The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-12-22
WHEN KINCSTREE
WAS WILLIAMSBURG
HISTORICAL DATA RELATING
SETTLEMENT OF THIS SECTION
OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
(By William Willis Boddie)

King George realized in 1730 that
cclonists were neede.' in the interior
of South Carolina to protect Charles
ton and Beaufort from the savage
Indians towards the West and to help
these cities by the sea fight the still
more sewage SpaniarIs forever foray-
ing on them from the South. He
knew how successfully the township
scheme had worked for century
in the New England section and that
Europe was full of "poor Protestants"
who would make excellent frontiers
men.
So, King George cecreed that eler.
en- townships on the banks of rivers
III South Carolina be admeasured and
laid out and that ever! one who would
settle in them should be granted
fifty acres of land for himself, his
wife, and every one of his children,
and one half acre town lot for the
head of the family, and food for a
year and all necessary farming uten-
sils furnished them. Every one OF
these townships should be inland, not
one of them within sixty miles OF
Charleston. They should be surveyed
as required.
The "poor Protestants" accepted
the opportunity offered and came in
great numbers. Williamsburg town
ship was needed to accommodate them
in 1886, and Anthony Williams then
laid out plats of land for them on
Black river. The King kept his prom
Use as to lands and material encour-
agement, and it was not many years
before these "poor Protestants," many
of whom had the best blood of Europe
in their veins, grew rich in worldly
goods and spiritual force, and began
to speak South Cardinals "Yea" and
"Nay."
All the world knows how the Pill
grim Fathers congregated in little
towns and cultivated surrounding
fields, that the cows coming home
froll the Commons in 1880 determined
the crooked streets of the Club OF
the Universe" of today. But the
"pocr Protestants" Of Williamsburg
built their homes on their farm lands
and almost forgot that the head OF
every family had a half acre lot in
the town of Williamsburg. For three
score years, the town Of Williamsburg
contained the Kings Tree and three
hundred and fifty acres of land laid
out into town lots on plat kept IN
Charleston.
In 178S, the General Assembly de-
cided it was imperative that there be
a town of Williamsburg, and so 1t
appointed John McCauley, John Bur-
CESS, Sr., James Witherspoon, J.'
William Frierson, John Scott, Jr.'
Robert Mcconnell, Thomas Mcconnell
James Fleming, Sr.;; and Robert F'rler-
son commissioners, anG authorized and
empowered them to resurvey and lay
out "the town of Williamsburg, IN
the district of Georgetown, and bound
ed as follows: On the Southeast by
Black river; on the Northwest by
lands of John Scott, Jr., on the North-
east by lands of James Witherspoon'
Jr., and Moses Gordon; on the South
east by lands of Thomas Landslide"
These commissioners were instructed
to determine the lots granted there
tofore to the original settlers and
to assign them to rightful claimants;
to reserve such lots as they deemed
necessary for two churches, for a
public school and market house,
and for other public purposes; and
to sell the remainder at auction, or
otherwise, as seemed advantageous.
After paying Necessary expenses OF
the commission, the moneys arising
from the sale of the lots should be
appropriated for establishing pub
lie school for the education of the
youth in the said town, under the
direction of the said commissioners.
These commissioners, except John
Scott, Jr., who had died since his ap-
pointment, met at the Kings Tree
on December 8, 1888, elected John
Dickey ain the room" of John Scott
Jr., and appointed John Burgess Jr''
and Robert Witherspoon, Surveyors
to lay out the town according to the
plat made by Anthony Williams. The
board announced that it would hear
all persons claiming town lots under
original grants at its next meeting
March 25, 1889, and that all lots not
claimed at such time would be sold
at public vendue to tie highest bidder.
The board extended what is now
Main street through the two blocks
that had been reserved in the original