In South Carolina. 25 



by degrees into the same state of ignorance and bar- 

 barism with the natural inhabitants of the wilderness, 

 which they came to occupy and reclaim. The first 

 minister in the colony was the Rev. Atkin William- 

 son, whose arrival was about 1680, and Originall Jack- 

 son and his wife Meliscent executed to him a deed of 

 gift, January 14, 1682, of four acres of land for a house 

 of worship to be erected, in which he might conduct wor- 

 ship according to the form and liturgy of the Church 

 of England. The first church erected — according to 

 Rivers and Dr. Dalcho in 1682, but according to Dr. 

 Ramsay in 1690, and occupying the site reserved for 

 that purpose when Oyster Point Town was laid out by 

 Governor Yeamans in 1672, and which was the same 

 as that on which St. Michael's now stands — was built 

 of black cypress, on a brick foundation, and had for 

 its distinctive name St. Philip's, though it was com- 

 monly called the English Church. After Mr. Will- 

 iamson, " one Mr. Warmel was sent over " (Oldmixon), 

 of whose ministerial labors nothing is known. Tho 

 third Church of England minister in the colony was 

 the Rev. Samuel Marshall, whose amiable character 

 and great merit are attested by the readiness with 

 which the Dissenters voted him an annual salary as 

 rector of St. Philip's. He died in 1696, and was soon 

 succeeded by the Rev. Edward Marston, a man of 

 ability and liberal feelings toward Dissenters, and 

 who, for his spirited opposition to the oppressive acts 

 of Assembly against them in 1704, was arraigned be- 

 fore the Board of Lay Commissioners in 1705, and de- 

 prived of his living. 



More than twenty years had passed away in the en- 

 joyment by the colonists of that equality among all 

 religious denominations contemplated in the scheme 



