Colonial SC Parishes

 

• 1706 – 1793: Parishes and political subdivisions in SCⁱ

i 1706 – 1793: Parishes and political subdivisions in SC

The boundaries of South Carolina’s four early counties have been obscured by a succession of political changes. Although two of the original names—Berkeley and Colleton—have survived, the present county boundaries of South Carolina bear no relationship to those created in the 1680s. This geopolitical evolution commenced in the early days of the eighteenth century, during the administration of Governor Sir Nathaniel Johnson. As an ardent supporter of the Protestant Church of England, Governor Johnson sought to establish his preferred form of worship as the official religion of South Carolina. To accomplish this partisan goal, the provincial General Assembly ratified a controversial law in 1704 that divided the most populous county—Berkeley—into seven Anglican parishes to be supported by the public treasury. Following a chorus of complaints from the non-Anglican citizens of South Carolina, who formed the majority of the population, the Lords Proprietors of Carolina disallowed or canceled the offending statute. The provincial legislature ratified a less discriminatory version of the same material in late 1706, which received official approval in England the following year.[2]

The “Church Act” of 1706, as it was commonly called, created ten parishes across the South Carolina Lowcountry—seven within Berkeley County, two in Colleton County, and one for all of Craven County. Within each of these parishes, the provincial legislature applied public tax revenue for the construction and maintenance of an Anglican church and a smaller “chapel of ease,” and to pay the salary of an Anglican minister. Because the act of 1706 provided only meager descriptions of the boundaries of the original ten parishes, a subsequent act ratified in 1708 provided more robust geographic details. (See the footnotes below for links to historic resources that provide greater detail).

Proceeding north to south, South Carolina’s original parishes included St. James, on the Santee River; Christ Church, in the area now called Mount Pleasant; St. Thomas and St. Dennis (later spelled "Denis") were initially separate parishes, but were soon collapsed into a single entity that encompassed Daniel Island and the mainland between the Wando and Cooper Rivers; St. John, Berkeley, was situated on the northwestern reaches of the Cooper River; St. James, in the area surrounding Goose Creek; St. Philip, encompassing the neck of land between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers; St. Andrew, between the Ashley and Stono Rivers; St. Paul, between the Stono and the South Edisto Rivers; and St. Bartholomew, between the South Edisto and Combahee Rivers.[3]

Over the next seventy-odd years, the South Carolina legislature created fifteen additional parishes. A legislative act of June 1712 created the Parish of St. Helena in Granville County, embracing all of the land between the Combahee and Savannah Rivers.[4] Another act in December 1717 separated the northern part of St. Andrew’s Parish into a new division called St. George. Because it was centered around the old settlement at the town of Dorchester, it soon became known as the Parish of St. George, Dorchester.[5] In March of 1721/2, the northern part of St. James, Santee, became the Parish of Prince George, called Prince George, Winyah, around the settlement that became Georgetown.

Besides authorizing the creation of several Anglican parishes, the Church Act of 1706 did not challenge the geographic divisions of South Carolina’s political landscape. The new parishes were merely subdivisions of the colony’s four original counties, and citizens continued to hold county-wide elections to select representatives in the provincial legislature. That tradition changed in the autumn of 1716, however, when the South Carolina General Assembly ratified a law that designated the various parishes as the geographic districts for both civic elections and tax collection. The Lords Proprietors revoked this change in the summer of 1718, but, following the Revolution of 1719, the provincial legislature re-enacted the parochial law in September 1721. That same month, the South Carolina General Assembly adopted another law to erect courts and courthouses in each of the four counties, but this plan never matured. For a further half-century, the courts of Berkeley County, located within urban Charleston, continued to function as the sole venue for all civil, probate, and criminal process in South Carolina.[7]

As the colony’s rural population increased during the second quarter of the eighteenth century, the inhabitants gained representation in the lower or “Commons House” of South Carolina’s General Assembly through the creation of additional parishes. The government’s plan to attract settlers by creating several townships on the western frontier—a scheme advocated by Governor Robert Johnson in the early 1730s—anticipated that each of the new townships would eventually grow large enough to form a distinct parish. This plan was only partially successful, as demonstrated by the list of new parishes created in the ensuing decades.[8]

For example, a single legislative act in April 1734 created two further parishes. The southern part of St. Paul’s Parish, including John’s Island, Edisto, Wadmalaw, Seabrook, Kiawah, and other sea islands between the Stono and South Edisto Rivers, became the Parish of St. John, Colleton. At the same time, the western part of Prince George, Winyah, became the Parish of Prince Frederick.[9] The northwestern part of St. Helena’s Parish, between the Coosaw River and the Combahee River, became a separate parish in May 1745, called Prince William.[10] The area around the township of Purrysburgh on the north side of the Savannah River became the Parish of St. Peter in February 1746/7.[11]

The central Parish of St. Philip on Charleston Neck was divided in June 1751, at which time everything south of the centerline of Broad Street became the Parish of St. Michael.[12] The old parish of St. James, Santee, was further trimmed in May 1754, when an act of the legislature separated its western half into the Parish of St. Stephen.[13] Similarly, the western half of Prince Frederick Parish was separated in May 1757 to become the Parish of St. Mark.[14] Another legislative act in May 1767 created two new parishes. The southwestern part of St. Helena’s Parish, between the previous subdivisions called St. Peter and Prince William, became the Parish of St. Luke, while the eastern part of Prince George, Winyah, became the coastal Parish of All Saints.[15] Two separate acts both ratified in April 1768 created the Parish of St. Matthew on the western edge of Berkeley County, and the Parish of St. David on the western frontier of Craven County.[16]

The appeal of creating new parishes waned in South Carolina during the second half of the eighteenth century. While parishes served as convenient local jurisdictions for ecclesiastical, electoral, and tax purposes, they offered no other legal or judicial services to their constituents. After numerous citizens on the northwestern frontier complained about the necessity of travelling to distant Charleston to file a suit or attend a trial, the provincial government finally responded. In April 1768, the South Carolina legislature abolished the four counties created in the 1680s and divided the province into seven “precincts” or “districts,” each with its own judicial seat, at Charleston, Beaufort, Orangeburg, Georgetown, Camden, Cheraw, and Ninety-Six. The British Government rejected and cancelled this 1768 act, but approved the revised version that was ratified in Charleston in July 1769. Following the construction of several new courthouses, South Carolina’s first circuit-court system became functional in 1772, and citizens were no longer obliged to visit Charleston to settle most of their legal affairs. This significant administrative change did not affect the status of the old parishes, however, which continued to serve as election and tax districts across the Lowcountry.[17]

South Carolina declared its independence from Great Britain in March of 1776 by adopting a temporary constitution that maintained the provincial government’s existing framework. The final parish of lower South Carolina was created on March 16th, 1778 when the legislature separated a portion of St. Mark’s Parish, surrounding the township of Orangeburg, into a new entity called Orange Parish.[18] Three days later, the state General Assembly adopted a revised constitution that dis-established the Church of England and thus ended the long-established practice of using public funds to support and maintain the state’s Anglican churches. Despite this ecclesiastical change, the twenty-four parishes continued to function as election and tax districts within the oldest settled portions of the state.[19]

In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the elected leaders of South Carolina sought to refine the structure of local government to accommodate the needs of a growing population. The state General Assembly appointed a number of commissioners in the spring of 1783 to begin dividing each of South Carolina’s seven circuit court districts (created in 1768–69) into several counties. This work was completed by the spring of 1785, at which time the legislature formally divided the Palmetto State into thirty-four counties organized within seven regional districts. As with the judicial reorganization of 1769, this post-war change required the construction of many new courthouses across South Carolina, but the boundaries of the colonial parishes remained intact.[20] The revised state constitution of 1790 confirmed this tradition.[21]

Popular reluctance to embrace the county system of 1785 undermined its success, and the state’s elected leaders sowed further resentment by creating several additional counties while abolishing and merging others. After a decade of complaints from constituents, the South Carolina legislature adopted a plan in 1798 to replace the state’s seven judicial districts and thirty-odd counties with a simpler system of twenty-four districts that bore many of the same names as the counties they replaced. This change, which went into effect on January 1st, 1800, again disrupted the geography of South Carolina’s courthouses and judicial circuits, but the old parishes continued to function as election precincts within the new Lowcountry districts.[22]