1722 April 20. Theodore Trezevant Jr. was the first child born to Theodore Sr. and Martha Bremar Trezevant at Orange Quarter, St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina.

1732 His father died at age forty-two and his mother at age thirty-two. Theodore Jr. was ten years old. An administrator began managing the estate.

1739 February 21. The administrator reportedly mismanaged the estate, so the plantation was sold for the benefit of the children. Theodore Jr. was seventeen years old and penniless. He was apprenticed to a tailor in Charleston.

1740 At age eighteen he began is efforts to become a successful tailor and prominent businessman in the city of Charles Towne. [Harris, p. 238]

1749 May 11. At age twenty-seven he married Elizabeth Wells ( -1752), who died young. They had one child who died as an infant.

1753 April 24. At age thirty-one he married his second wife, Catherine Timothy (1735-1764), sister of Peter Timothy. They had seven children: Elizabeth Martha, Charlotte, Elizabeth, John, Francis, James, and Peter. Catherine and Peter Timothy were among the seven children of Louis and Elizabeth Timothee, another Huguenot family. Catherine Timothy Trezevant died in 1764. [For a summary of the lives and careers of Louis and Elizabeth Timothy and their son Peter, see Harris, pp. 238-240.]

1766 April 20. At the age of forty-four he married his third wife Catherine Crouch (1736-1820). They had five children: Theodore Henry, Peter, Lewis Crouch, Theodore, and Ann Sarah. Theodore Trezevant Jr. had fathered thirteen children by the age of fifty-two. Their tenth child was Peter Trezevant (1768-1854).

1766 Theodore led the formation of the Master Tailors’ Society in Charleston. He later obtained a contract to sew uniforms for the South Carolina militia and eventually the Continental Army. [Harris, p. 238]

1769 [He] was so highly esteemed that he was one of the thirteen mechanics placed on the committee of thirty-nine (consisting of thirteen planters, thirteen mechanics, and thirteen merchants) formed in Charles Town, Thursday, July 20, 1769, ‘for the particular purpose of concerting and doing what might be farther necessary to give Force to the Association’ for the non-importation of European and East India goods and negroes. [Trezevant, pp. 15-16]

1775-1776 January 9. He was elected a deputy to the first Provincial Congress of South Carolina, established in 1774, from Charles Town (parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael). His brother-in-law Peter Timothy was its secretary. He was an ardent patriot, and quite naturally contracts for clothing by the State for the militia, and afterwards for the regulars, were placed with him; a statement for which we have abundant in the orders of Council [of Safety] at that time. [Trezevant, p.15] Another member of that Council of Safety was John Lewis Gervais (1741-1798), who had arrived in Charleston at age twenty-three in 1764 from Hanover, Germany via England. He too was from a Huguenot family that had fled from France. [Gilbert, p. 81]

[Note: A direct descendant of Theodore Trezevant, Jr., Robert Warren Trezevant of the tenth Trezevant generation, would marry a direct descendant of John Louis Gervais, Katherine Gervais of the sixth Gervais generation, almost two hundred years later, in 1966.]

Theodore Trezevant did most of the tailoring for the revolutionary government in South Carolina, as confirmed through regimental orders by Colonel Moultrie: ‘Every officer to provide himself with a blue coatee, faced and cuffed with scarlet cloth, and lined with scarlet; white buttons; and white waistcoat and breeches (a pattern may be seen at Mr. Trezevant’s)…” [Salley, A.S. Jr. “Daniel Trezevant, Huguenot, and Some of this Descendants,” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vol. 3, no. 1. Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Historical Society, 1902.]*

We find that subsequent to the Revolution he was still owner of the tailoring establishment and was president of the Master Tailors’ Society in Charleston.  From recitals of the Mesne Conveyance Office, Charleston, S.C., we find in some of the latest of these that he is spoken of as Theordore Trezevant ‘Gentleman’, which indicates that he had then retired from business, from which we deduce that even at that early date the difference between ‘mechanic’ and ‘gentleman’ was somewhat a question of financial standing. [Trezevant, p. 16]

1776-1783 The American Revolution against England took place. During that time Charleston was held by the British for almost two years (1780-1782).

1783 The original Charles Towne was incorporated as Charleston.

1786 The capital of South Carolina was moved from Charleston to Columbia, under the guidance of John Lewis Gervais.

1787 The Constitution of the United States was ratified.

1790 Theodore Trezevant Jr. was listed in the City Directory as a tailor at 44 Church Street, in 1794 at 43 Church Street, in 1796 at 44 Church Street, and in 1801 at 107 Queen Street. [*]

1795 March 3. At age seventy-three Theodore Trezevant Jr. made his will, denoting his son Peter Trezevant as his executor.

1801 May 14. At age seventy-nine Theodore Trezevant Jr. died in Charleston.

The 1801 Charleston directory identifies Theodore Trezevant as a tailor living at 107 Queen Street.  [Hagy, James W. People and Professions of Charleston, South Carolina, 1782-1802. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1999].*

On May 15, South Carolina State Gazette published the following: “Died yesterday, Mr. Theodore Trezevant, in the 80th year of his age. He was descended from respectable ancestors…settled in St. Thomas’ parish in the infancy of South Carolina. He was the friend of social order and religion, and passed through life not only without a stain, but in practice of all the virtues which adorn the man and the Christian. In his domestic relations he was exemplary. Few parents were equally attentive to, and none more successful in the education of their children. He brought up a large family, all of whom he trained in the ways of wisdom and virtue, and some of whom he had the pleasure of seeing deservedly promoted to officers of the highest importance, and discharging the duties thereof, with honor and dignity.” [Salley, A.S.,Jr. “Daniel Trezevant, Huguenot, and Some of this Descendants” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, vol. 3, no. 1, Charleston, SC: The South Carolina Historical Society, 1902.]*

1820 September 22. At age 84 Catherine Crouch Trezevant died in Charleston. Her funeral was held at the residence of her son Peter Trezevant at 5 Stoll’s Alley.

SOURCES

Gilbert, Anne C. “The Legacies of John de la Howe and John Lewis Gervais.” Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina 82 (1977): pp. 78-84.

Harris, Margaret Louise. In the Shade of Oaks: A Story of American Heritage. Missoula, MT: Margaret Louise Harris, 2009. [Details about this expansive narrative of genealogy, biography, and history can be seen at <www.intheshadeofoaks.com>.]

Kenan, Robert Gignilliat. History of the Gignilliat Family of Switzerland and South Carolina. Easley, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1977: pp. 268-269.

Lavelle, Brittany [*]. Historic Preservation Research. February 2014.

Trezevant, John Timothee. The Trezevant Family in the United States. Charleston, SC: The State Company, 1914: pp. 13, 15-18.