My Heroes... Thomas Hayward

Mr. Hayward was the son of an extremely wealthy planter in the South Carolina Province. His father arranged for him to be well educated, including shipping him to England to study law at one of the Inns  of court at the Temple. There he discovered how inferior the colonists were considered in the eyes of the British. Simply because Americans, English citizens, were born on another continent, they were considered of lesser value than those born in England.

He toured the Continent and was not impressed by the pomp of royalty and its minions, returning home determined to free his beloved homeland. He stood with Lee and Rutledge.

His brief biography told of how he mastered Latin and read the Roman historians and poets, fluently in Latin. My first thought was, "He was a Geek!" Then I read how he served in the military beside Rutledge and as a Judge and was captured and held captive. He lived in an age when men were Geeks and Soldiers and Leaders because there was no one to tell them it wasn't done. The need was there, and they stepped in to serve.

He died at 63.

How often do I allow convention to dictate what I do?