LORD CAMPBELL’S HOUSE, _34 Meeting Street_: Last of the Royal Governors,
Lord William Campbell, precipitately left Charlestown September 16,
1775, taking refuge aboard H.M.S. _Tamar_. Lord Campbell by night went
through his garden to a boat in Vanderhorst Creek (Water Street
nowadays). He had come to Charlestown June 18, 1775, and was “received
civilly, but without enthusiasm.” Fleeing, he carried with him the Great
Seal of the Province. South Carolina was on the way to independence. The
house was built about 1760 and was owned by Mrs. Blake, first cousin to
Sarah Izard who married Lord Campbell. She belonged to one of the
richest and most influential families in the Province. After the
Revolution, about 1795, Colonel Lewis Morris, a Revolutionary officer,
acquired the property. Colonel Francis Kinloch Huger, who had part in
the frustrated plot to liberate the Marquis de Lafayette from the
Austrian prison of Olmutz, was wounded on the steps of this house; a
section of the bull’s-eye in the roof fell and fractured his skull. In
the earthquake of 1886, a young Englishman was killed on the steps; a
piece of the parapet fell on him. The house has been in the Huger family
for years. The handsome piazzas on the south side were built for the
late William E. Huger, whose son, Daniel Elliott Huger, is the present
owner.
WILLIAM BULL’S HOUSE, _35 Meeting Street_: Across Meeting Street from
the Charlestown home of Lord William Campbell was the home of the first
Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Province of South Carolina, William
Bull, who is said to have erected it; he died in 1755. It was his son,
William Bull, then also Lieutenant Governor who was occupying it at the
outbreak of the Revolution. The office of Lieutenant Governor was
devised to safeguard against an interregnum between the naming of
Governors by the King of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account