To George Washington from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 14 January 1784
From Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charleston [S.C.] Jany 14. 1784
Dear General,
The many favours I have received from you, emboldens me to take the Liberty to introduce to you Mr Shuttleworth an English Gentleman of Family & Fortune. I remember his Character at Westminster & Oxford, and it was in every respect amiable —He is visiting the Sea ports of America on a party of pleasure in a Vessell of his own, manned & fitted out at his private expence. He is Brother in Law to Mr Charles Turner who distinguished himself in the British House of Commons by his constant & strenuous opposition to the British measures in America. He is also Son in Law to General Desaguliers an Artillery Officer of considerable Merit. He is attended in his Voyage by the Revd Mr Perry (a Clergyman of reputation, whose amiable Character I also remember at Oxford,) & by his Physician.1 They are anxious before they leave America to see your Excellency, the Admira—but I will not wound your Excellency’s Feelings, by repeating to you those plaudits, which are the pleasing Theme not only of all your Countrymen but of all the World. I am convinced the most agreeable attention I can possibly shew these Gentlemen will be to give them an opportunity of delivering this Letter to your Excellency,2 and if your Excellency will excuse the Liberty I take in doing so, you will add to the many obligations you have already conferred on Your Excellency’s Most obliged & most humble Servt
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
ALS, PHi: Gratz Collection.
Col. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1745–1825) of South Carolina joined GW’s forces in the late summer of 1777. Before the end of the year he returned to his regiment in South Carolina where he took part in the southern campaigns during the next two years. By 1784 Pinckney had resumed his practice of law and other business activities in Charleston in addition to managing his plantations.
1. Pinckney accompanied his family to England in 1753, and upon his parents’ return to South Carolina in 1758 he remained behind to continue his schooling for eleven years. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 19 Jan. 1764, from Westminster School. Robert Shuttleworth (d. 1816), son of James Shuttleworth (1714–1773) of Gawthorpe, matriculated at Christ Church about two years before Pinckney. Sir Charles Turner, who was married to Robert Shuttleworth’s sister Mary, was a member of Parliament for York City from 1768 to 1783. The Rev. Mr. Perry is probably Littleton Perry (c.1746–1816) who entered Magdalen College at Oxford in 1765, but he may be instead Thomas Perry, one of the three Perry brothers from Barbados who were at Oxford in the late 1750s and early 1760s. The father of Robert Shuttleworth’s wife Ann, Lt. Gen. Thomas Desaguliers (c.1725–1780), colonel commandant of the royal regiment of artillery at Woolwich Arsenal from 1762 until his death, was a pioneer in the making of modern cannons.
2. Henry Pendleton also gave Shuttleworth a letter of introduction, dated 10 Jan. 1784.