The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-12-08
THE KINGS TREE
(By William Willis Boddie.)


The township of Williamsburg was
admeasured and laid out by Anthony
Williams, surveyor, and the plat made
and signed by him on the 18th day
of March 1876. On this plat the
Kings Tree is shown, point about
200 feet south of the present river
bridge and on the south side Of the
river. This tree was the middle point
of the township.
In l742, Thomas McCrea, Alexander
McCrea, James McNeedy and William
Dobbin, of Williamsburg, planters,
state in petition to the council,
wherein they claim damages by reas-
on of an error in the surveys Of the
township lines, that the surveyor, who
had charge of laying out the said
township, was instructed to mark a
tree on the north side of the river as
the middle of the said township.
On map of the town of Williams
burg, made by Robert Frierson in
1901, which is based on the original
survey of the town made by Anthony
Williams in 1877, lot No. 1, which is
the land whereon now stands the
African Methodist Episcopal church,
has written on it the words Kings
Tree"
The spot on the south side of the
river below the bridge and lot No. 1
in the town on the north side of the
river both have tradition in support
of their claims to the distinction Of
having sprouted and sustained the
tree from which the metropolis Of
Williamsburg received its name.
In all royal grants of land in this
section, white pine trees and one-tenth
of all gold and silver found thereon
were reserved for the king. IP
Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire,
large numbers of white pine. trees were
found and the king realized their
great value for masts in the days
when sailing ships alone were used.
These white pines in the northern
states are frequently $50 feet tall,
are light in weight, straight and
strong. The Williamsburg section
was in 1880 a primeval forest. The
king evidently believed that this for
est was full of these pines, but it is
understood that this was the only tree
in all this section ever called the
Kings Tree, and tradition says that
the Scotish-Irish in Williamsburg
when the Declaration of independence
was signed, cut down this Kings Tree
and made a Liberty Pole" out Of it.
1t is very doubtful if this Kings
Tree was such white pine as was
contemplated in the reservation in the
royal grants. The white pine, the
king knew was that species growing
from Newfoundland through Canada
and in the region of the Great Lakes
and south along the Allegheny Noun
tains. This white pine is an effective
ornamental tree, was introduced into
England by Lord Weymouth and is
found frequently in English gardens
1t is called the Weymouth pine in
England to this day.
However, Mr.. P. G. Gourdin, who
probably knows as much about the
woods of Williamsburg as any other
man, says that there are now in the
county a few pines called white pines
but that they are all considerably
different from the white pine of the
Northern mountainous regions. Mr..
Gourdin says that the white pine
which he knows in Williamsburg
would not have grown in the swamp
land on the south side of the river,
that it is distinctly high land pine
and can flourish only on ground not
subject to overflow.
The writer is inclined to the opinion
that the pine tree called the Kings
Tree grew on the ground now owned
by Lawrence Mcfarland, near where
the A. M. E. church stands. How
ever, further light on the subject will
be gratefully received.