St. Johns Berkeley Parish, South Carolina

United States South Carolina  St. John's Berkeley Parish

History
Also known as Biggin Church. It is now a ruin. The original Biggin Church was completed in 1712. It burned in a forest fire in 1775, but was restored. British troops burned it again during the Revolutionary War in 1781, and it was again restored. In 1886 another forest fire left this building in ruins, and since then the bricks have been scavenged from all but two walls.

A Huguenot congregation met at a building near Santee Circle, Berkeley, South Carolina, in St. John's Berkeley Parish before 1701. These Huguenots were the bulk of the earliest St. John's Berkeley parishioners.

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. John's Berkeley Parish (Moncks Corner, Berkeley, SC) was authorized in 1706, but had to wait until 1708 for its boundaries to be defined from the northern part of St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish in the northwest part of Berkeley (1682-1768) County.

Boundary
Borders: St. Thomas and St. Denis, St. James Goose Creek, Prince Frederick 1734-1754, St. Stephen's since 1754, and St. Mark's since 1757 parishes. For a map, see: Early parishes in South Carolina. An overlay of districts is available at Carolana.com.

Areas Served: St. John's Berkeley Parish served:


 * part of Berkeley (1682-1768) County 1706-1768
 * part of Charleston District 1768-1800
 * part of Marion (1785-1791) County 1785-1791
 * part of Charleston County 1800-1882
 * part of Berkeley County since 1882
 * a small part of Orangeburg County since 1897

Modern equivalents: The original parish covered parts of what are present-day Berkeley and a small part of Orangeburg counties.

Research Guides

 * South Carolina Archives Summary Guide: St. John's, Berkeley, Parish, available online, courtesy: South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

Biography

 * Weems, Mason Locke and Peter Horry. The Life of General Francis Marion, a Celebrated Partisan Officer, in the Revolutionary War, Against the British and Tories in South Carolina and Georgia. Philadelphia, Pa.: Joseph Allen, 1852. Digital version at Google Books. [Gen. Marion was born in 1732 in St. John's Parish, S.C.]

Cemetery

 * Smith, Henry A.M. "Inscriptions on the Monuments in the Church-yard of the Parish Church of St. John's Berkeley," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Jul. 1910):171-183. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

Cemetery records for Hanover Plantation, in St. John's Parish, Berkeley, have also been transcribed:


 * Dwight, H.R. "Inscriptions from Tombstones in Graveyard at Hanover Plantation, St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, S.C.," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Apr. 1940):74. Digital version at JSTOR ($).

Census
Names of white householders and statistics on the numbers of white and slave tithes between the ages of 16 and 60 are listed in St. John's Berkeley Road Commissioners Minutes 1760-1798, a volume kept at SCDAH. Abstract:


 * "Lists of Inhabitants of St. John's Berkeley Parish, 1762-1764," The South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Summer 1988):122-125.

Military Records

 * "List of the Upper District of St. John's Parish: 31st Jan. 1756," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Jul. 1922):92-93; digital version at JSTOR ($). Lists the names of many men of military age in the parish.

Parish History
For a history of the parish, see Chapter 6, St. John's Parish, Berkley, pages 264-274, 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
St. John's, Berkeley, has a rich archive of early records, including a list of members, accounts, minutes and fragmentary records of minutes, list of ministers, list of officers, pew holders, and pew plans. Copies:

Websites

 * Biggin Church, The Historical Marker Database. Includes photographs of the ruin and history.
 * Site of Huguenot Church of Saint John's Berkeley, The Historical Marker Database