Abt 1646 - Abt 1686 (~ 40 years)
-
Name |
Henry Woodward |
Birth |
Abt 1646 |
Gender |
Male |
Death |
Abt 1686 |
Person ID |
I139686 |
My Genealogy |
Last Modified |
28 Jun 2015 |
-
Notes |
- Henry Woodward got off the ship of Robert Sandford in 1666 to stay and
live with the Indians on St. Helena Island and learn their language.
There was no settlement between Cape Fear and the Spanish in St.
Augustine when he did this. He was listed as the ship's churgeon
(doctor). After being in SC for about 6 months he wrote (in good Latin)
to a Spanish priest in the area that he had been left by his ship and
needed rescuing. The Spanish came and brought him to St. Augustine. The
Spanish record says Henry was a native of London, but was not Catholic
and they suspected that he might not even be Christian. They put him in
the jail in St. Augustine. The Catholic priests got him out of the jail
because he could speak the language of the Indians and was a doctor.
After some time in St. Augustine Robert Searle, the Privateer, attacked
St. A. and Henry left with him. While serving with the privateers his
ship was shipwrecked on Nevis (ST. Kitt's) Island. The 3 ships coming to
found the colony at Charles Towne put into Nevis for supplies. Their
record says "We found one Henry Woodward in process of building a ship to
come and tell your majesty of his discoveries in the new world. He has
joined our expedition." So Henry was the First Settler to SC. He never
really got along with the other settlers because he had not crossed the
ocean with them and they thought of him as a hitch-hiker. He did many
other wonderous things. He was Lord Ashley's Indian Agent. He was given
2,000 acres of land by Lord Ashley and chose James Island. He died in
1685 of a fever he got at the Scottish settlement at Stuarttown. The
Scots had jailed him for "trespassing" on Scottish territory. Many Scots
died of a fever just after they let Henry go and Henry died of the same
fever shortly after that. (That's a whole nother story.)
|