Granville County, South Carolina




Granville County, South Carolina

Years in Existence	County Seat	Population
1785 - 1798	Unknown	N/A - Abolished in 1798
First Settled	First Settled By	Significance of County Name
1684	Scots Highlanders - Stuart's Town (Abandoned)	John Granville, 2nd Earl of Bath

A History of Granville County, South Carolina

This Granville County should NOT be confused with the much earlier Granville County that was established in 1684 as Carteret County then renamed to Granville County in 1708. That early county was abolished with the 1769 District Court Act when the Beaufort District was first created. Use of the name continued, however, until the end of the American Revolution.

In the South Carolina lowcountry, Beaufort District was formed in 1769 as one of seven original "overarching Districts." In 1785, Beaufort District was divided into four counties: Granville, Hilton, Lincoln, and Shrewsbury. These counties never became functional, and in 1798 these counties were abolished.

In 1868, Beaufort District was designated Beaufort County. Its county seat, the town of Beaufort, is on U.S. Highway 21, about forty miles northwest of Savannah, GA and 110 miles south of Columbia. Since the U.S. Civil War, the Marines have used Beaufort County's Parris Island as a training base. Beaufort County is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the South Carolina counties of Jasper and Colleton, and the Georgia county of Chatham.

Carteret County was formed in 1684 as one of the four original proprietary counties. The others being Craven, established in 1664, and Berkeley and Colleton, being created in 1682. It roughly spanned the southwestern corner of the South Carolina lowcountry that is the location today of Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton counties. In 1708, Carteret was renamed Granville County.

In 1769, the four proprietary counties (Craven, Berkeley, Colleton, and Granville) were abolished in favor of seven new Judicial Districts, with Beaufort District taking the area formerly occupied by Granville County. Then in 1785, Granville, along with Hilton, Lincoln and Shrewsbury, became counties of the Beaufort District, but these counties never became functional and were all abolished in 1798.