St. Bartholomews Parish, South Carolina

United States South Carolina  St. Bartholomew's Parish

Also known as St. Bartholomew's Ashepoo in Edmundsbury (now Ashepoo). After moving to Pon Pon (now Jacksonboro) in 1725 it was also called the St. Bartholomew's Pon Pon Chapel of Ease, or the Old Burnt Church.

Before the American Revolution, the state church of South Carolina was the Church of England (the Anglican Church, or Protestant Episcopal Church). Besides keeping parish registers, the church kept many records of a civil nature in their vestry books. The Vestry was as much a political body as a religious one. The wardens and commissioners were responsible for the roads, education, the poor and orphans, voting and collecting taxes in addition to their church duties.

Founded
St. Bartholomew's Parish was created as an original parish in 1706 from the southwest side of Colleton (1682-1768) County. The original parish church was planned for Edmundsbury (now Ashepoo) until the Yemassee Indian War of 1715. In 1725 a new parish building was authorized in Pon Pon (now Jacksonboro) on the Fort Moore-Charleston Trail and was called the Pon Pon Chapel of Ease.

Boundary
Borders: St. Paul's, St. Andrew's 1706-1717, St. Helena's since 1712, St. George since 1717, St. John's Colleton since 1730, Prince William since 1745, and St. Matthew's since 1768 parishes. For a map, see: Early parishes in South Carolina. An overlay of districts is available at Carolana.com.

Areas Served: St. Bartholomew's Parish served:


 * part of Colleton (1682-1768) County 1706-1768
 * part of Charleston District 1768-1800
 * Bartholomew County 1785-1791
 * part of Colleton County 1800-1865

Modern equivalents: The original parish covered what is present-day Colleton County.

History

 * 1706 St. Bartholomew's Parish established by legislation
 * 1713 First missionary clergyman arrives. Officiates in five different places to accomadate scattered parishoners
 * 1715 Plans to build a church at Edmundsbury (Ashepoo) abandoned because of an Indian War and subsequent death of the clergyman.
 * 1725 Pon Pon (Jacksonboro) new wooden building authorized as a "chapel of ease"
 * 1753 Pon Pon new brick building ordered
 * 1754 Pon Pon brick building finished
 * 1785 Edmundsbury brick church built as a "chapel of ease"
 * 1786 Edmundsbury brick church declared unfit for use
 * 1801 Pon Pon church burnt, an thereafter called the "Burnt Church"
 * 1810 Edmundsbury brick church falls in ruins
 * 1819 Edmundsbury new brick chapel built
 * 1819-1822 Pon Pon church rebuilt
 * 1832 Pon Pon church again falls to ruin
 * 1852 Edmundsbury chapel burnt
 * 1854 Edmundsbury chapel rebuilt
 * 1865 Edmundsbury chapel wrecked by Union troops

Research Guides

 * South Carolina Archives Summary Guide: St. Bartholomew's County, available online, courtesy: South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

Census

 * Mott, Beverly K. 1790 Census for St. Bartholomews Parish, Charleston District, South Carolina, available online, courtesy: SCGenWeb.
 * 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 21, St. Bartholomew's Parish, pages 366-374, 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.

See also:


 * Geiger, Florence Gambrill. "St. Bartholomew's Parish as Seen by Its Rectors, 1713-1761," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Oct. 1949):173-203. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

For a more modern history filled with illustrations, see Plantations of St. Bartholomew's Parish.

Parish Records
In the 1950s, the records of St. Bartholomew's Parish and Edmundbury Chapel were kept at the Bishop's office in St. Philip's Church, Charleston. St. Bartholomew's records include a history, minutes, and reports of various organizations. St. Bartholomew's copies: ; Edmundbury copies:.

South Carolina Historical Society holdings: "St. Bartholomew’s (Episcopal) Parish. Colleton County. Records, 1818-1862. 4 vols."


 * "Vestry minutes (1855-62) of the Church of the Ascension, Combahee. A chapel of ease for a parish church never built, Edmundsbury chapel burned in 1852. To replace it, Ascension was built upriver by and for such planter families as the Elliotts, Heywards, Lowndes, and Rhetts. The architect was E. C. Jones, and the builder T. Talbird. Rector’s journal (1818-40) kept by Francis P. Dela Vaux and recording services and texts, lectures on litany and liturgy, trips from his home and principal church in Walterboro to Ashepoo, Pon Pon, St. Helena’s, Sheldon, and occasionally, Flat Rock. Vestry minutes (1822-40) of chapels of ease at Walterboro, Edmundsbury or Ashepoo, and Pon Pon; vol. records land purchases and rentals, pew or bench rentals (one year by auction), allocation of a minister’s time between congregations which were very disparate in wealth and size, annual selection, supervision, and work of the committee to hire out the church’s slaves, the vestry’s criteria for selection of a rector, the election of R. B. Rhett as vestryman in 1850, plans and specifications by architect E. B. White for a new church in Walterboro, and engagement in 1828 of J. L. Petigru for his opinion on the vestry’s power to open or close a church. Other families represented include Fishburne, Ford, Glover, Godfrey, Lowndes, Miles, Mason Smith, and Youngblood. W. F. Fripp’s 1949 transcript of this vol., with notes on chapel locations and a fairly complete index of names."

Vestry Books

 * Fripp, William Henry. "Minutes of the Vestry, St. Bartholomew's Parish, 1822-1840," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Apr. 1944):65-70; Vol. 45, No. 3 (Jul. 1944):157-171; Vol. 45, No. 4 (Oct. 1944):217-221; Vol. 51, No. 1 (Jan. 1950):10-23; Vol. 51, No. 2 (Apr. 1950):78-96; Vol. 51, No. 3 (Jul. 1950):145-163; Vol. 51, No. 4 (Oct. 1950):229-242. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

Taxation

 * [1783] "1783 Tax Returns," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Fall 1974):171-178.
 * [1784] "1784 Tax Returns," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Summer 1975):178-182.
 * [1785] St. Bartholomew's Parish Tax Returns, 1785, The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Summer 1977).
 * [1786] "1786 Tax Returns," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter 1982):18-24; Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer 1982):154-157.

Websites

 * Colleton County, South Carolina Early History, courtesy: SCGenWeb.
 * Edmundsbury Marker, The Historical Marker Database