Thomas Heyward, Jr. (1746–1809)

American statesman, born in St. Luke’s Parish, SC, 1746. He studied law in the Temple, in London. After returning home he was elected to the Continental Congress of 1775, and became one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. In 1778 he was appointed judge of the criminal and circuit court of South Carolina. At the siege of Charleston, May 12, 1780, he was taken prisoner and sent to St. Augustine, FL, where he was confined one year. After his release he resumed his office as state judge. In 1790 he was a member of the constitutional convention, and then retired to his plantation. He died in St. Luke’s Parish on the 6th of March 1809.