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The Remarkable Career of Henry Laurens Ratine During The S.C.-B.»oqrapWv - '••••*-* © ., s train of thnughf arul a<-t]nn ulmh grew more determined under the influence of opposite, forces ope. The Remarkable Career of Henry Laurens ratine during the. colonial period. The Stamp Act prcRenlrd one? of his severest trials. He opposed and marched into the Ap it as being unconstitutional, hut THE IMPORTANT and signifi- a child horn about every twelve because he was loyal to the BORN I,\ (UARI.KSTOV j-^n^Pri thp In i <-( ^,-f.iip s Ur^r palachian mountains in the ser 1 cant contribution of Henry months in their household, only crown, was persecuted, by his PJNRY Laurens was born in uninhabited land of around 2..V)Q /our of whom grew tn adult vice of the public. Laurens to the formation of the arret. which he offered to Mora Charleston, March 6. 1724, hood, and only three of whom This entree when he served United States is surprisingly un H friends. He. was even subjected the son of John Laurens, largest vian immigrants as a settlement.,.© outlived their fathpr. PUP tn Hnpli- as a lieutenant colonel in the recognized today. In such im campaign against the Cherokees to mob violence one night when merchant in saddlery goods in This offrr was never culminated. ration nf certain first name©: of portant positions as President of perhaps whetted his appetite an unruly gang forced its way (he province. His father was one Altogether, he owned about 20,- the children, it ha* been impos- the Continental Congress and for further adventures in pub into h©s home in search of. the erf two owners of the Friendly 000 acres of land. sihl* tn determine from historical later Minister to Holland, Lau lic service, and helped eventually Society, the first insurance com WINTKRKD AT MKPKIV record? whether the. eouple had hated stamps which they kr-ew rens left rtn imposing record of tn mould the man into the great pany in the United States, which T AURENS* lamily lived on Mep- twelve or thirteen children. had arrived in Charleston harbor ervice. The story of his influ statesman and diplomat that he preceded by some 14 years Ben lj kin plantation during the In the small-pox epidemic of ariff whirh they believed were in ence in shaping the political af jamin Franklin©s. Laurens© moth became, His locale helped great fairs of our state and nation has winter, but generally about June 17fiO, their daughter, Martha, ly, because Charleston then was his safe-keeping. er «vas Esther or Hester Grasset, He regarded such illegal action not been greatly told, and neith repaired to the "town" house in then less than a year old, was so the City of the South, and fourth whose family records are now aeainst the Act. as futile, and urs- er has tha© of his descendant* Charleston for several reasons: ill as to be pronounced dead, and largest in the thirteen ©colonies. spelled Grosset. of New York. 1o esrape the rattlesnakes, mns- erl petition and remonstrance jn ons, daughters and erandrhil- She, also, was of Huguenot an was about to he prepared for He, who was one of the richest dren, who played lending roles quitoes and fever; and to view burial when the family doctor men in America, was part and order to secure repeal. cestry. Following Laurens© return to In the Me nf thp colony. f>rtfi stock up on the latest fash discovered that she was alive. parcel of this political, social Hetiry was the third child, and this country and tn hi? plantation, Henry Laurens was elected drl- ion?. Martha, her father©s special fa and strategic center. the oldest son among the six Mepkin, be declined appointments egate to the Continental Concrrss The city at mis time consist vorite, lived, and at 27 became. DI8TING118HED PtBLIC children in the family. His edu ed "f ahout 7.ono people and tn fhe Continental Congress, the January 1777, and was elected the third wife nf Dr. David Ram CAREER cation was meager and Ihe train sijste©legislature and the Federal tnd served as its president from around 1765, Ansonhoro, in the say, the historian. E YEARS following saw this ing he did receive apparently northern part of town, was r-ov- Constitutional Convention. Novern her 1777 until Decem ber was intended for his future busi Another daughter, Mary Elea list of public service placed 1778; was named Minister rr*»d with houses. It was here r The samp year Laurens return ness in the mercantile field. Jn that tho Laurrnsfs. who moved nor, who was only a few weeks by his name: ed to this country after hanng to Holland by the Continen Member of the Commons 1741, he was in Kn::Jand to ac from south of Broad Street, nujlt old when Mrs. Laurens died, been prisoner, the seven judicial tal Congresi in 1780. On the House of Assembly in 1757 and quire a business education. How their house. Laurens 1 description married Charles Pmrkney, found districts of the state were being voyage over, he was captured re-elected every session until the ever, he was mainly self-pro was "with a wall upon the front er of the Democratic Parry in divided. One Laurem (now a and held almost incommunicado Revolution, except one; declin pelled in pettinc an education, of my garden. " The unpretentious South Carolina, four times gov county) was named in his honor. as a prisoner in the Tower of ed appointment to King©s Council from his extensive- riding after house, built in keeping with the ernor of the state, and onp of the After he had rebuilt his resi- London fnr 15 months. His re in Carolina, 17B4 and 1768; mem he reached manhood. master©s disposition and deport more influential men in forming df-nrp at Mepkin which had been lease came annul in exchance for ber of First Provincial Congress. In 1717, Laurens *©*$ set up ment, stood on the corner of E. the U. S. Constitution, according destroyed by the enemy, restored the Colonists© most famous pri January 9, 3775, and president of In business in Charleston as a Bay and Laurens Streets. It to Wallace, the historian. his estates and made bark mnney soner: Lord Cornwall!?, when the Congress the following June; wholesale commission merchant come through the earthquake of The Pinckneys© son, Henry I which hari been depleted by his his freedom was secured Decem member of Second Provincial and aJso as an independent im Laurens, who was named for ! long absence, Laurens ber 31, 1781. Congress; vice president of South Shortly after l,Hiir<*ns© return his grandfather, was the founder i mainly to happy days spent > Laurens, w-ho was hereafter porter and exporter. He dealt Jn Carolina, March 177n-,Tune 1777; frnm a nusmess trip to England (1819), owner and editor of The © his lamily. By the spring of known as "Tower" Henry, did rum, beer, wine, rteer skins, rire, elected delegate to Continental about 1748. when he was 5^11 Charleston Mercury. 1732, he had begun to feel poor- not hurry hnrne, as would have indigo, marble mantels, nrwly- Congress J a nu a ry 1777. servi ng youns. he threw himself into Henry Laurens was an advo been expected, hut stayed on to arrived slaves, indentured white as president from November Ovaries t^n society because his cate of "education at home" and ©l Iy, was much in bed, and became help execute the preliminary servants and almost anything 1777-December 177R; elected Min step-mother wanted him to be deplored the fact that children very feeble. He entertained a treaty of Paris as one of the else ihat was consigned to him ister to Holland by the Continen "polished and quite polite." At had to be sent abroad to study. peace commissionprs November by his correspondents. In 3764, tal Congress, sailing early in preference for cremation follow- 30, 1782, a commission which he fnr example, ho exported the He W*;E particularly interested lowing his death, which he knew Nfrs. Affra Coming©s Cooppr jjn establishing a college at Cbgr- had previously been unable to frame o( a house to Knsland. 1TSO, on which voyage, he was was approaching, and so express, River plantation Coming T he . leston and through his influence, execute due to his imprisonment. The slave trade was lurrative captured and held B prisoner m Laurens, a swarthy, middle- met and loved at first sight the a measure was introduced in one ed this wish to his family. His and on th^ "Guinea business," the Tower of London for 15 sized man, was said to have short as it was referred to, he made lovely young woman who was to of the early Assemblies tn set up desire for cremation was said to six schools and a college in Char- months, bring released Decem- © be a result nf a morbid fear but stout legs, and a constitution If) per cent commissions. become his wife. She was Elea £ leston. But its passage did not her 31, 1781, in exchange fop against b^in? buried alive a. that was a little less than iron. As his wealth grew, so increas nor Ball and the social affair succeed, and consequently Lau fate that had almost happened to For all the endeavors he engaged ed his holdings, and he Laurens attended w^s the wed Lord Cornwallis; helped effect rens took tip his residenre for his child. in, these perhaps stood him in hundreds of acres of land and ding nf her brother.
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