One year after securing their charter for Carolana, the eight Lords Proprietors established three counties within the new colony of Carolana. None of the three counties were ever surveyed or properly laid out; all were ambiguous geographical areas that changed over time, and none had any real governmental seat or political connotations to their existence.

Craven County was considered to be at the southern part of the Carolana colony, extending below the Cape Fear River to include present-day Georgia and northern Florida, and to extend to the west as far as the Pacific Ocean. At the time of its inception in 1664, there were no British settlers in Craven County, and there would not be until 1670, when the first group of Barbadians finally settled along the Ashley River in what is present-day Charleston, named Charles Town until it was shortened after the American Revolution in 1785. 

In 1682, the Lords Proprietors decided to establish two new counties, south of Craven, and these were named Berkeley and Colleton. Craven was deemed to lie between the Cape Fear River (in present-day North Carolina) and southward to the mouth of the Awendaw Creek in present-day Berkeley County, South Carolina. The newly-established county of Berkeley County in 1682 was deemed to lie between the Awendaw Creek and the mouth of the Stono River in what is present-day Charleston County. The new Colleton County was deemed to lie south of the Stono River - to whatever.

In 1684, a fourth county was established (from Colleton County), and it was named Carteret County. The new Carteret County was deemed to lie between the mouth of the Combahee River and the mouth of the Savannah River. This now made Colleton County to lie between the mouth of the Stono River and the mouth of the Combahee River.

In 1708, Carteret County was renamed to Granville County, the name Carteret County never to be used again within the state of South Carolina.