'South Carolina Genealogies — Descendants of Paul Pritchard of Charleston and Hobcaw' by A. S. Salley, Jr. (The State, 4 July 1909)

South Carolina Genealogies

By A. S. Salley, Jr.

For eight or ten years before his election to the State office of secretary of the historical commission of South Carolina, the writer was professionally engaged in historical and genealogical research work in Charleston. During those years he accumulated a large store of genealogical and biographical notes concerning many families prominent in the history of South Carolina. These notes were gathered from the public offices in Charleston, from church records, graveyards, family papers and Bibles, newspapers and books. The public records of the State of South Carolina concern the acts and doings of the legislative and executive branches of the government rather than the acts of individuals, so that there is very little family history to be gleaned from the records in the office of the historical commission. The management of The State, recognising the demand for material of this sort, has made arrangement with the writer to publish these notes from time to time in The State. All of the material gathered on each family presented will be published and letters requesting material not published will be useless. The writer is publishing records and not opinions, but will gladly receive additions furnished from authentic records.

THE DESCENDANTS OF PAUL PRITCHARD OF CHARLESTON AND HOBCAW.

From this family many noted people descend, including that knightly South Carolinian, Gen. Wade Hampton. The earliest mention of the family in South Carolina is when Paul Pritchard advertises in The South Carolina Gazette for June 2, 1769, that he has taken into custody a cypress canoe which two negroes had offered for sale. In January, 1767, we find by a record of a bill of sale in the probate court in Charleston, that he and Edward Dempsey sold the schooner Mary Anne to Richard Wade and Henry Lybert, and in February, 1770, he sold a negro boy to Henry Sumways of James Island. From the next mentions of him we find that he was a shipbuilder. The South Carolina Gazette for November 22, 1773, says:

A Scooner Passage Boat, of the Burthen of between 3 and 400 Barrels of Rice, for Capt. John Turner, to be constantly employed between this Province and Georgia, is contracted for, to be immediately built, by Mr. Paul Pritchard, of as good construction, as to render it one of the most complete for the Purpose in America.

The South Carolina and American General Gazette for November 11, 1774, announced:

On Monday last was launched here a fine large Schooner, built by Mr. Pritchard for William Williamson, Esq., and named the Charleston Savannah Packet, designed to be employed in the Trade between this Province and Georgia, particularly calculated for Passengers, and is to be furnished with excellent Accommodations.

The next two records we find connect Paul Pritchard with the famous shipyard on Hobcaw Creek, which was long his home and place of business and where much shipbuilding and repair work was done for the navy of South Carolina during the Revolution.

On June 26, 1778, William Bogbie and Daniel Manson, of Hobcaw, shipwrights, conveyed 240 acres of land at Hobcaw to Abraham Livingston and Paul Pritchard, shipwrights, for 30,000 pounds currency of the State. On the 2nd of October, 1778, Pritchard and his wife, Ann, conveyed one-fourth of this tract to Edward Blake, Roger Smith, Josiah Smith, Jr., Thomas Corbett, George Abbott Hall, George Smith, John Edwards and Edward Darrell, commissioners of the navy board.

MRS. PRITCHARD.

There is at hand no record to show the maiden name of Paul Pritchard’s wife Ann. By his will, made February 1, 1777, and proved October 22, 1784, William Gibson gave her a negro Isaac, a negro wench Juno, household furniture, a horse, saddle and bridle, and to William Pritchard, son of Paul, £500 currency of South Carolina; the executor of his estate he directed to send and the proceeds sent to his nearest heirs in Belfast, Ireland. He named his friends Valentine Lynch and Paul Pritchard executors. (Probate court records, Charleston, A. 220).

In the meantime, in December, 1780, Gibson conveyed to Mrs. Ann Pritchard, in consideration of his “love, Goodwill and affection” for her, two hundred [acres] and boats belonging to the schooner Hobcaw …

[The text continues across the column break and covers (1) further detail of Gibson’s December 1780 conveyance and his subsequent residuary bequests of £50 sterling to several Pritchard relatives; (2) the daughters’ marriages — including the Capt. Oswald Eve marriage announced 5 July 1783 in the SC Gazette, and the August 1788 marriage notices of two further daughters in The Columbian Herald and the State Gazette of South Carolina — and the precise dates Catherine (Pritchard) FitzSimons was born in Charleston August 19, 1772; died in Columbia December 14, 1841; (3) the note that Gen. Wade Hampton was born in the old [home] in Hasell Street, in No. 541, Charleston on 28 March 1818, the daughter Ann FitzSimons Hampton being Catherine’s daughter; (4) William Pritchard the elder son’s marriage Tuesday 3 December 1801 to Miss Eliza Latham, daughter of Daniel Latham (Daily Advertiser of Saturday, December 5, 1801); their children listed but largely illegible; (5) Paul Pritchard, Jr.'s later business career (October 1796 newspaper ad as ‘Ship Carpenter’ at the scale-hold), his marriage to Miss Mary George (announced by Rev. Mr. Frost in the City Gazette), his death June 1, 1814 (per the City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser of June 25, 1814, ‘Departed this life, on … Paul Pritchard, senr.’), and the will of Paul Pritchard Jr. (dated April 7, 1814, proved July 13, 1814) leaving Fairbank plantation on Daniell’s Island, 378 acres, to his daughter Lydia, with detailed disposition of his unfinished vessels, carpenter’s tools, books, plate, and a Radcliffeborough house and lot. Executors: friends Sanders Glover, Jr., Henry Clifford, and Thomas Sanders. The article closes: ‘The descendants of George, brother of the first Paul, [are dis]cussed in a future paper.’]

Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.), Sunday morning 4 July 1909, page 9. Image from newspapers.com, image 746567900. Public-domain newspaper. The source PDF is archived in this repository under additionalDocumentation/The_State_1909_07_04_9.pdf. The article is the first in A. S. Salley, Jr.'s long-running “South Carolina Genealogies” series in The State; the sequel on George Pritchard’s descendants is referenced at the foot of the column but not yet in the appendix — a future search target.