THE RUTLEDGES

 

Ireland can lay claoim to the ancestry of two of the most distinguished members of the revolutionary movement in the south – John and Edward Rutledge.

 

Their uncle, Andrew (c.1709-1755), a lawyer, emigrated from Ireland to Charleston about 1730; their father, John Sr (c.1713-1750), a doctor, followed a few years later (neither lived into ripe old age in their new location – Andrew died at about 45, John at 37).

 

The origins of this Rutledge family are disputed. Some sources place them in Co. Cavan or Co. Longford; others show Dr. John Rutledge as being born in Co. Tyrone; yet others maintain  that  they were sons of Thomas Rutledge, of Callan, in Co. Kilkenny.* 

 

The immigrant Rutledges had obvious advantages of background and education, to which they added In Charleston the benefits of marrying well: Andrew took as his wife the widow Sarah Boone Hext (c.1702-1743), formerly of Boone Hall, about 1735 and John Sr. married her 14-year-old daughter Sarah Hext (1724-1792) in 1738. This latter Sarah thus became the mother of John and Edward Rutledge. 

 

The immigrant Rutledges also acquired extensive property in the Charleston hinterlands, with John dividing his time between his medical practice on Broad Street, his duties as an army surgeon and his position as owner of the Phillips Plantation in Christ Church Parish just north of the city.**

 

John Rutledge Jr. was born in Christ Church Parish SC in September 1739, the eldest son of Dr. John and Mrs. Sarah Rutledge, when his mother was 15. His father died when he was ten and, influenced by Andrew, his lawyer uncle, he enrolled at the Middle Temple in 1754 (Andrew died in 1755).  

 

John Rutledge returned to Charleston to commence practice in 1761.  Elected to the colonial assembly in 1762 at the age of 22, he was also a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress at New York City in 1766 and a member of the Continental Congress of 1774-1775. 

 

In May 1763 he married Elizabeth Grimke; they raised ten children in the lifestyle of a wealthy planter family. He built No. 116 Broad St. in the same year.

 

John Rutledge served as the first President and commander-in-chief of South Carolina 1776-1778 and as Governor 1779-1782, taking an active part in the defense of Charleston in 1780.  He escaped to North Carolina and became a member of the Continental Congress again in 1782 and 1783.  He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and signed the final document.  

 

As a leading Federalist he received the electoral vote of South Carolina for Vice-President in 1789.  He served as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1789-1791) and chief justice of South Carolina from (1790-1795), from which position he resigned. Nominated in 1795 to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, he presided at the August term, but the Senate refused to confirm him. He died in Charleston at the age of 61 on July 23rd. 1800, and is buried in St. Michael's Churchyard.

 

Edward Rutledge was born on 23rd. November 1749, the youngest son of Dr. John and Mrs. Sarah Rutledge, just a year before his father died at the age of 37 on Christmas Day 1750, leaving a family of seven. 

 

Educated like his uncle and brother at London's Middle Temple, Edward returned to his native city in 1773, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice. 

 

After marriage in 1774 to Henrietta Middleton of the prominent planter family, he built his town house across the street from that of his older brother as America prepared for Revolution.   

 

A member of the Continental Congress (1774-1776) and the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence (he was just 26 at the time), he was appointed, with Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, to negotiate (rather fruitlessly, as it turned out) with Lord Howe for peace with Britain.

 

He was again elected a Member of the Continental Congress in 1779 but did not take his seat.  Instead, he became a captain in the Charleston Battalion of Artillery, part of the Militia of South Carolina, and saw service in the Revolutionary War. He was taken prisoner when the British captured Charleston in May  1780, and kept at St. Augustine until July 1781, when he was exchanged.  

 

A member of the State House of Representatives in 1778, 1782, 1786, 1788, and 1792, and member of the State constitutional convention in 1790, he was author of the act abolishing the law of primogeniture.

 

Following the death of his wife in 1792, he married the widow of Nicholas Eveleigh, who had been Comptroller of the Treasury of the United States during the administration of President Washington. It was Washington who offered Edward appointment to the United States Supreme Court in 1794, but he declined. 

 

Edward Rutledge was elected Governor of South Carolina in December 1798 and served until his death in January 23rd. 1800 at the age of 51.  He is buried in St. Philip's Churchyard.

 

*The Callan origin is noted in Andrew Rutledge's records at the Middle Temple in London, which he entered for legal studies in 1726 (Callan was also the native area of the White House architect and builder James Hoban, who also had Broad Street connections). The Callan attribution may be a transcription error for Cavan – or vice versa.

 

**Some sources say that the plantation was named for his native area on Ireland, which they identify as 'Phillips County', a possible confusion with King's County, or modern-day Offaly, which had a small borough named Phillipstown, now Daingean). It is almost exactly half-way between Cavan and Callan.