Governor Sir John Yeamans charleston sc history

Yeamans was the son of an alderman of Bristol who
had suffered death for his fidelity to the crown. He
himself had warmly supported the royal cause in Barbadoes,
already a thriving colony. For so doing and
for prospective services in colonization he, Sir Peter
Colleton, and some other gentlemen of like principles, had
been made baronets ; — the old people used to refer to
them as "only-badian Baronets." He had. provoked the
colonists by not accompanying them on their voyage and
they vainly protested against his appointment now. In
many respects he made a bad Governor, oppressing the
people by his exactions, and offending the Proprietors by
demands for buildings and fortifications, which although
needed they had no mind to give.
Still, he had the advantage of understanding the needs
and resources of a new colony, putting the place into a
tolerable state of defence, and pointing out the agriculture
suited to the climate. He also showed the resources
of the forests, cutting and sending to Lord Ashley twelve
great logs of cedarwood, as the first-fruits of his new
possession. From that time the demand for cedar was as
constant and eager as was that of Solomon upon Hiram,
King of Tyre.
A still more important service was, that by his advice

and influence many rich planters from Barbadoes and
other West Indian Islands came to the Province, bringing
their negroes with them. They settled themselves chiefly
on a small affluent of the Cooper, called, from the fancied
resemblance of its winding course to the curving neck of
the goose,
" Goose-creek. ' Thence, they and their friends
on the Ashley and Cooper were known as the " Goose creek
men."
They differed from the "
plain people
" — mostly dissenters
—who had come out with Sayle, in being generally
of a higher class, wealthy, and members of the Church of
England. Thus began — and not from the fanciful nobility
— that untitled class of landed gentry which, perfectly
well understood and accepted during the colonial
period, survived the Revolution and formed a distinct and
influential element of Charleston society down to 1865.
Long after Yeamans had been removed this movement
continued, and gentlemen of wealth and position arrived
from England and the Islands to the great benefit of the
Province.