10 Facts About Richard Pearis

Richard Pearis was a pioneer settler of Upstate South Carolina and a Loyalist officer during the American Revolution.

Richard Pearis was born in Ireland in 1725, the son of George and Sarah Pearis, who were Presbyterians of considerable affluence.

The family immigrated to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia when Richard was ten, and by 1750, Richard owned 1,200 acres of land near Winchester, where he lived with his wife Rhoda and three children.

Richard Pearis claimed a deed from the Cherokee of twelve square miles in the area that is Greenville County, South Carolina.

The governor then urged Stuart to prosecute Richard Pearis for violating a 1739 statute that forbade British citizens to own Indian land.

Meanwhile, Richard Pearis had begun to transfer the land to other whites.

In 1775, Richard Pearis sought an appointment as a patriot commissioner to the Indians, and after the post was given to another, Richard Pearis became a Tory captain.

Richard Pearis was kept in irons at Charleston for nine months, after which he made his way to British West Florida.

Richard Pearis continued to serve with Loyalist forces during the American Revolution during what amounted to a civil war along the frontier.

Richard Pearis was more than amply compensated by the British government for South Carolina lands that, arguably, he had never legally owned.