St. Davids Parish, South Carolina

United States South Carolina  St. David's Parish

Before the American Revolution, the state church of South Carolina was the Church of England (also called the Anglican Church, and later the 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. David's Parish (Cheraw, Chesterfield, SC) was created in 1768 from the northeast corner of the Georgetown District and most or all of the Cheraw District.

Boundary
Borders: Prince Frederick and St. Mark's parishes, and the North Carolina border. For a map, see: Early parishes in South Carolina. An overlay of districts is available at Carolana.com.

Areas Served: St. David's Parish served:


 * Cheraw and part of Georgetown districts 1768-1800
 * Chesterfield, Marlboro, and Darlington counties since 1785
 * part of Liberty County 1768-1798 and thereafter part of Marion County since 1798
 * part of Florence County since 1888

Modern equivalents: The original parish covered what is present-day Chesterfield, Marlboro, and Darlington counties, and parts of present-day Florence, and Marion counties.

History
During the Revolutionary war St. David’s Church was used as quarters for the South Carolina militia and as a hospital for the British troops under Major McArthur, who was under Lord Cornwallis’s command.

Record Loss

 * Lost parish registers: 1768 to 1818

Parish History

 * St. David's Episcopal Church. Women's Auxiliary. Chapter B. Old St. David's, Cheraw, South Carolina, 1770-1947. Cheraw, S.C.: Lillian Lovelace, 1975.

For an early history of the parish, see Chapter 14, St. David's Parish, pages 326-327, 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
The original parish registers are kept in [Charleston?], South Carolina. Copies of a transcript:. Published abstracts:


 * Holcomb, Brent H. and St. David's Episcopal Church. St. David's Parish, South Carolina: Minutes of the Vestry, 1768-1832; Parish Register, 1819-1924. Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1979.

Taxation

 * General Tax Collection List, Parish of St. David, 1783-1787, Darlington Flag, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Winter 2008).

Websites

 * Old St. David's Marker, The Historical Marker Database