advantage of first-hand observation, with the ability, time, and local contacts required for a remarkably dispassionate account of pre-revolutionary Carolina. Hewat's history, one author said, "is the basis — in fact the substance — of Ramsay's history, which quotes him copiously (without acknowledgement) and follows him blindly." A less strident assessment is that Ramsay "shows a disposition to follow slavishly in the footsteps of Hewat." Contemporaneous resident of Charleston, but on the Revolutionary side, Congressman David Ramsay acknowledged his extensive use of Hewat's History, writing in his 1808 Preface: "Dr. Hewat's historical account of the rise and progress of the colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, was read with much more advantage — on it greater reliance was placed — and of it more use has been made, than of all the histories which had preceded. To him every Carolinian ought to be obliged for preserving many useful facts which otherwise would before this day have been forgotten. His valuable work was written shortly before the American Revolution, when tradition went further back and was more recent than at present." Hewatt Square, in Charleston, South Carolina, was named for him. Hewat's History is still a respected account of Colonial American history. Incidentally, the "Hewatt" spelling was apparently introduced after his book was published anonymously; manuscript letters (below) show that he himself spelled his name "Hewat". Family Hewat came from a long line of Calvinist farmers, notaries and churchmen. The earliest record of the name appears to be a William Hewat (born about 1366); the UK National Archives show he bore witness to a grant of land and tenement at Nustede (Newstead) in 1387. Peter Hewat (born before 1482) was a Notary in Roxburgh Scotland; the National Archives of Scotland show he was a witness to an assignment of land to the church on 16 September 1503. James Hewat, was a Dominican Order friar in Dundee in the 1520s, and one of the earliest teachers of Calvin's doctrine in Scotland. In the conflicts between Catholic, Protestant and then Anglican and Puritan religions, Hewats often found themselves on the wrong side. In 1619 (the year before Mayflower) Peter Hewat a church leader, notary and member of the Parliament of Scotland, was exiled to Crossraguel Abbey (which had been given to him in 1612 by the king) after James VI of Scotland had become head of the official Anglican church as James I