The monument, sculpted by Richard Hayward, was erected in 1779 by his "afflicted sister." It is unique in the Abbey. Wragg is the only civilian participant in the American War for Independence to be memorialized there, which holds the remains of many British monarchs, heroes, and cultural icons such as Chaucer, Newton, David Livingstone, Dickens, Darwin, and Stephen Hawking.
The Abbey contains the remains of two British army officers who participated in the Revolutionary War, Major John Andre, who the Patriots hanged as a spy, and General John Burgoyne, who lost the pivotal Battle of Saratoga in 1777.
William Wragg was born in Charleston (then Charles Town) in 1714, son of Samuel and Marie (Dubose). Shortly after his birth his merchant father purchased a large plantation, Ashley Barony.
At the age of four William was subjected to a traumatic experience. He was accompanying his father on a trading voyage in May 1718 when their ship, the Crowley, was captured by pirates blockading Charleston Harbor.
The pirates were commanded by none other than Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. In battle, he was a frightful figure, famous for putting lighted fuses (slow matches) in his beard, and carrying several loaded pistols during attacks.
Teach crammed all 80 of the Crowley's passengers and crew into the hold of his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge. He used them as hostages to demand a ransom. It was an unusual ransom, to say the least: medicines for syphilis, malaria, and wounds. William Wragg's father, Samuel, volunteered to go ashore and procure a medicine chest.
Teach refused to let Samuel go because his wealth and status made him too valuable a hostage. He chose another hostage for the task. Several days passed. No medicines arrived. Teach threatened to kill Samuel and loot poorly defended Charleston if his demand was not met.
The Charleston authorities finally sent a large consignment of medicines. Blackbeard put the hostages ashore, but not before stripping them of most of their clothing. They had to walk a long distance through the woods to town. Blackbeard was killed later that year in a naval action along the coast of North Carolina
Having survived his encounter with Blackbeard, young William embarked on another adventure several years later. His parents sent him to England to be educated. He attended Westminster School, Oxford University, and the Middle Temple, where he studied law. He was admitted to the English bar in 1733.
After practicing law for some years, Wragg returned to South Carolina. His father died in 1750, making him one of the wealthiest men in the colony, with several plantations and more than 250 enslaved laborers. He soon became involved in politics and in 1753 was appointed to the governor's royal council. [Image; William Wragg by Jeremiah Theus]
Wragg proved to be a staunch advocate of the prerogatives of the council and the British Crown against the pretensions of Commons House of Assembly. He was so outspoken that Royal Governor Henry Lyttleton removed him from the council in 1757 to appease the Assembly. Wragg was elected to the Assembly the next year and served until 1768. He resigned, he said, due to the Assembly's increasing opposition to British rule.
As the disputes between the Crown and the colonies led to more extreme measures on both sides, Wragg remained outspokenly loyal to the British government. Yet he refused offers of royal office, declaring he did not want to profit from his loyalty.
In 1775 he refused to declare allegiance to the rebel cause by signing a document called The Association. His interrogators, many of them old friends, asked why he would not join them. He replied,
“I’d despise myself if I subscribed to an opinion contrary
to the dictates of my conscience. I have no hostile intentions toward you
gentlemen, but I believe the logical outcome of your current measures will be
an attempt to separate from the mother country.”
The gentlemen said he would be left alone if he signed the oath of allegiance to the Patriot cause. Wragg then asked, "What kind of supporter would I be if I signed this document under duress?"
The de facto Provincial Government of South Carolina ordered Wragg confined to his plantation. Two years later, after he had refused to sign another oath of allegiance, the state government banished him from South Carolina. Leaving his wife and daughters behind, he boarded the ship Commerce for Amsterdam, with only his son Billy and Tom, an enslaved servant, as companions.
The ship foundered in a storm off the coast of the Netherlands. Wragg drowned trying to save his son. Tom, however, managed to save Billy and himself. The Westminster memorial depicts them clinging to a piece of wreckage, with the sinking vessel behind them.
Another Loyalist, George Milligen, said of Wragg that "he would have been an ornament to Sparta or Rome in their most virtuous days."
Next time you are in Westminster Abbey, check out the Wragg memorial!
Further Reading:
John Drayton, Memoirs of the American Revolution 2 vols., Charleston, 1821.
The Papers of Henry Laurens. 16 vols., Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1972-2003. Volumes dealing with the 1760s and 1770s.
William Wragg | Westminster Abbey (westminster-abbey.org)
Wragg, William | South Carolina Encyclopedia (scencyclopedia.org)
Report by George Milligen, Surgeon to the Garrison for His Majesty's Forces in South Carolina, dated 15 September 1775. National Archives, Kew CO_5_396_037.pdf
Interesting reading thanks
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