Printing commenced in South Carolina in 1731 when three competing
printers migrated to Charleston: George Webb, Eleazer Phillips, Jr.,
and Thomas Whitmarsh. They were attracted by an offer of monetary aid
that the government announced in order to secure a printer for the
Colony.
The earliest Library of Congress copies of South Carolina imprints
issued from the press of Lewis Timothy (otherwise Louis Timothée), a
Frenchman trained in Holland and subsequently employed by Benjamin
Franklin at Philadelphia. Through an arrangement with Franklin he
took over the press of Thomas Whitmarsh after the latter's death in
1733, Webb having either died or departed from Charleston and Phillips
having died in 1732. The Library has three Lewis Timothy imprints
dated 1736: Josiah Smith's sermon, _The Character and Duty of Minister
and People_; the session laws for November 15, 1733-May 29, 1736,
entitled _Acts Passed by the General Assembly of South-Carolina_;
and Nicholas Trott's compilation of _The Laws of the Province of
South-Carolina_. The sermon, advertised in _The South-Carolina
Gazette_ for May 22, 1736, as just published, was completed first.
Still earlier printing, however, is contained in the first volume of
Trott's _Laws_, though the volume was not completed until September
1736. Timothy began to print the laws shortly after November 15, 1734,
and the first sheets were ready in May 1735.[21]
This publication in two folio volumes is a landmark of Colonial
printing; it was Timothy's most ambitious undertaking by far, one
he carried out with remarkable taste and skill. The title page,
printed in black and red, is particularly striking. Nicholas Trott,
the editor, was a learned jurist who played a leading role in South
Carolina's affairs, becoming chief justice in 1703. In the preface he
sets forth his guiding purpose in compiling the _Laws_:
Thus I have endeavoured as much as in me lies, and have
spared for no Pains, to make this Work not only useful,
but plain and easy, even to the meanest Capacity, wherein
if I have obtained my End, I shall not think my Labour ill
bestowed: For as every Man is a Debtor to his Country, and
we are not born only for our selves, so I tho't I could not
do a more useful Service for the Province in which it has
pleased God to cast my Lot for several years past, than to
make such an _Edition_ of the Laws, as might be of general
Use to all the Inhabitants thereof; that so every one being
acquainted with the Laws of the Place, may readily give
Obedience to the same; in which (next to their religious
Duties to GOD) not only their Duty, but also their Safety
and happiness doth consist.
The Library of Congress owns three copies of this rare book, all
lacking some pages. The copy most distinguished in its provenance
bears on its title page the signature of William Bull, Jr., five times
Acting Governor of South Carolina between 1760 and 1775. Also on this
title page is the late 18th-century signature of one Thomas Parker.
Another copy is inscribed "Thomas Farr jun^r. [another hand:] of St.
Andrew's Parish 12^{th}. May 1773"; and in the following century it
was given "With Edward Logan's kind regards to James Parker Esq. 18
Feb 1868." Thomas Farr can be identified as a merchant,[22] but the
later names have not been traced. The third Library copy retains no
marks of previous ownership.
[Illustration: (Nicholas Trott's compilation of _The Laws of the
Province of South-Carolina_.)]
[Footnote 21: Douglas C. McMurtrie, _The First Decade of Printing in
the Royal Province of South Carolina_ (London, 1933).]
[Footnote 22: A. S. Salley, ed., _Marriage Notices in The
South-Carolina Gazette and Its Successors_ (Baltimore, 1965), p. 21.]