David Hamilton was born in Cork, Ireland, in November, 1749. He came to
Charleston, S. C., when quite young. He was well educated, a man of
property, and about 1774 wedded Elizabeth Reynolds. She was a daughter
of Rev. James Reynolds, an Irish Presbyterian clergyman of James Island,
S. C., and of his wife, Mary Ball, a native of that island. James Island
was then as now the site of many large plantations.
After a siege of many months, General Lincoln, who with a small number
of troops had gallantly defended the city of Charleston, surrendered May
19, 1780. The British had thought that on account of the scattered
population and the number of slaves, it would be easier to subjugate the
inhabitants of the Southern states than those of the Northern and
Middle, whose hardy population inured to labor, especially among the
mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire, had successfully resisted all
efforts to overcome them. But in this they were mistaken, for although
Savannah and Charleston, the chief cities of Georgia and South Carolina,
were now in the hands of the enemy, still from every brush and bracken,
Marion and Sumter and their scouts would spring at unexpected moments
and unlooked for times.
Among those who were taken prisoners at Charleston was David Hamilton,
the subject of this sketch. There is a tradition in the family that he
held the rank of lieutenant.[15] This point, however, cannot be
substantiated now, as the family papers and Bibles, which were in the
possession of his daughter, Mrs. Sullivan of Hampton county, S. C., were
lost or destroyed during the Civil War.
When the city of Charleston was surrendered to the British commander,
David Hamilton, being a member of a regiment taken under arms, became a
prisoner of war. He was offered with others a parole if he would promise
not to take up arms again against the mother country. This he declined
to avail himself of, and Ramsay’s History of the Revolution in South
Carolina records his name as among the prisoners confined on board the
prison ship _Torbay_ in Charleston harbor in May, 1781.
This vessel conveyed these prisoners to Philadelphia where they remained
until the treaty of peace was signed at Paris in 1783. Family records
tell that during his detention, receiving permission to go about the
city, his wife Elizabeth, at his solicitation, joined him there. The
voyage in those days was a long and tedious one, but David Hamilton
having vessels of his own, Mrs. Hamilton and her two children were able
to perform the journey in one of them.
During her sojourn there a third daughter, Grizelle Agnes Hamilton, was
born, who became in womanhood the wife of Capt. Joseph Taylor, U. S. N.
After the Revolutionary War, David Hamilton, on his return to
Charleston, became the partner in business of his brother-in-law,
Christopher Fitz Simons, who, also an Irishman of wealth and culture, is
the ancestor of the “Sir Rupert” of South Carolina, Wade Hampton, the
third, the brave cavalry leader of the Southern army in Virginia. They
carried on an extensive shipping, shipbuilding and wharfage business,
Hamilton owning the ships and Fitz Simons the wharves. David Hamilton
owned one hundred black men, slaves, with their families.
Mr. Fitz Simons was still wealthier, having $700,000, as his will still
on record shows, and when his daughter, Anne Fitz Simons, became the
wife of Wade Hampton the second, it was as no dowerless bride, she
receiving $100,000 as her portion. The father of Colonel Hampton was the
richest planter in the South, claiming to own 3,000 slaves. Christopher
Fitz Simons dying a few years before David Hamilton, his will records
that he leaves to David Hamilton £50 as a souvenir, according to the old
English custom, and that he desired the business to continue under the
firm name of Hamilton & Co.
David Hamilton died in Charleston, Nov. 29, 1794, and is buried in St.
Philip’s churchyard, the Colonial Episcopal church of that city. In
these sacred precincts also rest the ashes of many of his descendants.
David Hamilton left five daughters and three sons: Elizabeth, who became
Mrs. Pritchard; Anne, Mrs. Harvey; Catherine, Mrs. Pritchard; Grizelle
Agnes, Mrs. Taylor; Mary, Mrs. Sullivan; of his three sons, David, John
and William, David and William died unmarried. His married son, John,
left a son and two daughters, from one of whom (Mary), Mrs. Nesbit,
springs the family of the same name, wealthy planters of Georgetown, S.
C. Of David Hamilton’s daughters, Mrs. Pritchard’s descendants attained
distinction both in peace and war.
William Pritchard, her grandson, whose name is carved on the white
marble tablet which stands in the vestibule of St. Philip’s Episcopal
church, was a member of the historic Washington Light Infantry of
Charleston, and died of country fever during the Civil War. Mrs.
Harvey’s daughter, Anne, married Commandant Knight, U. S. N. Commandant
Knight died while in service on the coast of Africa, of African fever.
His remains still rest there. Mrs. Taylor’s grandson, William Joseph
Magill, commanded a regiment of Georgia regulars during the Civil War.
He was a graduate of the Military Academy of South Carolina, a man of
fine physique and pleasing address. Colonel Magill lost an arm at the
battle of Sharpsburg, and died some few years ago in Florida where he
had settled after the war.
Another grandson of Mrs. Taylor, Dr. James Ervin Godfrey, was educated
in Paris and became a surgeon in the Confederate army, with the rank of
major. He married in Madison, Ga., where he still resides, as do also
many of his descendants. The youngest daughter, Mary, married Timothy
Sullivan (O’Sullivan), a native of County Cork, Ireland, a merchant
whose name is mentioned as a broker on Vendue Range, Charleston, more
than eighty years ago. Mrs. Sullivan’s eldest daughter married Patrick
Cantwell (also an Irishman), an officer of the customs in Charleston.
Mr. Cantwell was a first cousin of Lieut. Stephen Cassin, one of the
heroes of the battle of Lake Champlain, and also a nephew of Commodore
John Cassin, U. S. N., who was commander of the naval forces at Norfolk
during the War of 1812, and at Charleston from 1821–’22, where he died
the latter year. His remains lie in St. Mary’s churchyard. Mr.
Cantwell’s eldest daughter, Mary, married Daniel O’Driscoll, of the
O’Driscolls of Baltimore, born at Cork, Ireland. Of their two sons, one
is a graduate of the College of Charleston, and has entered the
profession of teaching; the other, a student at the Military Academy of
South Carolina.
Among the surviving descendants of David Hamilton are the Godfreys of
Georgia, the Magills of Florida, the Harveys, Stroheckers, Pritchards,
Knoxes, Poppenheims, Milers, O’Driscolls, Langleys, Cantwells, Nesbits
and Morrisons of South Carolina, and a family of Prestons in Alabama. A
granddaughter, Mary Pritchard, married Dr. Barnard of New Haven, Conn.,
and her descendants still reside in that city.