Title: Attorney General of South Carolina
Content: Benjamin Whitaker (1721–1731) ; James Abercrombie (1731–1732) ; Charles Pinckney (1732–1733) ; James Abercrombie (1733–1742) ; Sir James Wright (1742–1757) ; David Graeme (1757–1764) ; James Moultrie (1764) ; John Rutledge (1764) ; Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet (1765–1774) ; James Simpson (1774–1775) The colonial province of South Carolina was first organized under a royal governor in 1720. 
Title: List of governors of South Carolina
Content:  This is a list of South Carolina governors. The current governor of South Carolina is Henry McMaster who has been in office since January 24, 2017. South Carolina governors are counted only once; therefore, Joseph West, for instance, a colonial governor who served three non-consecutive terms, is considered the second Governor of South Carolina, not the second, fourth, and seventh. The first Governor was William Moultrie.
Title: South Carolina gubernatorial elections
Content:  Prior to 1865, the Governor of South Carolina was chosen by the General Assembly. The Constitution of South Carolina provided for the voters of South Carolina to choose the governor; James Lawrence Orr was the first elected governor of South Carolina. The following is a list of gubernatorial election results for the state of South Carolina:
Title: List of colonial governors of South Carolina
Content:  This is a list of colonial governors of the South Carolina from 1670 to 1775. Until the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775, South Carolina was a colony of Great Britain.
Title: 1868 South Carolina gubernatorial election
Content:  The general election was held for three days from April 14 to April 16, 1868 and Robert Kingston Scott was elected as the first Republican governor of South Carolina. The huge vote by the blacks of the state enabled Scott to cruise to a comfortable win over the Democratic nominee, William Porter.
Title: Colonial period of South Carolina
Content:  and John Locke became his assistant and chief planner. The two men were chiefly responsible for developing the Grand Model for the Province of Carolina, which included the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina. The newly created province was intended in part to serve as an English bulwark to contest lands claimed by Spanish Florida. There was a single government of the Carolinas based in Charleston until 1712, when a separate government (under the Lords Proprietors) was set up for North Carolina. In 1719, the Crown purchased the South Carolina colony from the absentee Lords Proprietors and appointed Royal Governors. By 1729, seven of the eight Lords Proprietors had 
Title: Colonial period of South Carolina
Content:  was unpopular in South Carolina almost from the start, mainly because propertied immigrants to the colony hoped to monopolize the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina as a basis for government. Moreover, many Anglicans resented the Proprietors' guarantee of freedom of religion to Dissenters. In November 1719, Carolina elected James Moore as governor and sent a representative to ask the King to make Carolina a royal province with a royal governor. They wanted the Crown to grant the colony aid and security directly from the English government. Because the Crown was interested in Carolina's exports and did not think the Lords Proprietor were adequately protecting the colony, it agreed. Robert Johnson, the last proprietary governor, became the first royal governor. Meanwhile, 
Title: Governor of South Carolina
Content:  From 1776 to 1779, the office of governor was titled President of South Carolina and he was chosen by the General Assembly. Governors served no fixed term. John Rutledge and Rawlins Lowndes were the only two to hold the title of "President." From 1779 to 1792, governors retained the title of "Governor." Governors 31-37 served during this period.
Title: William Sayle
Content:  In 1669, Sayle took over the command of a party of settlers to a new settlement in Carolina after Sir John Yeamans resigned, while undergoing repairs of his vessel in Bermuda. He arrived in South Carolina aboard a Bermuda sloop with a number of Bermudian families, and founded the town of Charleston. In 1670, William Sayle, then in his eighties, became the first Colonial Governor of the colony of Carolina (in 1669, Carolina would be split into two provinces, and in 1712 the southern Clarendon province, that included Charleston, became South Carolina while the Albemarle province became North Carolina). Sayles was also instrumental in encouraging the Lords Proprietors to successfully apply for a grant of The Bahama Islands in 1670. He died in 1671.
Title: Governor of South Carolina
Content:  James Lawrence Orr was the first governor to be popularly elected. Following the state's failure to adopt the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the US Congress eliminated all offices of state government. A temporary military government headed by Edward Canby was set up until new elections were held after the writing of the Constitution of 1868. All male citizens above the age of 21, regardless of race, were given the right to vote and the governor was allowed to be elected to two consecutive terms. The election of Ben Tillman in 1890 to governor by the support of agrarian reformers forced a 

Question: who was the first governor of colonial south carolina?
Answer: Thomas Pinckney.