1820.
PHILIP GADSDEN, son of Philip and Catharine (Edwards)
Gadsden, of Charleston, S. C , and grandson of Gen. Christopher
Gadsden, of Revolutionary fame, was born in Charleston, Sept.
13th, 1798.
The means of the family being at the time greatly reduced, he
was educated entirely at home, and was prepared for college by
his brother, the Rev. Christopher E. Gadsden (Y.C. 1804), afterwards
Bishop of South Carolina.
On his return to Charleston in 1820, he engaged for a short time
in teaching, but entered the General TheoL Seminary, in N. Y.
city, in 1822. There he remained for a little over two years, when
pecuniary circumstances obliged him to withdraw. He continued
his studies at home under his brother's supervision, and was
ordained deacon by Bishop Bowen, Feb. 6th, 1825. He was subsequently
ordained to the priesthood by the same prelate, April
14th, 1830. The earlier years of his diaconate were spent in
arduous missionary work in the lower counties of the State, and
in 1827 or 1828 he accepted a call to the Church of St Paul's,
Stono. The church lay in the unhealthy region contiguous to the
Edisto river, and was attended in the winter season by the planters
whose plantations were situated in that section. Mr. Gadsden
immediately devoted himself to the erection of a chapel at Sumin
erville, the summer resort of his parishioners, and thus in the
service of this community passed his active life. His health was
always delicate, and in the autumn of 1863 failing strength and
the loss of an eye from paralysis of the nerve compelled him to
resign his charge. He retired to the up-country, still laboring as
he had strength in the work of the ministry. In 1869 he accompanied
his eldest son to Charleston, and there died on Dec. 26th,
1870.
In 1831, he married Miss Susan B. Hamilton, daughter of ex-Gov.
Paul Hamilton, by whom he had six children, four sons and
two daughters, all of whom survived him.
