St. James Santee Parish, South Carolina

United States South Carolina  St. James Santee Parish

History
Also known as the Wambaw Church on the King's Highway. This is the fourth building to serve this parish. The original parish was authorized upon the request of Huguenot settlers in 1706. The original building was few miles inland at Jamestown, but their meeting place was moved closer to the sea as the local population shifted due to the construction of the King's Highway. In the early years sermons were preached in the French language.

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. James Santee Parish (McClellanville, Charleston, SC) was created as an original parish in 1706 from the southern corner of Craven County.

Boundary
Borders: Christ Church, St. Thomas and St. Denis, the Atlantic Ocean, Prince George since 1721, Prince Frederick since 1734, and St. Stephen's since 1754 parishes. For a map, see: Early parishes in South Carolina. An overlay of districts is available at Carolana.com.

Areas Served: St. James Santee Parish served:


 * part of historic Craven County 1706-1768
 * part of Charleston District 1768-1800
 * parts of Washington and Marion counties 1785-1791
 * part of Charleston County since 1800
 * part of Berkeley County since 1882

Modern equivalents: The original parish covered parts of what are present-day Charleston and Berkeley counties.

Cemetery

 * "The Inscriptions on the Tombstones at the Old Parish Church of St. James's Santee, near Echaw Creek," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Jul. 1911):153-158. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

The parish church's cemetery graves are also transcribed in Bridges (see below).

Select graves are photographed and transcribed at Find A Grave.

Parish History
For a history of the parish, see Chapter 9, St. James' Parish, Santee, pages 295-302, 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.

Parish Records
In the 1960s, the parish kept its registers at the church. Copies:. Births and christenings dated 1758 to 1788 are indexed on the IGI. Published abstracts:


 * Bridges, Anne B. and Roy Williams. St. James Santee Plantation Parish [South Carolina] History &amp; records, 1685-1925. Spartanburg, S.C.: The Reprint Co., 1997. 541 pages. Includes church records for St. James Santee, 1758-1788 (Church of England); previously unpublished records, 1846-1921 (assumed to be Episcopalian). Also includes cemetery records for the church and lists of French &amp; Swiss refugees &amp; inhabitants. The old parish existed in today's Charleston &amp; Berkeley counties. Book found at Book found at and Other Libraries.
 * Webber, Mabel L. "Parish Registers of St. James' Santee 1758-1788," South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Jul. 1914):133-143; Vol. 15, No. 4 (Oct. 1914):197-203; Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jan. 1915):16-24; Vol. 16, No. 2 (Apr. 1915):68-79; Vol. 16, No. 3 (Jul. 1915):109-122; Vol. 16, No. 4 (Oct. 1915):164-177; Vol. 17, No. 2 (Apr. 1916):73-81. ; digital versions at JSTOR ($).

Holcomb and Hollowak reprinted marriage register abstracts:


 * Holcomb, Brent H. and Thomas L. Hollowak. South Carolina Marriages, 1688-1799. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1980.

South Carolina Historical Society holdings: "St. James, Santee (Episcopal) Church. McClellanville. Records, 1758-1971. 2 vols."


 * "Register includes marriages (1758-74; 1778-88); banns of marriage (1760, 1761, 1767, 1769); marriages (1851-1948); baptisms (1758-88); burials (1758-74; 1778-88); list of incumbents (1789-1865); confirmations (1854-61); historical notes (1789-1865); baptisms (1848-61; 1867-90; 1893-1926); list of communicants (1876); confirmations (1854-61; 1869-1952); births and baptisms (1920-71); deaths and burials (1846-63); decennial lists of communicants (1890-1940). Relatively frequent references to baptisms of slaves and, in the 1850s, confirmations on plantations, the rites apparently performed by laymen. Vestry minutes (1806-86), including accounts and references both to 1820 petition to the legislature re right to sell glebe land and to C. C. Pinckney, Jr., secretary of the vestry, then (after ordination) rector (1835-39). Families represented on the vestry include Axson, Doar, Dupré, Mazÿck, Rutledge, and Vanderhorst."

Websites

 * St. James Santee Parish Church Marker, The Historical Marker Database