Welsh Journals

recover two debts, one of eleven pounds in South Carolina money, and another of £ 23 5s.16 Charles Noble, a doctor and witness to Richard's will, was the plaintiff. Noble had been, according to Pryce, Richard's 'Companion both in his travells and sickness'.17 Pryce Hughes had earlier written to him that 'Twas my Bro's happiness to be attended by you even in his last minute with ye many other Kindnesse'. I suspect that law suits such as these were standard business practice at the time, without the adversarial connotations we associate with them today.18 Pryce's draft copy of a letter to Nairne answering Nairne's condolences has survived, showing many corrections and fine tuning before a satisfactory original was produced. In it, Pryce thanked Nairne for helping his servants, and Richard. After Richard's death, much of their stock had been sold 'at a great disadvantage' because of the 'unforeseen expense' linked with the death. Pryce informed Nairne in the undated copy that he would leave for America 'personally God willing abt next autumn', but first had to settle his affairs in Montgomeryshire. He also mentioned his plans for a colony and how some 'ridicule my Designs'; however, he piously believed God would make his" venture succeed.19 Other key letters, some copies and some in draft form, have also survived, outlining Pryce's plans for establishing a colony on the Mississippi for the poor of Wales. Not only are these plans fascinating in their detail-for example listing the necessary herbs and medicines needed for such an undertaking-but also in his strategies. He planned to use his court connections through the Powis family to petition for both financial support and legitimacy for his enterprise. One of the letters, dated October 1713, was written to the 'Duchess' of Powis, asking her to forward an enclosed, very long and detailed letter to the Duchess of Ormonde, a member-again later suspected of Jacobitism — of Queen Anne's household.20 Pryce by that time in Charles Town, hoped that she would in turn, present yet another letter and a map to Queen Anne herself.21 He shrewdly proposed to name the colony Annarea' in honour of his queen. There is no evidence as to the fate of the originals of these letters, or what kind of reception they received at court, although Pryce Hughes later talked to the governor of French Louisiana as if the colony was to become a reality. Within a short time of his arrival in South Carolina, Pryce became an authority on Indian affairs. He had visited many Indian tribes who were relatively unfamiliar with Europeans at that time, such as the Cherokees, the Choctaws and the Chickasaws. He had even tried, if unsuccessfully, to stop the massacre of a small tribe that had offended two rather shady participants in the Carolina Indian trade.22 His letters also reflect a concern "South Carolina Archives, Columbia, Judgement Rolls, South Carolina Court of Common Pleas, 1711/12, Box 2U, No.28A and Box 2D, No.67A. The plaintiffs usually won in cases of debt. Seven South Carolina pounds, referred to usually as 'currency', equalled one pound sterling. "'Five Pryce Hughes autograph letters, proposing a Welsh Colony, 1713', in the Caroliniana Library of the University of South Carolina at Columbia, South Carolina. These are drafts of letters by Pryce Hughes, this one without a date, but probably written before he left for America. The drafts to Noble and Nairne were clearly written earlier that 1713, probably very early in 1712, responding to Richard Hughes's October 1711 death. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid., copy of an undated letter to Thomas Nairne. MIbid., to the 'Duchess' of Powis. 21 Ibid.; In 1730, Alexander Spotswood, the governor of Virginia, sent to England his own sketch of a map he attributed to Pryce Hughes. This is in the Public Record Office, CO Virginia 2, and there is a copy at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. 22 South Carolina Archives, Columbia, Journal of the Commons House of Assembly, November 1713, on microfilm, W.S. Jenkins, Records of the States of the United States, South Carolina, Alb/l/4, p.51, hereafter cited as R.S.U.S. SC; W.L. McDowell, Journal of the Commissioners of the Indian Trade, September 20, 1710-August 29, 1718 (Columbia, South Carolina: South Carolina Archives Department, 1955), pp.49,51-54,56,60.