Ship's Register Signed by President of South Carolina John Rutledge, 1776 Rutledge, John (1739-1800).President and first Governor of South Carolina (1776-1782), delegate at the Constitutional Convention, and Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. Partially printed DS as President of South Carolina, the title of the state's executive office from 1776 until 1778, 1p, 7.5 x 9.5 in. "Custom-House, Charlestown." November 21, 1776.Ship's register certifying that merchants William Price, Samuel Legare, and Nathaniel Russell of Charleston owned the sloop Active, built in Bermuda in 1771. Rutledge's signature appears in upper left margin. Nathaniel Russell (1738-1820), the most prominent of the ship's owners, settled in Charleston as a young man in 1765 and made his living exporting local staples including rice, indigo, tobacco, and cotton. He also participated in the slave trade and had mercantile connections in West Africa, the West Indies, England, continental Europe, and South America.