Royal Governor of South Carolina - Lord Charles Greville Montague




Lord Charles Greville Montague
Royal Governor of South Carolina Province 1766 to 1773

	1741-1783
Lord Charles Greville Montague was the last Colonial Governor of South Carolina. He raised a regiment of captured American prisoners to fight for the British against the Spanish, many of which settled with him after the revolutionary war in Nova Scotia. Second son of Robert Montague, Duke of Manchester. Oxford, 1759; House of Commons, 1766-1773; married Elizabeth Balmer, 1765. Royal Governor of South Carolina, 1766-1773. Wildly popular upon his arrival (the Stamp Act crisis had just ended), he was recalled in disgrace by the British government. It seems he had angered everyone on all sides. He pardoned 75 leaders of the Regulator's rebellion and worked to clearly locate the North and South Carolina border. By the end of his tenure the South Carolina Assembly had reached a state of direct confrontation with the British government. He was considered inept by many of the colonists. Lord Charles' loyalties do not appear to have been completely clear, and he obtained a commission in Jamaica where he would not serve against the Americans. He owned (and kept) 18,000 acres in South Carolina, and remained close friends with prominent South Carolina families (the Pinckneys, Manigaults, Moultries, and Elliots are mentioned). The horse thieves, their associates, and other criminals, who were numerous, made a common cause in supporting themselves against the regulators. Most of the inhabitants favored one or other of these parties. The one justified their proceedings on the score of necessity and substantial, though irregular justice; the other alleged the rights of British subjects to a legal trial by a court and jury. Though the former meant well, yet justice is of so delicate a nature that form as well as substance must be regarded. It is therefore probable, that in some cases, the proceedings of the regulators may have so far partaken of the infirmities of human nature, as to furnish real grounds of complaint against them. Their adversaries made such high colored representations of their conduct, that the civil authority interposed. Lord Charles Greville Montague, Governor of the province, adopted measures for their suppression. With this view he conferred a high commission on a man named Scouil, whose conduct, character and standing in society, had rendered him in the opinion of his neighbors, and especially of the regulators, very unfit for the office. As if the country had been in rebellion, Scouil erected something which was intended to be a royal standard; and afterwards called upon the regulators to answer for their transgressions of the law. In addition to many other acts of severity, he arrested two of their number and sent them under a guard to Charles Town, where they were imprisoned. In 1765, the Townships of Amelia and Orangeburg were erected into St. Matthew's Parish by an Act of the General Assembly of the Province of South Carolina. Click Here to read the entire text of: "An Act for establishing a Parish in Berkeley County, by the name of St Matthew, and for declaring the road therein mentioned to be a public road." Signed by Governor Lord Charles Greville Montague. June 9, 1768 - The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia): Thursday last his Excellency the Right Honourable Lord Charles Greville Montague, Governor of South Carolina, and his Lady, came up to Town, from New Castle [Delaware], where they arrived the Day before, in his Majesty Sloop-of-War the Fowey, Captain Robinson, from Charles Town. The four parishes of the Beaufort area began to vie with the Charles Town parishes for political influence. An attempt by the Royal Governor, Lord Charles Greville Montague, to move the capitol to Port Royal (the Beaufort Assembly of 1772) was listed by Thomas Jefferson as one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence. Opinion in Beaufort was sharply divided over Revolution. Thomas Heyward, Jr. of St. Luke's Parish was the most prominent Patriot, while the powerful De Veaux family led the substantial Loyalist support for the king. Colonel Thomas Fletchall was probably born in South Carolina, where he was the owner of a large plantation in the Ninety-Six District. He was already a justice of the peace and a coroner when, in the year 1769, he accepted the appointment of Colonel of a militia regiment of over 2,000 men, from Governor Lord Charles Greville Montague. The ineptitude of the chief executives reached a high point in 1772, when Governor Lord Charles Greville Montague moved the government of South Carolina from Charleston to Beaufort. His intention was to make it inconvenient for Charles Town patriots to attend the autumn session of the Assembly, leaving a legislature that could be more easily managed by the royal faction. Since only five members failed to appear, the attempt was a complete failure and within the month the governor and Assembly were back in Charles Town. This fiasco ended with Montague’s return to England. Lord Charles Greville Montague, Governor of South Carolina - Born 1741. Married September 20, 1765 to Elizabeth Bulmer, daughter of James Bulmer. A new section of Charles Town, Harleston was developed and its streets were opened up in 1770. The Harlestons, during the Colonial period, were active in the government of the Province and were also accomplished breeders of racehorses. Streets in the village of Harleston were named for prominent men of the period, in England and the Province. The Royal Governor, Lord Charles Greville Montague, along with Lt. Gov. William Bull; Hector Beranger de Beaufain, Collector of Customs and member of His Majesty's Council; William Pitt, the British member of Parliament who defended Colonial rights; as well as John Rutledge, Thomas Lynch and Christopher Gadsden, who were active in the Provincial government and later leaders in the American Revolution; all were commemorated.

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