Merchant, Planter, And Statesman

Early Career.

Henry Laurens's forebears were Huguenots, Protestants who fled France after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685. Henry's grandfather Andre Laurens left earlier, in 1682, and eventually made his way to America, settling first in New York City and then Charleston, South Carolina. Andre's son John married Hester (or Esther) Grasset, also a Huguenot refugee. Henry was their third child and eldest son. John Laurens became a saddler, and his business eventually grew to be the largest of its kind in the colonies. In 1744 he sent Henry to London to augment the young man's business training. John Laurens died in 1747, bequeathing twenty-threeyear- old Henry a considerable estate. In July 1750 Henry married Eleanor Ball; they eventually had at least a dozen children, but only four survived into adulthood. Laurens became a partner of Charleston merchant George Austin and for the next...