Thomas Heyward Jr. (July 28, 1746 – March 6, 1809) was an American

Founding Father The following is a list of national founders of sovereign states who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e., political system ...

, lawyer, jurist, and politician. Heyward was active politically during the Revolutionary Era. As a member of the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...

representing South Carolina, he signed the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

and

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...

. Heyward's imprisonment in Florida by the British for nearly a year and the loss of a considerable number of slaves led to his being proclaimed a martyr of the

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

Life

Heyward was born in St. Luke's Parish (now known as Jasper County), South Carolina, the son of Mary (Miles) and Daniel Heyward. He was educated at home, then traveled to England to study law where he was a member of the Honourable Society of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 and the following year was the last delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence. Heyward returned to South Carolina in 1778 to serve as a judge. In 1778, he presided over a trial in which several persons were tried for treason; they were convicted and executed within view of the British lines. In command of a militia force, he was taken prisoner by the British during the

siege of Charleston The siege of Charleston was a major engagement and major British victory in the American Revolutionary War, fought in the environs of Charles Town (today Charleston), the capital of South Carolina, between March 29 and May 12, 1780. The British ...

. On August 27, 1780, British troops took him from his Charleston home (presently owned by the Charleston Museum) at 87 Church Street and detained him in the Old Exchange Building. They confiscated all of his slaves, and although he later reclaimed some of them, 130 were permanently confiscated and transported to sugar plantations in Jamaica, a loss of $50,000 in property. It was this loss of slaves that resulted him being later proclaimed by the press as a martyr of the revolution. Hours after being arrested, he and 28 other "ringleaders of the rebellion" were relocated to a guard ship in the harbor. On September 4, they were transported to St. Augustine, Florida, and remained there for about 11 months until they were freed in a prisoner exchange. While in prison, Heyward transposed a popular English song, "God Save the King" into "God Save the States". In 1784, he was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. He continued to serve as a judge after the war, retiring from the bench in 1798. He is buried at Old House Plantation near Ridgeland, South Carolina. The house was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1997. In 1970, when the Supreme Court ordered that public schools must be integrated, a group associated with the White Citizen's Council opened a school named Thomas Heyward Academy in Ridgeland, South Carolina.

Marriage and family

Heyward was married twice, at age 26 and at age 40, and each wife was named Elizabeth. His first wife, born in 1753, was the daughter of Colonel John and Sarah Gibbes Mathews and the sister of South Carolina governor John Mathews. She died in childbirth in 1782 in Philadelphia, where she had gone to be with Heyward upon his release as a prisoner of war. She is buried there in St. Peter's Episcopal Church yard. They had six children, but only one son, Daniel, survived childhood. His second wife was the daughter of Colonel Thomas and Mary Elliott Savage of Charleston. They had three children who lived to adulthood: Thomas, William and Elizabeth. Notable descendants include

DuBose Heyward Edwin DuBose Heyward (August 31, 1885 – June 16, 1940) was an American author best known for his 1925 novel '' Porgy''. He and his wife Dorothy, a playwright, adapted it as a 1927 play of the same name. The couple worked with composer Georg ...

, whose

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

and later stage play ''Porgy'' portrayed Black African-Americans and was transformed by George Gerswhin into ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...

'', an American opera that achieved both credit as a musical masterpiece and criticism for pervasive racism. In addition to his wives, he impregnated at least one of the women he enslaved, making him the grandfather of Thomas E. Miller, one of only five African Americans elected to Congress from the South in the 1890s. At one time, the Heyward family had the largest slaveholding in the United States.

References

External links

*
Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, "Thomas Heyward Jr."
in ''Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence'', New York: William Reed & Co., 1856, pp. 440–443 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyward, Thomas Jr. 1746 births 1809 deaths American Revolutionary War prisoners of war held by Great Britain Continental Congressmen from South Carolina Signers of the Articles of Confederation Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence Members of the Middle Temple People from Ridgeland, South Carolina American slave owners Founding Fathers of the United States Members of the American Philosophical Society

Life

Marriage and family

See also

References

External links