On this day 250 years ago the South Carolina Provincial Congress convened in Charles Town, South Carolina, with Charles Pinckney elected as President of the Congress. The 184 members of the Provincial Congress included a long list of Patriots who would distinguish themselves in the Revolution including: all four South Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence — Edward Rutledge, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Thomas Heyward, Jr., and Arthur Middleton; two Presidents of the Continental Congress — Henry Laurens and Henry Middleton; two signers of the United States Constitution — Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Rutledge; William Henry Drayton, who signed the Articles of Confederation; Generals Francis Marion, William Moultrie, Thomas Sumter, Alexander McIntosh, Isaac Huger, Richard Richardson (who died while imprisoned by the British), Christopher Gadsden, and Stephen Bull; members of the Continental or Confederation Congresses — John Bull, Isaac Motte, John Mathews and John Lewis Gervais; Francis Salvador, an immigrant who would be the first Jew to die in combat fighting for America; and several others with distinguished service in the Revolutionary War including Daniel Horry, Thomas Neel, Benjamin Garden, Thomas Rutledge, Joseph Kershaw, Daniel DeSaussure, Joseph Kirkland, John Barnwell, and Gideon Dupont. These are just the names I recognize; if I had time to look up all 184 members I expect almost all would have had distinguished records of service to American Independence.

Sources: https://www.powdermagazinemuseum.org/history250

https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/prelude-revolution

Also on that day in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the colonial Assembly convened. Although Royal Governor William Franklin tried to persuade the Assembly not to approve the Continental Association passed by the First Continental Congress or to elect delegates to the Second Continental Congress, the Assembly refused, explaining that the work of the Congress would be “entirely frustrated” unless the Assembly joined in “preserving an Appearance of Unanimity throughout the Colonies.”

Source: Norton, Mary Beth, 1774 the Long Year of Revolution, New York: Vintage Books, 2021 at p. 263.

Also on that day in Northampton County, Virginia, Col. Littleton Savage reported to his fellow members of the Northampton County Committee of Inspection (also known as the Committee of Safety) that he had received 416 pounds of tea that the people of Northampton County had turned in to him in fulfillment of the Continental Association’s pledge to refrain from drinking tea. John Bowdoin, Chairman of the Committee reported: “Some gentlemen also brought their tea to the courthouse and desired it might be publickly burnt, in which reasonable request they were instantly gratified.”

Sources: https://shoredailynews.com/headlines/the-revolutionary-shore-january-4-1775/; https://www.co.northampton.va.us/visitors/tourism/free_things_to_see_and_do/free_history_lessons/northampton250