Lord Charles Greville Montagu
Governor June 1766 – May 1768
Governor October 1768 – July 1769
Governor September 1771 – March 1773 The younger son of a duke, Charles Greville Montagu was born in England in 1741, educated at Oxford, and elected to Parliament in 1762. In his early twenties, Lord Montagu was appointed governor of South Carolina, arriving in June 1766 to take over from acting governor William Bull.
On May 23, 1768, the popular governor and his wife set out on a visit to Philadelphia. During Montagu’s summer-long absence, William Bull again acted as governor.
Governor Montagu suffered health complaints, and on July 29, 1769, he sailed for England, leaving William Bull as acting governor. Lord Montagu and his family returned to South Carolina on September 15, 1771.
Charles Greville Montagu deadlocked with the Commons House of Assembly over taxation issues, and dissolved the assembly in November 1771. New elections installed the same members for the assembly meeting in April 1772. In August, Montagu called for another election, and, claiming his inability to find a suitable residence in Charleston, informed the colonists that the assembly would meet in Beaufort. In October, after a three-day meeting, governor Montagu took the assembly back to Charleston. Twice more he called for new elections; both times the same members were seated. Lord Charles Montagu had lost control of his government.
South Carolina’s assembly met for the last time under the royal government in February 1773. Governor Montagu departed for England on March 8, 1773, and lieutenant governor William Bull took over as acting governor for the fifth time, serving until Governor William Campbell arrived.
Charles Montagu became captain of a British regiment in December 1780, and was sent to Charleston. When the war ended, he and most of his men settled in Nova Scotia, where Montagu died on February 3, 1784. Ravenel, Mrs. St. Julien (Harriott Horry Rutledge). Charleston. The Place and the People. New York, 1912; rep. ed. Southern Historical Press, 1972.
Waddell, Gene. "Charles Pinckney's Double House." Charleston Architecture, 1670-1860. Charleston: Wyrick & Company, 2003.
Weir, Robert M. “Montagu, Lord Charles Greville.” Walter Edgar, ed. South Carolina Encyclopedia. University of South Carolina Press, 2006.
Photos
 PinckneyMansionEastFacade_3_500x500.jpg) |
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration http://arcweb.archives.gov/
Built for Charles and Eliza Lucas Pinckney, the Pinckney mansion was completed in 1750. During the Pinckneys’ long absence from Charleston, royal governors James Glen, Thomas Boone, William Henry Lyttelton, and Charles Greville Montagu resided in this “commodious mansion house.” When Charles Cotesworth Pinckney returned from Europe in 1769, he settled into his parents’ home. The Pinckney mansion burned in the fire of December 11, 1861. |
 PinckneyMansionNortheastView_500x500.jpg) |
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration http://arcweb.archives.gov/
Governor Montagu returned from England in September 1771, and with the Pinckney mansion unavailable, he could not find suitable housing in Charleston. The governor roused local hostility by taking up residence at Fort Johnson (on James Island), and threatening to relocate to Beaufort. Ca. 1865 view of the Pinckney house, which burned in 1861. |
 PinckneyMansion1739_3_500x500.jpg) |
Bishop Roberts and W. H. Toms, The Ichnography of Charles-Town at High Water. London, 1739.
Site of Pinckney Mansion, 1739. The bridge leading north from the fortified town became known as Governor’s Bridge. |
 PinckneyMansionRuinsPlat_3_500x500.jpg) |
City Engineer's Plat Book, page 2 (S. C. History Room, Charleston County Public Library)
Ruins of the Pinckney Mansion, 1866. |
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