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Christoph von Graffenried

Christoph von Graffenried (1661-1743)) was born in the village of Worb, near Bern, Switzerland, the son of Anton von Graffenried, the hereditary lord of Worb, a minor government official, and his wife Catherine Jenner. Christoph was educated at the universities of Heidelberg and Leyden before visiting England around 1680. In 1708, he became acquaintances with an explorer named Franz Ludwig Michel, who convinced Graffenried to join him in an initiative to mine silver in America and establish a colony there for Swiss refugees who suffered religious persecution. The following year, Graffenried met with contacts he established while visiting England decades prior and the Lords Proprietors of Carolina granted the venture 19,000 acres of land in Carolina. As a personal investment, he owned 5,000 acres of land, and in recognition of this holding, the Lords Proprietors conferred upon him the title of “Landgrave of Carolina” and “Baron of Bernburg”, and he bore a coat of arms featuring his ancestral arms quartered with the heads of two beasts. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, adopted in 1669, included provisions for establishing a colonial nobility. The order of the nobility was to be based on the amount of land an individual had in grants from the Lords Proprietors. There were three titles and authorized land amounts for the nobility: a Landgrave was to have 48,000 acres; a Cassique (also spelled Cacique), commanded 24,000 acres; and a Baronet 12,000 acres. In 1710, the colony, called New Bern, was attacked and its inhabitants slaughtered by Iroquoian Tuscarora, and von Graffenried himself was taken prisoner. His associated who was captured with him was ritualistically tortured and killed. Graffenried, who the Indians mistook for the governor of Virginia was released on condition that no new European settlements should be made without approval of the native chiefs. He married Regina Tscharner with whom he had four sons and seven daughters. Having lost his fortune, Graffenried returned penniless to Switzerland in 1714. He sold his part in New Bern to Thomas Pollock for 800 pounds. In an attempt to pay off his remaining debts, Graffenried wrote a book entitled Relation of my American Project, an apology and explanation as to why his settlement failed. His son, also named Christoph, came to South Carolina and married Barbara Tempest Needham, founding an American branch of the family that adopted the French version of the name, De Graffenreid, that established itself in Virginia and Tennessee.