
Luke Batterham
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'IN THE PROVINCE OF SOUTH CAROLINA IN AMERICA': this is the copy of the patent held in the colony, being docketed by the Deputy Secretary: "South Carolina/ Recorded in the Secretary's office of this Province/ the book marked DD folio 86 this 25th February 1733/ James Michie Dep-Secry". Thomas Lowndes (1692-1748), now best-known for his endowment of the Lowndean Chair of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge, had been appointed Provost Marshal of South Carolina – as the present deed rehearses – by the Lord Proprietors of Caroline in 1725: 'He never visited the colony, entrusting his duties to a deputy, but he profited substantially from financial dues paid to him as holder of the position. In this capacity he urged the crown's purchase of the colony, arguing for the colony's fertile soil, ease of defence, disunion among its proprietors, and its potential to restrain French and Spanish expansion. He also advanced schemes promoting foreign emigration to the colony, the manufacture of potash, and the incorporation of North Carolina with Virginia' (Troy O. Bickham, ODNB). With the Crown's purchase of the colony in 1727 he surrendered his office, to which, by the present document, he was restored in 1731. The James Mitchie who has docketed the patent is presumably the same James Mitchie who was afterwards to serve as Speaker of the South Carolina Assembly from 1752 to 1754, Judge of the Court of Admiralty from 1752 to 1754, and Chief Justice from 1759 to 1761.