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Presenter traces colonial parish boundaries that shaped Georgetown County
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Summary
A presenter outlined how 18th-century Anglican parishes — established beginning in 1706 and reorganized in 1721 and 1734 — evolved from civil-administrative units into church-only parishes as Georgetown County assumed judicial and administrative roles.
A presenter traced the colonial origins of what is today Georgetown County, saying early parish boundaries and county divisions set patterns that persist in local place names and jurisdictional lines.
"When the colony was first created, it was laid out in large acreages," the presenter said, describing how early divisions later became Berkeley County, Colleton County (with county seat Walterboro) and what the presenter identified as the area corresponding to modern Georgetown County. The presenter said few administrative records survive from the period and suggested some business was done locally without extensive written documentation.
The presenter said the Anglican church was established in 1706 and that the Carolina Colony was divided into 10 parishes. "It was not until 1721 that Prince George Parish was established," the presenter said, adding that the parish was named for the man who would become King George II of England. The speaker said Prince George Parish later was moved toward the Port of Georgetown in 1734; the original Black River parish was renamed Prince Frederick and a third parish, All Saints, was created on the Waccamaw Neck.
The presenter described All Saints Parish as once extending to the South Carolina–North Carolina state line at Little River. Today, the presenter said, All Saints Parish’s northern boundary begins at the county line, and county lines between Garden City and Murrells Inlet run from the Waccamaw River to the Atlantic Ocean.
"The parish system continues primarily as a church function today," the presenter said, and "instead, we have Georgetown County and our judicial and administrative oversight as a county government." The presenter thus framed a shift from parishes’ civil-administrative roles in the 18th century to contemporary county governance.
The remarks focused on place names and boundary changes rather than formal actions or legal determinations. The presentation did not reference specific surviving documents, and the speaker noted that surviving records for some early local activity are limited or absent.
