Port Royal Island (historically Port Royal) is an island located in Beaufort 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 = ...

. It is considered one of the

Sea Islands The Sea Islands are a chain of tidal and barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean coast of the Southeastern United States. Numbering over 100, they are located between the mouths of the Santee and St. Johns Rivers along the coast of South Caroli ...

in the

Lowcountry The Lowcountry (sometimes Low Country or just low country) is a geographic and cultural region along South Carolina's coast, including the Sea Islands. The region includes significant salt marshes and other coastal waterways, making it an impor ...

region and is the most populous island in northern Beaufort County, containing most of the incorporated areas of

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions * ...

Port Royal Port Royal is a village located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest city in the Caribbean, functioning as the centre of shipping and ...

, and other unincorporated communities. The island also contains the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and Naval Hospital Beaufort military installations. The island takes its name from the

Port Royal Sound Port Royal Sound is a coastal sound, or inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the Sea Islands region, in Beaufort County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the estuary of several rivers, the largest of which is the Broad River. Geograp ...

, a historically significant harbor during colonial settlement in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. From the time of its European discovery to the late 19th century, the name "Port Royal" typically applied to Port Royal Island as a whole and the surrounding waterways. In the early 21st century, the term Port Royal is understood to apply to the incorporated town of

History

In 1562, the French settlement of Charlesfort was established on Parris Island. The leader of the settlement was

Jean Ribault Jean Ribault (also spelled ''Ribaut'') (1520 – October 12, 1565) was a French naval officer, navigator, and a colonizer of what would become the southeastern United States. He was a major figure in the French attempts to colonize Florida. A ...

, who referred to the name of the sound and the island as ''Port Royal'', or royal port in French. After the Charlesfort settlement failed, the

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 ...

attempted to establish their own Santa Elena settlement in 1566, a name that is used to this day for nearby St. Helena Island. During the English colonization of Carolina, the English adopted the name Port Royal for the sound and for the present-day Parris Island once their colonization efforts began, with the establishment of Charles Town in 1670. Later, after the death in 1736 of Colonel Alexander Parris, who owned that island, it came to be known as Parris Island, and the name Port Royal Island was transferred to the island to the north. In 1779 the

Battle of Beaufort The Battle of Beaufort, also known as the Battle of Port Royal Island, was fought on February 3, 1779, near Beaufort, South Carolina, during the American Revolutionary War. The battle took place not long after British forces consolidated contr ...

was fought on the island between American and British forces, resulting in an American victory. In 1861, the

Battle of Port Royal The Battle of Port Royal was one of the earliest amphibious operations of the American Civil War, in which a United States Navy fleet and United States Army expeditionary force captured Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, between Savannah, Geo ...

was fought between Union and Confederate forces, resulting in a Union victory and the occupation of Beaufort for the remainder of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...

. Historically, the island has been predominantly agricultural and had been developed as plantations in the antebellum years. Since the 1960s, the island has become mostly residential and commercial in character, though rural areas continue to exist in the extreme northern and western portions of the island along the

Whale Branch River Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and p ...

Communities

* Burton * Laurel Bay *

* Shell Point

References

Islands of Beaufort County, South Carolina Islands of South Carolina South Carolina Sea Islands {{SouthCarolina-geo-stub