"P" is for Prince William’s Parish

"P" is for Prince William’s Parish. In 1754 the Commons House of Assembly created Prince William’s Parish. The parish was named for William Duke of Cumberland (the son of King George II) and encompassed the mainland region between the Combahee and Cossawhatchie Rivers, located in modern Beaufort and Jasper Counties. Previously, part of St. Helena’s Parish, the new parish was created because the increasingly prosperous rice planters in the region found travelling to Beaufort to be too difficult. The parish church was completed near William Bull’s Sheldon Plantation in 1753. The original church was burned during the Revolutionary War, rebuilt, and burned again during the Civil War. During the antebellum period, the region was a center of secession sentiment. With the abolition of the parish system in 1865, Prince William’s Parish was incorporated into Beaufort County.