Sarah Friday's 1810 Granby Drawing
Captain John Hart
John Hart
In 2016, James G. Boogle, Jr. of Columbia discovered a letter in an old family desk that contained information about a former Granby resident. The letter, dated 1982, was from Mrs. A. Waldo Jones of Atlanta, Georgia. Mrs. Jones provided us with the following biography on Granby's John Hart. Mrs. Jones also gave the Granby team just the information we needed to find Hart's damaged and worn gravestone.
Captain John Hart was born in Charleston, S.C., March 6, 1758; he died March 17, 1814 at Granby, S.C., and was buried there. He was the son of the Reverend Oliver Hart and his first wife, Sarah Breese. The Reverend Oliver Hart was the minister of the Baptist Church at Charleston from 1750 until the British captured Charleston during the Revolution, at which time it was recognized that because of his patriotic activities, he would fare badly if he should fall into the hands of the British. He removed to Pennsylvania and from there to Hopewell, New Jersey, where he died in 1795.
Concerning Oliver Hart's patriotic services: in 1775 the Provincial Congress of South Carolina sent William Drayton, the Reverend William Tennent and the Reverend Oliver Hart to the western counties “to explain to the people at large the nature of the unhappy dispute between Great Britain and the American colonies; to endeavor to settle all political disputes between the people; to quiet their minds and to enforce the necessity of a general union in order to preserve themselves and their children from slavery.” This six weeks mission was one of great hardship and personal danger for Oliver Hart.
In 1773 the Reverend Oliver Hart sent his fifteen-year-old son, John Hart, to Rhode Island College (now Brown University), a Baptist institution. The records state that John “was a wild youth and gave sore displeasure to his father.” Oliver wrote to the college president (Dr. Manning) on November 5, 1773: “I am sorry John has conducted so as to give you so much trouble, and to forfeit the place he had under the management of Mrs. Manning. Had I been apprised of his unworthy conduct sooner, perhaps I should have remanded him back to Carolina, for I am not in such affluent circumstances as to throw away money in the education of one who has no view to his own advantage. I thank you, however, for all the pains you have taken with him, and that you have made trial of the discipline of the rod. I should be sorry he should return a worthless blockhead.
Reverend Hart went on to say that he hoped Dr. Manning could prevail on John to write, as he had written only once in twelve months! The father had more cause for anguish when, in the midst of his college career, John, being an enthusiastic patriot too, took up arms. He fought as a private at Bunker Hill and probably was in the group of students who marched to the defense of Boston. Some delay prevented his presence at Lexington. However, John did return to college and was graduated in 1777 at age 19. He was commissioned a lieutenant in a South Carolina regiment and in January 1778, his father wrote:
John is still in the army, and seems to long for an opportunity of improving his valor, I doubt not his courage, but wish he may have equal conduct, and not be too rash. John rose to the rank of Captain in the Revolutionary forces in the 2nd South Carolina regiment, and served till the close of the war. He was taken prisoner when the British captured Charleston on May 12, 1780. Captain John Hart married on June 17, 1784, in St. Thomas's Parish, South Carolina, Mary Esther Screven, daughter of Brigadier General James Screven who had been killed in the war by the British at Midway, Georgia.
One record says that after the war, since he had not finished his course in medicine at college, he entered trade and opened a store at Monck's Corner, SC, which failed, after which he tried teaching school. Then he was elected Sheriff of Charleston District. Sometime during 1801 to 1803, he moved to Lexington District, SC and erected mills. The records show that he had a son born on Dec. 9, 1803 at “Pine Grove Mills, Lexington County, Orangeburgh District, SC. Then he moved to Granby, SC, his home being three miles from town, where he was Clerk of Court, Ordinary, Judge of Inferior Court, etc.
Captain John Hart died in Granby, SC on March 17, 1814, and in December of 1815, his widow and children removed to Sunbury, Georgia, to be near her people, no doubt. She lived to be nearly 80 years old, dying in 1845. Late in her life, she received a government pension for her husband's Revolutionary services.
Captain John Hart was an Original Member of the Society of the Cincinnati, whose first president was General George Washington.
The grave of Captain John Hart in what was the Baptist churchyard at Granby and what is now the Martin-Marietta Company's gravel quarry, is in deplorable condition in April 1975. The top half of his tombstone, which gave his name and dates, has been broken off and disappeared. There is a footstone which has the letters J. H., but it would be impossible to identify the grave unless one knew the inscription by heart and happened to recognize the remaining words as belonging to his stone.
In 1967, Mr. Joseph E. Hart, Jr., of York, South Carolina wrote, as follows:
Captain John Hart was buried in the Baptist Churchyard, at old Granby, SC. I copied his tombstone:
“Sacred to the Memory of CAPT. JOHN HART who departed this life March 17th 1814 Aged 56 Years 11 days. His country has lost a zealous Patriot. The Church an active member. His family an affectionate and indulgent Head.”
In April 1975, Mr. & Mrs. Waldo Jones finally found the grave at the Martin Marietta Quarry. The stone was close to the fence & could be read from outside; a large Colonial Dames marker was to the right, outside the fence & around the stone was broken off in a jagged line from the upper right corner. These were the only words left on the stone:
"country Patriot. The Church an active member. His family an affectionate and indulgent Head."
The stone had sunk & the last two lines were located by digging. There was a footstone marked J. H..
Probably the broken-off part of the stone is still there and could be repaired. By the time our Granby team made it to the Granby Cemetery, Hart's marker was down to even fewer words, but the miracle 1982 letter from Mrs. A. Waldo Jones provided us with that handful of unique words to identify Captain Hart's grave.
Captain John Hart's home: Status: Archaeology is possible on the quarry property (Click here to see this location on a map)