James Glen (1701-1777) served as one of South Carolina's most effective colonial governors. Born in Scotland, appointed governor in 1738, he arrived in the colony in 1743 and served until 1756, longer than any other governor in the colony's history. He met with the heads of the Catawba, Creek, and Chickasaw tribes in the hope of achieving Native American unity and settling disputes between the backcountry settlers and the Native Americans, and as a result adopted a new Native American policy whereby whites were required to buy Native American land before settling upon it. He also attempted to establish forts in the backcountry to ensure English control of strategic points in the Southern Native American lands, but was blocked in this by the Commons House refusal to appropriate money. Replaced as governor in 1755, Glen retired to his plantation outside Charleston, and later returned to England. During his rule as governor, he traveled extensively throughout the province, and in 1761 published a pamphlet, "Descriptions of South Carolina."
Courtesy of the Earl of Dalhousie, The Dalhousie Estates.
