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.
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