Hezekiah Maham’s Background

Topic: Gullah History - Early Legends
Robert F. W. Allston told readers in 1846 that Hezekiah Maham grew rice with a golden panicle on the Santee river in 1785. [1]  He did not give any evidence, and may have gotten his information from Joshua John Ward.  Ward was both Allston’s friend and the grandson of Maham’s sister. [2]

Earlier, in 1823, the South Carolina Agricultural Society appointed a committee to study the value of importing seeds.  It cited the Carolina Gold brought by Henry Laurens as a positive example. [3]  Laurens was a slave trader who purchased the Colleton family plantation in 1772. [4]  He spent the American Revolution as a diplomat in Europe, sometimes as a prisoner of war.  Richard Porcher notes he certainly would have been able to acquire a new strain of rice while he was abroad, but his ledgers provide no evidence that he did so. [5]

On the other hand, Maham’s plantation records do show he sold a barrel of rice to his neighbor, Thomas Cordes, in 1785. [6]  He probably did not specify the type because, then, rice was either good or bad (red).

Of course, the Huguenot aristocrat was the preferable progenitor of the post-war economy in South Carolina than was Maham.  His great-grandfather, Nicholas Mahum, registered with the colony in 1682, [7] and died in 1709.  The state appointed a guardian for his orphaned children, [8] which probably means they were indentured as soon as they were of age. [9]

One of Mahum’s sons, possibly Nicholas, had a daughter Ann in 1719.  She married John Cahusac in 1740. [10].  He was a Huguenot, but not part of the original migration. [11]  His father, Bertrand Cahvac, [12] of Lévignac, France, was naturalized as a British citizen in 1707. [13]  This would have made it easier for him to migrate to South Carolina where John was born in 1712. [14]

Both Ann and John died in 1761.  One source says she was living in Charles Town; [15] another says he was in Craven District. [16]  Craven then was Huguenot area north of the capital. [17]  I found no mention of who raised their minor children.

One of their daughters was Sarah, who married Edward Jerman. [18]  Another, Mary Ann, wed John Palmer. [19]  Sarah’s granddaughters were the second and third wives of Palmer’s son, Thomas. [20]

Jerman and the Palmers were born in Saint James, Santee Parish, which was established in 1706. [21]  The first settlers were Huguenots who settled along lower part of the river.  Later immigrants settled the upriver frontier, which was separated as Saint Stephens Parish in 1754. [22]  Jerman may have been the grandson of George Jerman, who arrived as an indentured servant with John Godfrey in 1670. [23]

A little more is known about the Palmers.  Their immigrant ancestor was Joseph Pamor. [24] Like Maham, the Pamor name is not traditional.  Both may have been French names that were changed when Huguenots fled to England and Ireland so long before that their immigrant ancestors were anglicized by the time they moved. [25]  Nothing more can be traced.  Louise Palmer Towles has tried to make some sense of the fragments of Pamor information that have survived, but admits John, the one who changed the spelling, but not the pronunciation, is the first to leave a solid documentary trail. [26]

Ann Maham Cahusac’s brother Nicholas may have had the son named Nicholas who was the father of Hezekiah.  He married Anne Guerín when he was 19. [27]  Marie and Mathurin Guerin arrived before 1700. [28]

Hezekiah married again in 1766 when he was 26 years old.  Mary Palmer was the daughter of Thomas Palmer. [29]  His father was Jonathan Palmer who married in 1692 on Saint Helena Island at the southern end of the state. [30]  Agnes Leland Baldwin could not decide if the John Palmer who was a gentleman and woolen draper was the same man as the Palmer who arrived on the Loyal Jamaica in 1692.  The first came with a well-to-do family unit. [31]  The second was a seaman on a ship that had been a privateer before being purchased in Jamaica and sent to Charles Town where it was grounded and treated like a pirate vessel. [32]

John was allowed to settle in South Carolina after Joseph Palmer and John Guppel vouched for him. [33]  Guppel was a Huguenot cabinet maker [34] who came from Languedoc.  Palmer probably was the immigrant Pamor.

The reason for dwelling on the diverse heritage of Maham family in-laws is that standard histories of South Carolina mention the early immigrants.  However, once the colony becomes establish, they tend to focus on the cultural and political activities in Charles Town.  Areas like Saint Stephen’s parish are eclipsed by settlements on the Piedmont.  All that remains are memoirs of early settlers.

Samuel DuBose was six years old [35] when Maham died, but his family had been in Saint Stephen’s Parish since his great-grandfather moved there. [36]  In his memoir of the area, he recalled events that occurred in the area during the Revolution were:

“too unimportant to have found a place in history; but we are near Eutaw and Quinby; we are on the highway that led from Charleston to nearly all the scenes where great deeds were performed; the armies of both friend and foe camped near us, and marched near us, and the people who lived in those days had countless incidents to relate, all of which possessed a local or an individual interest, and I cannot but regret that their memory has perished.  We are in the midst of sacred territory; about us armies were encamped, houses were burned, men imprisoned and brutally murdered; but as these were merely incidents to more stirring and important events, they have escaped the notice of the historian, and we now tread the ground without a thought of the scenes that were enacted upon it.” [37]

Joseph Johnson’s father was a blacksmith who pushed for separation from the United Kingdom in Charles Town. [38]  During the siege of 1780, William served in the artillery under Thomas Heyward, Jr. [39]  When the city fell, he was taken captive and sent to Saint Augustine. [40]  Joseph was a toddler during the war, but heard details “from the lips of our parents and friends.” [41]  He too regretted that “historians of the American Revolution all lived on or near the sea coast—many of the sturdy sons of the forest were therefore unknown to them.” [42]

What little we know about Maham comes from the writings of DuBose and Johnson.

End Notes
1.  Carolina Gold rice is discussed in the post for 6 November 2022.
2.  Ward is discussed in the post for 6 August 2023.

3.  Thomas Pickney, John D. Legare, Elias Horry, Nathaniel Heyward, and Charles E. Rowland.  “Report of the Committee [. . .] Importing Foreign Seeds, Plants and Implements of Husbandry,” 25 July 1823.  The American Farmer 5(24)187–188:5 September 1823.

4.  “Mepkin Plantation – Moncks Corner – Berkeley County.”  South Carolina Plantations website.  Its source is John Beaufain Irving.  A Day on Cooper River.  Charleston, South Carolina: A. E. Miller, 1842.  83 in 2010 reprint by Kessinger Publishing of Whitefish, Montana.  Laurens career as a slave trader is discussed in the post for 13 January 2019.  John Colleton was an original proprietor of the colony.  His youngest son, James Colleton, owned Mepkin.  John is discussed in the posts for 17 April 2022, 26 June 2022, and 3 July 2022.  James is discussed in the posts for 11 September 2022.

5.  Richard Dwight Porcher, Jr., and William Robert Judd.  The Market Preparation of Carolina Rice.  Columbia, South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 2014.  23-24.

6.  H. Maham.  Ledger, 1765–1794.  44.  Cited by Thomas R. Wheaton, Amy Friedlander, and Patrick H. Garrow.  “Yaughan and Curriboo Plantations: Studies in Afro-American Archaeology.”  Report for National Park Service, Southeast Regional Office, April 1983.  301.

7.  Agnes Leland Baldwin.  First Settlers of South Carolina, 1670–1700.  Easley, South Carolina: Southern Historical Press, 1985.  152.

8.  A. S. Salley.  “Abstracts from the Records of the Court of Ordinary of the Province of South Carolina, 1700–1710.”  The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 13(1):56-63:January 1912.  62.

9.  George Rogers noted church wardens apprenticed orphans in the parish of Prince Frederick Williams in the 1750s and 1760s. [43]

10.  John Britton Boney.  “Ann Stall (Maham) Cahusac (1719 - 1761).”  Wiki Tree website, 21 July 2008; last updated 4 January 2022.

11.  The surname is not reported by Baldwin as existing before 1700 in South Carolina.
12.  “John Cahusac (1712 - 1761).  Ancestry website.

13.  William A. Shaw.  Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England and Ireland 1701 — 1800.  Manchester, UK: Sherratt and Hughes, 1923, for Huguenot Society of London.  60.

14.  There’s another entry on Ancestry for “John Cahusac (1720-1760) which seems to make some assumptions that he was son of Bertrand Cahusac of Tarn, France.

15.  Boney, Ann Maham Cahusac.
16.  Both Cahusac entries mention Craven District.
17.  “Craven County, South Carolina.”  Wikipedia website.
18.  Jackie.  “Edward Jerman / Sarah Cahusac (F3615).”  Singleton Family website.

19.  Louise Palmer Towles.  A World Turned Upside Down: The Palmers of South Santee, 1818–1881.  Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.  1-2.

20.  Towles.  19.

21.  Matthew A. Lockhart.  “St. James Santee Parish.”  South Carolina Encyclopedia website, 1 August 2016; last updated 25 August 2022.

22.  Matthew A. Lockhart.  “St. Stephen’s Parish.”  South Carolina Encyclopedia website, 1 August 2016; last updated 25 August 2022.  The changing names of districts makes it difficult to know if people moved or just their political residences changed.

23.  A. S. Salley, Jr.  Warrants for Land in South Carolina.  Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, volume 1, 1910.  Reprinted as A. S. Salley, Jr., and R. Nicholas Olsberg.  Warrants for Land in South Carolina, 1672-1711.  Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1973.  97.  Edward’s father was Ralph. [44]  I found nothing about Ralph’s parentage or George’s family on the web.

24.  Towles.  1.

25.  Typical of the confusion is the House of Names website, which thinks Maham is MacMahon, and that the name appeared in County Clare.

26.  Towles.  1.  The comment on pronunciation was made by  John Britton Boney.  “John (Pamor) Palmer Sr. (1715 - 1785).”  Wiki Tree website, 20 July 2018; last updated 27 July 2022.

27.  “Hezekiah Maham.”  Ancestry website.
28.  Baldwin.  109.  There also were Guerris and Guerrians.
29.  “Catherine Farwell.”  Ancestry website.
30.  “Jonathan Palmer.”  Roots Web website.
31.  Baldwin.  177.
32.  “British Ketch ‘Portsmouth’ (1665).”  Three Decks website.

33.  Edward McCrady.  The History of South Carolina under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719.  New York: The Macmillan Company, 1897.  261.
 
34.  Luke Beckerdite.  “Religion, Artistry, and Cultural Identity: The Huguenot Experience in South Carolina, 1680–1725.”  Chipstone website.  His original name was Jean Guibal.

35.  Darlene.  “Samuel DuBose Jr.”  Find a Grave website, 21 April 2007.

36.  “Isaac DuBose, II.”  Geni website, 6 August 2022.  Isaac settled at Milford, which was one property over from that of Maham.

37.  Samuel Dubose.  “Reminiscences of St. Stephen's Parish, Craven County and Notices of Her Old Homesteads.”  35-85 in A Contribution to the History of the Huguenots of South Carolina.  Edited by T. Gaillard Thomas.  New York: The Knickerbocker Press, 1887.  62-63.

38.  Joseph Johnson.  Traditions and Reminiscences, Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South.  Charleston, South Carolina: Walker and James, 1851.  30.

39.  Johnson.  64.  Patrick O’Kelley identifies Heyward’s company. [45]
40.  Johnson.  32.
41.  Johnson.  vi.
42.  Johnson. v.

43.  George C. Rogers.  The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina.  Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1970; reprinted by Georgetown County Historical Society.  71.

44.  Jackie.

45.  Patrick O’Kelley.  Nothing but Blood and Slaughter: The Revolutionary War in the Carolinas.  Volume 2, 1780.  Blue House Tavern Press, 2004.  2:41.