Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Izard was born at "The Elms" near Charleston, South Carolina. He was the son of Henry Izard and Margaret Johnson. His great-grandfather was Ralph Izard (1660-1710), who was born in Dorchester, England and settled in South Carolina. His maternal grandfather was Province of South Carolina Governor Robert Johnson. Izard''s parents died when he was a small child, and only one of his siblings survived to adulthood. He spent most of his childhood and youth studying in England: he attended a school in Hackney, London, and matriculated as a fellow-commoner at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Izard returned to America in 1764, but did not remain in South Carolina for long. In 1767, he married Alice DeLancey of New York (a niece of James DeLancey). They had 13 children between the years of 1768 and 1792