Page xix →Dramatis Personae

JOHN BESWICKE (?–1764) Merchant of Charles Town and London. Beswicke was in business from 1735 in South Carolina, where he was considered by one contemporary as a man “who bears a Good Character … & is Considerably Concern’d in Trade.” He relocated in 1740 to London, where he became one of the capital’s leading Carolina traders and maintained successive partnerships with merchants in Charles Town. Beswicke owned several oceangoing ships and invested his mercantile profits in a country house outside London called Little London. After withdrawing from trade in 1763, he died the following year, leaving his nephews, William Greenwood and William Higginson, to continue his trading house.

JAMES BOURDIEU (1715–1804) Major London merchant, principally in the French and Caribbean trades before the Revolutionary War; active in trade to South Carolina after 1783. Bourdieu was in trade in London from 1753 and in partnership with Samuel Chollet in the firm of Bourdieu & Chollet by 1763. He was noted for his sympathy for the American cause during the war and regularly visited his friend and business associate Henry Laurens during Laurens’s imprisonment in London in 1780–81. Bourdieu attempted to intercede in the Anglo-American peace talks in Paris in 1782–83 and was a strong advocate for free trade with the United States.

SAMUEL BRAILSFORD (1728–1800) Charles Town and Bristol merchant. Brailsford was born in South Carolina and followed his father into commerce. In three partnerships, he was among Charles Town’s largest importers of slaves during the 1750s and owned several oceangoing vessels. He also invested in plantation land in the colony. Brailsford moved in the late 1760s to Bristol, where he continued in transatlantic trade to South Carolina and appears to have been politically supportive of the American colonies in the early 1770s. However, his partnership from 1771 with two Loyalist Charles Town merchants, Robert Powell and John Hopton, stymied his attempts to reclaim the firm’s prewar debts.

EDWARD BRIDGEN (?–1787) London merchant in the firm of Bridgen & [James] Waller, which was in trade by 1763. The firm specialized in textile exports and had particularly strong connections to North Carolina, though also sent goods to Charles Town. Bridgen was noted for his strong pro-American sympathies before and during the war. He cultivated friendships with John Adams and Benjamin Page xx →Franklin and associated with prominent British radicals. His politics gained him trade to America after the war, and helped him recover lands in North Carolina that had been confiscated from him.

JAMES CROKATT (1701–77) London’s leading Carolina trader in the 1740s and 1750s. Born in Scotland, he went in the late 1720s to Charles Town, where he prospered in trade, bought extensive properties, married into an important planting family, and was appointed to the Royal Council. He relocated to London in 1739. Besides his trade to South Carolina, he promoted agricultural diversification in the colony, notably with a campaign for a bounty on Carolinian indigo, and was the colony’s London agent from 1749 to 1755. A young Henry Laurens was one of his apprentices. Crokatt withdrew from trade in the early 1760s, leaving much of his business to his son, Charles, and his son-in-law, John Nutt, but continued to take an interest in South Carolina and in agricultural improvement from his country estate in Essex.

CHARLES CROKATT (1730–69) The son of James Crokatt, he followed his father into London’s Carolina trade. He entered partnership with his father in 1755 and began trading in his own right from 1760, using the title James & Charles Crokatt to lend the firm his father’s prestige. Despite extensive trade to South Carolina, he lacked his father’s commercial nous and ran into financial difficulties. These were compounded by an expensive and unsuccessful attempt to run for Parliament in 1761. His creditors included firms in Charles Town and his own father, and his losses forced him to stop trading in 1766. He was declared bankrupt and committed suicide in 1769.

CHARLES GARTH (1734–84) South Carolina’s official agent in London between 1762 and 1775. Garth was appointed because of his family connections to the colony, particularly the fact that his cousin Thomas Boone was governor. Arguably the most assiduous of all the North American colonial agents during the 1760s, he represented South Carolina’s interests on a range of commercial matters and was at the forefront of lobbying against the Stamp Act. Garth was also an MP from 1764, replacing his father for the West Country seat of Devizes, and served briefly as agent for Maryland and Georgia.

WILLIAM GREENWOOD (c. 1733–86) London Carolina merchant. Greenwood was trained in the capital by his uncle, John Beswicke, and with his cousin, William Higginson, inherited Beswicke’s firm in 1764, thereafter trading as Greenwood & Higginson. The partners were London’s largest Carolina traders in the decade before the American Revolution, operating from a grand countinghouse and owning several ships; Greenwood also inherited Beswicke’s Little London estate in Middlesex. He was widely seen as hostile to the American cause before Page xxi →and during the American Revolution and had great difficulties in recovering his firm’s large debts in South Carolina, efforts that Higginson continued after Greenwood’s death in 1786.

RALPH IZARD (1742–1804) Scion of a major South Carolina planting family with extensive landholdings in the lowcountry. Izard was educated in England before returning to South Carolina in 1764. Back in England with his wife from 1771, Izard remained in London for several years. During this time he observed and reported on political developments in Great Britain, including the politics of the capital’s Carolina merchants. After the outbreak of war, the Izards moved to Paris, where they remained until peace was restored. After returning to South Carolina, Izard became the new state’s first U.S. senator.

ISAAC KING (?–1797) London Carolina trader from the mid-1750s, in partnership with Sarah Nickleson. Besides his trade to the colony, King visited South Carolina several times during the 1760s and 1770s as he sought to recover debts owed to the firm, and he went to Charles Town while it was under British control in 1780. He also acquired land in the colony, which he struggled fruitlessly to recover after American independence. King’s losses compelled him to move from London to Bristol in 1783 in search of a fresh start in more modest accommodations.

HENRY LAURENS (1724–92) South Carolinian merchant, planter, statesman, and diplomat. Born in Charles Town, Laurens spent time in London in the 1740s as an apprentice to James Crokatt. He returned in 1747 to Charles Town, where he became one of the port’s leading merchants, especially in the slave trade. His correspondance is a leading source on South Carolina’s commerce and politics during the colonial era and the American Revolution. After cutting back on trade in the early 1760s, Laurens spent time in Europe supervising his sons’ education and witnessed British political debate as the American crisis mounted. At the forefront of South Carolinian politics in the 1760s and 1770s, he was a delegate to and president of the Continental Congress, spent fifteen months imprisoned in the Tower of London, and was a delegate at the Paris peace talks.

WILLIAM MANNING (?–1791) One of London’s leading merchants during the 1770s and 1780s. He had earlier spent time as a merchant on St. Kitts, where he had acquired plantations and traded to South Carolina. In London he was heavily involved in the West Indies trade and continued to trade to South Carolina. His daughter Martha married Henry Laurens’s son John in 1776. Manning was regarded as pro-American, and he regularly visited Laurens in the Tower of London and held money on his account in London. Two of his sons-in-law, Benjamin Vaughan (with whom he became partner) and Henry Merrtens Bird, benefited Page xxii →from his reputation and connections in South Carolina and became leading British traders to the state in the 1790s.

WILLIAM MIDDLETON (1710–85) Major landowner in South Carolina and England. Middleton was born into one of South Carolina’s leading planter families and owned some fifteen thousand acres in the colony. On inheriting large landholdings near London and in Suffolk, England, he left the colony in 1754 and lived in England for the rest of his life. He retained close interests in South Carolina, however, extending his landholdings with the aid of his brother, Henry. He also gave evidence to Parliament on the colony’s behalf and joined an appeal as one of “several Natives of America” against the so-called Intolerable Acts in 1774.

EDWARD NEUFVILLE (fl. 1740s–87) Merchant of Charles Town and Bristol. Neufville was in trade in Charles Town during the 1740s and 1750s, principally in partnership with his brother John. He relocated to Bristol in 1764, apparently maintaining a transatlantic connection with his brother. He also went into partnership with the London merchant Christopher Rolleston, trading to South Carolina. Neufville returned to South Carolina in the 1780s to try to recover prewar debts.

JOSEPH NICHOLSON (?–1783) Merchant originally from Yorkshire in northern England. During the 1750s and early 1760s, Nicholson was in partnership in the Charles Town firm of Downes & Nicholson and with William Bampfield. In 1764 he relocated to Britain, where he remained in the Carolina trade in premises in the City of London and owned a house in Hackney, just north of London. He signed a petition to the king in 1775 urging conciliation with the American colonies. He died in 1783, leaving his family to pursue significant debts owed to him in South Carolina.

JOHN NICKLESON (?–1754) Charles Town and London merchant originally from Poole in the southwest of England. After captaining transatlantic ships, Nickleson began in trade in Charles Town in 1739 in partnership with his brother-in-law Richard Shubrick. Nickleson, Shubrick & Co. was a prominent trading house and secured valuable contracts to supply the colony’s government and the Royal Navy. Nickleson relocated in 1743 with his wife and children to London, where he continued to trade with South Carolina. On his death in 1754 he left an estate valued at over twenty thousand pounds; his business was continued by his widow, Sarah (née Shubrick).

JOHN NUTT (?–c. 1814) Originally from Yorkshire, England, Nutt captained transatlantic ships before becoming one of London’s leading Carolina traders during the 1760s and 1770s. He was James Crokatt’s son-in-law through marriage Page xxiii →to Crokatt’s daughter Mary and took on much of Crokatt’s trade after his father-in-law’s retirement in the early 1760s. Nutt was particularly known for handling Carolinian indigo and for exporting British and European goods on credit to the colony, through which he amassed great wealth. He gained a reputation for hostility toward America during the 1770s and because of this struggled in vain during and after the war to recoup his extensive losses in South Carolina.

CHARLES OGILVIE (c. 1731–88) Charles Town and London merchant. Born in Scotland, Ogilvie followed his elder brother James to South Carolina in 1751 in search of commercial fortune. He traded in two partnerships in Charles Town during the 1750s and married the daughter of the colony’s chief justice, a major heiress. In 1761 Ogilvie relocated to London, where he continued in the Carolina trade. He had acquired substantial plantations in South Carolina through his wife and continued to add to his landholdings there while living in Britain. He served briefly as an MP in 1774–75. He periodically visited his widely spread estates in South Carolina and employed a nephew, George Ogilvie, as a resident manager. His lands were confiscated during the American Revolution.

JAMES POYAS (?–1799) Charles Town and London merchant. The son of a silk spinner from the Italian Piedmont, Poyas was raised in South Carolina and traded in Charles Town before relocating to London in 1767. He traded to South Carolina in the decade before the Revolutionary War and was owed sizable debts in the colony, which he continued to claim in the 1790s. Despite his losses in South Carolina, Poyas continued in trade in London, though he was shunned by prewar connections in the colony on account of his purported hostility to the American cause.

ROBERT PRINGLE (1702–76) Charles Town merchant. Born in Scotland, Pringle served an apprenticeship in a West Indian merchant firm in London before going to South Carolina in 1725. He became one of the colony’s most prosperous merchants, operating mostly as a sole trader after being involved in some partnerships in the 1740s. Much of his transatlantic trade was with his brother Andrew, a ship’s captain turned merchant in London. He exported rice and deerskins and imported British and continental European goods for sale from his store on Tradd Street. He served in South Carolina’s Assembly in the 1750s.

ROBERT PRINGLE JR. (1755–1811) Son of Robert Pringle Sr., the leading Charles Town merchant. Pringle Jr. trained as a doctor in Britain before entering trade in Charles Town in 1783. He went into partnership with William Freeman, who was married to his younger sister. Under their arrangement, Freeman represented the firm in Bristol, where his uncle, also called William Freeman, had been a prominent merchant during the 1760s and 1770s.

Page xxiv →ROBERT RAPER (1709–79) Charles Town lawyer, naval officer, and agent for several absentee owners of land and property in South Carolina who lived in Britain, including James Crokatt, John Beswicke, and the Colleton family. Raper also pursued and collected debts on behalf of his clients in Britain and advised them of commercial and political affairs in South Carolina. Raper’s letterbook, covering 1759–70, is an invaluable source on transatlantic commerce and land management in South Carolina.

CHRISTOPHER ROLLESTON (1739–1807) London merchant. Born in Derbyshire, about 150 miles north of London, Rolleston came from an important local family and was active in trade by the early 1760s. He entered partnership with Edward Neufville in 1772, principally in the Carolina trade, and apparently managed the firm’s commerce in London while Neufville operated in Bristol. Rolleston was identified by American radicals in London as being particularly opposed to their cause. He and Neufville later pursued substantial prewar debts owed to them in South Carolina. His partnership with Neufville seems to have ended in 1785, though he continued in trade in London before retiring to Nottinghamshire, near his birthplace.

RICHARD SHUBRICK II (1707–65) Born in London, Shubrick followed his father (also Richard) into the Carolina trade, first captaining an oceangoing ship. From 1739 he traded in Charles Town with John Nickleson, who was married to his sister Sarah; later Shubrick’s younger brother, Thomas, joined the partnership, having also served a spell as a ship’s captain. Shubrick married a wealthy widow and heiress, Elizabeth Vicaridge (née Ball), and through her and by other investments amassed sizable landholdings in the colony. After her death, Shubrick returned to London in 1747, where he became one of the capital’s leading Carolina merchants and had prominent charitable and company directorships. His substantial wealth allowed him to buy houses outside London at Mile End and in Greenwich.

RICHARD SHUBRICK III (1741–97) Son of Richard Shubrick II. He was born in South Carolina but moved to London as a child. He followed his father into London’s Carolina trade and served on the board of the London Assurance Company. By the American Revolution he was owed substantial debts in South Carolina but, despite his difficulties in recovering these after the war, remained prosperous with a large fortune and a sizable estate in Enfield, north of London.

THOMAS SHUBRICK (1710–79) Ship’s captain and younger brother of Richard Shubrick II. He plied a route between London and Charles Town before joining his brother and brother-in-law, John Nickleson, in partnership in Charles Town in 1742. Though both Richard Shubrick and Nickleson returned to Britain in the Page xxv →1740s, Thomas Shubrick remained in Charles Town, handling the South Carolina end of the business. He helped manage his brother’s landholdings in the colony and became a major landowner in his own right. By his death he was one of the colony’s largest slaveholders, owning 333 slaves. He also held numerous civic positions and served in the South Carolina Assembly.

JOHN WATKINSON (?–1742) Mariner and merchant in the Carolina trade. Watkinson operated during the 1720s as a merchant in Charles Town, where he acquired several properties. He retained these after returning late in the decade to London, where he continued to trade to South Carolina and lobby on the colony’s behalf.

SAMUEL WRAGG (?–1750) London’s foremost Carolina trader during the 1720s and 1730s. Wragg went from Britain to join his brother Joseph in Charles Town around 1710. During the next ten years their partnership, Joseph Wragg & Co., was probably the town’s biggest trading house, particularly in the slave trade. Samuel Wragg also became a member of South Carolina’s Assembly before relocating to trade in London from the early 1720s. Besides being one of the largest exporter of slaves to South Carolina in the next two decades, Wragg served as South Carolina’s official agent in London between 1727 and 1731 and regularly appeared before the Board of Trade during the 1720s and 1730s. Wragg also became one of South Carolina’s largest landowners. Page xxvi →