Henry Mouzon, Jr. receives undue credit for the map entitled An Accurate Map of North and South Carolina…the whole from Actual Surveys by Henry Mouzon and Others. So does Henry Mouzon, Jr.
Say what? Turns out, there were two persons of that name (first cousins). Twentieth century writers frequently combined their biographical details into a single person. In his introductory essay in Southeast in Early Maps, and in his 1966 monograph, North Carolina in Maps, Cumming brought to our attention the excellent historical research by Wylma A. Wates on the two Henry Mouzon, Juniors. At that time, Miss Wates was working in the South Carolina Archives; her c1965 notes on the subject are preserved there, but had not been published in their entirety (Cumming provided only teasing snippets). With Miss Wates’s consent, her notes were transcribed and published on the original NC Map Blog in July 2013. That web site no longer exists, so Miss Wates’s notes have been moved to this new NC Map Blog.
HENRY MOUZON
© BY WYLMA A. WATES
Confusion over the identity of Henry Mouzon, the mapmaker, has arisen from
the fact that there were two Henry Mouzons in South Carolina at the time. The
attached family chart, compiled from wills and deeds shows them to have been
first cousins – Henry, the son of Lewis, and Henry, the son of Henry. To add to
the confusion Henry, the son of Lewis, also signed his name Henry, Jr. This was
an 18th century practice which meant a younger person of the same name and
not necessarily a son. Henry, the son of Lewis, seems to have been located in St.
Stephen’s Parish [Craven County]. Henry, the son of Henry, was located in Kingstree
and served as a captain under General Francis Marion.
Current identification of Henry Mouzon of Kingstree as the mapmaker seems
to rest with William Willis Boddie, History of Williamsburg, (Columbia: The
State Company, 1923). On page 123 along with other unverified statements
about Henry Mouzon’s early education in France and his war career, he is
credited with drawing the well-known map of South Carolina and the first
survey for the Santee Canal. James A. Wallace in History of Williamsburg
Church, (Salisbury, N.C.: Printed at the Herald Office, 1856) has an account of
Capt. Henry Mouzon’s career in the Revolution based on recollections of Miss
Nancy Mouzon, his daughter. She was 11 years old when Tarleton burned her
father’s house and was then “a venerable lady…a bright example of unabated
mental vigor…” Although written in a most laudatory style, there is nothing
about Mouzon as a mapmaker. Dr. Samuel O. McGill in his Narrative of
Reminiscences in Williamsburg County (Columbia: The Bryan Printing
Company, 1897) gives several indications of his friendship with Mouzons of his
generation and gives an account of Capt. Henry Mouzon’s life on pages 283-84
with no mention of his having been a surveyor. Mrs. E. A. Poyas on pages 38-44
of Days of Yore, or Shadows of the Past (Charleston: Edward Perry, 1870), has a
sketch of the Mouzon family. The genealogy is substantially the same as that in
the recent article in Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. It
seems to grow out of an obituary of a daughter of Capt. Henry Mouzon, called
by Mrs. Poyas, Nelly, but evidently Nancy and, at least, claims to be based on
first-hand accounts from Miss Mouzon. While making much of Capt. Mouzon’s
career in the Revolution, it says nothing of his having been a surveyor or
mapmaker. In Some Descendants of Henry Mouzon, Map-Maker and Surveyor,
compiled by Mabel Trott FitzSimmons, in Transactions of the Huguenot
Society of South Carolina, No. 69 (Charleston, 1964), pages 46-50, the
statement is made:
“The only record which exists is a little handsewn paper
book, with no cover, evidently written by some member of the family. The first
entry is dated September 19, 1738, and the last June 13, 1797.”
This seems to contain only genealogical information – birth, marriages, and deaths, or the
sort of information one would find in a family Bible. The only authority given
for the identification of Capt. Henry Mouzon as the mapmaker is W. W. Boddie,
History of Williamsburg and some family tradition several generations
removed from the source.
The will of Henry Mouzon, Jr., of Craven County can be seen in Charleston Wills
Vol. 18, 1776-1784, pps. 242-243 (Typed copies in S.C. Archives). It was signed
on October 19, 1775, and leaves to his nephew Josias Blake Dupre, “all my
wearing apparel & surveyor’s instruments.” The date that the will was proved
or recorded is not given, but in Inventories 1776-1784, p. 39 (MS in S.C.
Archives), the inventory of the estate of Mr. Henry Mouzon, Jr., deceased, was
made on April 17, 1777 and signed by Hezekiah Maham, Esq., Richard Norman,
and Nicholas Ray. It contained along with other items:
a parcel of surveyors instruments,
1 Sett printing Types,
2 qrs. writing paper, and
Sundry Maps & 2 copper Plates.
Deeds along with other family wills definitely show that this same Henry
Mouzon, Jr., sometimes described as of St. Stephen’s Parish, was the son of
Lewis.
Samuel Dubose in his Reminiscences of St. Stephen’s Parish, Craven
County, and Notices of her Homesteads, (Charleston: A. E. Miller, 1858), says
on pages 8-9:
“Next is Lifeland, the residence of Peter Sinkler… Mr. Sinkler’s first wife
was Elizabeth Mouzon, sister of Henry Mouzon, the Surveyor and Engineer.
Their children were Jane Sinkler, who married Joseph Glover of Colleton; Peter who
married Mary, daughter of Richard Walter; James who never married; and
Elizabeth Sinkler, wife of Samuel Dubose of Murrell’s.”
In his will, Henry Mouzon left his picture to his nieces, Jane and Elizabeth
Sinkler.
Henry Mouzon, Jr., the mapmaker, also made a Map of St. Stephen’s
Parish with an early survey for what later became the Santee canal. A
description of this map is in F. A. Porcher, The History of the Santee Canal,
dedicated to the South Carolina Historical Society, 1875, and published by the
S.C. Public Service Authority in 1950:
“In one corner of the map is a vignette
exhibiting the indigo plant in its leaf and its seed, and an industrial picture
representing the process of its manufacture. An old tradition long current in St.
Stephen’s says that the portly figure who represents the master is that of Mr.
Peter Sinkler, and the figure near him, that of his overseer, Mr. Guerry.”
Peter Sinkler, who died during the Revolution, was the brother-in-law of Henry
Mouzon, son of Lewis, having married this Henry Mouzon’s sister, Elizabeth.
On March 21, 1774, the Committee on Public Accounts approved an account of
Ephraim Mitchell and Henry Mouzon, Jr., for £4347:10:3; after deducting £765
from their original claim, “for surveying the several District Lines in this
Province.” In their petition presented to the Commons House on April 25, 1775,
for payment of the full amount of their claim, Ephraim Mitchell and Henry
Mouzon, Jr. declare that they had been appointed by Governor Lord Charles
Greville Montagu, “to run out and mark the Boundary Lines of the several
Districts in this Colony.” A Committee Report the next day upheld the previous
allowance. (Commons House Journal No. 39, pps. 145, 274-275.) In Treasury
Receipts, 1774-1778, p. 58 and 91 (MS in S.C. Archives), there are two receipts
for certificates which total the amount of this claim. The first was signed by M.
Brewton for Ephraim Mitchell and Henry Mouzon, Jr., the second on page 91, is
signed by Henry Mouzon, Junr.
A comparison of signatures in the Archives might offer the conclusive evidence
in this problem of confused identity. The signature of Henry Mouzon, Jr. on the
Treasury Receipt may be taken to be that of the Mapmaker. A sampling of
signatures of Henry Mouzon, Jr., Deputy Surveyor on manuscript plats in the
1770s definitely show them to be the same one. No
signatures of Henry Mouzon, Jr. as a surveyor after the Revolution were found.
The signature of Capt. Henry Mouzon in the Accounts Audited File in his own
account for supplies furnished, and on affidavits of service of others are
definitely different.
We know Henry Mouzon, Jr., of St. Stephen’s Parish was a surveyor, while there
is no contemporary evidence that Capt. Henry Mouzon was. Henry Mouzon, Jr.
died before April 17, 1777. Capt. Henry Mouzon lived until Aug. 25, 1807. There
is no record of Henry Mouzon, Jr. as a surveyor after the Revolution, although
his partner, Ephraim Mitchell, later served as Surveyor-General of S.C. (See his
obituary from the City Gazette and Daily Advertiser, March 16, 1792.) Unless
documentary evidence can be produced showing an earlier reference to Capt.
Henry Mouzon as a surveyor before Boddie’s History in 1923, the weight of
evidence must rest with Henry Mouzon, Jr. of St. Stephen’s as the Mapmaker.
As far as the attribution of the “Mouzon map” of the Carolinas to Henry Mouzon, Jr., that topic is covered in another blog post. Use the search bar and search for Mouzon.