What we know about
Absalom Hooper

The earliest documents so far found come from South Carolina. In what was termed the Ninety Six District, William Calhoun was a planter, trader, and Justice of the Peace. He was part of a larger Calhoun family which had moved to South Carolina from Augusta County, Virginia. Fortunately for Hooper researchers, William Calhoun kept a small book of accounts that also included a few sparse biographical entries.(1) The earliest clearly dated entry for Absalom Hooper is the fourth marriage entry:

Absalom Hooper & Elizabeth Holms was married ye 25 day of Nov^r Ano dom 1765 (2)

Calhoun's journal has three other undated references to Absalom Hooper in the ledger area. The first entry indicates Absalom owed 15 shillings.(3) Calhoun apparently wrote this line sometime between April 1763 and June 1764. The next entry, made sometime after June 1764 and before August 1767, shows Absalom Hooper he had purchased 1 quart of liquor and owed £1-17-6. Calhoun made his final reference to Absalom Hooper on 6 August 1768, when he was balancing all his accounts. At that time, 17 shillings 6 pence was

dew [due] to Robert Messer on Absalom Hooper's act.(4)

The first Calhoun entry for Absalom Hooper may give an idea of this Hooper's birth date, for it is unlikely that Calhoun would have extended credit to someone under the age of majority. So, if this Absalom Hooper was at least 21 by June 1764, then I believe it is safe to assume this Absalom Hooper was born before 1743.(5)

The entries also suggest where Hooper must have lived in the mid-1760s. William Calhoun then owned land on the northwest fork of Long Cane Creek. Several land grants can be found for the men listed in Calhoun's ledger. Nearly all those grants also were on the northwest fork of Long Cane Creek. Other such grants mention Patton's Creek of the northwest fork of Long Cane Creek, Calhoun Creek, and the Long Cane Settlement.

The next references to this man place him similarly. Early in March, 1769, Absalom Hooper was one of three witnesses to a deed for land on "Canes Creek, a branch of the northwest fork of The Long Canes."(6). Sixteen months later, on 2 July 1770, another deed specifies the residence of Absalom, when "Thomas Holmes, planter of Prince William Parish, Granville County," sold part of his land to John Pickens. The property being sold was

100 acres in Granville County on which Absalom Hooper lives, being the lower half of 200 acres on Russell Creek, a branch of the Savannah River, granted 10 May 1768 … to Thomas Holmes. (7)

In April 1770, shortly before this sale, there had been much disruption in and around the Long Canes Settlement. Someone from that area wrote to Charleston on May 5 that the area "has been lately infested … with a most desperate Gang of Villains," who were robbing so many people "that the Militia had been raised, to take or disperse them." Names mentioned in the report included Thomas Hooper, Junior; Joseph Holmes; William Abbott, Reason Young, Anthony Distoe, and Hugh Hynes. The article ends with the statement that the armed gang "were soon to return through Long Canes, and thence proceeds towards West Florida."(8)

Although Absalom Hooper was not among the named individuals in this newspaper account, he probably was among those thought to have been involved. In October of 1770, the Attorney General of South Carolina accused Thomas Hooper, William Abbott, Hugh Hinds and others of various felonies. At least a few of the crimes appear to be those associated with the "Gang of Villains," described in the previous paragraph. On 26 October 1770, the Attorney General accused Absalom Hooper of an unspecified felony; this case was continued. Later, Absalom Hooper and Hugh Hinds both were accused of murder, and the grand Jury indicted them on 16 April 1771. Under a different charge, Hugh Hinds was found guilty of robbery during the next week. However, there were no further actions for either Hinds nor Hooper for the murder.

In the same group of charges in October 1770, there were indictments for Anthony Distoe and Arnold Russell for Robbery.(9) Arnold Russell had received land grants for Savannah River lands as early as 1756 and may have been the original Russell for whom Russell's Creek was named. He was a Tory during the Revolution. What is significant about Arnold Russell is that some of his land on Russell's Creek lay next door to that of Joseph Holmes (10), who had been identified as one of the "Gang of Villains."

Family researchers should be aware that the Long Canes region and other sections of upper South Carolina were areas of great turbulence during the latter 1760s. Colonial authorities had refused to establish any court system for these newer settlements. Local Justices of the Peace could hear only the most minor misdemeanor charges; more serious crimes had to be heard by the King's Court in Charleston. At the same time, merchants in Charleston (who supplied goods to the interior) were bringing debt suits in Charleston against the traders and buyers of these frontier settlements. In order to defend themselves, the upstate people had great expense just in traveling to Charleston. The jurors in these cases were all coastal residents. So, in the interior, there was much distrust and resentment of these powerful men of Charleston.

Furthermore, there was no representation of these newer settlements in the South Carolina Assembly. Thus, the upstate Carolinians suffered from taxation without representation. There was likewise much fear of Indian attacks. Yet in Charleston, there seemed to be little effort to provide troops to man the frontier forts or protect the settlers.

All these conditions led to factional strife that historians have called the Regulator or Regulator/Moderator movement. Generally, those identified as Regulators were locally powerful upcountry leaders who sought to deal with crimes and with what was (to them) socially unacceptable behavior. Around them, these Regulator leaders assembled lynching bands to deal out what they perceived as justice. Slowly, some of these Regulator groups became as bad as those they punished. The result was an opposing Moderator force of people seeking a more "Moderate" view of justice. This Regulator movement of South Carolina arose in the mid 1760s and continued until 1769, when the South Carolina Assembly finally passed legislation to create District Courts for the upcountry. Even then, those who called themselves Regulators or Moderators believed some individuals had gone too far. Thus, some of the Criminal Journal cases of 1770 and 1771 may well involve actions directly associated with the Regulator and Moderator uprisings.