to be imported and exported without touching at any port in South Carolina. At the end of the twenty-one years the crown was to establish such form of government in the province, and such method of making laws therefor, as in its pleasure should be deemed meet; and all officers should be then appointed by the crown.
§ 144. Such is the substance of the charter, which was obviously intended for a temporary duration only; and the first measures adopted by the trustees, granting lands in tail male, to be held by a sort of military service, and introducing other restrictions, were not adapted to aid the original design, or foster the growth of the colony.[1] It continued to languish, until at length the trustees, wearied with their own labours, and the complaints of the people, in June, 1751, surrendered the charter to the crown.[2] Henceforward it was governed as a royal province, enjoying the same liberties and immunities as other royal provinces; and in process of time it began to flourish, and at the period of the American Revolution, it had attained considerable importance among the colonies.[3]
§ 145. In respect to its ante-revolutionary jurisprudence, a few remarks may suffice. The British common and statute law lay at the foundation.[4] The same general system prevailed as in the Carolinas, from which it sprung. Intestate estates descended according to the course of the English law. The registration
