James Glen was born in Linlithgow, Scotland in 1701, and educated at the University of Leyden. After initially practicing law, he became Justice of the Peace and Inspector of Seignories. At one point in his life he also held the office of High Sheriff and received the backing of Duncan Forbes, the Lord Avocate of Scotland. He was appointed Royal Governor of South Carolina in 1738, but did not arrive there until December 19, 1743.

Governor James Glen's administration was riddled with problems associated with the economic distress of the province, but Indian affairs was the chief issue he faced. In contrast to his contemporaries who thought the best defense was to set the Indian tribes against one another, Governor Glen saw the French as the true enemy and sought to unite all the tribes friendly to the English. Through this policy, he was able to establish a peace between the Creeks and the Cherokees. He was also able to gain the cooperation of Governor George Clinton of New York in assisting to establish peace between the Catawba and the Six Nations. He stopped what could have been a serious war between the Catawba and an eastern band of Chickasaws in its early stages, and toured the South Carolina border in 1746 meeting with the leaders of various tribes to settle disputes and form alliances against the French.

In affairs with the Choctaw, however, Governor Glen was reportedly not so successful. This tribe had consistently been allies of the French, but in 1746, two Carolina traders, James Adair and James Campbell, succeeded in winning over a faction to English interest. Solidifying this alliance required the adequate supply of goods and ammunition, which Adair, who had risked most of his own stock of goods in the affair, could have easily supplied. Instead of giving the monopoly to Adair, however, Glen - for undisclosed reasons - gave it to another group of traders whose blunders soon ended the alliance. Adair denounced the governor, and devoted thirty pages of his "History of the American Indians" to the episode.

Governor James Glen fared much better with the Cherokee. Throughout the years 1753-1755, he was able to see a solid alliance formed, with forts being built on the Keowee, Tennessee, and Ohio Rivers, and the Cherokee recognition of English sovereignty through the treaty of Saluda of Old Town.

Governor Glen was also known for his humane treatment of prisoners, as well as the charity he showed to Acadian exiles who came to the province in 1755.

On June 1, 1756, Governor James Glen was relieved by his successor, William Henry Lyttleton, and on June 21, 1761, he returned to Europe. Little is known of his life after he left South Carolina; he died in London on July 18, 1777, and was buried in Linlithgow. His tenure as governor of South Carolina was the longest of any in the colonial period.

Assisted by promotional tracts depicting South Carolina as a promised land for the poor Protestants of Europe, Charles Town merchants rapidly developed a profitable business importing Germans. In 1751, the mercantile firm of Austin and Laurens advertised “about 200 German Passengers. . . [including] several handicraft Tradesmen and Husbandmen, and likely young Boys and Girls . . . to be indented for a term of Years, to any Person who will pay their Passages.” Many of the early Germanic emigrés settled in towns such as Purrysburg and New Windsor on the Savannah River, Orangeburgh on the Edisto River, Amelia on the Santee River, and Saxe-Gotha on the Congaree River.

By the late 1760s, however, some of these settlers had moved to Charles Town, bolstering the city’s Germanic population.

While specific records concerning small boat building do not exist, the newspapers of the time are filled with advertisements indicating a wide variety of locally-made watercraft for sale. These small craft virtually littered the local waterways. In 1751, Governor James Glen noted that "Cooper River appears sometimes a kind of floating market, and we have numbers of canoes, boats, and pettiaguas that ply incessantly, bringing down the country produce to town, and returning with such necessary as are wanted by the planters."

"There are several tribes of Indians whom we permit to live in the settlements, and we find them not only an inoffensive, but a useful people, they plant corn for food, and hunt for skins to purchase clothes, so that they are no burthen to us but a benefit— these are the Peedees, Notchees, Waterees, Cape Fear, Eutchees (a small tribe depending upon the Creeks), and a few Chickasaws who dare not return to their own nation and live upon lands given them by this Province upon Savannah River and sometimes stroll over to the Georgia side, besides these there are some nations in close alliance with this Province."

For years, the Commons House of Assembly had been meeting in rooms rented from Miles Brewton and his heirs in a residence on Church Street near Tradd in Charleston. Immediately after the governor's nudge, the solons went to work to acquire a home commensurate with their importance. After all, they saw themselves as the near equivalent of another House of Commons that happened to meet on the banks of the Thames River.

The goal was not new. In 1712, the idea had surfaced but funding was unavailable, both the proprietary government and later the royal government being apathetic about a venture to provide a palace on a frontier. In 1751, however, the Commons House of Assembly endorsed setting aside $2,000 annually for such construction and later upped it to $2,500. At the same time, they committed themselves to build a new parish church, to be called St. Michael's.

In June 1751, Governor James Glen ratified their action when they committed $25,000 for a "State House."

"We are but a handful of people spread over a widely extended Country, We are surrounded with Indians much more numerous than us, much more accustomed to the use of Arms, Warr being their trade from their Youth up."

Governor Glen had good reason to respect the Indians’ military power in 1750. 50,000 slaves outnumbered South Carolina’s white population of approximately 25,000, and the threat of slave rebellion haunted the thinking of South Carolina’s political leaders. Indian allies, particularly the Cherokee, helped provide internal security for the colony and also posed a buffer against the French based in Louisiana.

During his tenure as governor, Glen frequently asserted the right of the governor to implement colonial policy with various Indian tribes. A key element of his plan was the building of frontier forts. Glen personally supervised construction of Fort Prince George in the Cherokee Lower Towns in 1753 and had made plans to build Fort Loudoun in the Overhills Towns when he was recalled in 1756.

A vigorous administrator, Governor James Glen outlines his plan for frontier trade policy to the governor of New York in May 1751. His Majesty’s Council. Indian Books, 1750-1760. Vol. 2, May 24, 1751, p.97.

Beneath Lake Keowee lies memories of the once fertile and prosperous Keowee Valley. The Valley was lush with abundant wildlife and feed by the mighty Keowee River. However, this valley was also home to over 400 Cherokee Indians at there capital, Keowee Village, on the banks of the Keowee River. It was once noted that in 1721 that 450 Cherokees lived at the village consisting of 168 men, 155 women, and 127 children.

Old Hop agreed to cede Cherokee land in South Carolina (amounting to the western fourth of the state). Governor Glen responded by directing Fort Prince George be built on the land of the Catawbas, far up the headwaters of the Savannah River, on the Cherokee path near Keowee. Fort Moore was built about 170 miles further down, just below and opposite Augusta. Next came Fort Loudon among the upper Cherokee on the Tennessee River about 500 miles from Charles Town.

April 14, 1756, report of Governor James Glen to the Lords of Trade:
First arrivals..................................1000
Parties arrived from Georgia.....................200

The fort had been the idea of former South Carolina Governor James Glen, who saw its presence as a way of cementing relations with the Cherokee. French traders were beginning to work their way east towards the coast calling British claims to North America into question with the Native American leaders. A fort in the heart of the Cherokee’s capital cities was the only way Britain felt they could show a good faith effort towards the tribe and establish a relationship that would continue until the outbreak of the American Revolution.

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