4, 1730 - Sept. 27, 1805), South Carolina 1730 1805 Male General Governor (State) Revolutionary general and governor of South Carolina, was born in Charlestown (Charleston), S. C. , the son of Dr. John and Lucretia (Cooper) Moultrie, and the brother of John Moultrie [q. v. ].
On Oct. 10, 1779, he was married to Hannah (Motte) Lynch, the daughter of Jacob Motte and widow of Thomas Lynch.
4, 1730 - Sept. 27, 1805) .
Moultrie, William, (Nov. 23/Dec.
It was perhaps the weight of his property that sent him, a month after he became of age, to the House of Commons where for eight years he played an inconspicuous part.
The fort on Sullivan's Island, which guarded one of the entrances to the harbor, was a sixteen-foot wall of sand held in place by palmetto logs.
Here on June 28, 1776, with four hundred men and thirty-one guns, Moultrie received the attack of the British fleet.
In February he defeated a force of the enemy at Beaufort.
In May 1780 he was captured with the garrison of Charlestown and was quartered for nearly two years with other Continental officers who were held as prisoners on parole at Haddrell's Point, opposite the town.
His own moderation and his Loyalist connections were responsible for an attempt of the British to win him over to their cause.
His reply was courteous but resolute.
In February 1782 he was exchanged and served to the end of the war, being made major-general in October 1782.
In 1783 Moultrie sat in the state House of Representatives, the next year was elected lieutenant-governor, and in February 1785 was made governor.
At the end of his term in 1787 he was elected from his parish to the Senate, and also represented the same district in the convention which ratified the Federal Constitution.
After this he retired to private life.
He suffered heavy losses during the Revolution, and his fortune further declined afterward.
[Moultrie's Memoirs of the Am.
His political career must be traced from the manuscript journals of the legislative bodies of the state.
Other sources include: S. C. Hist.
and Geneal.
Mag. , Oct. 1904, Apr. 1928; Reg.
of St. Philip's Parish, 1754-1810 (1927), ed.
by D. E. Huger Smith and A. S. Salley, Jr. ; Edward McCrady, The Hist.
of S. C. in the Revolution (2 vols. , 1901 - 02); Wm. Hollinshed, A Discourse Commemorative of the Late Maj. -Gen.
Wm. Moultrie (1805); S. C. Soc.
of the Cincinnati, Remarks of Wilmot G. De Saussure, 4th July, 1884 (n. d. ). ]
He continued, however, high in public esteem, and was president of the state Society of the Cincinnati from its organization to his death.
By his first marriage and by purchase he acquired a large estate in St. John's Berkeley, and he made his home there.
