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Bulletins of the Historical Commission of
South Carolina.—No. 6

The

Introduction of Rice Culture

INTO

South Carolina

By A. S. SALLEY, Jr.

Secretary of the Commission

Printed for the Commission by
The State Company
Columbia, S. C.
1919

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The present State of South Carolina was formerly a part of the territory granted by Charles II, March 20, 1663, to eight of his supporters, as the province of Carolina. Even before a permanent white settlement had been effected within their province these Lords Proprietors had begun to lay plans for the development of rice culture therein.

In a letter to Lord Willoughby, governor of Barbadoes, dated at Cockpit, August 31, 1663, the Duke of Albemarle, one of the Proprietors, after telling his Lordship of the grant he and his associates had received from the Crown, proceeded to detail some of their plans for development:

there are some persons of your Island of Barbadoes that have by there letters to me set forth there desires of beginning of or contributeing to a setlement in those parts which I conceave will prove rather advantagious than otherwayes to those under your Government for that setlement will devirt many people that designe to plant from planting there commodyties which your plantation abounds in (of which greater quantities being made will shake the maker) and put them upon such as your lands will not I conceave produce, and as the Kinge hath not yet within his Terrytories in quantity, although his people consume much of them to the exhausting the wealth of the Kingdome, the commodyties I meane are wine, oyle, reasons, currents, rice, silke &c¹

In 1666 Robert Horne published in London a pamphlet advertising the resources of Carolina, wherein the following statement was made:

The Meadows are very proper for Rice, Rape-seed, Lin-seed, etc., and may many of them be made to overflow at pleasure with a small charge.²

On January 13, 1672, among the articles “Shipped by the Grace of God in Good Order & well condicioned by me Rich^d Kingdon, for the prop. acct. of the Lords Prop^rs. of Carolina, in & upon the good ship called the William & Ralph, whereof is master under God for that present voyage William Jeffereys, & now riding at anchor in the River of Thames, & by God’s grace

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In another Act ratified March 16, 1695/6, “An Act for Remission of Part of Arrears of Rent and to Ascertaine The Payment of the Remainder”, it is likewise:

Enacted that Every person which after The Remission, and abatement of the Rents as is before Provided Shall be in Arrear of Rent to the Lords proprietors Shall pay to the Lords Receiver one Moyety of all his arrears Upon or Before the first day of December next and the other moyety Upon or Before the first Day of December which shall be in the yeare of our Lord God one Thousand Six hundred ninety and Seaven in Currant Money of this Province, or in Indigo, Silke, Rice Cotton Beefe Porke in Barrells or halfe barrells w^th: the Packers marke thereupon or in English pease¹

In an address and remonstrance from the Commons House of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina, November 19, 1698, to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina their Lordships were re-quested to “Interceed with his most Gratious Majestie for y^e takeing of y^e Duty of Rice Turpentine Rossin Pitch and Tarr, Impor(ted) Imported from this Province” and to “Procure and Send us by y^e: first oppertunity a moddell of a Rice Mill”.²

In a letter from William Thornburgh, one of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, to William Popple, Secretary of His Majesty’s Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, dated July 21, 1699, he says:

I have herewith sent you a sample of our Carolina rice that the Rt. Hon. the Lords Commiss^rs. of Trade & Plantations may see what a staple the Province of Carolina may be capable of furnishing Europe withall. The Grocers do assure me its better than any Foreign Rice by at least 8s. the hundred weight, & wee can have it brought home for less than 4s. pr. tonn. w^ch. is not dear.³

The minutes of the Commissioners for July 25, 1699, say:

A letter from Mr. Thornburgh to the Secretary of the 21st. instant with a sample of some Carolina Rice was laid before the Board⁴

In a letter to the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, dated March 8, 1700, the governor and council of South Carolina stated that South Carolina “hath made more rice y^e

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Last Cropp then we have Ships to Transport”¹ and Edward Randolph, Collector of Customs for the Southern Department of North America, in a letter to the same board, dated July 30, 1700, wrote of the people of South Carolina:

They have now found out the true way of raising and husking Rice there has been above 300 Tuns shipped this year to England besides about 30 Tuns more to the Islands.²

In 1699 Jonathan Amory, one of the leading men of South Carolina, died. By his will he appointed his wife, Mrs. Martha Amory, his executrix. . Mrs. Amory died very soon after. In her will she named Mrs. Sarah Rhett as her executrix. In Mrs. Rhett’s account rendered on making a division among the heirs in 1707 note is made of four plantations. One of these, called Clouters, comprising 420 acres, was a rice plantation over which Elias Storey was overseer and upon which there were twenty-four negroes—eight men, eight women, five boys and three girls. Rice seems to have been planted also at another of the plantations called the Cow Pen. In January, 1700, in recording the prices received for the products sold from the plantations, Mrs. Rhett gives rice from the Cow Pen at 15 shillings per hundred pounds and from Clouters at 6 shillings, 8¼ pence per hundred.³

The smuggling out of Carolina rice to countries other than England appears to have begun early. In a letter, dated “S^t. Nicholas-Lane 30 December 1708”, John Lloyd writes to William Popple, Secretary of the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations:

I received your Two Letters that reminded me of my Promise to the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of Trade & Plantations concerning Ships that carried Rice to Portugal I wrote to a Particular friend there and pray’d him to give me an account of itt, but by my late Letters from thence I find he is unwilling to give any information all that I can learn is this That three Ships loaded at Carolina, and took out clearings for Rhode Island, from whence they got certificates to Cleare their Bonds att Carolina and thence Reloaded their Ships the Masters Names are Samuel Jones Thomas Thatcher and one ———— Pitts All New England men I have a Ship lately arrived from Carolina now att portsmouth, when the Master comes for London if I can learn anything farther concerning this Trade shall wait on their Honours. I presume one way to stop this Trade,

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woud be to give power to our Consuls abroad strictly to examine all ships from Her Majtys= plantations or settlements that shall be loaded with Fish, whether part of their cargoe be nott Rice, Logwood, pitch or Tarr, which are often imported in those parts. As for Rhode Island tis a place where ali Roguery’s are committed and great Quantitys of Goods from portugal are Landed there, and so conveyed to severall parts¹

In a letter from the Lords Proprietors to Nathaniel Sayle, Receiver General of South Carolina, dated August 18, 1710, they say:

The Officers Sallaries & w^t: payments You are Directed to make by your Commission & Instructions are to be pd.— out of our Quit Rents but al Moneyes which you Shall Receive for ye PurChase of Lands & wt Shall Remain of our Quit=Rents after those Payments made you are hereby Ordered to Consigne to Us and to Send them for London by ye first opportunity every Quarter of a Year in Rice or money.²

In December, 1710, the Proprietors, addressing Sayle’s successor, wrote:

We being inform’d that att the time of the death of our late Receiver Genii: there were Effects of ours in his hands of a Considerable Value which he intended to have returned to us According to the directions to him formerly by us Given, These are therefore to Command & require you forthwith to send Over his Accts: and Remmitt ye Ballance thereof in Rice &c: by two of the Next ships yt shall Come for England after the Receipt hereof³

Section XI. of an Act of the General Assembly of South Carolina entitled “An Act for avoiding Deceipts in Selling of Beef and Pork, Pitch and Tarr Rosin and Turpentine by appointing Packers in Several Parts of this Province, ratified December 18, 1714, provides:

Whereas the different Length of Rice of Barrels Expo^rted is very Prejudicial to the Owners of Vessels by making bad Stowage for the Prevention thereof Be it Enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every Rice Barrel exposed to Sale after the first day of December next after the Ratification of this Act Shall not be less than Thirty two Inches long nor more then Thirty three, on the Pain and Penaltie that for every Such Cooper or other Person So Offering or Neglecting Shall forfeit the Sum of five Shillings for every Such Barrel; and every Person who Shall offer

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to Sale any Rice Shall put his proper burnt Mark upon every Cask of Rice as aforesaid, under Penalty of forfeiting five Shillings for each Rice Cat So Offered to Sale.¹

The journal of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina for Wednesday, February 16, 1715, shows the following as a part of the proceedings of that day:²

Upon reading the Petition of John Thurber, relating to the allowing him a gratuity out of the Public Treasury for bringing the first Madagascar Rice into this Province:

Ordered

That the said Thurber be allowed the sum of One hundred pounds or of the Public Treasury, & that Twenty pounds thereof be paid to him, by the Publick Receiver, & that the other Eighty pounds be remitted by the said Receiver to the said Thurbers family in N. England, in what will be most advantageous for said Thurbers family.

In a letter from the Council of Trade to James Stanhope Secretary of State for the Southern Department, dated July 19, 1715, the following statement was made in reference to South Carolina:

The Produce of this Colony, are, Naval Stores, viz^t—Pitch & Tar in Good Abundance and some Masts, Rice of the best kind; & considerable Quantities of Skins, which by the Trade hereof, and the Duties on their Importation here, are very beneficial to this Kingdom, & occasion an Augmentation of his Majesty’s Revenue.³

The next month two gratuities to be paid in rice were voted in appreciation of services rendered in the Yemassee War, through which the province had just passed. On August 26, 1715, the Commons House of Assembly adopted the following resolutions Resolved,

That Capt. Sam^l. Meade, Commander of his Majesty’s Ship, Success, tic his great services to this Province, in his voyage to and from Boston in New England, be presented with six Tuns of Rice, so soon as the same can conveniently be got ready to be delivered to him, after the next crop of Rice comes in.

Ordered,

That the Publick Receiver for the time being, do (at the charge of the Publick) deliver the said Six Tuns of Rice to Capt. Meade aforesaid, or his order.

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Resolved:

That Lieut. Alex^r. Coldcott (Lieut. of his Majesty’s Ship Success) be also presented with one Tun of Rice as aforesaid, for his services to the Pub-lick in the aforesaid Voyage.

Ordered:

That the Publick Recever, for the time being, do (at the charge of the Publick) deliver the said one Tun of Rice to Lieut. Coldcott aforesaid, or his order.

The next day two barrels of rice were voted to Capt. Thomas Raymond, master of a sloop which had brought forces from North Carolina to assist.

The first published account that the writer has been able to find of the beginning of rice culture in South Carolina appears in a pamphlet entitled The / Importance / of the / British Plantations / in / America / to this / Kingdom; / with / The State of their Trade, and / Methods for Improving it; / as also / A Description of the several Colo-/nies there, which was printed in London in 1731.¹ On pages 18-19 thereof its author says:²

The Production of Rice in Carolina, which is of such prodigious Advantage, was owing to the following Accident. A Brigantine from the Island Madagascar happened to put in there; they had a little Seed Rice left, not exceeding a Peck, or Quarter of a Bushel, which the Captain offered. and gave to a Gentleman of the Name of Woodward. From Part of this he had a very good Crop, but was ignorant for some Years how to clean it. It was soon dispersed over the Province; and by frequent Experiments and

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Observations they found out Ways of producing and manufacturing it to so great Perfection, that it is thought it exceeds any other in Value. The Writer of this hath seen the said Captain in Carolina, where he received a handsome Gratuity from the Gentlemen of that Countrey, in Acknowledgement of the Service he had done that Province.

It is likewise reported that Mr. Du Bois, Treasurer of the East India Company, did send to that Countrey a small Bag of Seed-Rice some short Time after,¹ from whence it is reasonable enough to suppose might come those two Sorts of that Commodity, one called Red Rice in Contradistinction to the White, from the Redness of the inner Husk or Rind of this Sort, tho’ they both clean and become white alike.

It is unfortunate that the author gave no dates. Although it is uncertain at what time before 1715 (the year Capt. Thurber received his gratuity) Madagascar rice was first planted in South Carolina, it is certain that rice culture was begun before 1690 and that it was not begun as the result of an “accident” but as a part of a prearranged plan of development of Carolina by the Proprietors thereof. The procuring of the Madagascar seed from Thurber by Woodward might have been accidental, but some sort of rice would have been tried sooner or later—if it were not already being planted. If the author was correct in his claim that the Madagascar seed was the genesis of the rice industry in South Carolina, then it was Dr. Henry Woodward who procured the seed from Capt. Thurber, and the first planting had taken place over thirty years before Capt. Thurber received hit gratuity from the General Assembly, that is to say, about 1685 or earlier.

Dr. Henry Woodward was for many years one of the leading men of the province, and was of great assistance to the Lords Proprietors in developing it. In 1666 he came to Port Royal with Sanford’s exploring expedition and remained there with the Indians in order to learn their language and to explore and study the country in the interest of the Proprietors. His romantic experiences from then until the establishment of Charles Town in 1670 have been told in the records of the day.² On May 18, 1682, he was commissioned by the Proprietors to explore

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the islands on the coast of Carolina to see “what they do contain”; to seek a passage over the Appalachian Mountains and to search and make discovery of those parts of our Province where you shall think any mines are or other things fitt or usefull for us to know and you are from time to time to give us an account what discoverys you have made and what kind of Country the Inlands of Our Province are and how quallified for Planting of vines & Inhabitants.¹

It would have been perfectly natural, therefore, for Dr. Woodward to have been the man to successfully inaugurate the planting in South Carolina of a commodity which his patrons, the Lords Proprietors, had desired introduced. He died some time between May 6, 1685,² when we find him acting as an interpreter for the Grand Council at an investigation of an outrage committed by one tribe of neighboring Indians upon another, and March 12, 1690, when Col. John Godfrey made his will. In referring to his daughter Mary, wife of William Davis, Col. Godfrey directed that “a full Ballance be had and made of her Two former Husbands Debts, Robert Browne and Doct^r Henry Woodward, which did any wayes attaine to me” and again he left a negro to her in lieu of £20. “Borrowed from my Daughter Davis w^ch was of the Children of Doct^r Henry Woodwards Estate”. It is likely that Dr. Woodward’s death occurred nearer to the former date than to the latter, as the writer has been unable to find any records of his presence in South Carolina during the years between these dates, while there are numerous records of his activities just prior to the first date. and we must allow for a reasonable time to have elapsed between his death and the next marriage of his widow, and then a possible further lapse of time between that marriage and the making of Col. Godfrey’s will.

If, however, Dr. Woodward was not the Woodward to whom Capt. Thurber gave the seed, then it necessarily was one of his two sons—if a Woodward at all—to whom he gave it, as the records do not show any other Woodwards in the province between 1685 and 1715. These sons did not arrive at man’s estate

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until after 1700, and, consequently, the Madagascar rice could not have been the first rice planted in the province. To this writer the evidence seems to indicate very clearly that Dr. Henry Woodward was the “Gentleman of the Name of Woodward” who procured the Madagascar seed from Capt. Thurber and that, therefore, Madagascar seed was planted before 1690. Madagascar grew a very superior quality of rice, and still grows it, and Thornburgh’s letter of 1699 shows that even at that early date the South Carolina rice was of the very best. The author states that Woodward “was ignorant for some Years how to clean it.” That statement is borne out by the Act patenting Guerard’s pendulum engine in 1691. He also says it was “soon dispersed over the Province; and by frequent Experiments and Observations they found out Ways of producing and manufacturing it to so great Perfection, that it is thought it exceeds any other in Value.” The petition of 1690, the pendulum engine Act of 1691, the quit rent Acts of 1696, the requests in 1698 for the removal of duty on its exportation and for a model of a rice mill, and Thornburgh’s statement in 1699 as to commendations of it by London grocers all sustain that statement. The author states that Dubois sent rice seed “some short Time after” the Madagascar seed had been secured. By evidence which will appear later on it will be seen that the Dubois seed was sent in 1696. As every statement made by Hall, except that as to the accident, is exactly sustained by contemporaneous records, and, as he wrote at a time much closer to the period when the matters of which he was writing transpired than any other writer, and had lived in South Carolina while many of the actors of that period were still alive and able to inform him of the facts, it would seem that more credit should be given to his statements than to those of writers who wrote many years later and made contrary statements without giving a scintilla of evidence to sustain them.

Capt. John Thurber died November 24, 1717, aged 68, and was buried in Kikemult Cemetery, Warren, R. I. In Volume 48 of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register there is published a contribution entitled “Burials at Warren and Barrington, R. I.” This list was made in 1871 by Gen. Guy Mannering Fessenden and in a footnote to the name of John Thurber Gen. Fessenden says:

The “John Thurber.” Capt., was the person who first introduced rice into South Carolina from India, between 1694 and 1697.

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Gen. Fessenden gives us no authority for his statement, but we could put more faith in his date for the introduction of Madagascar rice if he had not confused Madagascar with India. If his date is correct then the Madagascar rice was not the first planted and Thurber gave it to some one other than a Woodward.

The evolution of the story of the Madagascar rice from the first telling thereof is shown by the following accounts from five later writers:

In A Description of South Carolina, published in London in 1761, James Glen, a former governor of the province, writes,

The following Extract is inserted to shew by what means that profitable commodity Rice came to be first planted in South Carolina; for as it was not done with any previous Prospect of Gain, but owing to a lucky accident, and a private experiment, many Persons will naturally be desirous of knowing the several circumstances relating to an affair so fortunate to this Kingdom, and it may serve as a new instance of the great share this accident hath had in making discoveries for the benefit of Mankind,

[Here follows a slightly inaccurate copy of the account given in the pamphlet of 1731.]

The writer of this extract hath not mentioned the time when Rice was first planted in South Carolina: but it appears in page — of this description, that Rice was generally Planted in that Colony in the year 1710,² and therefore the first planting of it must have been about the year 1700, if not sooner.

In June, 1766, the following contribution appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine,³ of London, under the caption. “An Account of the Introduction of Rice and Tar into our Colonies”:

John Houghton, a sensible writer on trade and husbandry, Vol. II. page 298, enumerates the commodities imported into England: among which he mentions Rice, and gives the following account of it, probably from the Custom-house books or bills of entry.

Rice imported in the year 1694.

From the Streights	1545 Cwt.
From Spain	120 ditto
From Holland	330 Qrs.

But as he takes no notice of rice from Carolina, it is probable it was not then planted there, which will appear with still stronger evidence by the following account.

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In the year 1696, my sagacious friend, Charles Dubois, then treasurer of the East-India Company, told me often with pleasure, that he first put the Carolinians on the culture of rice.

He happened one day, in that year to meet Thomas Marsh, a Carolina merchant, at the coffee-house, to whom he said, I have been thinking, from the situation, nature of soil, and climate, that rice may be produced to great advantage in Carolina: But, says Marsh, how shall we get some to try?. Why, says Dubois, I Will enquire for it amongst our India Captains— Accordingly, a money bag full of East India rice was given to Marsh, and he sent it to South-Carolina; and in the year 1698, he told his friend Dubois, that it had succeeded very well.

But, from so small an original, it required a long time to spread to advantage; besides, the people being unacquainted with the manner of cultivating rice, many difficulties attended the first planting and preparing it, as a vendable commodity, so that little progress was made for the first nine or ten years, when the quantity produced was not sufficient for home consumption.

About this time, a Portuguese vessel arrived, with slaves from the east, with a considerable quantity of rice, being the ship’s provision; this rice the Carolinians gladly took in exchange for a supply of their own produce.—This unexpected cargo was distributed, which gave new spirit to the undertaking, but was not sufficient to supply the demand of all those that would have procured it to plant.

Therefore the Assembly of South Carolina, taking into consideration the importance of the culture of rice, very prudently voted a bounty to encourage its importation, that there might be a supply of seed for every undertaker.

My ingenious friend, Tho. Lamboll, Esq; now living, informs me that in the year 1704, being then a lad, going to school at some distance from Charles Town, he took notice of some planters, who were essaying to make rice grow.

In the year 1712, the same gentleman was an apprentice to a principal merchant in Charles Town, who was appointed public treasurer; and he well remembers that a bounty (granted by the Assembly) was then paid to a Captain, who brought in the first cargo of rice, after the bounty was ordered: This cargo came from the Streights, probably from Egypt, or the Milanese.

In the year 1713, another ship arrived, and the Captain made the like demand, and received the bounty for bringing a cargo of rice and slaves from Madagascar.

From these particulars it appears, that the progress of raising rice, in any considerable Quantity, was very slow; and I can find no account of any being exported for the first 15 years. But it is reasonable to conclude, that after the arrival of these two cargoes of rice for sowing, the planters were amply furnished, to extend its culture; and being a yearly production, it soon became a staple commodity; it is therefore very probable, that in the years 1715 or 1716, a quantity was raised sufficient for exportation, which continued to increase till the year 1726, and then it became a great

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article of commerce. For my correspondent, Sam. Eveligh, a merchant residing in Charles Town, writes to me that from the year

			barrels of rice
1726 to 1727	were	exported	40,000
1729 to 1730		exported	41,957
1740 to 1741		exported	80,000
1755 to 1756		exported	60,000
1757 to 1758		exported	67,000
1760 to 1761		exported	100,024
*1761 to 1762	}	exported	34,972
		half barrels	3,600

The Carolina Gazette of June 12, 1762, says, the crops of rice are so great that we expect to make 150,000 barrels.

I cannot express the satisfaction I feel, in reflecting on the wonderful increase of so valuable a commodity, from so small a beginning, in about, or little more than half a century.

May 26, 1766.

P. Collison.¹

Notwithstanding the many inaccuracies in the foregoing contribution it contains something of value to assist us in arriving at the truth as to the beginning of the rice industry in South Carolina. While no rice may have been exported to England in 1694 it does not follow that none was raised in South Carolina at that time. On the contrary, the evidence is positive that rice was then a commodity of the province. The entire production may have been kept at home for food and seed. There was also at that time a duty charged on exportations of it to England.

The date 1696, given as the year of the receipt of Dubois’s seed from India, which date he says he received from Dubois himself, harmonizes perfectly with the contemporaneous records and with the account given by Hall in 1731, but the further statements that it was nine or ten years after that before enough was known of cultivating and preparing rice to make it a vendable commodity, and that the quantity produced during those years was not enough for home consumption, do not accord with the records. The records show that in 1696 the Proprietors allowed the quit rents to be paid in it; that in 1698 the British government

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was asked to remove the duty from exportations of that raised in South Carolina, and that in 1699 more was produced than there were ships at Charles Town to carry it away in that three hundred and thirty tons thereof were exported to England and the West Indies during the first seven months of 1700. The explanation of the error is that it took nine or ten years after the starting of the industry to learn the proper methods of cultivating and preparing it for export, instead of nine or ten years after the receipt of the Dubois seed.

The statement that the General Assembly had provided for bounties which were paid to masters of vessels bringing in rice in 1712 and 1713 is not borne out by the contemporaneous records. A search of the several compilations of the laws of South Carolina by Trott (1736), Grimké (1791) and Cooper (1837) do not reveal any Acts to that effect; nor do the legislative journals of the period show anything. It is possible that such bounties were paid between 1694 and 1700 under the terms of “An Act to raise money to be disposed of for the Encouragement of the Production and Manufacturing of divers Sorts of Provisions and Commodities of the Growth of this Province”, which was ratified June 20, 1694, to be effective for two years, was continued in 1696 for three and a half years, and repealed November 16, 1700. Neither of the compilations of Trott, Grimké nor Cooper contains anything but the title of the Act and the original cannot now be found. The statements of Thomas Lamboll as to seeing a bounty paid in 1712 to the captain who brought in the first cargo of rice and of seeing another paid in 1713 to a captain who brought a cargo from Madagascar were evidently based on the fact of the gratuities paid to Captains Thurber and Meade and Lieutenant Coldcott in 1715.¹ Capt. Thurber was evidently needy in his old age, and, knowing the benefits South Carolina had received from the rice seed he had brought in, petitioned for aid (There was no demand for something he was entitled to) and it was readily granted. It was not an unusual thing for such gratuities to be voted to those who had done something for the general weal and were in need, and this was not the only one voted to a needy benefactor of the rice industry. The following extract from the journal of His Majesty’s Council for South

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Carolina for January 9, 1755, concerns a similar case, which, while arising forty years later, is interesting in connection with the history of the rice industry:

A Petition of Joseph Koger, was presented to the House, and read, Setting forth that the Petitioner, a German Protestant, had been about twenty years in this Province, a greet part of which time he had spent in contriving & inventing Machines for a more easy & Expeditious way of manufacturing Rice. First a Wind-fan, which after many Trials, & much time spent upon it he, at last, brought to perfection, and to be of great advantage to the Public; and tho’ there was not one in Carolina, that answer’d the end, but what he either made or had been taken & made from his yet had he reaped no further benefit to himself & Family thereby, than what arose from the bare making of a few with his own hands having neither Slave nor Servant to assist him. After perfecting his Wind-fan he next applied himself to the Inventing a Machine for a more easy, quick, and advantageous method of pounding Rice, the most Laborious part in the whole process of preparing that Provincial Staple for a Market, In which he has likeways succeeded, beyond any; before attempted or seen in the Province, and to the approbation of all who had seen the one he made for Mr. Mc–kinzie, from which several others were then making thro’ the Province, and Mr- Jervey took the Model he so beneficially exposed in Town. The Petitioner begged leave further Humbly to shew, that being a Forreigner, without any connections .in the country, and speaking English but poorly, he was destitute of those aids so necessary to push one’s way thro’ the World, And that while he had been thus employing his time, his vigour and his strength in endeavouring to be useful to others, his own had suffered and he was then reduced, at 50 years of Age, to the necessity of being obliged to his kind Neighbours for the support of himself, his Wife and Children, in the bare necessarys of Life; which distress had been helped for-ward, by having his House, Tools, and the little all he had lately burnt to Ashes. The Petitioner therefore Humbly prayed In Consideration of what he had done for the Public Emolument, even to the neglect of his own and his Family’s private Interest; and that he might be enabled to continue his Endeavours, for the future, for the good of the Province, which, with Suitable encouragement, he hoped, he hoped, he might be further usefull to, That His Excellency & Honours would in their great Justice and goodness, be pleased to grant him such reward, as in their great Wisdoms they thought he deserved.

Charles Town Signed Joseph Koger-

Jan: 9th.. 1755—

May it please your Excellency & Honours

We whose names are hereunder Subscribed, beg leave hereby to certify that what is set forth in the annexed Petition is, to the best of our knowledge, Strictly true, and that the Petitioner Joseph Koger, ever since he has lived in these parts, which is many years, besides applying himself to the purposes mentioned in the said Petition, has behaved himself honestly soberly and every way not only Irreproachably but Commendably. As Witness our hands 9th– Jan’ry 1755:

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Robt- Mc-Murdy	Stephn: Cater	John St John
George Godfrey	Hugh Ferguson	aml, Davison
Thos- Brown	Jas- Baker	Thos- Law Elliott
Joseph Andrew	Thos- Jones	Geo: Purkis
Robert Godfrey	Robt- Manning	Wm- Williamson
Dail Singellton	John Barton	Jas- Hartly
Joseph Scott	Willm- Mitchell	Robt- Baron
S: Elmes	Jos: Gibbons	Wm- Bower Williamson
Rich: Woodcraft	Robt- Oswald	Wm Buchanan
John Panney	Gidn- Dupont	ABrm Hayne
John Lambert	John Roberts	Thomas Elliott Senr?
George Vinson	Thos- Ellis	Isaac Nichols
William Glover	David Jefferyes	Alexr- Rantowle
William Steads Senr-	Jno: Roberts Senr	Isaac Ladson
Joseph Steads	Jno: North	Geo: Logan Junr?
John Sanders	Danl.×Mc-Cartey’s mark	Joseph Perry
Robert Handcock	Danl- Legare Junr	John Miles
Tobias Ford	Henry Warner	Thos- Singellton
George Jackson	Wm- Harden	Chas- Ferguson
Robt- Reid	S: Singleton	Josiah Perry
Jno: Moore	Richd- Bailey	Edwd- Perry
Wm- Oswald	James Sharp	Sami- Elliott
John Little	Dani- Maybank	James Ladson
Hush Millen	John Field	George Evans
Tb: Beach	Jonath: Greaves	John Edmanson
P: Rumph	Ben: Splatt	David Stevens
Bethel Dewes	John Wilkins	Saml. Wainwright
Nathl: Dean	Robt- Nenian	Thos- Ladson
John Cochran	Gasper Agerman	Silas Miles
Thos- Clifford	John Dodd	Edwd- Perry Junr?
James Moore	David Goddin	Meliher Garner
Sami- Porcher	Thos- Bradwell	Thos- Miles
Joseph Glover	Thos- Eberson	Robert Mackewn Jr:
T Rigdon Smith	Wm- Smith	Ralph Izard
James Bullock	Thos- Sacheverell	Richd Bedon
James Skirving	James Holey	Wm- Fuller
James Postell	Charles Odingsells	James Grindlay
William Sanders	Sami Lowle	Chas: Wright
Archd- Hamilton	Richd- Coenhash	John Hume
John Laird	Wm- Anderson	Thos- Ferguson
Phillip Hext	John Beatly	Jno- Matthews
David Hext	Jas- Cuthbert	Benjamin Harvey
John Mc-Collum	Thos- Simpson	Isaac Godin
Adam Gulliatt	Saml Sprig	Wm- Harvey
Jos- Newton	Edwd- Ferguson	Chas- Lowndes
John Mc-Kenzie	James Hamilton	John Mc.Queen
Samel Hastings	Wm- Beaty	Thos: Smith
Wm- Brown	James Reid	David Deas
Saml Sleigh	Wm Glaze

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Order’d that the said Petition be sent to the Commons House of Assembly—

In response the General Assembly appropriated £500 to be laid out in two negroes to be held in trust for Koger’s use and benefit.¹ In 1779 An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, by Rev. Alexander Hewat, D. D., was published in London. After alluding to Landgrave Thomas Smith’s accession to the governorship in 1693 Dr. Hewat says:²

About this time a fortunate accident happened, which occasioned the introduction of rice into Carolina, a commodity which was afterwards found very suitable to the climate and soil of the country. A brigantine from the island of Madagascar touching at that place in her way to Britain, came to anchor off Sullivan’s island. There Landgrave Smith, upon an invitation from the captain, paid him a visit, and received from him a present of a bag of seed rice, which he said he had seen growing in eastern countries, where it was deemed excellent food, and produced an incredible increase. The governor divided his bag of rice between Stephen Bull, Joseph Woodward, and some other friends, who agreed to make the experiment, and planted their small parcels in different soils. Upon trial they found it answered their highest expectations. Some years afterwards, Mr. DuBois, treasurer to the East India Company, sent a bag of seed rice to Carolina, which, it is supposed, gave rise to the distinction of red and white rice, which are both cultivated in that country. Several years, however, elapsed, before the planters found out the art of beating and cleaning it to perfection, and that the lowest and richest lands were best adapted to the nature of the grain.

Here is the story of 1731 retold with variations by Dr. Hewat. The embellishments very clearly show that Dr. Hewat did not consult the public records of the province which were close at hand in Charles Town, where he resided when he gathered his material for his history. What ground he had for substituting Landgrave Smith for Woodward does not appear. Not to entirely rob the Woodward family of the credit of the enterprise, he makes Joseph Woodward one of the experimenters with the seed. The early records of the province, although quite full, do not contain the name of Joseph Woodward. Dr. Henry Woodward’s two sons: John, born February 19, 1681, and Richard, born June 9, 1683, were both too young to have engaged in rice planting in 1694.

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In A View of South Carolina, published in Charleston in 1802, Governor John Drayton says:

Rice, was first planted in South-Carolina, about the year 1688: when by chance a little of it, of a small unprofitable kind, was introduced into the state. In the year 1696, a bag of a larger and whiter rice, was presented, by a captain of a brigantine from Madagascar, to the governor; who divided it between several gentlemen. And some time afterwards, Mr. DuBois, treasurer to the British East India Company, sent another parcel of rice; which probably made the distinction which now prevails, between white and gold rice.

Governor Drayton has mixed the accounts of Hall, Collison and Hewat. He has assigned Collison’s date of the Dubois rice to the Madagascar rice; fixed the date of the Dubois seed at “some time afterwards”, in consideration of Hall and Glen; substituted “the governor” for “a Gentleman of the Name of Woodward”, possibly in deference to Hewat, and assigned a still earlier date (1688) to the “chance” introduction of “a small unprofitable kind”, probably out of respect for the Act of 1691 protecting Guerard’s pendulum engine.

In what he calls an “Agricultural History of South Carolina From 1670-1808”, which forms a part (pages 199-231 of Volume II.) of his History of South Carolina, published in 1809, Dr. David Ramsay furnishes this account of how rice was introduced into South Carolina.:

Landgrave Thomas Smith who was governor of the province in 1693, had been at Madagascar before he settled in Carolina. There he observed that rice was planted and grew in low and moist ground. Having such ground at the western extremity of his garden attached to his dwelling house in East bay-street, he was persuaded that rice would grow therein if seed could be obtained. About this time a vessel from Madagascar being in distress, came to anchor near Sullivan’s island. The master of this vessel inquired for Mr. Smith as an old acquaintance. An interview took place. In the course of conversation Mr. Smith expressed a wish to obtain some seed rice to plant in his garden by way of experiment. The cook being called said he had a small bag of rice suitable for that purpose. This was presented to Mr. Smith who sowed it in a low spot of his garden, which now forms a part of Longitude lane. It grew luxuriantly. The little crop was distributed by Mr. Smith among his planting friends. From this small beginning the first staple commodity of Carolina took its rise.

It is quite evident that Ramsay got his story from Hewat.¹ He put in a few variations and made some additions from his own conception of our early history, which, by the way, was usually

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at variance with the facts furnished by contemporaneous records; nor did he hesitate to deliberately alter a contemporaneous record to make it conform to his statements.

In 1704 Edward Crisp prepared a map of Charles Town, to which he appended a key giving the locations of the principal landmarks, public and private. This map was published in London soon thereafter. It is in thorough accord with the early official plans of the town, which are still in possession of this State. Running up into the square bounded by Church, Tradd and East Bay streets and a creek which ran about where Water Street is now located was a creek which almost divided the square into eastern and western parts. Crisp marked this creek with an M on his map and noted it on his key as a creek. His key letters stopped at W. Ramsay reproduced Crisp’s map for his history, crediting it to Crisp, without saying that it had been altered or revised by Ramsay, and omitted the creek from the key and assigned each letter from M to V to the next succeeding object on Crisp’s key. That left him without an object for his W. He provided one. He placed a W on the east side of the creek and entered it on the key as “first rice patch in Carolina.” The following facts constitute the basis for such a claim. Lot No. 5 on the original plan of Charles Town lay on this square and was the second lot south of Tradd Street and extended from East Bay to the creek above referred to. It was granted to Thomas Smith, June 14, 1689. This lot is not mentioned in the Landgrave’s will, made in 1692, but on March 26, 1698, the wharf before that part of lot No. 5 belonging to Thomas Smith was granted to the said Thomas Smith and the wharf before that part of lot No. 5 belonging to George Smith was granted to the said George Smith. These were the two sons, only children, of the elder Landgrave Thomas Smith, who had died in November, 1694. By his will he gave his town house to George Smith but did not state where it was. Crisp’s map of 1704 shows that Landgrave Thomas Smith, the son above referred to, had his dwelling on lot No. 5 at that time and upon that showing Ramsay boldly assigned the back end of that lot as the site of the alleged rice patch of the first Landgrave Smith, notwithstanding the fact that the said creek and marsh were both salt and that that “low and moist ground” would not have produced rice.

In a foot note to his story Ramsay admits that he did not know when Landgrave Smith arrived in South Carolina. The official

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records of the province show that he and his family arrived in the province and registered in the Secretary’s office in 1684.¹ This was but a short time before Dr. Woodward’s death and after, or about the time, the cultivation of rice began in South Carolina.

There is still another account of how rice was introduced into South Carolina, which, while not usually taken so seriously as the account by Ramsay, is very little more absurd.

In 1772 the Abbe Raynal, in his Philosophical and Political History of the Possessions and Trade of Europeans in the Two Indies, stated that a ship on its return from the East Indies happened to be cast away on the coast of South Carolina, and, some bags of rice being taken from out of the ship, a trial was made of sowing the rice which succeeded beyond expectation.²

Somebody evidently criticised the Abbé’s story, for in the second edition, published in English in London in 1798, he says, page 59 of Volume VI:

Opinions differ about the manner in which rice hath been naturalized in Carolina. But whether the province may have acquired it by a shipwreck, or whether it may have been carried there with slaves, or whether it be sent from England, it is certain that the soil is favourable for it.