Mark Cole
The eldest son of a wealthy planter, Thomas Heyward, Jr., grew up in southern South Carolina not far from the Georgia border. His family educated him thoroughly in the classics, first at home, then in a classical school. After completing an apprenticeship with a local lawyer, Heyward went to London to study law.
In his studies, as Heyward became familiar with the principles of liberty as set forth by the great English jurist William Blackstone, and once he fully understood the historic rights secured to persons (including colonists) and property by the Magna Charta and the British constitution, he became outraged at the injustice of the treatment of the colonists by the Crown. Similarly, after completing his legal studies, Heyward traveled in continental Europe for an extended period and was repulsed by the pomp and trappings of royalty he observed.
He returned to South Carolina in 1771, a convinced republican and patriot.
Over the next few years, though still a very young man, Heyward was elected to various legislative offices, and always aligned himself with the independence movement. Accordingly, as a member of the Continental Congress, Heyward gladly signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. A year later, in 1777, he also signed the Articles of Confederation.
In 1778, he would step down from the Congress to accept an appointment as a judge and a military commission.
In 1779, Heyward received a gunshot wound during a British attack along the South Carolina coast near his home. The wound would scar him for life.
The following year, the British plundered Charleston, destroyed much of his plantation, and took Heyward (along with Edward Rutledge and Arthur Middleton, two other signers of the Declaration from South Carolina) as a prisoner of war.
Thomas Heyward was held as POW in St. Augustine, Florida for nearly a year, until July, 1781. While he was held as a prisoner, his wife died. He would later re-marry, but never quite recovered from this loss.
Nonetheless, his experience as a prisoner failed to shake his commitment to the cause of independence. Shortly before his release, Heyward re-wrote the British national anthem, God Save the King, inserting his altered lyrics and renaming the work, God Save the Thirteen States. Heyward’s version, naturally enough, caught on and soon echoed from Georgia to New Hampshire.
Heyward only narrowly survived the trip from Florida to Philadelphia where he and the other prisoners were to be released. During a storm, Heyward fell overboard but managed to hang on to the rudder of the boat until help came.
Heyward finally arrived back in South Carolina in late 1781, resumed his judicial duties and simultaneously served two terms in the South Carolina state legislature. In 1785, he helped found the Agricultural Society of South Carolina, and became its first president. In 1790, he attended the South Carolina constitutional convention.
After signing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Heyward was shot, held as a prisoner of war, and nearly drowned. Much of his wealth was destroyed and his first love died.
Even so, there is no record that he ever looked back or even thought twice about taking the stand for independence that he did.
Judge Heyward was the last of the South Carolina signers to die, surviving until 1809 when he was 64. By all accounts, he was a devoted patriot, an able judge, and an honest and decent man.
Check out Mark’s book: Lives, Fortunes, Sacred Honor: The Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence
