Frances,
Its 4th of July now - so here is your present!
Another Revolutionary War link between upper South Carolina and Co. Antrim.
I got interested in the timing of the Reverend MARTIN's exhortation of his congregation to support the American Revolutionary cause. Such was in 1781, quite late in the proceedings of the War of Independence. What might have precipitated such action?
Anything happened locally at that time?
Yep, the British forces pushed up country from Charleston on the coast and engaged Nathaneal GREENE's army just North of Camden in Kershaw County, at Hobkin's Hill on 25-APR-1781.
[From my sketch map, this lies just to the East of Fairfield County, and South East of Chester County.]
The result was a short-lived British victory, with its success attributed largely to the exceptional leadership qualities of its field commander, and the professionalism of a particular group of soldiers that he led.
He was George Augustus Francis RAWDON-HASTINGS,
Baron Rawdon, Earl of Moira, Marquess of Hastings, &c. &c. &c.
("Lord Rawdon")
(1754 - 1826)
He led his own specially-raised company, "The Volunteers of Ireland".
Returning to England he became a great friend of the Prince of Wales (later King George IV) and champion of Whig principles.
Later. as a diplomat he helped to rule India and then Malta (where he lies buried in Valetta).
His ancestors ultimately derive from Rawdon Hall, just North of Leeds in Yorkshire, England.
George RAWDON was Lord Edward CONWAY's "servant" in South Antrim.
He helped to found Lisnagarvey (aka Lisburn), no doubt bringing in settlers from his home area.
He was also instrumental in fending off the attacks of "the rebels" in 1641.
After that excitement, the CONWAYs were adamant that no dissenters were to be allowed to live within the town walls, nor were their meeting houses to be built there.
Such throws up in to great contrast the key problem faced by the Scots who migrated in to Ireland.
In their own country, the majority religion (Presbyterianism) was established by law.
However, the Anglican religion was the State established norm in England, Wales & Ireland.
Hence, the majority of Scots emigrating to Ireland, to satisfy King James' grand social engineering experiment in the early 1600s, found themselves to be treated as 2nd class under the law.
[The Covenanters will have held particularly sad memories of the 1680s "Killing Times" in Scotland.]
The prohibition on creating their own schools, having their marriages classified as "invalid", and not being able to hold public office were the main contentions. The land crisis of the late 1760s, triggered by the expiration of many of the 3-lives leases initiated in the late 1690s following the conclusion of the Williamite/Jacobite war, with its demands for immediate fines and then vastly increased annual rents, was the final straw for many.
The Reverend Martin will have exhorted his parishioners to take up arms to preserve those key tenets incorporated within the Declaration of Independence of 1776 - freedom of religious practice, and complete separation of religion from state politics.
http://home.golden.net/~marg/bansite/friends/rawdon.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camdenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hobkirk%27s_Hillhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteers_of_Irelandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kershaw_County,_South_Carolinahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathanael_GreeneCapt. Jock
