Hairston Family History and Genealogy

James ERVIN Esq.¹

HAIRSTON.org ID#8222, b. October 1778, d. 1841

Father*

Hugh ERVIN¹ b. a 1726, d. 25 Sep 1785

Mother*

Elizabeth JAMES¹

Birth*

James ERVIN Esq. was born in October 1778.¹

He was the son of Hugh ERVIN and Elizabeth JAMES.¹

College*

James ERVIN Esq. graduated college in September 1797 in Rode Island College (Brown Univ.)¹

Death*

He died in 1841.¹

Biography*

JAMES ERVIN

He was the son of Hugh Ervin, who lived about fivemiles from Indian Town, Williamsburgh District, and wasborn in October, 1778. His mother was a Cooper or James;my informant, the venerable John D. Witherspoon, does notremember which. By an unfortunate accident, at his birth, one of his feet was dislocated in the middle, turning the toes at a right angle to the heel. No surgeon living, in that section ofthe country, his foot was suffered to remain so. This foot, leg and thigh, were somewhat smaller and shorter. The other leg and thigh were longer than usual. He was a hearty boy, strong and active. His lameness excited the pity of his father and relations, and they determined to send him to college. His father died when he was nine years old, buthis friends remembered and carried out his parent's purpose. When he was eleven or twelve years of age, they sent him to a grammar school, kept by the Rev. Thomas Reese, in Salem County, part of Sumter District. He remained in that school about two years, until Mr. Reese broke up his academy. About 1792, he was sent to the grammar school at the Long Bluff, (now Society Hill) kept by Thomas Park, afterwards Professor of Languages in the South Carolina College, where he was prepared for college.

He went to the Rode Island College, now Brown University, and entered the sophomore class, in May '95. Whilst in college, he conducted himself orderly and correctly. He early distinguished himself as an orator, and was consideredthe best speaker in the college. This faculty and his correct deportment procured for him the salutatory oration and the second honor of his class. He graduated in September, 1797, and soon entered the office of W. D. James, Esq., as a law student. He was admitted to the Bar, in Columbia, November Term of the Constitutional Court, 1800. In the surmmer of that year, he was started as a candidate for the House of Representatives, from Marion District, and was elected. He thus became a law-maker before he was a law-expounder. Such an instance of early popularity, is of rare occurrence. He was elected a second time in 1802. In December, 1804, when Solicitor Wilds was elected a Judge, Mr. Ervin was elected Solicitor of the Northern Circuit. He remained in office until 1816. In December, 1809, he was elected for four years a member of the Board of Trustees of the South Carolina College. In December, 1813, he was again elected for four years. In October, 1816, he was elected to the House of Representatives, in Congress, against Mr. Benjamin Huger, and was returned a second time, without opposition. He was the only member from this State, who adhered to the original policy to encourage domestic manufactures. He voted for Mr. Clay's Tariff Bill. He introduced, and eloquently advocated resolutions, calling upon Congress to do what they had promised in honor of General Washington's memory. But his eloquence was wasted on the empty air. Congress, if they had not forgotten the Father of his Country, were too busily engaged in the pursuit of factious projects, to honor him who had advised against all such things.

Mr. Ervin's health failed in Congress. He retired to private life after 1820, and so remained until 1841, when he died.

He was a very popular boy and man, and had a better start in life, than any young man in the Pee Dee Country. He never took a very high stand as a lawyer, not from the want of talent---for, in this behalf, he was very respectably endowed but his mind was devoted more to the acquisition of property in trading in lands and negroes---than in the pursuit of legal knowledge. He had a fine constitution, and was killed by a fall from his horse.

The foregoing statement is from my venerable friend, John D. Witherspoon, Esq., of Society Hill. I have seen Mr.Ervin, but I had no such knowledge as enabled me to give such a life-like description as is above.

His name recalls two Bar anecdotes, which I have oftenheard, and which may amuse some one:

A woman was indicted for an assault and battery on a boy;the little fellow was the witness. He said that he and theson of the defendant-near to her house-had quarrelled andfought; that he whipped her son, who ran crying to her. Shecame out with a rope in her hand, and, said he, "she pennedme up in a corner of the fence." He stopped, supposing thateverybody knew what followed. The Jludge, Mr. Justice Bay, said, "what then, what then, my little man?" "Maybe she did not pour into me about right," was the reply. Mr.Ervin asked, "what was the woman's name?" The littleboy said, "Mr. Ervin, you know her as well as I do; she hasbeen at your still-house a hundred times. She is called Big Sall and Fighting Sall!" The woman was, of course, coinvicted. The venerable, and usually kind Judge, was so much outraged by the account given of the woman, that, on sentence day, he told her, "' her conduct was very unmatron-like,that she had been at still-houses, and was called " Big Sall andFighting Sail." "I therefore," said he, "will lay you in jailone month" —" stop, stop, Mr. Clerk,' said he,' add anothermonth to her imprisonment."

In another criminal case, it was important to prove that the defendant had ran away. The Solicitor put up a rather quizical sort of witness, and asked, "did not the defendant elope?" The witness replied, "she pulled string." "Pull, pulled string," said the Judge, " what do you mean by that?" " She cut dirt," was the witness's reply. "Cut, cut dirt — pull, pullstring"-" what do you mean?". said the Judge. "I mean,"said the witness, "she puffed the gravel." "Pull, pullstring-cut, cut dirt-puff, puff the gravel," said the Judge"the man is crazy; take him out of Court, Mr. Sheriff. "The Solicitor said, he means that she eloped. "Well, well, my man, why could you not say so?" The witness replied, "every man to his notion, as the woman said when she kissed her cow." This startled the Judge, as a monstrous thing; and he said, in his most emphatic, stammering way,"this woman kiss a cow-take him out of Court, Mr.Sheriff."

O'Neall, John Belton, 1793-1863. Biographical Sketches of the Bench And Bar of South Carolina. Charleston, S.C.: S. G. Courtenay & Co., 1859. pages 63-65.¹

Sources (www.HAIRSTON.org)

[S3609] O'Neall, John Belton, 1793-1863. Biographical Sketches of the Bench And Bar of South Carolina. Charleston, S.C.: S. G. Courtenay & Co., 1859., Hathi Trust Digital Library.

Last Edited

28 Sep 2021