkerd, 36, Joseph Pendarvis, 45, John Maverick, 43, Philip Comerton, number not designated; but either 21, 39, 48, 49, which are not stated to have been delivered. Christopher Portman, 4, Ensign Henry Prettye, 56, Timothy Biggs, 34, Charles Miller, 46, John Culpepper, 35, Captain John Robinson, 47, Ensign John Boone, 2, and Edward Mathews, 1.*

The town was fortified, and additional works of defence were erected in 1674. The inhabitants were enrolled in three companies, April 27, 1675. The first was commanded by the Governor, the second, by Lieutenant-Colonel Godfrey, and the third, by Captain Maurice Mathews.

The present site of the City of Charleston, began to be settled as early as 1672. The Grand Council, June 18, 1672, when providing for the defence of the Colony, directed " that, two great guns be mounted at New-Town for the better defence thereof; which said two guns, and twelve pounds of powder, be delivered to Mr. Richard Conant," &c.

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And that all the inhabitants on the other part of the river, called the Oyster Point, do repair to the plantation there, now in the possession of Hugh Carteret, and being so embodied do march forward to the plantation now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Norris, or Mr. William Morrill, which may be thought most safe and and useful for that design, under the command of Mr. Robert Donne," &c.

* Dr. Ramsay states, So. Ca. i. 2, that none of the names of the first settlers, except William Sayle and Joseph West, have reached posterity. That able, impartial, and generally accurate historian, probably, had not seen the official records in the Secretary of State's office, whence we have obtained our informa fion.

And that all the inhabitants in and about NewTown, do repair to New-Town aforesaid, and there remain under the command of Mr. Richard Conant,' &c. "for the better preservation of the safety of the said Town.

"And that upon the appearance of any top-sail vessel, one great gun be fired at Charles-Town, upon which all the freemen within the Colony of CharlesTown aforesaid, are forthwith to appear in arms in the said town," &c. Within the Colony of Charles-Town, means, within the square of 12,000 acres, laid off about that town.

In the same year the Surveyor-General was directed to lay out the present site of Charleston. The following is the Warrant for that purpose:

"CAROLINA.

"By the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Council.

"You are forthwith to admeasure and lay out for a town on the Oyster Point, all that point of land there formerly allotted for the same, adding thereto, one hundred and fifty acres of land, or so much thereof, as you shall find to be proportionable for the said one hundred and fifty acres in the breadth of land formerly marked to be laid out for Mr. Henry Hughes, Mr. John Coming, and Affra his now wife, and James Robinson, estimated to seven hundred acres, and contained between the lands then allotted to be laid out for Mr. Richard Cole, to the North, and a marked Tree, formerly designed to direct the bounding line of the said Town to the South. And a certificate, fully specifying the situation, bounds and quantity thereof, you are to return to us with all convenient speed. And for so doing, this shall be your