"S" is for St. George’s Dorchester Parish

"S" is for St. George’s Dorchester Parish. The Commons House created St. George’s Dorchester Parish on December 11, 1717. The new parish was previously part of St. Andrew’s Parish and was created to accommodate the growing number of colonists along the upper Ashley River. New England Congregationalists from Dorchester, Massachusetts, established a New England-style township twenty-six miles upriver from Charleston—and named it in honor of their former home. An Anglican Church was erected in 1720. During the French and Indian War, a brick powder magazine surrounded by earthen works was completed .In 1781 the British burned the town and it was abandoned. Rice plantations along the upper Ashley dominated the parish’s economy well into the nineteenth century. When the parish system was abolished in 1865, St. George’s Dorchester Parish was incorporated into Colleton County.