St. Helena’s Parish was subdivided in 1745 to form Prince William’s Parish on the mainland as the number of area residents increased. Enslaved people cultivated and harvested rice, cotton, and indigo on inland plantations during the 18th and 19th centuries. Northern Beaufort County South Carolina remains predominantly rural today. Most of the population centers are unincorporated communities. Though sparse in population, the area is rich in history.
This list was created and posted to celebrate the Lobeco Branch Library’s “20 Years of Service” to the communities in Northern Beaufort County by Grace Morris Cordial, MLS, SL, CA, Senior Librarian and Archivist and Manager of the Beaufort District Collection, Beaufort County Library (SC). Created: 31 May 2023
Online Resources:
“Prince William’s Parish” entry in the South Carolina Encyclopedia (2016)
“Prince William Parish, South Carolina” FamilySearch.org Wiki, Accessed 31 May 2023
“Parishes, Districts, and Counties in Early South Carolina” by Nic Butler, Charleston Time Machine, June 4, 2021
Historic Property: Prince William’s Parish Church, South Carolina Historic Properties Record
Sheldon Church Ruins, South Carolina Historic Properties Record, National Register Listing
Transcription of the 1839 State Population Census – Beaufort District from the South Carolina Department of Archives History, Microfilm AD-1327, Prince William’s Parish prepared by the Heritage Library, Hilton Head Island
“P” is for Prince William’s Parish, South Carolina A to Z by Walter Edgar, South Carolina ETV (2019)
Appendix 6A, Old Sheldon Church Road Scenic Highway Corridor Management Plan, Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan (2010)
Sheldon Church Ruins, National Register Nomination Form (1970)
“Burned Twice, Still Standing: South Carolina’s Sheldon Church” by Bill Fitzpatrick, Saving Places website, January 11, 2016.
“Return of the Leverett Letters: A New Marker and a Battle for Local Memory” by Jennifer Whitmer Taylor, Reconstructing Reconstruction blog, August 31, 2014.
“Lowcountry Land Trust Protects 240 Acres by Old Sheldon Church Ruins” by Connor Simonson, Charleston Magazine, February 4, 2022
Archaeological Examination of Nineteenth Century Rose Hill Plantation, Prince William’s Parish, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Natalie Adams et al. (1995)
Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Proposed Gray’s Hill School Site, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley (1997)
Living Christianity delineated, in the diaries and letters of two eminently pious persons lately deceased : viz. Mr. Hugh Bryan, and Mrs. Mary Hutson, both of South-Carolina by Hugh Bryan and Mary Hutson (1760)
CHECK OUT THESE MATERIALS FROM A SCLENDS CONSORTIUM LIBRARY:
Archaeological Examination of Nineteenth Century Rose Hill Plantation, Prince William’s Parish, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Natalie Adams et al. (1995)
Auldbrass: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southern Plantation by David G. De Long (2003)
Auldbrass: The Plantation Complex Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: A Documented History of its South Carolina Lands by Jessica Stevens Loring (1992)
Both Sides of the Swamp: Hampton County by the Hampton County Historical Society (1970)
Carolina Plantations: Lost Photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey by William R. Baldwin; Charles Bayless, photographer (2007)
Chicora Chronicle: Good Times, Hard Times from a Nostalgic Past, Recollections and Insights of a Lowcountry Son by Harold L. Cooler (2006)
The Dedication Ceremony of the Harriet Tubman Bridge : [Saturday] October 18, 2008 [DVD] (2008)
The Family of Stephen Bull of Kinghurst Hall, County Warwick, England, and Ashley Hall, South Carolina, 1600 – 1960 by Henry DeSaussure Bull (1961).
Gullah Spirit: The Art of Jonathan Green by Jonathan Green (2021)
Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the Ace River Basin — 1860 by Suzanne C. Linder and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (1995)
Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green by Jonathan Green (1996)
The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, volume 1: 1514-1861 (1996) ; vol. 2: Rebellion, Reconstruction and Redemption, 1861 – 1893 (2015) ; vol. 3: Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present, 1893-2006 (2015) by Lawrence Sanders Rowland et al. (1996, 2015)
Inseparable Loyalty: A Biography of William Bull by Geraldine M. Meroney (1991)
Lee in the Lowcountry: Defending Charleston & Savannah, 1861 – 1862 by Daniel J. Crooks, Jr. (2008)
More Songs to Sing, Stories to Tell : Growing Up Gullah 2 by Eva Segar (2005)
Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin, edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius, 2009.
The Old Plantation: The Artist Revealed by Susan Shames (2010)
The Oligarchs in Colonial and Revolutionary Charleston: Lieutenant Governor William Bull II and His Family by Kinloch Bull, Jr. (1991)
Plantations of the Carolina Low Country by Samuel G. Stoney (1964).
Plantations of the Low Country : South Carolina, 1697-1865 text by William P. Baldwin, N. Jane Iseley, photographer (1985)
The Progression of Coosaw Plantation into the 20th Century by Marshall C. Sanford (1982?)
Remembering The Way It Was: At Beaufort, Sheldon and the Sea Islands by Fran Marscher (2006)
A Scratch with the Rebels: A Pennsylvania Roundhead and a South Carolina Cavalier by Carolyn Poling Schriber (2007)
Seeking : Poetry and Prose Inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green edited by Kwame Senu Neville Dawes and Marjory Wentworth (2013)
Songs to Sing, Stories to Tell : Growing Up Gullah by Eva Segar (2004)
The Story of Sea Island Cotton by Richard D. Porcher and Sarah Fick (2010)
“A Time of Destiny”: Ifa culture and Festivals in Ile-Ife, Nigeria and Oyotunji African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina by Djisovi Ikukomi Eason (1997)
COME TO THE BEAUFORT DISTRICT COLLECTION RESEARCH RooM TO SEE THESE MATERIALS:
SC B BULL 1991 Inseparable Loyalty: A Biography of William Bull by Geraldine M. Meroney (1991)
SC B COOLER Chicora Chronicle: Good Times, Hard Times from a Nostalgic Past, Recollections and Insights of a Lowcountry Son by Harold L. Cooler (2006)
SC B HILL 1970 Area Recollections of an Old Timer by Fraser Lee Hill (1970)
SC B SEGAR vol. 2 More Songs to Sing, Stories to Tell : Growing Up Gullah 2 by Eva Segar (2005)
SC B SEGAR Songs to Sing, Stories to Tell : Growing Up Gullah by Eva Segar (2004)
SC 283.75799 FLA A Short History of the Parish Church of Prince William, Called Old Sheldon Church by Roy Flannagan (2011)
SC 286 SAM 2012 Prince Williams Baptist Church 1812-1840: History, Records, Families by Sandra Samz (2012)
SC 286.5 PRIN 2013 Prince Williams Primitive Baptist Church: January 1841 – February 1931 by Sandra Samz (2013)
SC 306.0975 EAS 1997 “A Time of Destiny”: Ifa culture and Festivals in Ile-Ife, Nigeria and Oyotunji African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina by Djisovi Ikukomi Eason (1997)
SC 307.76575 MCL 2006 Conceptual Master Plan / Planned Unit Development and Annexation Petition and Development Agreement for McLeod Farm, Beaufort, South Carolina : Submitted to City of Beaufort January 10, 2006 (2006)
SC 333.7313 NOR 1994 Northern Beaufort County Plan: Draft by Beaufort County Planning Board, SC (1994)
SC 359.9657 BEN Yemassee Station: (Where It All Began) by Theo V. Bennett (2006)
SC 363.75757 BEA 1996 Beaufort County Cemetery Inventory Survey by the Savannah College of Art and Design, Historic Preservation Department (1996)
SC 372.24 LOB 1953 Lobeco Elementary School: The Beacon: 1953
SC 385.09757 LAN Charleston & Western Carolina Railway Album by Albert M. Langley (2000)
SC 500.9757 FRO 1999 From Abbeville to Yemassee: SCANning South Carolina’s Natural History : SCAN, the Second Ten Years, January 1986 – December 1995 (1999)
SC 624.27579 DED The Dedication Ceremony of the Harriet Tubman Bridge : [Saturday] October 18, 2008 [DVD] (2008)
SC 633.51 POR 2010 The Story of Sea Island Cotton by Richard D. Porcher and Sarah Fick (2010)
SC 704.03965 GRE The Art of Jonathan Green : Calendars, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006
SC 704.03965 GRE OVRSZ Gullah Images: The Art of Jonathan Green by Jonathan Green (1996)
SC 704.03965 GRE OVRSZ Gullah Spirit: The Art of Jonathan Green by Jonathan Green (2021)
SC 704.03965 GRE Jonathan Green: The Artist & the Collector : June 5 through October 19, 2008 by Jonathan Green and Franklin G. Burroughs- Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum (2008)
SC 704.03965 GRE Jonathan Green at Work by Jonathan Green and Charles Allan Smith (2004)
SC 704.03965 GRE Jonathan Green’s Seeking by Charles Allan Smith [DVD] (2007)
SC 704.03965 GRE 2013 Seeking : Poetry and Prose Inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green edited by Kwame Senu Neville Dawes and Marjory Wentworth (2013)
SC 720.9757 STO 1938 Plantations of the Carolina Low Country by Samuel G. Stoney (1938).
SC 728.8 CAR 2007 Carolina Plantations: Lost Photographs from the Historic American Buildings Survey by William R. Baldwin; Charles Bayless, photographer (2007)
SC 728.8579 MAR 2009 Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin, edited by Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius, 2009.
SC 759.13 GRE The Art of Jonathan Green: A Book of Postcards by Jonathan Green (1996)
SC 759.13 SHA 2010 The Old Plantation: The Artist Revealed by Susan Shames (2010)
SC 799.2 CHA 1899 Charter, By-Laws and Prospectus of the Combahee Hunting Club, Yemassee, S.C. (1899)
SC 912.75799 BEA Beaufort County Street Index [1995, 2006]
SC 917.5799 BRA 1987 Brays Island Plantation by Brays Island Real Estate (1987?)
SC 920 BRY 1760 Living Christianity delineated, in the diaries and letters of two eminently pious persons lately deceased : viz. Mr. Hugh Bryan, and Mrs. Mary Hutson, both of South-Carolina by Hugh Bryan and Mary Hutson (1760)
SC 292 SAU The Rivers Family: From Normandy to Pondtown by Heyward Wilson Sauls (1997?)
SC 929.2 BOW Southern Cousins: Cook , Fennell, and Related Families of Prince William’s Parish, South Carolina by Gloria Cook Jones Bowers (1991)
SC 929.2 BUL 1961 The Family of Stephen Bull of Kinghurst Hall, County Warwick, England, and Ashley Hall, South Carolina, 1600 – 1960 by Henry DeSaussure Bull (1961).
SC 929.2 GAR Our Low Country Families: Fitts-Reid and connected Families of Forrester, Peeples and Nix by June McManus Gardner (2016)
SC 929.2 ONT v1-v3 Letters from Seabrook and Beaufort, S.C. written by Mae Onthank and Her Family to Billy MacLeod transcribed by Douglas MacLeod (1991)
SC 929.2 SOW 2013 The Family of John D. Gooding (ca. 1773 – late 1850) and Mary “Molly” Hammond Gooding (8 June 1780 – 15 November 1832) : Part One: Foundation of our Gooding Family by Mary Ann Sowell (2013)
SC 929.2 WAL The Walkers of South Carolina by Emmeline Dabney Greene Walker; revisions by Rev. Joseph R. Walker (1936; revised 1959)
SC 929.5 INS Inscriptions on Gravestones in Cemeteries: Beaufort County, South Carolina (1986?)
SC 973.7757 CRO 2008 Lee in the Lowcountry: Defending Charleston & Savannah, 1861 – 1862 by Daniel J. Crooks, Jr. (2008)
SC 973.7757 SCH 2007 A Scratch with the Rebels: A Pennsylvania Roundhead and a South Carolina Cavalier by Carolyn Poling Schriber (2007)
SC 975 SOU vol. 56 “Registers of Sheldon Church, Prince William’s Parish, 1826 – 1947 by Marie DeTreville and William L. Glover, South Carolina Historical Magazine, July 1955, pp. 151 -156.
SC 975.7 LIN Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the Ace River Basin — 1860 by Suzanne C. Linder and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (1995)
SC 975.702 BUL The Oligarchs in Colonial and Revolutionary Charleston: Lieutenant Governor William Bull II and His Family by Kinloch Bull, Jr. (1991)
SC 975.79 PLA 1987 Plantations of the Low Country : South Carolina, 1697-1865, text revised by William P. Baldwin, N. Jane Iseley, photographer (1987)
SC 975.797 BOT Both Sides of the Swamp: Hampton County by the Hampton County Historical Society (1970)
SC 975.799 ADA 1995 Archaeological Examination of Nineteenth Century Rose Hill Plantation, Prince William’s Parish, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Natalie Adams et al. (1995)
SC 975.799 ARC 1993 Archaeological Data Recovery at 38BU1289, Beaufort County, South Carolina: Antebellum Lifeways in Rural Prince William Parish by Linda Kennedy et al. (1993)
SC 975.799 BAT 2007 An Archaeological Survey of Morgan’s Island near Lobeco, Beaufort County, South Carolina : April 6, 2007 by Daphne L. Owens (2007)
SC 975.799 CHI 1997 Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Proposed Gray’s Hill School Site, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley (1997)
SC 975.799 DEL Auldbrass: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Southern Plantation by David G. De Long (2003)
SC 975.799 EUB 1995 Archaeological Testing of 38BU1425 and 38BU1427, Bull Point Development Tract, Beaufort County, South Carolina : June 1995 by Elsie I. Eubanks (1995)
SC 975.799 EUB 1996 Archaeological Testing of Sites 38BU1428, 38BU1429, and 38BU1430, Bull Point Development Tract, Beaufort County, South Carolina: Addendum : July 1996 by Elsie I. Eubanks (1996)
SC 975.799 GRE 1988 Gullah Life Reflections: A Traveling Exhibition of the Paintings of Jonathan Green by Jonathan Green (1988)
SC 975.799 LOR 1992 Auldbrass: The Plantation Complex Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright: A Documented History of its South Carolina Lands by Jessica Stevens Loring (1992)
SC 975.799 MAR Remembering The Way It Was: At Beaufort, Sheldon and the Sea Islands by Fran Marscher (2006)
SC 975.799 POP Cultural Resources Reconnaissance Survey : US Highway 17 Improvements : Gardens Corner to Jacksonboro, South Carolina : December 1989 by Eric C. Poplin (1989)
SC 975.799 ROW The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, volume 1: 1514-1861 (1996) ; vol. 2: Rebellion, Reconstruction and Redemption, 1861 – 1893 (2015) ; vol. 3: Bridging the Sea Islands’ Past and Present, 1893-2006 (2015) by Lawrence Sanders Rowland et al.
SC 975.799 RUS Archaeological Testing of Five Sites on the Bull Point Development Tract, Beaufort County, South Carolina : March 1995 by Tina M. Rust (1995)
SC 975.799 SAN The Progression of Coosaw Plantation into the 20th Century by Marshall C. Sanford (1982?)
SC 975.799 SHU Draft Environmental Assessment: Proposed Widening of U.S. Route 17 from U.S. Route 21 at Gardens Corner in Beaufort County to S.C. Route 64 at Jacksonboro in Colleton County, South Carolina [1990] : Submitted Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 4332 (2) (c) by the South Carolina Department of Highways and Public Transportation, 1990.
SC 975.799 SHU 2005 vol. 1 Intensive Cultural Resources Survey of US Highway 17 Widening Project: Gardens Corner to Jacksonboro: Beaufort and Colleton Counties, South Carolina : Draft Report: Pin number 29997; F.A. No. BR-BR88(039) by Kristina A. Shuler et al. (2005)
SC 975.799 SMI Report of Findings: The Search for Fort Balfour and Coosawhatchie Battlefield: January 5, 2005 by Steven D. Smith (2005)
SC 975.799 TOD 1935 & SC 975.799 HUT 1933 Prince William’s Parish and Plantations by John R. Todd and Francis M. Hutson (1932, 1933, 1935)
SC 975.799 TRI 2001 Bull Plantation, Prince William Parish, Beaufort County, South Carolina by Michael Trinkley (2001)
SC 975.799 WIL Beaufort County, South Carolina: The Shrines, Early History and Topography by N. L. Willet (1953, 1949, 1940, 1935, 1929, 1926 , 1918?)
Maps:
SC MAP 133 Reconnaissance of Upper Part of Broad River and its Tributaries and of Whale Branch by the United States War Department. Corps of Topographical Engineers, Department of the South [?]
SC MAP 147 Reconnaisance & Upper Part of Broad River [I-50 Roll] by the United States War Department. Corps of Topographical Engineers, Department of the South [?]
SC MAP 151 Map of a part of Beaufort and Colleton Districts Between Broad River and South Edisto River by the United States War Department. Corps of Topographical Engineers, Department of the South [?]
SC MAP 214 [A map of South Carolina and a part of Georgia: Containing the whole sea-coast; all the islands, inlets … as also, several plantations, with their proper boundary-lines …] by John G. W. deBrahm (circa 1799)
SC MAP 270 Whale Branch Passage between Coosaw and Broad Rivers, South Carolina (?)
SC MAP 289 Plan of a tract of lande belonging to Capt. Richard W. Hutson : containing one hundred and nitety acress, and a half – via: one hundred and fifty seven acres rice land including two reservoirs … by William Brailsforde
SC MAP 291 Plot of a Tract of land being a part of the tract belonging to Dr. Isaac McP Gregorie, known as Brewton, situated in Prince Williams Parish, Beaufort County, State of South Carolina … Nov. 1st 1875 by Isaac M. Gregorie
SC MAP 293 Beaufort County, South Carolina Street Map: Including Hilton Head, Beaufort, Port Royal, Sheldon, Bluffton (1996)
SC MAP 462 A map of South Carolina from the Savannah Sound to St. Helena’s Sound, with the several plantations, their proper boundary lines, their names, and the names of the proprietors included and grants of lands belonging to Landgrave William Hodgson, coloured green and edged with red with additional plans of those plots which have been resurvey’d by order of Messrs. Boss & Brailsford the purchasers from Hodgson, who inherited from his ancestors, as they had thier original grant, from the Palatinate Lord Carteret &c. [?]
SC MAP 676 Map of Early Surveys of Grants between 1731-1737 in what afterwards became Prince William’s Parish under Act of 1745 : July 12, 1933
Unpublished Beaufort County Historical Society Papers:
SC BCHS PAPERS #22 Old Families of Beaufort: The Stuarts and the Bulls: Read before the Beaufort County Historical Society December 10, 1952 by Etta C. Foster (1952)
SC BCHS PAPERS #25 Religion in the Eighteenth Century: Read Before the Beaufort County Historical Society, October 15, 1946 (1946)
SC BCHS PAPERS #26A Beaufort District Landmarks and Historical Sites: Prepared for the Beaufort County Historical Society by Francis M. Hutson (1950)
SC BCHS PAPERS #36 Prince William’s Parish by John W. Hardy (1961)
Vertical Files consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, pamphlets, brochures, and other types of paper based ephemera on specific topics. Here are some related to the people, places, structures, families and events of Northern Beaufort County:
AULDBRASS PLANTATION
BEAUFORT COUNTY LIBRARY – DALE BRANCH
BEAUFORT COUNTY LIBRARY – LOBECO BRANCH
BINDEN PLANTATION
BONNY HALL PLANTATION
BRIDGES – WHALE BRANCH BRIDGE
BULL FAMILY
CHEROKEE PLANTATION
CHURCHES – MOUNT CARMEL BAPTIST CHURCH
CHURCHES– PRINCE WILLIAM’S PARISH : (OLD SHELDON CHURCH), 1745-1865
CHURCHES — STONEY CREEK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
COOSAW RIVER
COOSAWHATCHIE
CYPRESS BAY PLANTATION
GARDENS CORNER
GREEN, JONATHAN (1955 – )
LOBECO
MCPHERSONVILLE
NEMOURS WILDLIFE FOUNDATION
OYOTUNJI VILLAGE, 1970 –
POCOTALIGO
PORT ROYAL RAILROAD COMPANY
SCHOOLS – JAMES J. DAVIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
SCHOOLS – LOBECO GRADED SCHOOL
SCHOOLS – WHALE BRANCH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
SCHOOLS – WHALE BRANCH MIDDLE SCHOOL
SCHOOLS – WHALE BRANCH EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
SHELDON
WOODSTOCK PLANTATION
YAMASEE WAR, SC, 1715 -1717
YEMASSEE BARRACKS
YEMASSEE (TOWN)
For even more information about specific peoples, events and topics related to the history of Northern Beaufort County, consult these lists of links and materials:
Beaufort County Library Records, 1914 — Finding Aid – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com) Consult the Finding Aid for specific folders about the Dale and Lobeco Branch Libraries.
Byrne Miller Papers, 1932-2003, Bulk 1969-1995 Finding Aid – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com) She was a teacher at the Peter Pan School for Exceptional Children that previously occupied the building that was re-purposed as the Lobeco Branch of the Beaufort County Library in 2001 – 2003.
Native Americans – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com)
Onthank Letters, 1912-1915, Finding Aid
R. L. Johnson Medical Record Book, 1863–1864, 1867-1883 Finding Aid – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com) Dr. Johnson served at a Confederate hospital in McPhersonville.
Robert E. H. Peeples Postcard Collection, 1910 – 1989 Finding Aid – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com) Robert E.H. Peeples was born in Estill, SC in 1918. He was a banker before serving in the Army during World War II. Peeples collected postcards from about half of the states in the United States, Washington, DC, Canada, Cuba, England, and Belgium. 183 postcards are about South Carolina. Approximately 25% of the postcards contain correspondence addressed to Peeples or his relatives in the Peeples, Lawton, and Bull families. The postcards range from 1910 to 1989 but almost 90% of the correspondence occurred during the 1940s.
Phosphate, Farms and Family: The Donner Collection, photographs of Northern Beaufort County, 1886 – 1916
Storm of 1893 Death List – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com)
Yamasee War, 1715 – 1717 – bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids (wordpress.com)
Note: The Beaufort District Collection (BDC) exists to acquire, preserve, maintain and make accessible a research collection of permanent value which records the history, culture, and environment of the South Carolina lowcountry wedged between the Combahee (pronounced “kum-bee”) and Savannah Rivers.
Contact the Beaufort District Collection at 843-255-6446 or e-mail bdc@bcgov.net for additional information about local history and archives relating to the people, places, and themes of the history, Gullah culture, and natural environment of Beaufort County, Jasper County and Hampton County, South Carolina.
Please check the Beaufort County Library (SC) system’s homepage for terms of access to the Beaufort District Collection and current hours of operation and locations.
bdcbcl: Links, Lists, and Finding Aids 