“H” is for Hillsborough Township

“H” is for Hillsborough Township. Located on the upper Savannah River in present-day McCormick County, Hillsborough Township was named for Wills Hill, viscount of Hillsborough and president of the British Board of Trade. The settlement originated with the Reverend Jean-Louis Gibert’s plan to settle a group of Huguenots in North America. This coincided with the desire of the South Carolina government to strengthen the colony’s western frontier. In 1764 Gibert’s plan was approved and he received a 28,000-acre grant. Settlers arrived between 1768 and 1773. A town, named New Bordeaux, was laid out. In addition to subsistence crops, the colonists attempted to produce silk and cultivate wine but met with little success. Although about twenty houses were built in New Bordeaux, by the mid-1770s the town was largely abandoned and the French settlers dispersed throughout Hillsborough Township.