Date Died: December 21, 1788

Place Buried: Charleston, SC

Occupation: Lawyer

Benjamin Guerard was the first Huguenot to be elected governor of South Carolina in 1783. He served on the South Carolina Provincial Assembly 1765-1768, the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1779-1780 and 1783, and the South Carolina Senate in 1782.

In 1783, the South Carolina General Assembly elected Guerard for governor by secret ballot.

Guerard offered his entire estate to raise funds to provide for his fellow prisoners while being held by the British as a prisoner of war. In 1782, Guerard served on the council that negotiated the withdrawal of the British from Charleston.

On March 8, 1783, Greene wrote a letter to the South Carolina legislature, hoping to persuade that body not to rescind its ratification of the proposed federal impost, a five percent tax on imports that was the cornerstone of Robert Morris's plan to create financial stability for the national government. Greene addressed his letter to Governor Guerard, who passed it on to the legislature with a letter of his own attacking the impost and Greene's arguments on its behalf. It is not known how influential Guerard's rebuttal may have been, but it must have rankled Greene that the governor acted to check his attempt at persuasion. Whatever the cause, Greene's effort turned out to be a dismal failure; in fact, some argue that it actually promoted the rescinding of the impost by inflaming the legislators, who roundly criticized the general for trying to dictate policy and meddling in the state's affairs.

State of South Carolina.
By His Excellency Benjamin Guerard, Esquire, Governor and Commander in Chief in and over the said State;

A Proclamation.

Whereas Doctor Orr, of Godfrey's Savannah, in the State aforesaid, was on the eleventh inst. on the Saltketcher Road, near the Ferry, most inhumanly murdered.

And Whereas circumstances concur to induce a strong belief, that the same was perpetrated by one James Booth and his small party of ruffians, who for some time past, have been lurking in that part of the Country, and who have committed other murders.

I have therefore thought proper, by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council, to issue this my Proclamation, offering a Reward of Four Hundred and Fifty Mexican Dollars, to whoever will apprehend and bring to Justice, the perpetrators of said murder, to be paid on conviction ; the same shall be extended to an accomplice, besides a full and free Pardon.

Given under my Hand, and the Great Seal of the State, at Charles Town, this Twenty Second Day of February, One thousand seven hundred and eighty three, and in the Seventh Year of the Independence of the United States of America.

Benjamin Guerard

By his Excellency's Command,

John Vander Horst, Secretary

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