Jamesville, South Carolina





A History of Jamesville, South Carolina

Clarendon County has a name of historical significance as it is named after Edward Hyde, the Earl of Clarendon. He was friend and supporter of King Charles II of England, and was at one time Lord High Chancellor of England and also one of the original eight Lord Proprietors of the colony of Carolina.

In 1785, a legislative Act was passed which divided Camden District into seven counties, one of which was Clarendon. Clarendon County was defined as "beginning on the Wateree at Person's Island, thence by the widow Grymes' plantation strait to Lynch's Creek, then along Santee River to the beginning."

In 1790, Clarendon County had two representatives and shared one senator with Claremont County (which included Sumter County). In 1792, Salem County was created from eastern Clarendon and Claremont counties. In 1800, these three counties (Clarendon, Claremont,and Salem) were combined to form Sumter District (county). From 1800 to 1855, Clarendon County ceased to exist.

During it's first short existence, the county seat was Jamesville. This has been noted in several sources and shows up on many early maps of Clarendon County.

When Sumter District (county) was formed in 1800 out of Claremont and Clarendon counties, Jamesville continued to thrive in Sumter County.

On January 1, 1800, Jamesville was granted a U.S. Post Office, and the first Postmaster was John A. James. This Post Office remained in continuous operation until April 4, 1840, when it was permanently closed. The town continued to show up on South Carolina maps until around 1880.

In April of 2019, Mr. Nelson McLeod provided information indicating that Juneville, and not Jamesville, was the original county seat of Clarendon County before 1800. He provided an excerpt from the book entitled "Shadows of the Past - An Illustrated History of Clarendon County, SC," by Sylvia H. Clark, PhD, who wrote that "it is believed that Juneville was where the original Court House was located, off Raccoon Road," between what is now Manning and Jordan, SC.

Juneville never had a post office, and this Author has never seen it noted on ANY map of South Carolina. This is the first reference to Juneville that this Author has ever seen, and yet I have seen many references to Jamesville being the original county seat. With that said, however, Jamesville was certainly not near the center of the original Clarendon County of 1785 to 1800.

So, I leave it to the reader to decide.