The Attorney General of South Carolina is the state's chief legal officer and prosecutor.

History

Alexander Moultrie, half-brother of Revolutionary War figure and future governor William Moultrie, was named the state's first Attorney General under its first state "President",

John Rutledge John Rutledge (September 17, 1739 – June 21, 1800) was an American Founding Father, politician, and jurist who served as one of the original associate justices of the Supreme Court and the second chief justice of the United States. Additiona ...

, in 1776. Rutledge had been provincial Attorney General himself for 10 months before independence. Moultrie was impeached and resigned in 1792 for diverting state funds into the Yazoo land company fraud. After the

1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election The 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1876 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. The election campaign was a referendum on the Radical Republican-led state government and their Reconstruction poli ...

, the state was left with a contested election and a dual government, from the election in November through April 1877. Republican

Robert B. Elliott Robert Brown Elliott (August 11, 1842August 9, 1884) was a British-born American politician of British Afro-Caribbean ethnic background. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1871 to 18 ...

served briefly in this situation under Republican governor

Daniel Henry Chamberlain Daniel Henry Chamberlain (June 23, 1835April 13, 1907) was an American planter, lawyer, author and the 76th Governor of South Carolina from 1874 until 1876 or 1877. The federal government withdrew troops from the state and ended Reconstruction ...

, while James Conner held office under fellow Confederate officer and Democrat Wade Hampton III. Hampton and Conner prevailed.

His Majesty's attorneys-general of South Carolina

The colonial province of South Carolina was first organized under a royal governor in 1720. * Benjamin Whitaker (1721–1731) * James Abercrombie (1731–1732) *

Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney may refer to: * Charles Pinckney (South Carolina chief justice) (died 1758), father of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney * Colonel Charles Pinckney (1731–1782), South Carolina politician, loyal to British during Revolutionary War, fath ...

(1732–1733) * James Abercrombie (1733–1742) * Sir James Wright (1742–1757) * David Graeme (1757–1764) * James Moultrie (1764) *

(1764) *

Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet (11 October 1733 – 15 September 1781) was a British colonial jurist, who became HM Attorney-General of South Carolina. He was a Loyalist who permanently fled South Carolina in 1774 for England. Biography Th ...

(1765–1774) * James Simpson (1774–1775)

U.S. state of South Carolina Attorneys General

Alexander Moultrie Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

(1776–1792) *

John Julius Pringle John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

(1792–1808) *

Langdon Cheves Langdon Cheves ( September 17, 1776 – June 26, 1857) was an American politician, lawyer and businessman from South Carolina. He represented the city of Charleston in the United States House of Representatives from 1810 to 1815, where he played ...

(1808–1810) * John Smythe Richardson (Sr.) (1810–1818) * Robert Young Hayne (1818–1822) *

James L. Petigru James Louis Petigru (May 10, 1789 – March 9, 1863) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist in South Carolina. He is best known for his service as the Attorney General of South Carolina, his judicial work that played a key role in the rec ...

(1822–1830) *

Hugh S. Legaré Hugh Swinton Legaré ( ; January 2, 1797 – June 20, 1843) was an American lawyer and politician. Life and career Legaré was born in Charleston, South Carolina, of Huguenot and Scottish ancestry. Partly due to his inability to share in the ...

(1830–1832) * Robert Rhett (1832–1836) * Henry Bailey (1836–1848) * Isaac W. Hayne (1848–1868) *

(1868–1872) * Samuel Wickliff Melton (1872–1876) * William Stone (1876) *

Robert Brown Elliott Robert Brown Elliott (August 11, 1842August 9, 1884) was a British-born American politician of British Afro-Caribbean ethnic background. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1871 to 18 ...

(1876–1877) (disputed) * James Conner (1876–1877) (disputed) *

Leroy Youmans LeRoy Franklin Youmans (November 14, 1834 - 1906) was a lawyer, state representative, officer in a mounted riflemen unit of the Confederate Army, U.S. Attorney, South Carolina Attorney General, and state supreme court judge who lived in Charleston, ...

(1877–1882) * Charles R. Miles (1882–1886) *

Joseph H. Earle Joseph Haynsworth Earle (April 30, 1847May 20, 1897) was a United States Senate, United States Senator from South Carolina. Biography Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville, he attended private schools in Sumter, South Carolina, Sumter. ...

(1886–1890) * Young J. Pope (1890–1891) *

John L. McLaurin John Lowndes McLaurin (May 9, 1860 – July 29, 1934) was a United States representative and Senator from South Carolina. He was born in Red Bluff, South Carolina, in Marlboro County, South Carolina and attended schools at Bennettsville, Sou ...

(1891–1892) * Daniel A. Townsend (1892–1894) * William A. Barber (1894–1898) * G. Duncan Bellinger (Sr.) (1898–1902) * U. X. Gunter, Jr. (1902–1905) * Leroy Youmans (1905–1906) * D.C. Ray (1906–1907) * J. Fraser Lyon (1907–1912) * Thomas H. Peeples (1913–1918) *

Samuel Wolfe Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

(1918–1924) * John M. Daniel (1924–1950) * Tolliver Cleveland Callison Sr. (1951–1958) * Daniel R. McLeod (1959–1983) *

Thomas T. Medlock Thomas Travis Medlock (born August 28, 1934) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party from the state of South Carolina. He served as the 48th Attorney General of South Carolina from 1983 to 1995, in the South Carolina Senate f ...

(1983–1995) *

Charlie Condon Charles Molony Condon, known as Charlie Condon (born c. 1953), is a former Attorney General of the U.S. state of South Carolina. For part of his term, he concurrently served as the first chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Associatio ...

(1995–2003) * Henry McMaster (2003–2011) * Alan Wilson (2011 – )

References

{{South Carolina statewide elected officials