Episode Eight: The Goose Creek Cross Site
What do we mean when we refer to the Society’s cross sites? The cross sites are located in South Carolina and each one marks an original church of the Huguenots. Each site is owned by the Society and a granite cross stands at each one.
In this episode, Cheves Leland discusses the history of the Huguenots at Goose Creek and the church they established. Goose Creek is located about 19 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina and several Huguenot families had their first land grants at the head of the Creek, also known as Yeamans Creek. The church structure is long gone, but a granite cross marks its location in remembrance of our ancestors and their place of worship.
From The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina by Arthur Henry Hirsch, Ph.D. 1928, Duke University Press reprinted 1962 by Archon Books (pp 20-22)
Early in the life of the colony Goose Creek became a favorite residential resort for Charles Town people and others. English and French settlers were attracted to the rich lands at the "head waters" of the stream. No enumeration of Huguenots living there has been preserved, except possibly that of Peter Girard, who states that in March, 1699, there were thirty-one. Land in this vicinity was granted to Huguenots as early as 1680. The George Gourden (Gourdin) grant of 300 acres, is dated November 15, 1680, and recites that he was then in possession of the land. According to an incomplete enumeration preserved in Mrs. E. A. Poyas' Peep into the Past, the following were tax payers at Goose Creek in 1694. She says:
"I have seen an assessment of the inhabitants of Goose Creek, for January 1694, w,hich gives property as follows : Peter Vrillepontoux, Madame Elizabeth Gaillard, £2,234; Peter St. Julien, for Louis Pasquereau £350; Francis Guerin, Peter Guerin, Abraham LePlain, Gideon Fisherau (Fouchereau ), Benjamin Marion, Mr. Mazyck, Moses Moreau, Benjamin Godin."
From various sources we gather that Goose Creek must have been a rather large settlement and that a number of French families lived there either on cultivated plantations or, in the later period, at fashionable country seats. In 1702 the Rev. Mr. Thomas wrote to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts that many of the settlers "taking part in the government" lived at Goose Creek, and that some of the members of the Governor's Council and of the Assembly were there. Among the French families prominent in this region were those of Antoine Prudhomme, John Boisseau, Abraham Fleury, Sieur de la Pleine, Peter Bacot, Henry Bruneau, Abraham DuPont, Pierre Dassau, Isaac Fleury ( alias De France ), Gideon Faucheraud, Elias Prioleau, Anthony Bonneau, Charles Franchomme, Benjamin Godin, Francis Guerin, Benjamin Marion, John Postell, Dr. Isaac Porcher, J. DuGue, Philip Trouillart, Paul Mazyck, Isaac Peronneau, Ann LeBrasseur, Elie Horry, and Zachariah Villepontoux. By the Act of 1706, as we shall see, the French lost their Huguenot ecclesiastical identity, but they continued to support the Established Church with liberality and took part in the political and ecclesiastical activities.
CLICK HERE to read a prior Blog post about the cross sites.
Cheves Leland
GUEST
Cheves Leland is a native of Charleston, South Carolina and the resident Historian for the Huguenot Society of South Carolina and, along with Susan Baldwin Bates, authored French Santee which is an in-depth study of the 17th century settlement on the Santee River. The 440 page book contains more than 100 sketches of French Protestant families of French Santee. A reprint of the 2015 edition, now with eight pages of color maps and images. is available for purchase online via the Society gift shop.
Elizabeth F. Gay
HOST
Elizabeth F. Gay is a thirty-year member of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina and serves as its Executive Director. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, she descends from French Huguenot immigrants Benjamin Marion and Thomas de Guerin. After a career in corporate communications, she retuned to Charleston in 2018 and brings her enjoyment of education through conversations to this podcast series as she visits with historians, authors and more.