St. George Dorchester Parish, South Carolina

United States   South Carolina    St. George Dorchester Parish

History
St. George Dorchester Parish served Dorchester County and historic Charles Town District. The British burned the church during the Revolutionary War, and despite being rebuilt in part, it fell into disuse.

South Carolina's "Anglican parishes were used as election districts and had responsibility for road development, care of the poor, and education."

Founded

 * 1717

Boundary

 * Borders St. Andrew's, St. Bartholomew's, St. James Goose Creek, St. Matthew's, St. Paul's parishes. For a map, see: Early parishes in South Carolina. An overlay of districts is available at Carolana.com.

Research Guides

 * South Carolina Archives Summary Guide: St. George Dorchester Parish, available online, courtesy: South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

Cemetery
McElligott made a professional reading of the tombstones at the ruins of this church:


 * McElligott, Carroll Ainsworth. "St. George's Church Cemetery, Dorchester County," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 13, No. 2 (Spring 1985):87-90.

Select graves at St. George's Parish Church Cemetery are described in various Find A Grave databases:


 * 1) Old Saint Georges Anglican Church Cemetery (18 graves)
 * 2) Saint George's Parish Church Cemetery (10 graves)
 * 3) Saint George's Episcopal Church and Cemetery (1 grave)

Members of the DAR did a survey of St. George's Church Cemetery:


 * National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. Cemetery Records of South Carolina. Typescript. . [Includes St. George's Church Cemetery in Dorchester.]

Census
A 1726 Census for St. George Dorchester Parish survives. It was taken by Rev. Francis Varnod and is kept in the Archives of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in London (Letter dated 21 Jan 1726, Reference A19, 104). It lists the names of heads of household and statistics on white men, women, and children, as well as slaves. Abstract:


 * Floyd, Randleson A. "Names and Number of the Inhabitants of St. George's Parish, South Carolina as Inclosed in Mr. Varnod's Letter of 21 January 1725/6 to The Society for the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Spring 2005):77-79.

1790 and 1800 censuses of the parish have been published:


 * Jarrell, Lawrence E. Early Colleton, South Carolina Census. Complete Transcription of the Federal Census Records; 1790 Charleston District Census, St. Bartholomew's, St. George's-Dorchester; St. Paul's and St. John's-Colleton Parishes; 1800 Colleton District Census--St. Bartholomew's, St. George's-Dorchester and St. Paul's Parishes; 1810 Colleton District Census. High Point, N.C.: Alligator Creek Genealogy Publications, 1998.

Parish History
For an early history of the parish, see Chapter 18, St. George's Parish, Dorchester, pages 345-350, in:


 * Dalcho, Frederick. An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina from the First Settlement of the Province, to the War of the Revolution; with Notices of the Present State of the Church in Each Parish and Some Account of the Early Civil History of Carolina, Never Before Published. Charleston: E. Thayer, 1820. ; digital versions at Google Books; Internet Archive.

Websites

 * Parish Church of St. George, Dorchester, The Historical Marker Database
 * The Bell Tower of St. George's Marker, The Historical Marker Database