58 Tradd Street Cleland - Wells House
circa 1760
This three-story stuccoed single house was constructed circa 1760 by Charleston Physician Dr. William Cleland
as a residence for his son William. After William's death the property was purchased in 1778 by Scottish émigré
Robert Wells, the largest bookseller and printer in the Southern colonies. Wells and his son John used the first
floor and perhaps the cellar of this building to publish a Tory newspaper, the South Carolina and American
General Gazette. The Wells were banished from South Carolina for their Tory sympathies under the "Act for
Disposing of Certain Estates and Banishing Certain Persons." Their house was confiscated by the sheriff and
sold at auction to a local gunsmith by authority of the 1782 Act of Confiscation,
Marker is on Tradd Street, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
