Isaac Hayne was born on September 23, 1745, at Colleton District, South Carolina, United States, the son of Isaac and Sarah (Williamson) Hayne and the grandson of John Hayne who emigrated from England to Colleton District, South Carolina, about 1700.
After preparing at Mr. Coates’s school, where began his lifelong intimacy with enry Timrod, at twenty Isaac graduated from Charleston College and turned to the law, with prospect of political preferment.
Prior to the Revolution Isaac Hayne was a planter and breeder of fine horses. With William Hill he bought the iron works in York District, South Carolina, and made a contract with Governor Rutledge of South Carolina for the manufacture of ammunition for the use of the Continental forces. Later the works were destroyed by British and Loyalists under Captain Huck. In the Revolution he served first as a captain in the Colleton militia, then, when a junior officer was placed over him, he resigned his commission and reenlisted as a private. He was serving in the outposts at the time of the siege of Charleston. After the surrender of the city he retired to his farm on parole. In 1781 the crisis of affairs was approaching in the South, and the British authorities were increasingly severe. Hayne was summoned either to come to Charleston as a prisoner, or to swear allegiance to the Crown. Unwilling to leave his family, he took the required oath of allegiance. Nevertheless he was soon ordered to join the British army, and he considered this action as a release from his parole.
For a short time he was colonel of South Carolina militia, and in July he captured the renegade general, Andrew Williamson, near Charleston. This exploit was soon punished by his surprise and capture at a place called Horse Shoe by a British force under Colonel Nisbet Balfour. Hayne was taken to Charleston and brought before a court of inquiry; there was no trial in the ordinary sense, and there were no witnesses. Lord Rawdon, commander in Charleston, charged that Hayne was a spy and guilty of treason and his condemnation followed. When he was informed that he had received the death sentence Hayne wrote to Rawdon and Balfour, July 29, 1781, demonstrating with legal argument that either as a prisoner of war or as a prisoner of state he was entitled to a legal trial. He was told in reply that his execution had been ordered “by virtue of the authority with which the commander-in-chief of South-Carolina an the commanding officer in Charleston are invested. ” Hayne was hanged at Charleston. The intense indignation among Americans was but the beginning prolonged controversy.
Isaac Hayne was celebrated in the annals of the Revolution as a victim of British action. He was captured by British troops after leading a raid in July of 1781. To set a brutal example to precent other former Patriots from violating their neutrality, a military tribunal condemned Hayne to death as a traitor.
Isaac Hayne was married, July 18, 1765, to Elizabeth Hutson, daughter of Rev. William Hutson.
