Governor Robert Daniell

Contributed By

Cheryl Jane Munn

Sometime prior to July 29, 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who was governor of both the Carolinas, appointed as his Deputy Governor for the northern province Col. Robert Daniell. He was already a prominent resident of South Carolina and was an ardent churchman.

It is certain that he was personally in favor of the extreme Anglican policy which Gov. Nathaniel Johnson, acting under instruction from Lord Granville, forced for a time upon South Carolina. Though the contemporary sources of information are very scanty, it has been maintained with a considerable degree of probability that in 1704 the passage of an Act by the North Carolina House of Burgesses was procured, which not only provided again for the establishment of the Anglican Church, but also for a religious test.

Martin states that the Act provided for “a fine on any person holding a place of trust who should neglect to qualify himself by taking the oath required by law.” The Act itself, like its predecessor of 1701, has been lost, but it has been supposed that it was substantially a copy of the measure which in the same year raised such a storm in South Carolina. In North Carolina, the commotion which was occasioned by the Act was almost as great.

But the Quakers were directly assailed from another quarter. In 1704, the Act of the first Parliament under Queen Anne, which imposed a new oath of allegiance, arrived. It made no express exception in the favor of Quaker office-holders, neither did it mention the dominions. The Quakers refused to take the oath and were removed by Deputy Governor Robert Daniell from their offices.

A province law was also passed, that no one should hold a position of trust without taking the required oaths. The Act for the establishment of the church, with that requiring the oaths, together occasioned the so-called Cary’s rebellion. While the disturbance happened, we hear much more of the question of oaths than of the church question. But all the Dissenters in the province seem to have been profoundly stirred, which would have scarcely been true if the point at issue had merely been that of the oaths.

John Ash, who was sent by the South Carolinians to England to complain of the passage of the Act for the establishment of the church, was compelled to find passage from Virginia, and went thither over land through Albemarle County. Edmund Porter was appointed by the Dissenters of Albemarle County to accompany John Ash.

Edmund Porter, with the help of John Archdale, secured from the Lords Proprietors an order addressed to Gov. Sir Nathaniel Johnson to remove Robert Daniell from the Deputy Governorship in North Carolina. This he obeyed, and Thomas Cary, who had been collector of quit-rents for the Lords Proprietors, and who is said to have been concerned in civil troubles in South Carolina, was appointed in his place. Thomas Cary was also a churchman.

Since Governor Philip Ludwell’s authority was the first to be extended over Albemarle County in 1691, as well as over the southern counties, he was empowered to summon representatives from them all to a General Assembly. But if it should prove impossible for members to attend from Albemarle, as was actually the case, he was then authorized to summon seven delegates each from Berkeley and Colleton counties and six delegates from Craven County in what became South Carolina.

By the settlement, since 1685, of Huguenot exiles on the Santee River, the population of South Carolina had expanded toward the north, and now it was possible to begin the organization of a third county. But as the Huguenots, owing to the repeal of the Act of former Governor Seth Sothel’s parliament, had not yet been naturalized, the instruction empowering them to elect representatives occasioned an outcry against alien rule. The six Huguenots elected from Craven County took their seats, but the Commons House of Assembly proved to be no more subservient than its predecessors had been.

It passed an Act giving the suffrage to every man in the province who was worth £10, irrespective of the time during which he had been a resident. Though Governor Philip Ludwell accepted this, it, with an Act providing for the drawing of jurymen, was disallowed by the Lords Proprietors. The Commons House of Assembly demanded an Act of oblivion and a confirmation of the judicial proceedings of the late administration. But before that resolve reached them the Lords Proprietors had issued a general pardon for all concerned in the late disturbances, except James Moore and Robert Daniell, two of the leaders of the opposition in Berkeley County (SC).

During the discussion over indemnity the Commons House of Assembly, in response to an instruction, presented a statement of grievances which touched all the main points at issue between them and the Lords Proprietors. The most important complaints were directed against the claim of the Lords Proprietors to legislate for the province by fixing the jurisdiction of courts, putting in force through the Palatine’s Court in Carolina such English statutes as they saw fit to select, attempting to govern in general by martial law, and prescribing the number of representatives in the Commons House of Assembly.

The Commons House of Assembly complained of the existence of two Palatine Courts, one in England and the other in Carolina, for one often negated decisions which the other had approved. Other complaints were directed against the recent change in the form of land grants, and against several matters of detail.

Though these complaints brought no specific or immediate acts of redress, the Lords Proprietors, both publicly and privately, began to admit that it would be necessary to govern according to their charter. But at the same time they yielded only so far as it was necessary so to do. They retained the agrarian laws intact.

Also in a special instruction to Governor Philip Ludwell, accompanying the disallowance of former Governor Seth Sothel’s acts, they forbade the publication as laws of Acts making changes in courts, juries, officials, and elections until they had confirmed them in England. Ludwell made concessions to the popular demand respecting the form of deed which should be used in land grants. He also approved of an habeas corpus Act, an Act relating to juries, as well as the one lowering the qualifications for the suffrage.

Because of their dissatisfaction with these Acts, and particularly with the one last named, the Lords Proprietors removed Gov. Ludwell, after he had been in office about a year. But his successor, Thomas Smith, though one of the most prominent men among the proprietary party in the province, because of the revival of the controversy over the payment of quitrents, soon threw up the office in despair.

More than any English mainland colony, South Carolina’s roots were Caribbean. Many of her early settlers were English by way of the West Indies, especially by way of Barbados. Barbadians such as the Middletons of Middleton Place and the Draytons of Drayton Hall controlled the provincial government and determined the course of South Carolina’s politics for almost half a century.

One of the Barbadians was Robert Daniell, who arrived in 1690 and quickly established himself as a leading figure in local politics. An authentic military hero of the St. Augustine expedition, he was a highly controversial Governor of South Carolina in 1716 and 1717.

In 1703, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, then Governor of the Carolina Province, sent Col. Robert Daniell from South Carolina to take Henderson Walker’s place as Deputy Governor of the northern colony.

Daniell was an ardent member of the Church of England, and was strongly desirous of establishing this church in Carolina by law. But he knew that so long as the Quakers were members of the House of Burgesses, and held high office in Albemarle County, this law could never be passed. Therefore he determined to demand a strict oath of office from all who were elected to fill public positions. This determination was carried out. The Quakers were driven from the House of Burgesses, which body, subservient to the new Deputy Governor, passed the law establishing the Church of England (Anglican) in Albemarle County.

But the Quakers did not submit tamely to this deprivation of their ancient rights and privileges. Many of the most influential men in the colony, especially in Pasquotank and Perquimans precincts, were Friends; and they determined to appeal to the Lords Proprietors to uphold them in their claim to a share in the government. The Dissenters in the colony joined with them in their plea, and the result was that Deputy Governor Robert Daniell was removed from office in 1705.

On November 10, 1702, St. Augustine was attacked by Carolina under Acting Governor James Moore, Sr. 600 soldiers and militia plus about 300 Indians made up the Carolinia force commanded by Colonel Robert Daniell. Captain James Daniell came down the St. Johns River and marched overland. Acting Governor James Moore, Sr. arrived by sea.

The Spanish Governor Joseph de Zuniga y Zeda ordered supplies to be placed in the Castillo and brought into the moat about 160 head of cattle. Inside the Castillo were 1,500 men, women, and children. 230 soldiers and 100 Indian militia were included in this number. The Spanish quickly conceded the town to the British. Moore managed to burn the city down but the people successfully hid in the Castillo. On December 29, General Estevan de Berroa, the commander of the relief force, arrived from Havana and landed on Anastasia island.

The burning of the city left only the Castillo, the parish church (Nuestra Senora de la Soledad), and 20 structures of no value. Martin de Alacano reported that Nombre de Dios was also burnt down. Don’t look for anything older than 1702 in St. Augustine other than the Castillo, thanks to Acting Governor James Moore, Sr. of South Carolina.

In the early 1700s there was no Georgia colony to serve as a buffer zone between the Carolinas and the Spanish settlements in Florida.

James Moore, Sr., who became Acting Governor of Carolina in September 1700, understood the danger from the Spanish and sought to avert it. When the War of Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War in America) broke out in 1702, the Carolinians were in a mood to act.

The legislature authorized an expedition and placed the governor in charge, with Colonel Robert Daniell second in command. Daniell was to sail up the Saint John’s River to a point opposite the city of St. Augustine and march overland to the attack, while Acting Governor James Moore, Sr. led the attack from the sea.

Spanish Governor Joseph de Zuniga y Zeda told the entire population to take refuge in the fort when the enemy arrived. The enemy laid siege to the fortress. Four Spanish warships appeared late in December and blocked Moore’s escape by sea. Moore burned some of his small fleet, abandoned the remainder, burned what remained of the town, marched overland to the mouth of the Saint Johns River, embarked for Carolina, and was gone by December 30th.

Former Governors Robert Daniell, Thomas Cary, Charles Eden, and Matthew Rowan made Bath their home for a time, as did Edward Moseley, long time Speaker of the House of Burgesses.

On April 25, 1716, Governor Charles Craven appointed Robert Daniell as Deputy Governor of South Carolina, and Craven sailed to London, never to return. Deputy Governor Robert Daniell governed South Carolina until April 30, 1717, when Robert Johnson arrived as the new Governor of South Carolina.

During his tenure, several Acts of importance were passed, one opening lands for settlement that were formerly inhabited by the Yamassee Indians prior to their expulsion from South Carolina; one authorizing the emission of bills of credit for defraying the expenses of the late Yamassee War; and several measures to encourage the importation of indentured servants and for checking the numbers of black slaves, whose increasing numbers were beginning to be considered a danger to the safety of the province.

Robert Daniell, Governor of SC, has been incorrectly assigned as the son of Roger Daniell, Jr., born circa 1646 in England or Scotland. It has been suggested that he was either born in York or Warwick County, VA, or his father was imported by Capt. Miles Carey. There is no evidence to prove these assumptions. According to a gravestone, slab/memorial, at the old St. Phillips Cemetery in Charleston, SC, he died May 1, 1718. A reference says he died in his home on the Ashley River, near Charles Town, SC.

Robert Daniell was a Landgrave, Lieut. General; Deputy Governor of North Carolina, 1704-05, Member General Assembly NC, 1708 & of SC, 1712; Deputy Governor of South Carolina, 1716-1717.

Lt. Gen. 1704, Wars w/Indians & Spaniards, Vice Admiral. Robert Daniell sailed on the ship, Mary, for the Carolinas in April of 1679. His first wife, Dorothy Chamberlaine, was still living when he left for America.

Robert brought to Charles Town, his housekeeper and servant Mary Cooper, and his son, Robert Daniell, Jr. Colonel Robert Daniell was an Indian fighter with a reputation for bravery and competence in his actions against the Indians and Spanish at Saint Augustine. In 1703, Governor Sir Nathaniel Johnson at Charles Town sent Robert Daniell to govern Albemarle Colony, in North Carolina as his Deputy Governor.