Stephen Elliott

Elliott, Stephen (Nov. 11, 1771 - Mar. 28, 1830), botanist, was born in Beaufort, S. C., the third son of William and Mary (Barnwell) Elliott. He was educated at home until his sixteenth year, then sent to New Haven, where he entered Yale College in February 1788. After his graduation in 1791 he returned to Beaufort and engaged in farming and other pursuits. In 1796 he married Esther Habersham of Georgia. Two years earlier he had been sent from the parish of St. Helena to the State House, where he served for several terms. In 1808 he was elected to the Senate and remained an influential member of that body through the sessions of 1812. His name appears on almost every page of the journals in committee assignments and as the author of bills, two of which were the free school act of 1811 and the bill in 1812 establishing the Bank of the State of South Carolina. He was elected the first president of this bank and served in that capacity until his death. That he was an able executive is indicated by the assertion that "the state bank of South Carolina, owned entirely by the state, was one of the few that made a satisfactory showing during this period" (Hepburn, post, p. 103). When Elliott moved to Charleston in 1812 to assume his bank duties he also became identified with the literary life of the city. He was one of the founders of the Literary and Philosophical Society of South Carolina, and served as its president from 1814 to 1830. In 1815 the society received from the Charleston Library Society its scientific collections, which became the nucleus of the Charleston Museum. The latter was further indebted to Elliott for personal collections and for advice and assistance in the arrangement of specimens. In 1816 he was made president of the Library Society and compiled a catalogue of the books belonging to the society. In 1820 he was elected to the presidency of the South Carolina College, but resigned before taking office. He was, however, influential in the establishment of the Medical College of South Carolina, and in April 1824 was elected its first professor of botany and natural history. With Hugh Swinton Legaré he began in 1828 the publication of the Southern Review, a quarterly copied after the English reviews of the day. In the next two years he contributed many articles to its pages, all of which are remarkable for their variety of subject matter, their clear, easy style, and their fine discrimination.

Elliott is now known not as a banker, statesman, editor, or planter, but rather as a naturalist. Between 1800 and 1808 he lived in comparative retirement on his plantation at Beaufort, and during this period collected, examined, and prepared the material for his Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgia (2 vols., 1821-24). It is said to have contained 180 genera and 1,000 species more than the Flora Caroliniana (1788) of Thomas Walter. His article in the Southern Review for November 1829 giving a historical summary of the study of botany showed his familiarity with the work of French, German, and Spanish botanists. Elliott died of apoplexy in 1830. A man of varied talents and extensive information, he was mild and unassuming in character and deportment.