An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina And Georgia Volume I Part 15

XCVIII. The terms of admittance and communion with any church or profession, shall be written in a book, and therein be subscribed by all the members of the said church or profession; which book shall be kept by the public register of the precinct where they reside.

XCIX. The time of every one's subscription and admittance shall be dated in the said book of religious record.

C. In the terms of communion of every church or profession, these following shall be three; without which no agreement or a.s.sembly of men, upon pretence of religion, shall be accounted a church or profession within these rules:

1. "That there is a G.o.d.

2. "That G.o.d is publicly to be worshipped.

3. "That it is lawful and the duty of every man, being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to truth; and that every church or profession shall, in their terms of communion, set down the external way whereby they witness a truth as in the presence of G.o.d, whether it be by laying hands on, or kissing the Bible, as in the church of England, or by holding up the hand, or any other sensible way."

CI. No person above seventeen years of age shall have any benefit or protection of the law, or be capable of any place of profit or honour, who is not a member of some church or profession, having his name recorded in some one, and but one religious record at once.

CII. No person of any other church or profession shall disturb or molest any religious a.s.sembly.

CIII. No person whatsoever shall speak any thing in their religious a.s.sembly irreverently or seditiously of the government, or governors, or state matters.

CIV. Any person subscribing the terms of communion in the record of the said church or profession, before the precinct register, and any five members of the said church or profession, shall be thereby made a member of the said church or profession.

CV. Any person striking out his own name out of any religious record, or his name being struck out by any officer thereunto authorised by each church or profession respectively, shall cease to be a member of that church or profession.

CVI. No man shall use any reproachful, reviling, or abusive language, against the religion of any church or profession; that being the certain way of disturbing the peace, and of hindering the conversion of any to the truth, by engaging them in quarrels and animosities, to the hatred of the professors and that profession, which otherwise they might be brought to a.s.sent to.

CVII. Since charity obliges us to wish well to the souls of all men, and religion ought to alter nothing in any man's civil estate or right, it shall be lawful for slaves, as well as others, to enter themselves, and be of what church or profession any of them shall think best, and therefore be as fully members as any freeman. But yet no slave shall hereby be exempted from that civil dominion his master hath over him, but be in all other things in the same state and condition he was in before.

CVIII. a.s.semblies, upon what pretence soever of religion, not observing and performing the abovesaid rules, shall not be esteemed as churches, but unlawful meetings, and be punished as other riots.

CIX. No person whatsoever shall disturb, molest, or persecute another for his speculative opinions in religion, or his way of worship.

CX. Every freeman of CAROLINA shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever.

CXI. No cause, whether civil or criminal, of any freeman, shall be tried in any court of judicature, without a jury of his peers.

CXII. No person whatsoever shall hold or claim any land in CAROLINA by purchase or gift, or otherwise, from the natives, or any other whatsoever; but merely from and under the Lords Proprietors; upon pain of forfeiture of all his estate, moveable or immoveable, and perpetual banishment.

CXIII. Whosoever shall possess any freehold in CAROLINA, upon what t.i.tle or grant soever, shall, at the farthest, from and after the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine, pay yearly unto the Lords Proprietors for each acre of land, English measure, as much fine silver as is at this present in one English penny, or the value thereof, to be as a chief rent and acknowledgment to the Lords Proprietors; their heirs and successors, for ever. And it shall be lawful for the Palatine's court, by their officers at any time, to take a new survey of any man's land, not to out him of any part of his possession, but that by such a survey the just number of acres he possesseth may be known, and the rent thereupon due may be paid by him.

CXIV. All wrecks, mines, minerals, quarries of gems, and precious stones, with pearl-fishing, whale-fishing, and one half of all ambergrease, by whomsoever found, shall wholly belong to the Lords Proprietors.

CXV. All revenues and profits belonging to the Lords Proprietors in common shall be divided into ten parts, whereof the Palatine shall have three and each proprietor one; but if the Palatine shall govern by a deputy, his deputy shall have one of those three tenths, and the Palatine the other two tenths.

CXVI. All inhabitants and freemen of CAROLINA above seventeen years of age, and under sixty, shall be bound to bear arms, and serve as soldiers whenever the grand council shall find it necessary.

CXVII. A true copy of three FUNDAMENTAL CONSt.i.tUTIONS shall be kept in a great book by the register of every precinct, to be subscribed before the said register. Nor shall any person, of what condition or degree soever, above seventeen years old, have any estate or possession in CAROLINA, or protection or benefit of the law there, who hath not before a precinct register subscribed three FUNDAMENTAL CONSt.i.tUTIONS in this form:

"I A. B. do promise to bear faith and true allegiance to our sovereign lord king CHARLES the Second, his heirs and successors; and will be true and faithful to the Palatine and Lords Proprietors of CAROLINA, their heirs and successors; and with my utmost power will defend them, and maintain the government according to this establishment in these FUNDAMENTAL CONSt.i.tUTIONS."

CXVIII. Whatsoever alien shall, in this form, before any precinct register, subscribe these fundamental const.i.tutions, shall be thereby naturalized.

CXIX. In the same manner shall every person, at his admittance into any office, subscribe these FUNDAMENTAL CONSt.i.tUTIONS.

CXX. These FUNDAMENTAL CONSt.i.tUTIONS, in number a hundred and twenty, and every part thereof, shall be and remain the sacred and unalterable form and rule of government of CAROLINA for ever. Witness our hands and seals, the first day of March, 1669.

RULES of PRECEDENCY.

I. The Lords Proprietors; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

II. The eldest sons of the Lords Proprietors; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

III. The landgraves of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

IV. The ca.s.siques of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

V. The seven commoners of the grand council that have been longest of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

VI. The younger sons of proprietors; the eldest first, and so in order.

VII. The landgraves; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

VIII. The seven commoners, who, next to those before-mentioned, have been longest of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

IX. The ca.s.siques; the eldest in age first, and so in order.

X. The seven remaining commoners of the grand council; he that hath been longest of the grand council first, and so in order.

XI. The male line of the proprietors.

The rest shall be determined by the chamberlain's court.