Purrysburg is an unincorporated community in
Jasper County,
South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
. While the town itself was abandoned, the settlers were successful. The town was located on the South Carolina bank of the Savannah River on 40,000 acres.
Purrysburg (aka Purysburg, Purrysburgh, Purysburgh, Purisburg, Purisbourg) was named after
Jean-Pierre Purry, from
Neuchâtel which during this time did not belong to
Switzerland as it does today, but to the King of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
. Purry, a man using
slave labor, led the first settlers there in 1731. Pury first delivered his plan to the
Duke of Newcastle
Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle ...
as a representative of the Lord Proprietors, but roused no interest. But by the time
Robert Johnson
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...
became Royal Governor in 1729, it fit very nicely with his needs and instructions. He was trying to strengthen and expand frontier settlement by any European Protestants to block
French and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
expansion.
By 1736, there were 100 houses and as many as 450 settlers in the new town. The settlers were primarily French and German speaking Swiss Protestants from
Neuchâtel and
Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
. At its peak the town likely had fewer than 600 residents. But the settlement suffered from disease and an unhealthy atmosphere. The settlers also had difficulties due to overlapping land grants. Over the next few decades many of them moved on to other towns in South Carolina, or the newly developing
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
.
Archaeological exploration at Purrysburg includes studies in the 1980s by LePionka, Elliott and Smith. More recently the townsite was explored by archaeologists with the LAMAR Institute for its Revolutionary War battlefield.
As of 2010, the remaining American De Pury family lives in Tampa, and Pensacola Florida.
References
External links
801 Bay Street - John Mark Verdier House
{{coord, 32, 17, 51, N, 81, 7, 9, W, type:city, display=title
Geography of Jasper County, South Carolina
Pre-statehood history of South Carolina
Ghost towns in South Carolina
Swiss-American culture in South Carolina