426 INSTITUTIONS, GOVERNMENT AND LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



of tlio })opulation was checked, but this was amply compensated by the 

 jjrogress made by the State after tlie peace of 1783. Multitudes from 

 Europe and the more Northern parts of America poured into South 

 Carolina; and Greenville and Pendleton Districts, which were obtained 

 in 1777, by treaty founded on conquests, from the Cherokee Indians, 

 filled so rapidly with settlers that in the year 1800 those two Districts 

 alone are estimated to have contained upwards of 30,000 inhabitants. 

 The last group of settlers which the State received from foreign countries 

 consisted of several hundred French, chiefly from St. Domingo, who 

 settled for the most part in the vicinity of Charleston. 



Inference has been made to the Constitution, of John Locke and to the 

 forms of government which superseded it under the Lords Proprietors, 

 and, later, under the royal administration of the Province. For the first 

 ninety-nine years Charleston was the seat of justice for Provincial Caro- 

 lina. In 1712, a Court of Chancery was established in the persons of the 

 Governor and his Council, and, later, in 1769, an Act was passed by 

 which new District Courts were established at Beaufort, Georgetown, 

 Cheraw, C/amden, Orangeburg and Ninety -Six. The Penal Code of Great 

 Britain, when introduced into this Trovince, underwent considerable 

 revision. An Act was passed in 1712 making certain English Statutes 

 of force in the Province, and by that Act the English Common Law was 

 declared to be of full force in Carolina, except in a few comparatively 

 unimportant particulars. The ancient tenures were abolished, and free 

 and common soccage was declared to be the tenure of all lands in the 

 Province. The Habeas Corpus Act of Charles II. was also adopted and 

 enacted. The Church of England enjoyed a nominal supremacy, but 

 liberty of conscience was fully guaranteed to all persons; and all religious 

 denominations worked together in the dissemination of moral and relig- 

 ious training. The Presbyterians were among the first settlers, and were 

 always numerous in South Carolina. The Independents, or Congrega- 

 tionalists, in conjunction with the Presbyterians, were formed into a 

 church in Charleston as early as 1682 ; and the Baptists formed a church 

 there in 1685. The Methodists established themselves in 1785. The 

 French Protestants formed a church in Charleston in 1700. The Jews 

 have had a synagogue in Charleston since the year 1756 ; and about the 

 same period the German Protestants formed themselves into a congrega- 

 tion. The Roman Catholics were not organized into a church in South 

 Carolina until 1791. The Quakers were ver}^ early in the field, and one 

 of the most distinguished Governors of the Province, John Archdale, 

 after Avhom one of the streets in Charleston is still called, was a Quaker. 

 The im})ulso towards freedom, which had driven the emigrants who set- 

 tled Carolina from their homes in the Old World, kept alive in their 



