Meeting Street Memories: 15 Meeting St.

View of the handsome house at 15 Meeting St. IMAGE COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

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By Peg Eastman

            Lower Meeting Street is blessed with multiple mansions belonging to the nation’s founding fathers, among them, John Edwards, the builder of 15 Meeting St. Edwards emigrated from Britain c. 1750 and established himself as a merchant; it is thought that Charles Goodwin and Walter Thomas, merchants of Chester, England, provided the capital for his business enterprises. During the next 30 years, Edwards formed at least six partnerships, two of which included his English sponsors. Part of his fortune was derived from the slave trade, where his firms imported 19 cargoes of slaves. He was also the owner of a schooner and a brigantine and co-owner of four other ships. Interested in current events, he belonged to the exclusive Charleston Library Society, which imported English periodicals for its members.

             Edwards was a member of the Congregational Meeting House (the namesake of Meeting St.) and also served on the committee that revised its constitution. All three of his wives were Congregationalists. His first wife, Dorothy Bassett, was the daughter of Mary Smith and the Reverend Nathan Bassett, the Congregational minister. After she died in childbirth, Edwards married Margaret Peronneau, daughter of Alexander Peronneau and Mary Pollock, with whom he fathered 11 children. She also died while giving birth. Two years later, Edwards married Rebecca Bee Holmes, daughter of John Bee, Jr., and Susannah Simmons and the widow of Isaac Holmes; they had one daughter. Around 1770, Edwards built the handsome residence on Meeting Street to house his expanding family, which was staffed by 12 enslaved servants.

            It was a dwelling suitable to his place in society and a prime example of the Georgian Palladian architecture of its day. It may have been built by master carpenters William Miller and John Fullerton. The grandson of William Miller, William Simmons, wrote in 1822 that Miller had built “some of the best old houses” in Charleston, including “Governor Edwards, I think.” At that time, there was no Governor Edwards; Simmons may have been referring to the house of John Edwards, an important Revolutionary-period official.

The two-and-a-half-story house was built above a brick basement with a double flight of stairs with iron railings ascending to an entrance portico supported by Scamozzi Ionic columns and a balustrade above. The façade was made of rusticated cypress siding cut and beveled to resemble stonework, and the brick basement front was given similar treatment. It was a way to make the house look grander and more expensive. A centered pediment with a bull’s eye window is set on scroll brackets. The sash windows have nine-over-nine lights and surrounds with voussoirs and keystones in flat arches. The plan features a center hall flanked by square rooms; the hall was divided by an arch into entrance and stair hall. The stairs have mahogany balusters and newel posts. The second floor has a rectangular drawing room and a square withdrawing room overlooking the street. A two-story carriage house with a gable roof and pediment was constructed behind the house.

            Active in Revolutionary politics, beginning with the Non-Importation Agreements, Edwards allied himself with the more radical of the colonials. He was elected to serve the parish of St. Michael in the Commons House of Assembly for three terms before it was dissolved. He then served St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s parishes in the First and Second Provincial Congresses and three terms in the General Assembly. A member of John Rutledge’s Privy Council, he also served as Commissioner of Fortifications for Charles Town, Commissioner to inspect tobacco, Commissioner to build a curtain line for Charles Town, Naval Commissioner, Commissioner for the streets of Charles Towne and Firemaster.

            Edward’s revolutionary fervor cost him dearly; he had lent the state £226,636 and the firms he served advanced the state an additional £252,430. These enormous sums were made in wartime-inflated S.C. currency. After Charles Towne fell to the British in 1780, his estate was sequestered and he was exiled to St. Augustine in the Loyalist colony of British West Florida before later being paroled to Philadelphia, where he died of apoplexy and was buried in the Arch St. (Congregational) burying ground. His remains were later reinterred in the Congregational Church graveyard on Meeting Street.

            Edwards’ family shared his patriotic zeal, and some paid dearly for their loyalty to the revolution. Admiral Arbuthnot took her home as his headquarters during the British occupation of the city and allowed the widow and her children to live in part of the house. His son (another John Edwards) supported the Revolution and served as aide de camp for Francis Marion. He later enjoyed a distinguished career as a merchant and public servant and voted in favor of ratifying the U.S. Constitution in 1788 before serving as intendant (mayor) of Charleston from 1795 to 1796.

John Bee Holmes — Mrs. Edward’s son by an earlier marriage — was wounded and captured during the fall of Savannah in 1799. In 1781, he was put aboard a prison ship moored in Charles Town harbor, and in a cruel twist of fate, he could see his home from the ship. He also was intendant in 1794-95. At the time of the Santo Domingo insurrection in 1793, refugees Count de Grasse August and his family were Holmes’ guests for more than a year at 15 Meeting St. The de Grasse family worshiped at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Hasell Street where a marker commemorates their time in Charleston. August was a son of Count de Grasse François, commander of the French fleet that defeated a British fleet in Chesapeake Bay and contributed to Washington’s 1781 victory at Yorktown.

The house remained in the Edwards family until 1843, when it was bought by Henry W. Conner, a local banker and father of Confederate General James Conner who lived there with his mother. The home was also owned by John Gadsden, father of the Reverend Christopher Gadsden, before 1889 when it was purchased by George Walton Williams, Jr., son of the man who built the Williams Mansion across the street. He raised the front part of the grounds to the level of the street. Williams was chairman of the Orphan House Commission and (according to tradition) added the semicircular piazzas to accommodate ice-cream parties for the orphans.

Near the turn of the century, two Chinese ginkgo trees were planted in the side yard, which provided all who walked by with a golden haze of leaves that blanketed the grounds of the property in the fall. By December 1933, the splendid array was so popular that it merited an article in the News and Courier. Sadly, these colorful trees were cut down some years ago and are sorely missed by old timers who still reside in Charleston.

My appreciation to Bob Stockton and Malcolm Hale for contributing to this article.

A Charlestonian by birth, Margaret (Peg) Middleton Rivers Eastman is actively involved in the preservation of Charleston’s rich cultural heritage. In addition to being a regular columnist for the Charleston Mercury, she has published through McGraw Hill, The History Press, Evening Post Books and Carologue, a publication of the South Carolina Historical Society. She is a member of the City of Charleston History Commission and serves on the board of the Friends of the Old Exchange.