150 settlers with Governor William Sayle first landed at Port Royal, then proceeded to the Ashley River and established the town of Charles Town at Albemarle Point in April of 1670. To date, this Author has not found any information on the Charles Town assemblies prior to 1692.

In 1692, the Lords Proprietors of Carolina directed Governor Philip Ludwell to summon the first body which can be identified as the Commons House of Assembly. This body was divided equally into four distinct counties - Albemarle, Berkeley, Colleton, and Craven. Each county was to send five representatives, but Albemarle was too far from Charles Town and therefore never sent any delegates to this Assembly - they maintained their own Assembly until the American Revolution.

To initially fill the vacancies, Berkeley County and Colleton County each sent seven delegates and Craven County sent six delegates. The number of delegates increased as the population increased.

These three counties continued to serve as election districts until 1716, when the Assembly authorized the existing parishes (created in 1706 and 1712) to serve as the new election districts. However, the Lords Proprietors disallowed these new election districts as well as other key legislation, and these vetos helped ignite the rebellion against Proprietary rule in 1719. The election act of 1716 was passed once again in 1719 and the Proprietors once again disallowed it, but their veto was ignored by the colonists. It was replaced in 1721 with minor amendments and the creation of more new parishes, and this became the election law for the remainder of the colonial period in South Carolina.

Click on the Assembly Number below for a listing of all known Assembly delegates at that given Assembly. You can also click on the available journals to view or download. If more are found, they will be added here.

Beginning in 1836, South Carolina published a ten-volume compilation of all known laws enacted since the earliest times. Click on the Statutes at Large below to view or download those created by the Commons House of Assembly. More will be found in the Royal Period (see bottom of this page).