Norman/Maxwell Family Genealogy

Dorchester, SC article from 1905

This article first appeared in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine,
Vol VI - No 2, April 1905, pp. 62--95 (available via Google Book Search).

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The Town of Dorchester, South Carolina -
A Sketch of Its History

by Henry A. M. Smith

About twenty-six miles from the city of Charleston; on the north bank of the Ashley River and about six miles in a southwestwardly direction from the railroad depot in the present town of Summerville can be seen an old church tower with an overgrown disused graveyard around it, and some two hundred paces farther on - on the edge of the river - are the walls of an old fort, constructed of that mixture of shells in lime mortar formerly called "tapia" or "tabby".(Often spelled "tapis" in early records. - Editor.) These two conspicuous objects, with some scattered and shapeless masses of brick at irregular intervals, marking the sites of former houses, are all that remains of the town of Dorchester, once a comparatively flourishing, hamlet in the Low-Country of South Carolina, but which with the lesser hamlets of Jamestown, New London or Willtown, Jacksonborough, Purrysburgh and Somerton, and the still lesser, or only projected, villages of Radnor, Ashley Ferry, Childsbury and Chatham, has so long been deserted that its story has been nearly forgotten, and its very site nearly obliterated.

In the case of Dorchester its frequent mention in histories of the Revolution of 1775-1783 in South Carolina; the fact that it gave its name to one of the ecclesiastical and political divisions of the Province and State, viz: the parish of St. George, Dorchester, joined to its vicinity to the town of Summerville have conspired to preserve its name, the tradition of its former existence, and the place of its location, but beyond this practically nothing else is generally known concerning its history. It has cost no little time and labour to dig out of vanishing records the following account of its origin and fate.

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The site of the old village of Dorchester is on a neck or peninsula of land between the Ashley River and a creek now called Dorchester Creek. This creek was originally known as Boshoe, or Bossua Creek. It is called now Rose Creek, where it crosses the road from Summerville to Dorchester: Newington Creek, or Swamp, a little higher up, where it crosses the road from Summerville to Bacons Bridge and curves through the old Axtell, or Blake, plantation styled Newington (the northern part of which is now Dr. C. U. Shepard's tea farm), and finally is known as the Saw Mill Branch where it forms the southeastern boundary of the town of Summerville.

A little below the point where Dorchester Creek debouches into Ashley River, another creek called Eagle's Creek also empties into the Ashley - this last creek deriving its name from one Richard Eagle, who, about 1734, possessed the tract of land where the public road crossed the creek.

The region about the mouths of these two creeks - especially about the penisula between Dorchester Creek and Ashley River - was known by the Indian name or Boo-shoo-ee.

It was first granted to John Smith, who on 20th November, 1676, obtained a grant for 1,800 acres covering this penisula and the site of the future village.(Sec'y State's office, Vol 38 (Prop. grants), p. 4.) He was a man of considerable estate who had arrived in Carolina in 1675 with his wife and family and especially recommended by the Earl of Shaftsbury "as my particular friend" with directions that he be allowed to take up a manor in some suitable place. John Smith was subsequently a member of the Grand Council and was created a Cassique, and died in 1682. From the name of the locality in which his grant was situated he was styled "John Smith, of Boo-shoo". (Sec'y State's office, Grant Bk. 1696-1703, p. 92. Collections S. C. Hist. Soc., Vol.V., p. 470.)

The meaning of this Indian term is unknown save that

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the termination "ee" or "e" seems to have some connection with water - viz: Peedee, Santee, Wateree, Congaree, Co-pah-ee, etc., etc.

The creek near the village of Mt. Pleasant, now called Shem, was originally Shem-ee Creek. (M.C.O., Charleston, Bk. U 7, p. 87.)

The land included in the grant in 1678 to Arthur Middleton of 1,780 acres on Goose Creek (Sec'y State's off. Grant Bk. 1696-1703, p. 92.) (on a part of which the present Otranto clubhouse stands) is called "Yeshoe", and in the grant to James Moore of 2,400 acres on Foster's Creek in 1683, the lands are described as known by the Indian names of Boo-chaw-ee and Wapensaw. (Sec'y State's off. Vol. 38 (Prop. Grants), p. 209.) The Indian name of Foster's Creek was Appee-bee. (Sec'y State's off. Vol. 17, Miscellaneous, p. 109.)

The appellation Boo-shoo-ee was not confined to the site of the future village on the riverside, but was applied to the low land in the vicinity as "Boshoe Swamp" and generally to the whole tract or plantation of 1,800 acres. -

It is spelt(sic) very variously in the old deeds and plats, viz: Boasoo, Boshoe, Bosho, Boosho, Booshooe, Boosoo, Bossoe, Bossua, Boochaw-ee, etc.

The high land or bluff on the river where the village was afterwards located was, at the time of its location and afterwards, an "old field" and probably the site of the first clearing and settlement of John Smith.

John Smith, of Boo-shoo, died prior to December, 1682, as in December, 1682, his widow, Mary, married Arthur Middleton, and on the death of the latter, about 1684, married Ralph Izard. (Sec'y State's off. Vol. "Grants, etc., 1704-1708", p. 250)

John Smith seems to have left no children, and in some way his grant for 1,800 acres must have lapsed to the State or the method of a new grant must have been adopted so as to confer a good title, for in the year 1696 this same 1,800 acres is re-granted to the settlers who were to confer upon it the name of Dorchester.

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The history of the town and township (so-called) of Dorchester, in South Carolina, begins wiht the immigration thither of a small colony from the township of Dorchester, in the then Province of Massachusetts Bay.

The earliest record notice is in the records of the First Church at Dorchester, in New England.

On those records it appears that on the 20th October, 1695, Joseph Lord, Increase Sumner and William Pratt were "dismissed", i. e. transferred, from that church for, "Ye gathering of A church for ye South Coralina." (Records of the First Church at Dorchester, New England, published in 1891,p. 13.

Two days later, 2nd October, 1695, we read:
"ocktober ye 22 being ower lecktuer day was sett apart for the ordering of Mr. Joseph lord for to be pastuer to A church gathered that day for to goe to South Coralina to settell the gospell ther and the names of ye men are thes

thes with Joseph lord did enter into a most solem Covenant to sett up the ordinances of Jesus Christ ther if the lord caryed them safely thither accordin to gospell truth withe a very large profeson of ther faithe." (Ibid, p. 109)

One William Norman had some Years before, viz: on 22nd September, 1684, obtained the customary survey to a grant from the Lords Proprietors of Carolina for 320 acres of land, which was located on the Ashley River, on the northeast side, about three miles above the

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spot where the Village of Dorchester was afterwards laid it out, i. e. above the old Boo-shoo settlement.

This William Norman was probably the one of that name mentioned in the above list as of Carolina. Possibly to his desire for neighbours of congenial spirit and social disposition was due the original suggestion of the colony. Of the rest of the list, Joshua Brooks, Nathaniel Billings, George Fox and Simon Daken do not appear, from any records we have, to have ever settled in Carolina - at least their names nowhere appear among the actual land-owners at Dorchester.

There are two other references to the settlement in the records of the Dorchester Church in Massachusetts.

"December 5th, 1695 - The church for Carolina set sail from Boston Dec 14th at night the skiff was neer run underwater ye Stormy wind being so boisterous. they kept a day of pray on board: & safely Landed at Carolina December ye 20th ye other vessells had a Moneths Passage this but about 14 days.

"Febr: 2nd Then was ye first Sacrament of ye Lords Supper that ever was Celebrated in Carolina Eight persons received besides Such as were of ye Church by virtue of Comunion of Churches, and there was Great Joy among ye Good People of Carolina & many Thanksgivings to Ye Lord". (Ibid, p. 145.)

And again:
"Nov. 1, 1696, Deacon Sumner's wife & family & His Brother Samuel Sumner with his wife & family with Peter O Kellys wife & six children Dismissed to ye Church of Christ neer Newington in South Carolina (since called Dorchester)" (Ibid, p. 148.)

The first of these entries, viz: that of December 5th, 1695, was evidently made after its nominal date, as it mentions the date of sailing, the 14th, nine days after the apparent date of the entry. The expression as to the "other vessels"

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must refer to vessels other thin the one that carried the "Church", is we shall see presently by Elder Pratt's diary there was but one vessel which at that time conveyed the members of the Church. It only marks the contrast between the quick passage of the vessel that carried the "Church" and the time taken by other vessels which sailed about the same time.

The statement as to the communion celebrated on the 2d February, 1695/6, being the first ever celebrated in Carolina is entirely erroneous. There had existed in Charles Town for many years before that date the Church of England, known as St. Philip's, on the site where St. Michael's Church now stands; also a Meeting House, or a Congregational Church, upon Meeting Street, supposed upon the present site of the Circular Church, as well as a Hueguenot, or French Protestant Church, on or near the site of the present French Protestant Church, on a lot originally granted to one Michael Lovinge, a carpenter, and which having been sold by Lovinge to Arthur Middleton was by the latter's widow with her husband, Ralph Izard (whom she married after Middleton's death), sold to James Nicholls on the 5th May, 1687, "for the use of the commonalty of the French Church in Charleston". (Sec'y State's off. "Grants, etc, 1704-1708", p. 250.)

There can be no possible doubt but that communion had been repeatedly celebrated in these churches according to their respective, rituals long before the emigration from Dorchester, Massachusetts.

The entry, of 1st November, 1696, is worthy of note as showing that the name "Newington", which was the name given to the plantation of Mrs.(generally styled "Dame" or "Lady") Rebecca Axtell, the widow of Landgrave Daniel Axtell, had come into general use, evidencing that she had for some time been settled there.

We have in the diary of Elder Pratt - the William Pratt mentioned in the Dorchester (Mass.) Church entry of 22d.
October, 1695 - an account of the voyage of the party from

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Boston to Charles Town. This, as being from first hand, is more authentic than the entry in the church record of Dec. 5, 1695, made from information.

Elder Pratt's diary, as a picture of the time, would, save for its length, be worthy of production here in full. It has been substantially all printed by the Rev. James Stacey, in his History of the Midway Congregational Church, Liberty County, Georgia, printed in 1899, at Newnan, Georgia.

The original diary is now in the possession of one of Elder Pratt's descendants, Mr. Joshua Eddy Crane, of Bridgeport, Mass.

Summarized, Elder Pratt's diary gives the account of the sailing of the "Church that was gathered in order to carry ye gospel ordinance to South Carolina" from Boston on Dec. 5, 1695, in one vessel (not two as has been erroneously stated. They had good weather until the 9th, when they encountered a gale, but from a favorable direction, and after its abatement made such progress as to get into Charles Town harbour on the 2Oth December. They were welcomed with a salute of 9 guns "which was more than us all", and were very kindly entertained on shore.

After a week in the town he "was carried by water up to Mr. Normans -Increase Sumner and I were kindly received and entertained by the Lady Axtell (of Newington) and tho' two other men were endeavouring to get into favour with ye lady and other neighbours and to obtain the land at Ashley River" yet the lady and others of the neighbours were more kindly disposed to them.

The minister, Mr. Lord, and others of the "Church" who had remained in Charles Town were urged by "ye Lieut: General Blake (Joseph Blake, Governor and Proprietor, then residing on his plantation called "Plainsfield", on Stono River, near New Cut.) and many others" to settle at New London (on Pon Pon River, generally known as Willtown) and had gone to Landgrave Morton's near that place

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Elder Pratt and his companion also went to Landgrave Morton's to view the land at New London, and there Elder Pratt gave Mr. Lord his preference for Ashley River, and the latter agreed with him.

From Landgrave Morton's they returned, stopping first at "Mr. Curtises" and then at "Mr. Gilbosons" and Govr. Blake's.

"We were very kindly entertained at every place where we came. We heard of some of those that came from New England that had been guilty of gross miscarriages wt was a trobel to us".

They stayed in Charles Town, and then "after this Mr. Lord and some of ye church came up to Ashley river and upon ye Sabeth after being ye 26th of January Mr Lord precht at Mr. Normans house upon that text in 8 Rom. 1 vrs. There were many that came to hear of ye neighbours round about and gave diligent attention. The second day of February being Sabath day Mr. Lord precht at Ashley river upon ye text 1 Pet: 3: 18. Most of ye neighbors came to hear all ye next neighbours and several persons came about 10 miles to hear. The Sacrament of ye Lords Supper was administered yt day and 2 deacons chosen. At this time there was great joy among the good people".

Elder Pratt in this contemporaneous entry does not claim the communion administered on the 2d. February, 1696, as the first celebration of the Lord's Supper, ever had in Carolina.

The first assertion of this appears in the entry made in the records of the church at Dorchester, Massachusetts, as of 2nd February, 1696, evidently made by the person who kept the records from communications from Carolina. Thence it seems to have crept into a farewell sermon preached by the Rev. Mr. Danforth when a year later Elder Pratt (having in the meanwhile returned to New England) again embarked for Carolina. This sermon seems to have been printed in 1697, and is cited in Holmes's American

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Annals for the statement (under A. D. 1696) "the regular administration of the ordinances of the Gospel had not been introduced into Carolina until this year", and "there being withall in all that country neither ordained minister nor any church in full Gospel order", as stated by the Rev. Mr. Gildersleeve in his century sermon preached at Midway, in Georgia, in 1797, upon the authority of Mr. Danforth's sermon.

The statement is retreated in the Rev. Mr. Howe's History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, but with the qualification that its correctness is contested.

Elder Pratt left Charles Town to return to New England on 8th February, 1696. A year later he sailed from Boston with his family to return to Carolina. He sailed from Boston on the 8th January,1696-7, and left Nantasket on the 15th. They encountered a very stormy passage, and only reached land on the 23rd of February. He does not state if any others of the "Church" than his own family came with him, but as the records of the Massachusetts church show that two months previous, viz: November 1, 1696, Deacon Sumner's wife and family, and his brother, Samuel Sumner, with his wife and family, with Peter O'Kelly's wife and six children, had been dismissed to the church near Newington, since called Dorchester, in all probability they accompanied Elder Pratt on this second voyage, and with the latter and his family, consisting of his wife, Elizabeth Baker Pratt, and daughter, Thankful Pratt, constituted the departing friends to whom the Rev. Mr. Danforth addressed his valedictory sermon printed in 1697. The confusion made of these two departures is also evidently the origin of the statement in Mr. Howe's history that they sailed on the 14th December, 1695, in two small vessels, whereas Elder Pratt, in his contemporaneous diary mentions but one.

During Elder Pratt's absence in New England the land had been finally secured. On 7th July, 1696, a grant was made to John Stevens of the very 1,800 acres, known as

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Boo-shoo, formerly granted to John Smith. (Sec'y State's off. Vol. 38 (Prop. Grants), p. 298.) Another tract of 2,250 acres lay to the west of the Boo-shoo tract on the Ashley River, filling the intervening space between the line of the grant to John Smith and the 320 acre grant to Wm. Norman and the Newington grant of Lady Axtell. This had apparently been granted or transferred to, and was in the possession of a Mr. Rose, and was known as "Rose's" or "Rose's land". Exactly how this was obtained from Rose or why new grants were made the record does not disclose, but on the 1st February, 1699-1700, two new grants were issued to John Stevens, one for the 1,800 acres, or Boo-shoo tract, and the other for the 2,250, or "Rose's" tract - 4,050 acres in all. (Ibid, p. 370.)

These grants altho' issued to John Stevens, individually, were for the benefit of the intending settlers of the "Church", as the deeds made by John Stevens to them soon show.

Elder Pratt and the rest of the "Church" in February, 1697; the land procured was divided. Elder Pratt states in his diary:

"The 23 of March in the year 1697 the church and others that were concerned did draw loots the 24th day that all meet together to stake out and mark their loots in the trading town on both days when they met together on those occasions there was love and amity and peace in what was acted"

The division was then made and determined by lot. The place styled by the Elder "the trading town" was what was afterwards known as the village of Dorchester, which on the old map is stated to have laid out as a place of trade. A map and division was made of the whole 4,050 acres, and the term Dorchester, or Township of Dorchester, was applied to the whole, the village site being only the place of trade in Dorchester. The old name Booshoo, however, long survived. In the deeds from John Stevens the tract of 4,050 acres is always described as consisting of two tracts,

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one called Booshoo and the other Rose's. The "Rose land" having been obtained after the Boo-shoo tract is sometimes called the "New Grant" or "New Granted".

In a conveyance from the Rev. Mr. Lord to John Hawks, 4th March, 1716-17, of 100 acres it is described as lying "partly in that part of the land belonging to Dorchester which is commonly called the New Grant partly in that formerly called Bossoo."

As time went on and the village grew in size and importance the name Dorchester was restricted, but universally applied, to this town and the older designations were forgotten.

The map showing the division of the whole 4,000 acres has long since disappeared. Only by a comparison of deeds and adjoining titles can the lines and divisions be approximately arrived at.

Elder Pratt's diary shows that the "Church" were not the sole occupiers of these divisions, for his entry says that the Church "and others that were concerned" drew lots for the shares.

There appears to have been a division into twenty-six parts, for John Stevens, in his conveyance of the land to be used for the support of the church ministry, after conveying certain specific lots, conveys 1-26th of all undivided land in Dorchester. This undivided land consisted of 123 acres reserved for mill land near the mouth of the creek on its north side, and a "commons" of 50 acres adjacent to the place of trade. When the mill land was afterwards sub-divided it was into 26 lots of 4.75 acres each, and the "commons" into lots of about 2 acres.

The old deeds show the general division of the 4,050 acres to have been as follows:
There was first set aside about 50 acres, subdivided into 115 lots of about a quarter of an acre each in size to form a "place of trade".

Space was left for a public square and for streets, and an area of about 20 acres between the town and the creek where it enters the river was also left for public use.

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A "commons" of about 50 to 52 acres was set off adjacent to the town, immediately to the west. An area of 123 acres was set aside for mill purposes and called "mill land". This 123 acres lay north of the town, along Boshoe Creek, and included the low land on each side of the creek.

The remainder of the land was laid off in two divisions. The first division consisted of two ranges. The first range consisted of 26 lots of 50 acres each laid off along the Ashley River, each lot being about 10 chains wide in its frontage on the river, and running back 50 chains. . The numbering begin at lot No. 1, next to William Norman's line, about a third of a mile west of the present Bacon's Bridge,and were numbered successively down toward the town. Lot No. 26 being next to the "commons".

The second range of the first division lay immediately north of the first range, from which it was separated by an highway, and was divided into 26 lots of 45 acres each. The second division lay immediately north of the second range from which it was also separated by an highway, and was likewise divided into 26 lots of 45 acres each.

The present village of Stallsville and the eastern part of the town of Summerville, viz: from about Fourth South Street on the north and Sumter Avenue on the west are on part of this second division of the 4,050 acres - on part of the 2,250 acres known as Rose's or the New Grant.

The list of the settlers has not come down to us. The occupiers of the lots were not confined to them, but from data derived from later transfers, wills and conveyances the following appear to have formed substantially all of the new settlers who received lots in the division:

1. John Stevens. He was in Carolina before the others arrived. The record does not show where he came from. He was one of the leading men in the Dorchester settlement, and was the ancestor of the Stevens family, members of which have always occupied position in lower South Carolina.

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2. Revd. Joseph Lord. Was the Pastor under whom the "Church"immigrated. Received lot No. 10 in the first range, and purchased lots 11 and 12 in the same range. Lot 10 he subsequently conveyed (15 Aug 1721) to "Michael Bacon Nathaniel Sumner and Thomas Osgood Jr.and the rest of the inhabitants of in and about Dorchester now under the ministrv of the Rev Mr Hugh Fisher". He left Carolina and returned to Massachusetts in 1720.

3. Increase Sumner received a lot in the first range.

4. Williant Pratt. He received lot No. 23 in the first range. It is to his diary that we are indebted for so much information as to the first settlement. He returned to New England and there died 13th January, 1713.

5. William Adams.

6. William Norman. He had already a grant for 320 acres, and does not seem to have taken any part of the division of the 4,050 acres. He apparently left a number of descendants.

7. Samuel Sumner, brother of Increase Sumner, received lot 24 in the first range.

8. Michael Bacon. Received a lot in the first range, and purchased lots 6 and 7 in the same range from John Stevens. On one of these last two was situated the bridge over the Ashley River, originally called Stevens's Bridge, but ever since and now known as Bacon's Bridge.

9. John Simmons received lot 12 in the first range.

10. Abraham Gorton received lot 13 in the first range.

11. Jonathan Clarke received lot 14 in the first range.

12. Thomas Osgood had a lot in the first range and 1-26th part of all undivided lands.

13. Job Chamberlain removed to Carolina in 1698, and in 1702 owned a lot in the second division.

14. Aaron Way, Senr.

15. Aaron Way, Junr.

16. William Way.

17. Moses Way.

18. Samuel Way.

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All of the Ways seem to have been original settlers and at an early date owned lots in one or other of the divisions.

19. Robert Miller, an early settler, as early as 1717 had accumulated 479 acres in the second range of the first division.

The foregoing are all that can be said with any degree of certainly to have been among those who received lots at the first division of the 4,050 acres.

The following are the additional names of others who appear soon afterwards as owning some of the lots and as forming part of the distinctive Church:

   John Hill       in  1726.
   Thomas Satur    1722.
   Peter Savey     1738.
   Joseph Brunson  1722.
   John Hawks      1721.
   David Batcheler 1707.
   John Kitchen    1720.
   Thomas Graves   1720.
   Robert Winn     1718.
   Stephen Dowse   1727.
   Isaac Brunson   1712.

There were outsiders, apparently, who had lots very early. These may have been the "others that were concerned", mentioned by Elder Pratt.

Ralph Izard and Daniel Chastaigner, both persons wholly disconnected with the "Church", held lots in the first range at an early date. Izard prior to 1708 and Chastaigner prior to 1712.

The small lots in the town, or place of trade, very soon began to drift into the hands of outsiders.

There has been a tendency to depict this settlement as something unusual - a band of enthusiastic missionaries, carrying the Gospel into a primeval wilderness.

The Rev. Mr. Howe, in his History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, says they "came into this country as a missionary church to plant an institution of the Gospel",

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and again they sailed "toward the land God had given them as an inheritance, not knowing whither they went", and again that they settled "here in the midst of an unbroken forest inhabited by beasts of prey and savage men twenty miles from the dwellings of any whites they took up their abode".

All this is rhetorical but not historical. Mr. Howe cites as his authority a sermon styled "The Hand of God Recognized", preached by the Rev. Mr. George Sheldon on the 22d. February, 1846, in the Congregational Church at Dorchester, in observance of the 150th anniversary of that church. This sermon does make similar statements, but the reverend author gives no references for his statements.

The contemporaneous records show otherwise. The "Church"debated between two points. Boosboo and New London. They were entertained and housed at both places by persons who had already settled. The lands they finally settled on had been granted away and settled by another 20 years previously. They were surrounded by settlers who had preceded them, viz: Lord Shaftesbury's barony with its settlement lay to the south, on the opposite side of the river. West of them were the settlements of Col. Andrew Percivil (granted in 1682), of William Norman (1684), of Benjamin Waring, of Lady Axtell at Newington. East, along the Ashley River, the entire land was taken up already by grants and settlements, and northeast of them, about six miles off towards the head of Goose Creek, was another and quite numerous group of settlements dating from 10 to 20 years previous.

Elder Pratt himself says in his diary that Mr. Lord's first preaching was attended by "all ye next neighbours", and that persons even came from 10 miles around.

It is not even certain that the church building, constructed by the Dorchester immigration, was the first church building constructed in that section.

The little colony of French Huguenots who settled in the neighbourhood of the head of Goose Creek had at a very early

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period a small church structure on lands not far to the east of the present Ladson's station, on the Southern Railway. This last may have preceded the erection of any church at Dorchester.

Provision was made at once, however, by the Dorchester settlers for the construction of a permanent church building and the support of the ministry, for on 21st September, 1702, John Stevens conveyed "for provision for the ministry of the Congregational Church now settled in Dorchester unto the inhabitants of Dorchester and particularly unto William Pratt Increase Sumner and Thomas Osgood Senr. as persons intrusted by the inhabitants of Dorchester and to their successors from time to time chosen by the inhabitants of said Dorchester", lot No, 9 in the first range within the land "now called by the name of Dorchester (which was formerly two tracts one commonly called Boosoo the other Roses land)", also Lot 1 in the second division, also 4 small lots Nos. 13, 33, 44 and 112 "in the place designed for a place of trade within Dorchester", also 1-26th of all undivided land within Dorchester. The ministry seems to have been provided for as if the "Church"itself formed one of the 26 to whom the tract was partitioned.

The church building was placed on Lot 9 in the first range where its ruins and the old grave-yard stand to this day.

It was not placed in the town or place for trade, but about one and one-half or two miles to the west, near the public road, then called the "Broad Path".

The place seems to have thriven slowly. Thankful Pratt, the daughter of William Pratt, married a Daniell Axtell, of Sudbury, in Massachusetts. When he came to Carolina is not known, but he was here in 1699, carrying on a saw mill and tar and turpentine business in connection with Lady Axtell and Robert Fenwicke, and Gershom Hawks. He kept a sort of day book of accounts, which is now in the hands of his descendents, Mr. Joshua Eddy Crane, of Bridgeport, Massachusetts.

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This day book as containing the names of the persons with whom he dealt gives us the names of the then persons living in and around Dorchester. Gershom Hawks and Robert Fenwicke had each obtained grants for 1,000 acres in the vicinity - Robert Fenwicke in 1700 (Sec'y State's off, Vol 38, p 400) and Gershom Hawks in 1705. (Ibid, p 523) All of the present town Of Summerville, not included in the Dorchester tract of 4,050 acres, lies within the last two grants. Germantown and that part of Summerville adjacent to Germantown are on the grant to Hawks, and all of New Summerville, i. e: that part laid out by the Railroad Company is on the grant to Fenwicke.

The old mill dam and mill site which gave the name of "Saw Mill"Branch to the swamp is either on part of the original Dorchester grant or the grant to Fenwicke.

Daniel Axtell left Carolina in 1707 and returned to Massachusetts, and died in 1736 at Deighton on the Taunton River.

Although of the same name as the Carolina Axtells there is no known blood connection between them.

As early as 1729 the land where the old mill dam ran across the swamp in Summerville was known as "Saw mill land". It had no connection with the tract of 123 acres reserved as "mill land"near the town of Dorchester, but was the land around the saw mill which was operated by Daniel Axtell prior to 1707. Ever since that date this part of Boo-shoo Creek, adjacent to Summerville, has been known as "Saw Mill Branch".

In 1882, before the present canal down the swamp was excavated, the old mill dam was practically intact. Some of the old mill timbers of solid cypress remained on the old mill site. The oldest inhabitant could remember no one who had seen the mill run, and the growth of pines showed that no water could have been kept on the pond for near a century.

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The data as to the town of Dorchester and its early history are very scanty. The country around it began to fill up, and the town, lying at the head of navigation on the Ashley River, became a trading place and point of distribution It stood at a point capable of easy defence and of easy communication by water with Charles Town, and thus, became a point of support and refuge from Indian invasions.

The settlers in Dorchester began to overflow. It was easy to obtain grants of land, and many grants were obtained higher up and across the Ashley River, especially in the section known afterwards as "Beech Hill".

Merchants established themselves in the town. The streets. The streets are not named on the plan, and the only names that have come down thro' the deeds are the river, and "George"Street, the street running to the "Broad Path"or public road.

Gillson Clapp was a merchant "on the Bay"in 1724, and in 1722 Thomas Satur, of Dorchester, Jacob Satur, of London, Eleazer Allen, of Charles Town, and William Rhett, Jr., of Charles Town, formed a co-partnership to carry on trade at Dorchester.

In 1708 Dorchester was a small town containing about 350 souls.

In 1706 the Rev. Joseph Lord wrote to a friend in Massachusetts that the country was more frequented by way of trade.

In 1706 the Act for the establishment of the Church of England in the Province was passed. Six parishes were created, and Dorchester was included in St. Andrew's Parish.

In 1715 the Yemassee Indian War broke out, and the entire province south of the Stono River was devasted. The Yemassee invasion itself seems never to have reached Dorchester, but an invasion of the Indians to the northward, which took place at the same time, was more threatening. This invasion was met by Capt. George Chicken at the the Goose Creek militia, and a decisive defeat was inflicted upon the Indians at a place styled in the old accounts "The Ponds".

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This appears to be the Percival plant at the point now called "Shulz's Lake".

The Yemassee War inflicted a terrible loss on the Province, and for many years delayed the settlement of the Province to the south of Ashley River.

In 1719 St. Andrew's Parish was divided, and the upper portion, including Dorchester and the surrounding territory, was created a separate parish and called St. George.

A church was directed to be built at a point to be selected by a majority of the commissioners named with the approval of a majority of the inhabitants of the parish of the profession of the Church of England who should contribute to the building. The commissioners were: Alexander Skene, Capt. Walter Izard, Thomas Diston, Samuel Wragg, John Cantey, Thomas Waring and Jacob Satur.

The place selected for the church was the place for a place of trade or Dorchester town.

The parish church, with its surrounding graveyard, was then placed in the town on lots Nos. 52, 53, 54, 55 and 56.

The parish then contained 115 English families, amounting to about 500 persons, and 1,300 slaves. The town now begin to forge ahead. Roads were extended by statue into the surrounding country, and in 1722 the bridges over the Ashley - Steven's Bridge (now Bacon's Bridge) and Waring's Bridge (now Slann's Bridge) were confirmed as public bridges.

In 1723 an Act was passed for settling a fair and markets in the town of Dorchester, in Berkeley County, "being a frontier in that part of the Country".

In 1734 an Act was passed for the founding and erecting a free school at the town of Dorchester, in the parish of St. George, and in the same year an Act was passed to clear out the Ashley River up to Slann's Bridge.

A bridge across the river, opposite the town of Dorchester, had already been built.

A great loss of population in the surrounding country took place in 1752-56. The descendants of the original set-

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tlers who gave the name to Dorchester - the members of the "White Meeting"or Congregational Church - had overflowed into the surrounding country. So many of them had settled in the Beech Hill section that about 1737 another place of worship was constructed there for their convenience. The "Church" had acquired 95 acres in two tracts on the "Beech Hill" road, and on one of these tracts, not far from the parish line of St. Paul's, the building for worship constructed. The congregational being practically the same as that at Dorchester, one minister served at both places on alternate Sundays.

In 1752-56 a general exodus of these congregations took place to Georgia. The reasons, as stated in their records, were lack of sufficient lands for their increasing numbers, and the unhealthiness of Dorchester and Beech Hill. In 1752 they procured two grants of land, aggregated 31,950 acres on the coast of Georgia,' between the Medway and Newport rivers, in what subsequently became Liberty County. Nearly all of the congregations of the Dorchester and Beech Hill churches with their minister, the Rev. John Osgood, removed. The names of the settlers who took up the 31,950 acres and their subsequent history is fully detailed by the Rev. Mr. Stacey, in his History of Midway Church, to which reference bits already been made.

The effect of their removal was practically the death blow to the Congregational Church in St. George Parish, Dorchester. No settled minister was had to perform services. The building at Beech Hill, being of wood, soon perished. From that date the history of Dorchester ceases to be the history of a Congregational settlement and becomes the history of the village of Dorchester and the parish of St. George, Dorchester.

In addition to its growth as a town during these years Dorchester also had become the place of resort for supplies for the country around, which had been taken up more or less for the seats and plantations of a number of wealthy families.

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Just below on the Ashley, on its north bank, was the plantation of the Wrights now called "Oak Forest",and below that the residence of one of the branches of the Izard family called "Cedar Grove",well known for the style of its buildings and its gardens. Above and beyond the road to Bacon's Bridge was the seat of another one of the Izards, on the old grant to William Norman, and called "Burton", and afterwards "Fair Spring", where are still to be seen the remains of a laroe brick house. Above this was the site of the original grant to Benjamin Waring, the ancestor of the Waring family, and which during the Revolutionary War was owned by Dr. David Oliphant, a member of the Council of Safety and Surgeon-General of the Continental forces in South Carolina. Above this again was the old grant and residence of Col. Andrew Percival, always known as "The Ponds" - the chief pond now being "Shulz's Lake". The most pretentious buildings and mansion were those at "Newington", the old Axtell settlement, which through Lady Axtell'ss daughter, Lady Elizabeth Blake (Lady as the wife of a Landgrave and Lord Proprietor), had descended to Col.Joseph Blake. The Newington house was said to have been one of the largest brick houses built in lower Carolina at that period, and with its double avenue of live oaks and wide gardens was at the time of the Revolutionary War one of the "show places", so to say, of the country side. The Ralph Izard who settled at "Burton", afterwards "Fair Spring,", about a mile and a half distant, had married a daughter of Col. Blake, and a straight road or avenue led from one house to the other.

West of Newington, across the swamp and within a few yards of the present public road, now called the Orangeburg road, was the brick mansion of "Mount Boone", devised by Lady Axtell to another daughter, Mrs. Joseph Boone. By his will in 1733, Mr. Boone directed himself to be buried at Mount Boone, and his broken gravestone is still there, adjacent to the foundations of the house, with the inscription placed over him in 1733.

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A number of other settlements stretched up along the Cypress Swamp to the north, where a number of grants had been made to the Ways, Warings, Postells, Ford, Verditty, Boisseau and Porcher to the point well known on the old plats and in the old Statutes as "Izard's Cowpen", another large estate of the Izard family where the public road crosses the Cypress Swamp.

To the east of Dorchester was the settlement and mansion of Robert Miller, on that afterwards was known as "Rose Hill", and that of Mr. John Branford at the point where stands the house formerly owned by the late Dr. Brailsford. South of which was the place belonging early in the last century to Sir Hovenden Walker, and generally called his barony. West of this again, and nearer Dorchester, was the seat of Richard Walter, which was after the Revolutionary War acquired by Capt. Matthias Hutchinson, and by him named "Traveller's Rest", and opposite this, on the east of the public road, was the seat of Mr. Richard Waring, originally called "White Hall", but afterwards "Tranquil Hill", and noteworthy for its choice site and elaborate garden.

At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War Dorchester, altho' still a mere village, was next to Charles Town and George Town, the largest village in South Carolina.

The Council of Safety, in July, 1775, directed its survey and fortification, and in October, 1775, part of the public store of powder and ordinance with the public records were lodged there for safety. In November, 1775, the fortification being completed, Capt. Francis Marion was ordered to garrison it with two companies. In May, 1778, Gen. Moultrie formed his camp at Dorchester, and a year later, in May, 1779, Gen. Moultrie, then hastening to Charles Town to meet the invasion of the British under Prevost halted and reformed his army at Dorchester.

In February, 1780, Sir Henry Clinton landed and advanced to the siege of Charles Town, and as part of the general defence Gen. Moultrie constructed a redoubt on the

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high land on the east side of the Ashley River, at Bacon's Bridge, so as to command the bridge and prevent a crossing there on Dorchester. The remains of this redoubt are still visible.

All the American forces being withdrawn to the city, Tarleton, commanding the British Cavalry, marched, practically unopposed, up the Ashley, crossed the river at Bacon's Bridge and took possession of Dorchester on the 13th April, 1780.

Lieut. Allaire, of Ferguson's Loyal Americans, describes the town then as a small village, containing about 40 houses and a church.

With the capture of Charles Town and the subjection of the Lowcountry to the British, Dorchester became a British post occupied by a British garrison. To the period of the British occupation is assigned the construction of the earthwork that is situate about a third of a mile northeast of Dorchester, at the junction of the public road leading to Charles Town and the road leading to Goose Creek (now commonly called the Ladson Road), between Eagle and Dorchester creeks. This earthwork commands both roads at this junction.

The writer has never been able to find any record of its construction, and it is only by tradition ascribed to the British. It resembles other redoubts constructed by the British at the time, especially one on the old Fair Lawn, or Colleton, barony at the head of Cooper River.

On July 14, 1781, Dorchester was occupied by Col. Lee ("Light Horse Harry") with his region, capturing many horses and a good supply of ammunition, but was again occupied by the British when Gen. Greene concentrated his troops prior to the movements resulting in the battle of Eutaw Springs.

On December 1, 1781, Col. Wade Hampton advanced against Dorchester. The British garrison of 400 infantry and 150 carnally did not await his attack, but during the night destroyed everything, threw their cannon into the

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river and retreated to Charles Town, and Dorchester passed finally under the control of the American forces.

During the occupancy of Dorchester by the British a party from that garrison or from Charles Town visited the Fair Spring mansion house (near the public road, a little above Bacon's Bridge) for the purpose of capturing Mr. Ralph Izard, then an Aide-de-camp to Col. Lee, of the Legion, of whose presence at his home they had been apprized. He had scarcely time to conceal himself in a clothes-press before the house was entered by the British soldiers. Nothing saved him but the composure and urbanity of Mrs. Izard (a Miss stead who maintained her self control, notwithstanding the threat to her of personal indignity and the plunder of her house. Affected by her behavior credence was given to the information that Mr. Izard was not there. The party being drawn off Mr. Izard crossed the Ashley in the rear of the house and gave alarm to a body of American troops. The enemy had again returned to the Fair Spring house for another search, and again retired, but not in time to evade the pursuit of a body of American cavalrly, who had been pushed across Bacon's Bridge, and overtaking the returning enemy completely routed them.

After the close of the Revolutionary War Dorchester decayed rapidly. Several reasons conduced to this.

Its military and defensive position entirely departed with the growth of the middle and upper country and the extension of the frontier. With the development and increase of roads and the accompanying river navigation, Dorchester ceased to be a point of any commercial importance, the points of reception and distribution of merchandise being shifted with the growth of the country. The country immediately around Dorchester is neither fertile or populous, and its population was composed of planters who could and did deal directly with Charles Town. Finally its location was an unhealthy one, and entirely unsuited for the purposes of a simmer resort for the surrounding planters. There being no reasons based on health, business or defense for its perpetuation it rapidly ceased to exist.

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On March 5, 1788, scarcely five years after the close of the war, the following entry is made in Bishop Asbury's journal:

"March 5, 1788 I passed Dorchester where there are remains of what appears to have been once a considerable town. There are the ruins of an elegant church and the vestiges of several well built houses".

With the decadence of Dorchester, and perhaps accelerating it, came the foundation and growth of the town of Summerville, situated at first about five miles off, on the headwaters of the same creek that flowed by Dorchester, and on a part of the grant originally made to Gershom Hawks in 1705. From Hawks it passed in some way to Daniel Axtell, the one who ran the saw mill, for in 1729 Daniel Axtell and his son, Daniel Axtell, Jr., of Bristol, in Dighton County, Massachusetts, conveyed it to Daniel Stewart, whose son, Daniel Stewart, in 1766, conveyed it with some lots in the second division of the Dorchester 4,050 acre tract to Michael Geiger. From Michael Geiger it descended to his son, Jacob Geiger. After Jacob Geiger's death it was, in 1811, under proceedings in the Court of Equity for partition conveyed to Jacob Williman.

Prior to this date (1811) its occupancy had begun. The planters of the neighborhood, in search of some healthy retreat during summer, where security could be had from the malarial disorders that beset their fertile but unhealthy plantations, found that the pine land ridges of Summerville answered the purpose. There was a thick growth of the long leaf or yellow pine, and a succession of dry sandy ridges, with a sufficient fall in the water courses to carry off the excessive rain and moisture. It was found to be free from the pest of mosquitoes, and the nights, even in summer, fresh and invigorating.

From about 1790, little by little one planter after another made a summer settlement and built a house, and the abandoned and decaying houses of Dorchester (from which materials, and especially bricks were removed) formed the basis

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and furnished the foundations of this new town,until nothing but crumbling piles of broken fragments of brick were left to mark the sites of the hearths of the old one.

Jacob Williman, in his life, parted with some of the pine land, and on his death the remainder was conveyed to Thomas Moore, by whose direction a part was laid off as a town in 1832. The part laid off being what was formerly called "Old Summerville", lying west of a line beginning about the house now occupied by Mr. L. A. Emerson, at the corner of First South and Palmetto streets, and running in a southerly direction to the house now occupied by Mr. E. P. Guerard, on Sumter Avenue and Sixth South Street, and thence easterly across Red Hill.

About the same time as Moore had "Old Summerville" laid out and platted the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company had "New Summerville" laid out as a town adjacent to and east of "Old Summerville". This lay on part of the grant to Robert Fenwicke in 1701, which part of the grant, with one of the lots in the second division of the Dorchester tract of 4,050 acres, became the property of Gershom Hawks and descended to Moses Hawks by whose executors they were conveyed in 1737 to Daniel Stewart by whose son, John Stewart, they were in 1760 conveyed to Samuel Wainwright, under will they passed to his nephew, Richard Wainwright. Under an execution against Richard Wainwright they were sold in 1802 to Robert Dewar, and, on a division of Robert Dewar's property in 1831, were sold to the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company. By that company the portion adjacent to and on each side the railroad was laid out for a town, and now comprises the larger part of the town of Summerville.

The town of Summerville, altho' in some respects the descendant of Dorchester, as being in part situate upon the original Dorchester grant, and in part upon land granted to or owned by persons affiliated with the original Dorchester settlers (Hawks and Stewart) and in part originally constructed from materials derived from old Dorchester, yet was

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settled by entirely different people. The effect of the exodus to Georgia was such that among the earlier settlers of Summerville there is not one bearing the name of any of the "Church" who migrated from Dorchester, Massachusetts.

The Old Parish Church

The most conspicous object remaining on the site of the old village of Dorchester is the ruined tower of the old church. This is all that is left of the Parish Church Of St. George's, Dorchester. It is not as is sometimes supposed the Congregational Church of the old immigrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts, but the church constructed when the Church of England was the established church of the Province. The Statute providing for its construction was enacted in 1719. This Statute appropriated L333.6s 8d (Carolina paper currency) to assist in defraying the cost of construction.

Lots 52, 53, 54, 55 and 56 in the village of Dorchester, about an acre and a quarter, facing the public square, were purchased as a site for the church and church-yard. A glebe of 150 acres within the limits ot the Dorchester 4,050 acres was also purchased.

The parish then contained 115 English families, numbering about 500 souls, and 1,300 slaves.

The commissioners appointed by Statute for building the church procured a subscription of ll,196, to which the General Assembly added L466. The work of construction was begun in 1719, and in 1720 all the outer work was finished. The church was of brick, 50 feet long by 30 wide, besides the chancel. In 1724 the glebe and parsonage being found inconveniently distant from the church, by authority given by a Statute, the old glebe and parsonage were sold and a new one purchased. The new glebe was lot 25 in the first range, fronting on Ashley River 50 acres, with 25 acres in the second range-75 acres in all. The parsonage building was on the north side of the public road, about a quarter of a

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mile west of the church. It is now owned by Mr. John Grimball. Some large oaks and a few wooden buildings mark the site.

In 1734 a Statue was passed reciting that the church was a very decayed and ruinous condition, and also too small for the inhabitants of the parish, and directing the vestry and church wardens to repair and new pew the church and make an addition to it. In 1736 the repairs had advanced but were not yet finished. In 1739 L3OO (currency) was appropiated by Parliament for a parsonage house. In 1752 the parishioners had enlarged the parsonage, added out-buildings and purchased two negroes for the service of the rector. They had also built a handsome steeple to the church and had opened a subscription for a ring of bells which were afterwards obtained. Two of these bells are stated by the author of Carolina in the 01den Time in her later work styled Our Forefathers to have been given to the church of St. Paul's, Radcliffeboro, in the city of Charleston.

During the Revolutionary War, the church is said to have suffered dilapidation at the bands of the British, and at the close was in a nearly ruinous state. It was slightly repaired in 1811, and divine service was held in it again, but the revivification was transient. Its congregation had departed. There was neither support nor congregation for it, although after the Revolutionary War the few remaining members of the congregation had been incorporated as the Episcopal Church of St. George's, Dorchester. The growing settlement of Summerville established a place for worship which was more convenient for the summer residents who were members of the Church of England was attended by them, and in winter, when the summer population was scattered on the plantations, the majority attended the church of St. Paul's, Stono, about sixteen miles distant. In 1720 the church is stated by Dr. Dalcho, the historian of the Diocese, to be in a ruinous state, without a rector, its records all lost.

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Some years later it took fire from one of the many fires that annually devastated the woods of the Low-Country, and its roof and most of the woodwork wis destroyed.

The brick walls - even to their foundations - were at once removed by the surrounding vandals, and nothing remained save the tower. The earthquake of 1886 nearly completed the destruction of this, leaving but a remnant still standing.

The church-yard was the hereditary burying place of many of the families of this neighborhood; the Blakes, the Izards and others. In 1841 one of that family of Izards died, and was brought for burial in the old family lot. On that occasion the late Mr. Wm. Izard Bull, of Ashley Hall, a nephew of the deceased, caused to be thrown up around the ruined church and church-yard the present earth embankment, so as to clearly and forever mark and set aside the resting place of his ancestors. In 1857 the vestry of the church in Summerville, in whom by Statute the parsonage had been vested, sold it away. The old church and church-yard now belong to the Diocese of South Carolina.

The Old Fort

The old fort that faces the old church stands on the top of the rise or bluff of the river bank where it commanded the bridge across the river and the approach to it. It is located partly on lot 13 in the plan of the old village and partly on the street leading to the bridge head. It is the most perfect example remaining in the State of a fort of the period. It is constructed of the material called "tapia", or more commonly "tabby". This is composed of oyster shells embedded in a bond or matrix of burnt shell lime, and forms a most durable and lasting composition. The exact date of its construction is unknown. The material of its construction gives no certain indication as "tabby" was used for such purposes from an early date in the history of the Province down to as late as 1812. There are the remains of a fort constructed of that material on "Cole's Island" on

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the north side of Stono Inlet, which was constructed during the war of 1812.

There is a tradition that the fort was coeval with the settlement of Dorchester, and was relied on as a defence against the Indian enemies of the Province. No record support of this exists, although it is plausible and likely. On the plan of the villaoe as originally laid out in 1697, as afterwards, in 1742, recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, no fort is set down, although the site of the parish church, constructed in 1719, is mentioned. There are a number of appropriations for fortifications in the tax Acts passed bv the Assembly from 1740 on, but in none of such as are published in the Statutes at Large is any specific mention made of the fort at Dorchester.

In 1775 the Council of Safety of the Province directed Dorchester to be fortified, and in December, 1775, they directed Fort Lyttelton, near Beaufort, to be repaired with "tappy". Commissioners of fortifications for Dorchester were appointed by the Council of Safety, and in December, 1775, urgency was recommended to them in the erection of barracks, a guard room, and a place for confinement of prisoners; and on January 31, 1776, the Council of Safety authorized the payment of L271.10.07 on account of the fortification of Dorchester, and in February the military stores were placed in the fort and magazine at Dorchester, with a further payment of L271.10.00 on February, 6, 1776, for hire of negroes on the works at Dorchester.

Whatever fort or strong-work may have existed prior to 1775 it is safe to infer that the present fort represents the fortification constructed in that year by order of the Council of Safety.

The Old Congregational Meeting House

The old "White Meeting", or Congregational Church, the place of worship of the "Church" proper, who emigrated from Massachusetts, to carry the Gospel into Carolina, was located about two miles from the village, near the public

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road, on lot No. 9, in the first range. Lot No. 10, adjoining was afterwards donated to the church by the Rev. Mr. Joseph Lord, so that at that point there was l00 acres devoted to the use of the church. The first building is said to have been of wood, replaced by a brick structure erected in 1700 on the site where the ruins now stand. The only authority for this appears to be the statement to that effect made in the petition to the Legislature for incorporation of the United Independent Congregational Church of Dorchester and Beech Hill in 1793. All later statements in sermons and histories are apparently based upon this petition. The removal of practicaly the entire congregation to Georgia in 1752-56 caused for many years nearly an entire discontinuance of services in the church building or "White Meeting House", as it was then commonly called, and in which the celebrated Whitefield, in 1744, preached to a crowded congregation. During the Revolutionary War the British are said to burnt its interior, but the walls were left standing. In 1794 the church was reorganized, a charter was procured from the State, a constitution adopted, and the church ediface repaired. But what a change! Not a single descendant (unless perchance thro' female lines in different names) of the original members of the old congregation formed one of the new.

The church continued to be intermittently used for many years; having entered into affliation with the Presbyterian Church in the State a supply of ministers was procured. In 1848 Mr. George Sheldon, the then minister, delivered in the church that sermon in commemoration of its 150th anniversary, to which reference has been made. But the same cause which led to the abandonment of the parish church of St. George's finally caused the abandonment of the old original "White Meeting". In 1813 Mr. Jacob Williman donated four acres in Summerville for a summer retreat for the minister of the church. It is on part of this four acres that the present Presbyterian parsonage in Summerville still stands. A house or parsonage was built on the four acres.

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Then in 1815 the parsonage house in Dorchester was sold. Then most of the lots 9 and 10 around the church (all between the public road and the river) were sold, and finally the attendance at the Presbyterian Church in Summerville superseded the use of the old building.

In 1882 it was ruinous, but still capable of repair. The earthquake of 1886 practically destroyed it, and now but a remnant of its walls remains.

The ruins stand among a grove of trees with quite an extensive country grave-yard around them. The oldest stones are those to Dr. Samuel Stevens (son of the original John Stevens), who died in 1760, and his wife. There are no other stones prior to 1800.

The Free School

The first Act creating a free school in Dorchester was passed in 1724. Ten years later, in 1734, another Act passed. The commissioners named in the last Act were Alexander Skene, Thomas Waring, Joseph Blake, Arthur Middleton, Ralph Izard, Robert Wright , Paul Jenys, Waplter Izard and Benjamin Waring, Esqrs., Rev. Francis Varnod, William Cattell and John Williams, Esqrs.

There is nothing to show the steps taken under this Act, but on March 19, 1756, an Act was passed for more effectually putting in force the provisions of the former Act of 1734. It recited that the commissioners under the former Act were all dead, and appointed the following new commissioners to execute the Act, viz: The rector of the parish for the time being, and Henry Middleton, Walter Izard, Ralph Izard, Daniel Blake, John Ainslie, Esqrs., Mr. Benjamin Waring, Mr. Richard Waring and Mr. Joseph Waring.

The minute book from this date is in existence, and shows at the first meeting of the commissioners, under the new Act, was held June 27, 1757. The meeting, was held in the vestry room of the parish church in Dorchester, and the commissioners present were the Rev. Mr. Langhorne, Walter Izard, Ralph Izard, Daniel Blake, Henry Middleton, John Ainslie, Benjamin Waring and Joseph Waring.

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They elected Henry Middleton, president, and Daniel Blake, treasurer. Mr. Middleton was the Henry Middleton, of Middleton Place, on the Ashley River, afterwards president of the First Continental Congress and a Member of the Council of Safety in South Carolina. Mr. Blake was the owner of the Newington place, and the members of the commission were all prominent and influential citizens of the Province.

A legacy of L500 (currency), left for the school by Mr. Thomas Diston, was paid to the commission, and the treasurer reported that he had in his bands L2,600 (currency) to be put out at interest. The commissioners went to work and at their meeting on March 27, 1758, ordered that two brick houses, twenty-three feet wide and thirty-six feet long, one story high, with a Dutch roof, be built - one to serve for the school and the other as a dwelling for the master and his family.

The houses were shortly completed, and the school continued in active existence and operation in the village of Dorchester for many years. A large number of donations were made - among the most prominent were one in 1739, by Samuel Wragg of L100 (sterling) for the erection of a free school, one of L500 (currency) by Peter Taylor in 1764, and one of L380 (currency) by Daniel Blake in the same year - the two latter to be let out at interest, and the income applied to supporting poor children who might thereafter be charitable educated at the free school.

After the Revolution, in 1789, an Act was passed reciting that the school had received many donations from charitable persons, and possessed much and valuable property, and appointed the following commissioners to continue it with the power of nominating successors when vacancies occurred, viz: William Postell, Mathias Hutchinson, Thomas Waring, of Pine Hill, Joseph Waring, Morton Waring, Daniel Stewart, John Dawson, Richard Wainwright, Thomas Smith and George Evans.

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The school continued in active operation. but, as all its patrons and their children who formed its scholars gradually came from the growing village of Summerville, in 1817 the commissioners procured an Act allowing them to remove the school from the village of Dorchester to any other part of St. George's Parish, and it was accordingly removed to Summerville, and a building constructed on land given by Mr. James R. Stewart, somewhere on the lot now owned by Mr. H. M. Manigault. There it continued for many years, and the remnant of the fund so originally arising from donations beginning under the Act of 1734 is still in the hands of the commissioners of the free school in Dorchester, residing in Summerville, and is used and applied for school purposes.

Last update: 12-Jan-2008 11:30 AM