and those who remove from other parts to plant there, will unavoidably be of different opinions concerning matters of religion, the liberty whereof they will expect to have allowed them, and it will not be reasona ble for us on this account to keep them out; that civil peace may be maintained amidst the diversity of opinions, and our agreement and compact with all men may be duly and faithfully observed; the violation whereof, upon what pretence soever, cannot be without great offence to Almighty God, and great scandal to the true religion, which we profess; and also that Jews, Heathens and other Dissenters from the purity of Christian religion, may not be scared and kept at a distance from it, but, by having an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the truth and reasonableness of its doctrines, and the peaceableness and inoffensiveness of its professors, may by good usage and persuasion, and all those convincing methods of gentleness and meekness suitable to the rules and design of the gospel, be won over to embrace and unfeignedly receive the truth; therefore any seven or more persons agreeing in any religion, shall constitute a church or profession, to which they shall give some name, to distinguish it from others.

"XCVIII. The terms of admittance and communion with any church or profession, shall be written in a book, and therein be subscribed by all the members of the said church or profession; which book shall be kept by the public register of the precinct where they reside.

"XCIX. The time of every one's subscription and admittance, shall be dated in the said book of religious record.

"C. In the terms of communion of every church or profession, these following shall be three; without which no agreement or assembly of men, upon pretence of religion, shall be accounted a church or profession within these rules:

1. "That there is a GoD.

2. "That GOD is publicly to be worshipped.

3. "That it is lawful and the duty of every man, being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to truth; and that every church or profession shall, in their terms of communion, set down the external way whereby they witness a truth as in the presence of GoD, whether it be by laying hands on, or kissing the Bible, as in the Church of England, or by holding up the hand, or any other sensible way."

"CI. No person above seventeen years of age shall have any benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honor, who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but one religious record at

once.

"CII. No person of any other church or profession shall disturb or molest any religious assembly.

"CIII. No person whatsoever shall speak any thing in their religious assembly irreverently or seditiously of the government, or governors, or state matters.

"CIV. Any person subscribing the terms of communion in the record of the said church or profession, before the precinct register, and any five members of the said church or profession, shall be thereby made a member of the said church or profession.

"CV. Any person striking out his own name out of any religious record, or his name being struck out by any officer thereunto authorized by each church or profession respectively, shall cease to be a member of that church or profession.

"CVI. No man shall use any reproachful, reviling, or abusive language, against the religion of any church or profession; that being the certain way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the conversion of any to the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animosities, to the hatred of the professors and that profession, which otherwise they might be brought to assent to.

"CVII. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves, as well as others, to enter themselves, and be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and therefore be as fully members as any freeman.But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all other things in the same state and condition he was in before.

"CVIII. Assemblies, upon what pretence soever of religion, not observing and performing the above said rules, shall not be esteemed as churches, but unlawful meetings, and be punished as other riots.

"CIX. No person whatsoever shall disturb, molest, or persecute another for his speculative opinions in religion, or his way of worship."

Four different modifications of these Constitutions were subsequently sent to the Province. The original Constitutions, consisting of 81 Articles, were signed by the Lords Proprietors, July 21, 1669, before the settlement of the colony. The second, of 120, were signed March 1, 1669-70. The third, of 120, were dated January 12, 1681-2.The fourth, of 121, were signed August 17, 1682. The fifth and last, consisting of 41, were dated April 11, 1698. They were intended to be the Fundamental and Unalterable Laws of the Province. The colonists were frequently urged to accept them; but the representatives of the people would neither receive nor sanction them, and they were finally laid aside. At length, the people became dissatisfied with the Proprietary Government, and, in 1719, placed themselves under the immediate protection of the King. The Assembly offered the government of the Province to Robert Johnson, the Proprietary Governor, which he refused, and they elected Colonel George Moor. When the account of this revolution reached England, Geo. I. appointed Francis

Nicholson, Provisional Governor, until arrangements should be made with the Lords Proprietors. He arrived in Charles-Town, May 21st, 1721, and published the Royal Commission. Seven of the Proprietors surrendered, September 29th, 1729, all their title to, and interest in, Carolina, to Edward Bertie, Samuel Horsey, Henry Smith, and Alexius Clayton, in trust for the Crown. Seven-eighths of the Province were then vested in the following Proprietors, or Trustees : The Earl of Clarendon's Share, of one-eighth, was vested in the Hon. James Bertie;

The Duke of Albermarle's Share, in Hon. James Bertie, and Hon. Dodington Greville, in Trust for Henry, Duke of Beaufort;

The Earl of Craven's Share, in William, Lord Craven ;

Lord Berkley's Share, in Joseph Blake, of SouthCarolina;

Lord Ashley's Share, in Archibald Hutcheson, in Trust for John Cotton;

Sir John Colleton's Share, in his son, Sir John Colleton;

Sir William Berkley's Share, in the Hon. Henry Bertie, Mary Danson, and Elizabeth Moor, or some of them.

The Proprietors sold their shares for £17,500, which was £2500, for a full share to each of the Seven Proprietors. The Colonists owed them about £9000, for Quit-rents, which the King likewise purchased, for £5000. One-eighth of the Propriety and Quit-rents were reserved to John, Lord Carteret, his heirs, &c. Carolina having thus become a royal government, Geo. II. appointed Robert Johnson, as his Governor. He arrived in December, 1730.

The first settlement of this Province was attempted in 1660, by some colonists from Virginia. They landed at Port-Royal, but soon abandoned the enterprize. The second was likewise made at that place in 1670,

by some colonists from England, under Col. William Sayle. He was appointed by the Lords Proprietors, July 26, 1669, "Governor of all that Territory of part of the Province of Carolina, that lies southward and westward of Cape Carteret."

Port-Royal is eligibly situated for a commercial town, having a deep and capacious harbour, admitting ships of the largest class, and in its neighbourhood a rich and fertile country. It is probable that, the Spaniards became jealous of the settlement of the English, in a country to which they laid claim, and that the Indians, under their influence, showed some marks of hostility. Whatever was the cause, it must have been urgent, to induce them to relinquish their improvements, and commence again the labour of a new settlement. They continued at Port-Royal but a few months, and then removed to the western bank of Ashley river," for the convenience of pasturage and tillage ;" and " on the first high land," laid the foundation of a town, which they named, in honor of the King, Charles-Town. The site of this settlement now belongs to Elias Lynch Horry. The creek in its neighbourhood was originally called Town creek, and is now known by the name of Old-town creek. The point made by the confluence of Ashley river and Wappoo creek, was then called Albermarle Point.

The removal of the Colonists to Ashley river took place in the year of their arrival from England. This is ascertained by a codicil to Colonel Sayle's will, made in Charles-Town, September 30, 1670.* His Will was made in Bermuda the preceding February, probably, on his passage from England. The codicil was proved before Governor West, April 10, 1671, in which Colonel Sayle styles himself, " Governor of that part of the Province of Carolina, southward and westward from Cape Carteret, otherwise called Cape Romanoe."

Ramsay says the removal was in 1671. So. Ca. i. 2. с