Winton County, South Carolina




Winton County, South Carolina

A History of Winton County, South Carolina

Winton County was created within the overarching Orangeburg District in 1785 and subsequently abolished in 1791.

One of the first "new townships" established by Royal Governor Robert Johnson in his 1730 "township scheme," one of the townships was first called Edisto and it was laid out to encourage emigration into the interior. In 1735, Edisto Township was renamed Orangeburgh Township by its German Lutheran settlers. In 1769, Orangeburgh Township and Amelia Township were included within St. Matthew's Parish and into the newly-defined "overarching" district called Orangeburgh District by an Act of the General Assembly.

In 1778, Orangeburgh Township was separated from Amelia Township into its own Orange Parish. After the American Revolution, the newly-independent state of South Carolina renamed the district to Orangeburg District. The same Act created four newly-defined counties within the overarching Orangeburg District, and they were Lewisburg County, Lexington County, Orange County, and Winton County.

Winton County was formed as a judicial county in 1785 within the overarching Orangeburg District. Winton's separate court was abolished in 1791, and in 1798 Winton was transformed into Barnwell County (The County Offices and Officers of Barnwell Co., SC 1775-1975, E. B. Reynolds and J.R. Faunt, Spartanburg: The Reprint Co., Publishers, 1976). In 1878, Hampton County was formed from the northern part of Beaufort County. A 1785 map shows this to have been a portion of the northern part of Lincoln County and Shrewsbury County, both within Beaufort District at that time. These entities do not appear on the 1791 Circuit Court District map.

Barnwell County and its county seat of Barnwell were named for Revolutionary War leader John Barnwell (1748-1800). The county was originally part of the Orangeburg District, and in 1785 it was named Winton County. It was given its current name in 1800.

Orangeburg District was further divided into four counties: Lewisburgh, Orange, Lexington and Winton. The latter included the Allendale and Hampton areas. Winton County was again renamed with the South Carolina Constitution in 1790.

The first United States Census of 1790 contained no reference to Winton County. The overarching Orangeburg District was annotated within that census as having two identities - Orangeburg North and Orangeburg South. One might guess that Winton County would be included in Orangeburg South.