Alexander Hewatt
Dr. Alexander Hewat(t) was the first historian of South Carolina and Georgia, and the brother of Andrew Hewat, a loyalist planter in South Carolina. Both remained loyal to the King during the American Revolution, and as a result their property was seized and they were expelled under threat of death. Hewat's An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina is still a respected account of early American history, and was reprinted as recently as 1962 by the Reprint Co of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Alexander came from a long line of Calvinist farmers and churchmen. The earliest record of the Hewat name appears to be that of James Hewat, a Dominican friar in Dundee in the 1520s, one of the earliest teachers of Calvin's doctrine in Scotland. In the conflicts between Catholic, Protestant and then Anglican state religions, Hewats often found themselves on the wrong side. In 1619 (the year of the Mayflower) Peter Hewat a church leader, notary and member of the Parliament of Scotland, was exiled to Crossraguel Abbey (which had been given to him by the king) after James VI of Scotland had become head of the official Anglican church as James I of England. By the 18th century Hewats were farming around Roxburgh when Alexander's grandfather James was expelled from his kirk for taking over other people's land. However, Alexander's father Richard (17071776) became an elder of the church and is described on his tombstone, still standing in Roxburgh churchyard, as "an honest and industrious man and a sincere and devout Christian". Hewat left an estate of 7000 sterling (equivalent to almost 500,000 in 2000). He is buried in St. John's Wood in London [Death Duty Registers, PRO, IR26/1003].
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