Marks Lazarus

Born in Charleston to Michael (1730–1825) and Sarah Long Lazarus (1738–1808), Marks Lazarus (1757–1835) married Rachel Doris (1762-1847) in 1776 and enrolled as volunteer cannoneer under Captain John Donnell (1748–1822) at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. By 1779, he was stationed “at the 18 Gun Battery [on Sullivan’s Island] and was almost always on duty, suffering with his comrades the usual…hardships incident to the life of a soldier.”¹ After the regulars at Fort Moultrie were redirected from Sullivan’s Island to Savannah, Lazarus was promoted to sergeant major and transferred to the 2nd Battalion under the command of Captain Richard Lushington (1751–1790).²

Sometime after the regulars returned to Fort Moultrie, Lazarus served under future Charleston mayor John Huger (1744–1804) and later fought in the Siege of Charleston. Despite his early and prolonged dedication to the rebel cause, Lazarus swore allegiance to “his Majesty’s person and Government” during British occupation and was released from prison on parole. By 1790, he had established a shop at 101 King Street and enslaved two people. In 1813, the City and District of Charleston and Stranger’s Guide listed him as a merchant at 114 King Street. When he died in 1835, Marks Lazarus was described by the writer of his obituary as “a single-minded and zealous patriot.”³

¹ Pension File W. 21558, Marks Lazarus, Revolutionary War, archives.gov, NAID 196160104, Image 6.
² For more on Richard Lushington see George H. McDaniel, “Looking for Lushington,” Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina Magazine 27, no. 2 (Fall 2022): 6–7.
³  Barnett A. Elzas, The Jews of South Carolina: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1905), 92 citing The Southern Patriot, November 7, 1835.