“R” is for Rutledge, John (ca.1739-1800)

“R” is for Rutledge, John (ca.1739-1800). Lawyer, jurist, governor. A native Carolinian, Rutledge studied law at the Middle Temple in London. From 1761 to 1775, he was one of the leaders in the Commons House of Assembly. He represented his colony at the Stamp Act Congress and was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. When events made reconciliation with Great Britain impossible, Rutledge reluctantly accepted independence as a necessity. Under the state constitution of 1776 he was elected president (governor) of South Carolina. He was later elected governor in 1779. When the British captured Charleston and overran South Carolina in 1780, he escaped to function as a one man government in exile. In 1787, John Rutledge was a delegate to the constitutional convention in Philadelphia and played a prominent role in writing the federal constitution.