# Province of South Carolina

The Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of the Kingdom of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the Thirteen Colonies in America of the British Empire. The monarch of Great Britain was represented by the Governor of South Carolina, until the colonies declared independence on July 4, 1776.

## Etymology

"Carolina" is taken from the Latin word for "Charles" (Carolus), honoring King Charles I, and was first named in the 1663 Royal Charter granting to Edward, Earl of Clarendon; George, Duke of Albemarle; William, Lord Craven; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton the right to settle lands in the present-day U.S. states of North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

## History

Charles Town was the first settlement, established in 1670. King Charles II had given the land to a group of eight nobles called the lords proprietor; they planned for a Christian colony. Originally a single proprietary colony, the northern and southern sections grew apart over time, due partly to neglect by the legal heirs of the original lords proprietor. Dissent over the governance of the province led to the appointment of a deputy governor to administer the northern half of the Province of Carolina in 1691. The partition of the province into North and South Carolina became complete in 1712.
The Yamasee War (1715–1717) ravaged the back-country of the province. Complaints that the proprietors had not done enough to protect the provincials against either the Indians or the neighboring Spanish, during Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), convinced many residents of the necessity of ending proprietary rule. A rebellion broke out against the proprietors in 1719. Acting on a petition of residents, King George I appointed the governor of South Carolina later in that year (the governors of North Carolina would continue to be appointed by the lords proprietor until 1729). After nearly a decade in which the British monarchy sought to locate and buy out the lords, both North and South Carolina became royal colonies in 1729.

## Government

The Court of King's Bench and Common Pleas was founded c.1725, based in Charles Towne. List of Chief Justices:
| Incumbent | Tenure | Tenure | Notes |
| Incumbent | Took office | Left office | Notes |
| Edmund Bohun | 1698 | 1699 | died in office of fever |
| Nicholas Trott | c.1702 | 1718 | dismissed from office after uprising |
| Richard Alleyn | 1719 | | not sure |
| Robert Wright | 1730 | 1739 | died in office |
| Thomas Dale | 17 Oct 1739 | November 1739 | not sure |
| Benjamin Whitaker | 7 Nov 1739 | 1749 | removed from office due to paralysis |
| James Graeme | 6 Jul 1749 | 29 August 1752 | died in office |
| Charles Pinckney | 1752 | 1753 | |
| Peter Leigh | 1753 | | |
| James Michie | 1 Sep 1759 | 16 July 1760 | died in office, London, England |
| William Simpson | 24 Jan 1761 | | |
| Charles Skinner | 1762 | | |
| Thomas Knox Gordon | 13 May 1771 | | |
| William Henry Drayton | 13 Apr 1776 | | |
| John Rutledge | 16 Feb 1791 | 1795 | resigned and afterwards Chief Justice of the United States |
| after 1791 no further Chief Justices were appointed. ||||