Craven County, South Carolina was one of the three original

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

established by the

Lords Proprietor A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary". Origin In the beginning of the Europe ...

of the English colony of

Carolana The early province of Carolana was the land forming the southern English colonies, spanning from 31° to 36° north latitude. In 1629, Charles I of England, King Charles I of England granted the territory to his attorney general Robert Heath, Sir R ...

in 1682 to include the colony's lands stretching from Awendaw Creek north to the western shore of

Winyah Bay Winyah Bay is a coastal estuary that is the confluence of the Waccamaw River, the Pee Dee River, the Black River, and the Sampit River in Georgetown County, in eastern South Carolina. Its name comes from the Winyah people, who inhabited th ...

and inland.Frederick A. Porcher: "Historical and Social Sketch of Craven County, So. Ca." in ''The Southern Quarterly Review'', April, 1852; reprinted in Thomas T. Gaillard: ''A Contribution to the History of the Huguenots of South Carolina'', New York, 1887. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1887. 52 pp. In 1685, the original county of

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

was expanded to include the southwestern part of Craven County, and in 1691, land was added to Craven County from the previously unorganized land to its northeast. In 1706, the Lords Proprietor established the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Parish system in South Carolina, reducing counties to geographic designations with no administrative functions; the southwestern half of Craven County was organized into St. James Santee Parish,Anne Baker, Leland Bridges, and Roy Williams III: ''St. James Santee, Plantation Parish, History and Records, 1685-1925'', Spartanburg, S.C.: The Reprint Company, Publishers, 1997. and in 1721, Prince George Parish was organized for the former northeastern half of Craven County, extending into the unorganized territory to the north and east of the county. In 1734 Prince Frederick Parish was organized from northwestern Prince George Parish, extending into the unorganized territory to the northwest of the county. In 1735 their common boundary was redefined and Prince George Parish reduced in extent when the border with the

Province of North Carolina The Province of North Carolina, originally known as the Albemarle Settlements, was a proprietary colony and later royal colony of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776.(p. 80) It was one of the five Southern col ...

was established. In 1769,

judicial districts The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

incorporating the parishes were established in the colony; St. James Santee Parish was taken into Charlestown District, and Prince George Parish into Georgetown District. In 1785, the new State of South Carolina established counties within the judicial districts, with Washington and Marion counties taking in St. James Santee Parish of Charleston District, and Williamsburg and Winyaw (later spelled Winyah) counties taking in Prince George Parish of Georgetown District.Thomas Cooper: ''The Statutes at Large of South Carolina', Volume 4, Containing the Acts from 1752, Exclusive, to 1786, Inclusive''. Columbia, S.C.: A. S. Johnston, 1838. Vol. 4, pp. 662-663. These counties did not immediately become functional, and the judicial districts retained their administrative functions. The 1868 South Carolina State Constitution gave the state districts the uniform designation of county, by which they are still known. In 1882, a new Berkeley County was formed from upland Charleston County, taking in land formerly in Marion and Washington counties;

Charleston County Charleston County is located in the U.S. state of South Carolina along the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 408,235, making it the List of counties in South Carolina, third-mos ...

retained the coastal lands originally included in Craven County. In 1893, Charleston County expanded northwestward into Berkeley County. The original Craven County's lands now lie in parts of

, Charleston, Georgetown, and

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

counties.

References

{{coord, 33.73, -79.46, display=title 1682 establishments in South Carolina Former counties, districts, and parishes of South Carolina