"S" is for Stuart's Town

"S" is for Stuart's Town. Stuart’s Town was a Scottish colony founded in 1684 and envisioned by the Lords Proprietors as a counterweight to the somewhat ungovernable English settlement at Charleston. Establishing New World colonies was difficult and dangerous work, but when the proprietors sought new settlers in 1689, they found willing recruits among Scots Covenanters (Presbyterians facing persecution for their adherence to the Covenant of 1683). The Covenanters wanted political autonomy and freedom of worship—which the Lords Proprietors guaranteed. The colonists negotiated an alliance with the Yamassee and several accompanied a raid against a tribe under Spanish protection. Retribution arrived in 1686. Three Spanish ships and 150 troops overran Scottish defenders. The Spanish allowed the colonists to escape, but thoroughly plundered the settlement before burning it to the ground. Stuart Town was not rebuilt.