St. Marks Parish, South Carolina

United States South Carolina  St. Mark's Parish

History
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. Mark's Parish (originally in Summerton, Clarendon, SC, now near Pinewood, Sumter, SC) was created in 1757 from the northwest side of Prince Frederick Parish on the far northwest side of Craven County.

Boundary
Borders: Prince Frederick and St. Stephen's parishes on the southeast, St. John's Berkeley Parish in Berkeley (1682-1768) County on the southwest, and the North Carolina line on the northeast. In 1767 the northwest half of the parish was split off into St. David's Parish. In 1768 St. Matthew's Parish in Orangeburgh District, and St. James Goose Creek became the southwest border. For a map, see: Early parishes in South Carolina. An overlay of districts is available at Carolana.com.

Areas Served: St. Mark's Parish served:


 * Craven County
 * Camden District.
 * Sumter county.

Modern equivalents: The original parish covered most of what are present-day Clarendon, and Sumter, and parts of Lee, Darlington, Dillon, Horry, Marion, Florence, Williamsburg, and Richland counties.

Cemeteries
Select graves from St. Mark's Parish Church Cemetery are described at Find A Grave.

The tombstones at Richardson Cemetery, a private burial ground within the parish, have been transcribed:


 * "Tombstone Inscriptions, Richardson Cemetery: Located in Old St. Mark's Parish; Four Miles Southeast of Remini, Clarendon County, S.C.," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Jan. 1927):55-68. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

Parish History

 * Burgess, James M. Chronicles of St. Mark's Parish, Santee Circuit, and Williamsburg Township, South Carolina. Columbia, S.C.: Charles A. Calvo, Jr., Printer, 1888. Digital version at Google Books;
 * Richardson, Thomas E. The Parish of St. Mark..

For an early history of the parish, see Chapter 13, St. Mark's Parish, pages 323-325, 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

 * St. Mark's Episcopal Church Marker, The Historical Marker Database