James Black – Shipwright and Patriot

Ancestral Burial Sites #3

The Point

The Beaufort (South Carolina) Historic District is well known for its fine antebellum homes, a handful of which pre-date even the Revolutionary War. Bordered by Carteret Street to the west and Boundary Street to the north, the neighborhood now known as “The Point” juts out into a bend of the Beaufort River and boasts an impressive number of well-preserved historic homes. “Through the many years, disasters, and wars,” a Beaufort visitor guide asserts, “The Point has kept its charm and beauty. It is still home to some of the most beautiful houses in the south, and it holds the key to Beaufort’s majestic antebellum era.”

James Black, Shipwright

Taking advantage of the timber resources and deepwater access of the sea islands, craftsmen began building schooners and small wooden sailing vessels in and around Beaufort during the colonial era. As supplies of the abundant live oak began to be exhausted around the more active ports at Charleston and Georgetown in the late 1760s, construction of even the largest sea-going vessels was transferred to the Beaufort District. Historian Lawrence Rowland writes “Colonial shipbuilding in the Beaufort area was highly itinerant.  The only established shipbuilding yard was perhaps the area of the “Old Point” acquired by James Black and known for years as “Black’s Point.”¹ Long before The Point became the exclusive enclave it is today it was known as Black’s Point, and an impressive tonnage of large wooden ships were churned out by James Black and his artisans, both slave and free. One notable ship was the frigate Beaufort, built under commission in 1776 for the South Carolina Navy. James Black’s warship saw action during the Revolutionary War in opposition to British Gen. William Howe off the coast of Georgia and Florida in 1778, and later in the unsuccessful defense of the South Carolina Sea Islands.²

Calculated Family Relationships

Shipwright James Black (1740-1780) is our 5th great-grandfather. As best we can tell, his father is the Rev. Samuel Black ( ca.1700-1770), a Scots-Irish Presbyterian minister who emigrated in the 1720s to found meeting houses in Pennsylvania. Most sources say James was born in Scotland but if Rev. Samuel is his father it is more likely that he was born in Pennsylvania where he married Rachel Adams (1743-1787) at Christ Church in Philadelphia in 1762 (an Anglican church, which might cast some doubt on whether a Presbyterian minister was his father).  Two descendants in the mid-1800s are said to have written that Rachel was related to President John Adams, but there is nothing otherwise to connect her to the Massachusetts clan. James and Rachel may have followed Rev. Samuel to his continued pastoral duties in the wilds of the Virginia Appalachian foothills for a year or two (Interestingly, the college town of Blacksburg (ca. 1798) is named for the family), but in any event the couple was in South Carolina perhaps as early as 1763 and certainly by 1771. James and Rachel had eight children, including Ann Black Bythewood (1769-1848), the mother of Margaret Hingston Bythewood Bell (1810-?), the great-grandmother of our beloved maternal grandmother Mary Bell Grayson (1909-2001).

James Black, Patriot

James was a member of the South Carolina militia, and like the warship he built, fought honorably for his colony. A James Black is listed as a private in the 3rd South Carolina Regiment in a March 1780 muster roll, though this is probably a different man. In a faint precursor of another enemy general’s actions some 86 years later, British General Augustine Prevost crossed the Savannah River in April 1779 and began a destructive march through the southern parishes. Two regiments of Redcoats were supplemented by 24 gunships, local Tory Loyalist militias, and bands of local Indians, the latter two barely disciplined.¹ Plantation homes and even churches were burned and some families fled their homes. Twenty battles and skirmishes were fought on the land and waters surrounding Beaufort from 1778-1782 during which Continental forces did little more than harass the invaders. In May of 1779 the British controlled St. John’s Island and had built a defensive structure at the access to the island at Stono Ferry.

“At this juncture the Americans [in Charleston] decided to attack the British earthwork at Stono. The Beaufort Militia under Captain Robert Barnwell was attached to a larger local company commanded by Captain John Matthews, later to be governor of South Carolina. These local militia took up a forward post at Matthews’ own plantation on the Stono River. …The British surrounded and captured Matthew’s company and demanded surrender of Barnwell’s small command. Faced with determined opposition, the British sergeant in command offered “honorable quarter,” whereupon Robert Barnwell and his men laid down their arms. The British treacherously fell upon them with bayonets, killing or wounding every man in the militia. Among those killed was James Black, one of Beaufort’s most successful prewar shipbuilders, who had courageously tried to warn his companions of the British approach while standing guard, but was quickly subdued and bayoneted to death.”¹

St. Helena Church

Many other sources claim James lived for another year and a half before dying in August of 1780 at age 40 as a result of his wounds. James and family were active members of St. Helena Church in Beaufort. Records show Rachel is buried in the churchyard, though no stone now exists for her. James is more than likely buried there as well. Their daughter Ann Bythewood has a marker, though it has not weathered well. St. Helena’s recently reverted to its original Anglican identity and remains an active parish, occupying the same site a few blocks inland from the Point since 1724. When you next visit Beaufort, make it a point to walk in the footsteps of our ancestor James Black and reflect on his legacy: Shipwright, Churchman, Patriot.

¹The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina Volume 1, 1514-1861 by L. Rowland, A. Moore, and G. Rogers ©1996 Univ. of South Car. Press pg 185, 222, 223

² Oared Fighting Ships of the South Carolina Navy, 1776-1780 by John Sayen, Jr. Oct. 1986 South Carolina Historical Magazine