While doing research, I came across a photograph of what looked like the frontispiece of a book with “Inscription on the Tombstone of Peter Freneau in the French Church Yard, Charleston, S.C.” written across the top. I checked every list of gravestone transcriptions that I could find but there was no record of Peter Freneau’s stone.  The stone had been lost and the only surviving record was the inscription in the book.  This was especially poignant given the last three lines once carved on the gravestone.

Whatever Omnipotence decides is right.
Below this Marble are deposited
The Remains
of Peter Freneau, Esquire
A native of New Jersey,
but for more than thirty years past
a citizen of South Carolina.

He was the second son of
Peter Freneau and Agnes Watson, 
born April 5th, 1757,
Deceased Nov. 9th, A.D. 1813,
aged 56 years 7 months and 4 days.

His upright and benevolent character
is in the memory of many, and will remain
when this inscription is no longer legible.  

I wanted to learn more about Peter Freneau.  I discovered that the gravestone inscription was recorded in the Freneau family Bible.  Printed in Geneva in 1587, the Bible was brought to New York in the early 1700s by Freneau’s Huguenot grandfather, André Fresneau. The family moved to New Jersey where the Bible passed to his son Pierre in 1725. Using the anglicized name Peter Freneau, the Bible records his marriage to Agnes Watson and the birth of five children, including Peter in 1757.[1] 

Little is known of Peter Freneau’s youth and education.  He moved from his birth place in Monmouth County, New Jersey to South Carolina towards the end of the American Revolution.  Establishing himself in Charleston, he was active in the shipping trade and made large land purchases throughout the state. He served as Deputy Secretary of State of South Carolina from 1784 to 1787, as Secretary of State until 1795, and represented St. Philip & St. Michael parishes in Seventeenth and Eighteenth General Assemblies.[2]  Peter Freneau was the publisher of the Charleston City Gazette from 1795 to 1810, printed under the masthead Nothing Extenuate – Nor Set Down Aught in Malice.  He also had a contract printing business, publishing in both French and English, and translated works from Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. A contemporary wrote that “his French was unequaled…Napoleon pronounced [Freneau’s] translations of his bulletins to be the only correct ones.”[3]

Starting in 1798 Peter Freneau published the Carolina Gazette, a political newspaper promoting the ideals of Jeffersonian Republicanism. “Freneau was recognized as the voice of Republicanism in South Carolina...Because of his political affiliations with Charles Pinckney, and perhaps through the influence of his liberal brother Philip, Freneau early identified himself as a powerful partisan of the principles which were advocated by Thomas Jefferson. In 1800 Charles Pinckney…and Peter Freneau were largely responsible for the Republican triumph over the Federalists in South Carolina.”[4]   

Peter’s older brother, Phillip Freneau (1752-1832), was also an ardent supporter of Jefferson.  From 1791 to 1793, Philip Freneau published the National Gazette in Philadelphia to promote Jefferson’s Republican principles and in opposition to Hamiltonian Federalism. Thomas Jefferson later praised Philip Freneau for having “saved our Constitution which was galloping fast into monarchy.”[5] While his name is not well-known today, Philip Freneau was one of the most popular American poets of the late eighteenth century. Frequently referred to as the “Poet of the Revolution,” Philip Freneau wrote on patriotic and political topics, as well as more romantic poems on history, nature and the sea. A ship’s captain by profession, he spent considerable time in Charleston as an agent for Peter’s shipping interests. The publication of Philip Freneau’s Miscellaneous Works in 1788 was subscribed to by over two hundred prominent South Carolinians including Henry William deSaussure, John Faucheraud Grimké and Gov. William Moultrie. The Charleston Library Society also subscribed. [6] 

Peter Freneau died in 1813 at his residence on George Street, survived by his brother Philip.  One obituary stated that “in him were united the most feeling sympathy of disposition, the most engaging simplicity of manners, and the most commanding dignity of mind.”[7] Another read “Let not the people of American forget him to whom they are indebted for the firm establishment of that system of rational liberty and moderation in our laws without which our revolutionary struggles would have been made for nothing.”[8] While Peter Freneau’s gravestone at the Huguenot Church is no longer legible, perhaps this short record will serve as a memorial of his extraordinary life.

Renée LaHue Marshall

[1] The Freneau Bible is in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of Princeton University Library.  Photographs of the Bible are in the Freneau vertical file at the Society.

[2] Biographical Directory of the SC House of Representatives 2: 212-213.

[3] Richard B. Davis & Milledge B. Siegler, “Peter Freneau, Carolina Republican,” The Journal of Southern History, vol.13, no.3 (Aug 1947): 398. Quoting Ebenezer S. Thomas’ Reminiscences of the Last Sixty-Five Years.

[4] Davis & Siegler: 397-398.

[5] Notes of a Conversation with George Washington, 23 May 1793, National Archives, Founders Online.

[6] The Miscellaneous Works of Mr. Philip Freneau, Containing His Essays and Additional Poems (Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1788). Several versions including the 1788 edition are available on Google Books as well as The Poems of Philip Freneau written chiefly during the late War (Philadelphia: Francis Bailey, 1786).  

[7] Miller’s Weekly Messenger, 27 Nov 1813.

[8] City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser, 23 Nov 1813