CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 103 



of the colony, he says : '' That at the election for 

 Berkley and Craven counties the violence of Mr. 

 Moor's time, and all other illegal practices, were 

 with more violence repeated, and openly avowed by 

 the present governor and his friends : Jews, stran- 

 gers, sailors, servants, negroes, and almost every 

 Frenchman in Craven and Berkley counties came 

 down to elect, and their votes were taken, and the 

 persons by them voted for were returned by the 

 sheriffs." At this time It appears that Charleston 

 was the only place in the colony at which polls were 

 opened, and here it was necessary for citizens from 

 every county to come, In order to enjoy the elective 

 franchise.' The Assembly they elected established 



* Such appears to have been the custom. Mr. F. Yonge, in his account 

 of the revolutionary proceedings in 1719, declares it to have been so. The 

 subject, however, is not very clear. In the first place, it would have been 

 difficult, in a town devoted to the dissenting interest, for the concourse of 

 voters from Colleton and Craven counties to create such disturbances as 

 Oldmixon describes ; and, secondly, the act of Assembly of 1804, for better 

 ordering elections, clearly intimates, though it does not direct, that a poll 

 should be opened in each county. It provides — ist. That no votes be 

 taken by proxy ; 2d. That if the sheriffs neglect to hold a poll in a county, 

 the people may vote in the adjoining one ; and 3d. That the polls shall be 

 held in an open and public place. But those counties had not at that time 

 any court-house, and Mr. Yonge declares that the whole House of Assembly 

 was chosen in Charleston until the administration of Gov. Daniel (1718), 

 when it was enacted that every parish shall send a certain number of dele- 

 gates (36 in all), who shall be balloted for at their respective churches, or 

 other convenient place, by virtue of writs directed to the church-wardens, 

 who were to make a return of the persons elected. It was the veto upon 

 this act by Gov. Johnson, at the suggestion of Mr. Rhett and Chief-Justic?fe 

 Trott, which was one of the leading causes of the revolution of 1719, which 

 shook off the Proprietary government. 



