Heyward, Thomas, Jr.

HEYWARD, THOMAS, JR. (1746–1809). Signer. South Carolina. Born in Saint Helena Parish, South Carolina, on 28 July 1746, Thomas Heywood Jr. studied in the Middle Temple before becoming a South Carolina lawyer in 1771. From 1772 to 1775, he sat in the state assembly, and in 1775–1776 he went to the Provincial Congresses in Charleston, serving as a member of the Council of Safety. As captain of a militia artillery battalion, he helped to defend Charleston from British attack in late 1775. In February 1776 he was a member of the committee that wrote the state constitution. Sent to the Second Continental Congress, 1776 to 1778, he signed the Declaration of Independence. He returned to Charleston and became a circuit judge. On 4 February 1779 he was wounded while leading the successful attack on the British at Port Royal Island. He was captured the following year when the British took Charleston. Initially paroled, he was one of a group of political leaders arrested by the British and sent as prisoners to St. Augustine, Florida, in August 1780, where they were kept until they were exchanged in July 1781. He sat in the state legislature from 1779 to 1780 and from 1782 to 1790, and served as circuit judge until 1789. He took part in the state's ratifying convention, supporting the Constitution. He also served in the state's Constitutional Convention of 1790, at which time he retired from public life. He was one of the founders and the first president of the South Carolina Agricultural Society in 1785. He died on 22 April 1809.

SEE ALSO Charleston Siege of 1780.

                              revised by Michael Bellesiles