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Witness to change: George Anson and colonial Charleston

George Anson
Attributed to Thomas Hudson
/
Royal Museums Greenwich
George Anson (1697–1762), 1st Baron Anson, Admiral of the Fleet

This week we’ll be talking with Nic Butler, the historian at the Charleston County Public Library. He has been digging into archives both here and in Britain, researching the life of George Anson.

Anson, was an officer in the British Navy who, by the time of his death in 1762, had risen to its highest rank, First Lord of the Admiralty. He had also spent 9 years in South Carolina during its time of transition from a colony governed by the Lords Proprietors to a colony of the British Crown.

That change wasn’t instant and some of the history the colony's governance during the transition - as well as that of day-to-day life – are sometimes unclear. However, in researching George Anson, Nic Butler has both found a valuable through-line to this history and shone a light on Anson’s own fascinating story.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.