51 of 56 · South Carolina
HEYWARD
A Prisoner's Guide
28 lessons. 4 chapters. In his own words.
Wounded, captured, imprisoned at St. Augustine, his house burned. He wrote a patriotic song in a cell and went home to judge.
Thomas Heyward Jr. · 1746–1809 · Judge · artillery officer · prisoner
01
Serve the Piece
1 of 4
Take the artillery commission.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners. He possessed an elegant poetical genius, which he sometimes exercised with success upon the various events of the war.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Captain of artillery, Charleston Battalion, same as Rutledge. The poet who will not stand to a gun is only a stationery patriot. Serve the piece. Amiable is for the parlor after the battery is posted.
A scar is a second signature.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Beaufort, 1779. Moultrie beat the British. Heyward took a gunshot that marked him for life. The parchment was ink. The thigh was the collection notice. Do not be surprised when the pledge comes due in lead.
Command the battalion when the city is the target.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Siege of Charleston, 1780. He had a battalion. The city fell. Officers who had signed were not ordinary prisoners. The British have a list. If your name is on two documents, expect the second hospitality.
The father will say they will hang you. Sign anyway.
“The British likely would hang him for this act.”
Col. Daniel Heyward, to his son, as reported · 1776
Daniel Heyward was a royalist planter. The son signed. They reconciled before the father died in 1777. A family argument about hanging is the honest version of consent. Hear it. Do not obey it.
The poet who will not stand to a gun is only a stationery patriot.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners. He possessed an elegant poetical genius, which he sometimes exercised with success upon the various events of the war.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Captain of artillery, Charleston Battalion, same as Rutledge. Amiable is for the parlor after the battery is posted. Serve the piece. Verses come later, if the gun is still yours.
The parchment was ink. The thigh was the collection notice.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Beaufort, 1779. Moultrie beat the British. Heyward took a gunshot that marked him for life. Do not be surprised when the pledge comes due in lead. A scar is a second signature.
If your name is on two documents, expect the second hospitality.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Siege of Charleston, 1780. He had a battalion. The city fell. Officers who had signed were not ordinary prisoners. The British have a list. Command the battery when the city is the target. Then take the cell.
02
Write in the Cell
2 of 4
Steal their tune.
“God save the Thirteen States! Long rule the United States! God save our States! Make us victorious, Happy and glorious; No tyrants over us; God save our States!”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
St. Augustine, eleven months. He took God Save the King and turned it inside out. If you cannot have a press, take their melody. Ridicule that can be sung will travel farther than a memorial.
The poetical genius is not a hobby.
“He possessed an elegant poetical genius, which he sometimes exercised with success upon the various events of the war.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Rush wrote that as a compliment. In the cell it was a weapon. Verses that 'echoed from Georgia to New Hampshire' are logistics. A prisoner who writes is not waiting. He is still in the war.
Name the dead in the second stanza.
“To our famed Washington, Brave Stark at Bennington, Glory is due. Peace to Montgomery's shade, Who as he fought and bled, Drew honors round his head, Num'rous as true.”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
Washington living, Montgomery dead. A prison song that remembers the fallen is a roll call. Do not write only the triumph. Write the shade. The cell already knows the difference.
Hold the rudder when the ship tries to finish you.
“We'll fear no tyrant's nod Nor stern oppression's rod, Till time's no more.”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
After the exchange, going north by sea, he fell overboard and held the rudder until they pulled him in. The cell was not the last chance to die. Live through the stupid accident too. The song is not done.
If you cannot have a press, take their melody.
“God save the Thirteen States! Long rule the United States! God save our States! Make us victorious, Happy and glorious; No tyrants over us; God save our States!”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
St. Augustine, eleven months. He took God Save the King and turned it inside out. Ridicule that can be sung will travel farther than a memorial. Steal their tune. Mark the source if the authorship is a rumor.
A prisoner who writes is not waiting. He is still in the war.
“He possessed an elegant poetical genius, which he sometimes exercised with success upon the various events of the war.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Rush wrote that as a compliment. In the cell it was a weapon. Verses that echoed from Georgia to New Hampshire are logistics. The poetical genius is not a hobby. Use it where the press cannot go.
Do not write only the triumph. Write the shade.
“To our famed Washington, Brave Stark at Bennington, Glory is due. Peace to Montgomery's shade, Who as he fought and bled, Drew honors round his head, Num'rous as true.”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
Washington living, Montgomery dead. A prison song that remembers the fallen is a roll call. The cell already knows the difference. Name the dead in the second stanza.
03
The House Burns
3 of 4
The plantation is on the pledge list.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Marauders stripped the Lowcountry places. Slaves driven off. Fields wrecked. Heyward was in Florida while the fortune burned. You do not get to supervise the collection. That is what the pledge was for.
Obnoxious to the British is a professional credential.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
As a criminal judge in Charleston he hanged men for treason within view of the enemy. Amiable manners, hard docket. The British noticed. So they took him when the city fell. A reputation that does not annoy the occupier is not a reputation.
The house in town is not the house that matters.
“May union bless our land, While we, with heart and hand, Our mutual rights defend; God save our States!”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
87 Church Street survived and later put up Washington. The working plantations took the beating. Do not inventory the show house and call yourself ruined. Inventory the acres that fed the cause.
Come home and count what is left.
“He possessed an elegant poetical genius, which he sometimes exercised with success upon the various events of the war.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Elizabeth Matthews Heyward died in childbirth in Philadelphia, 1782, on the long way home. The house burns in more than one tense. Grief is part of the fortune pledged. Count it. Then go to work on the remainder.
You do not get to supervise the collection.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Marauders stripped the Lowcountry places. Slaves driven off. Fields wrecked. Heyward was in Florida while the fortune burned. That is what the pledge was for. The plantation is on the list whether you are home or not.
A reputation that does not annoy the occupier is not a reputation.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
As a criminal judge in Charleston he hanged men for treason within view of the enemy. Amiable manners, hard docket. The British noticed. So they took him when the city fell. Obnoxious to the British is a professional credential.
Inventory the acres that fed the cause, not the show house.
“May union bless our land, While we, with heart and hand, Our mutual rights defend; God save our States!”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
87 Church Street survived and later put up Washington. The working plantations took the beating. Do not inventory the town house and call yourself ruined. Count the fields. That is the fortune.
04
Go Home and Judge
4 of 4
The gunner becomes the court.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Associate law judge of South Carolina after the war. The same man who served the piece now served the statute. A republic that cannot turn officers into judges will keep its war forever. Go home. Sit.
Found the agricultural society. The country has to eat.
“O Lord! Thy gifts in store, We pray on Congress pour, To guide our States.”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
First president of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, 1785. The peace is crops and courts. A gunner who cannot plant is a peacetime nuisance. Pray on Congress, then go home and grow the rice.
Write a constitution. Then withdraw.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Delegate to the 1790 state constitution. Out of public life by 1799. Died 1809. Not every signer needs a federal climax. A finished local bench is a career. Know when the piece is no longer yours to serve.
Let Washington sleep in the house that survived.
“God save the Thirteen States! Long rule the United States! God save our States!”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr. · 1781
1791, the President in the Church Street house. The prisoner-poet lived to be a host. That is the quiet victory. The cell wrote the song. The bench kept the house standing long enough to put a guest in it.
A republic that cannot turn officers into judges will keep its war forever.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Associate law judge of South Carolina after the war. The same man who served the piece now served the statute. Go home. Sit. The gunner becomes the court or he becomes a nuisance.
Pray on Congress, then go home and grow the rice.
“O Lord! Thy gifts in store, We pray on Congress pour, To guide our States.”
Attributed to Thomas Heyward Jr., God Save the Thirteen States · 1781
First president of the South Carolina Agricultural Society, 1785. The peace is crops and courts. A gunner who cannot plant is a peacetime problem. Found the society. The country has to eat.
Know when the piece is no longer yours to serve.
“A firm republican of good education and most amiable manners.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Delegate to the 1790 state constitution. Out of public life by 1799. Died 1809. Not every signer needs a federal climax. A finished local bench is a career. Write a constitution. Then withdraw.