Background
He was born in Saint Luke"s Parish (now known as Jasper County), South Carolina and educated at home, then traveled to England to study law where he was a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.
He was born in Saint Luke"s Parish (now known as Jasper County), South Carolina and educated at home, then traveled to England to study law where he was a member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.
He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Heyward returned to South Carolina in 1778 to serve as a judge. In command of a militia force, he was taken prisoner by the British during the siege of Charleston.
He continued to serve as a judge after the war, retiring from the bench in 1798.
He is buried at Old House Plantation near Ridgeland, Jasper County, South Carolina. lieutenant was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
On August 27, 1780, Thomas Heyward Junior. was taken from his Charles Town home by British troops and detained in the Old Exchange Building. Just hours after being arrested, he and twenty-eight other "Ringleaders of the Rebellion" were relocated to a guard ship in the harbour.
On September 4, they were transported to Saint Augustine, Florida, remaining there for about eleven months until freed in a prisoner exchange.
Member 1st, 2d South Carolina. provincial congresses, Charleston, 1775. Member South Carolina. Council of Safety; member 2d Continental Congress, 1776-1778.
Member South Carolina. legislature from Charleston, 1782-1784.
Married Elizabeth Mathewes, April. Married second, Susanna Savage, May 4, 1786.