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The most conspicous object remaining on the site of the old village of Dorchester is the ruined tower of the old church. This is all that is left of the Parish Church Of St. George's, Dorchester. It is not as is sometimes supposed the Congregational Church of the old immigrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts, but the church constructed when the Church of England was the established church of the Province. The Statute providing for its construction was enacted in 1719. This Statute appropriated L333.6s 8d (Carolina paper currency) to assist in defraying the cost of construction.
Lots 52, 53, 54, 55 and 56 in the village of Dorchester, about an acre and a quarter, facing the public square, were purchased as a site for the church and church-yard. A glebe of 150 acres within the limits ot the Dorchester 4,050 acres was also purchased.
The parish then contained 115 English families, numbering about 500 souls, and 1,300 slaves.
The commissioners appointed by Statute for building the church procured a subscription of ll,196, to which the General Assembly added L466. The work of construction was begun in 1719, and in 1720 all the outer work was finished. The church was of brick, 50 feet long by 30 wide, besides the chancel. In 1724 the glebe and parsonage being found inconveniently distant from the church, by authority given by a Statute, the old glebe and parsonage were sold and a new one purchased. The new glebe was lot 25 in the first range, fronting on Ashley River 50 acres, with 25 acres in the second range-75 acres in all. The parsonage building was on the north side of the public road, about a quarter of a mile west of the church. It is now owned by Mr. John Grimball. Some large oaks and a few wooden buildings mark the site.
In 1734 a Statue was passed reciting that the church was a very decayed and ruinous condition, and also too small for the inhabitants of the parish, and directing the vestry and church wardens to repair and new pew the church and make an addition to it. In 1736 the repairs had advanced but were not yet finished. In 1739 L3OO (currency) was appropiated by Parliament for a parsonage house. In 1752 the parishioners had enlarged the parsonage, added out-buildings and purchased two negroes for the service of the rector. They had also built a handsome steeple to the church and had opened a subscription for a ring of bells which were afterwards obtained. Two of these bells are stated by the author of Carolina in the 01den Time in her later work styled Our Forefathers to have been given to the church of St. Paul's, Radcliffeboro, in the city of Charleston.
During the Revolutionary War, the church is said to have suffered dilapidation at the bands of the British, and at the close was in a nearly ruinous state. It was slightly repaired in 1811, and divine service was held in it again, but the revivification was transient. Its congregation had departed. There was neither support nor congregation for it, although after the Revolutionary War the few remaining members of the congregation had been incorporated as the Episcopal Church of St. George's, Dorchester. The growing settlement of Summerville established a place for worship which was more convenient for the summer residents who were members of the Church of England was attended by them, and in winter, when the summer population was scattered on the plantations, the majority attended the church of St. Paul's, Stono, about sixteen miles distant. In 1720 the church is stated by Dr. Dalcho, the historian of the Diocese, to be in a ruinous state, without a rector, its records all lost.
Some years later it took fire from one of the many fires that annually devastated the woods of the Low-Country, and its roof and most of the woodwork wis destroyed.
The brick walls - even to their foundations - were at once removed by the surrounding vandals, and nothing remained save the tower. The earthquake of 1886 nearly completed the destruction of this, leaving but a remnant still standing.
The church-yard was the hereditary burying place of many of the families of this neighborhood; the Blakes, the Izards and others. In 1841 one of that family of Izards died, and was brought for burial in the old family lot. On that occasion the late Mr. Wm. Izard Bull, of Ashley Hall, a nephew of the deceased, caused to be thrown up around the ruined church and church-yard the present earth embankment, so as to clearly and forever mark and set aside the resting place of his ancestors. In 1857 the vestry of the church in Summerville, in whom by Statute the parsonage had been vested, sold it away. The old church and church-yard now belong to the Diocese of South Carolina.
The old fort that faces the old church stands on the top of the rise or bluff of the river bank where it commanded the bridge across the river and the approach to it. It is located partly on lot 13 in the plan of the old village and partly on the street leading to the bridge head. It is the most perfect example remaining in the State of a fort of the period. It is constructed of the material called "tapia", or more commonly "tabby". This is composed of oyster shells embedded in a bond or matrix of burnt shell lime, and forms a most durable and lasting composition. The exact date of its construction is unknown. The material of its construction gives no certain indication as "tabby" was used for such purposes from an early date in the history of the Province down to as late as 1812. There are the remains of a fort constructed of that material on "Cole's Island" on the north side of Stono Inlet, which was constructed during the war of 1812.
There is a tradition that the fort was coeval with the settlement of Dorchester, and was relied on as a defence against the Indian enemies of the Province. No record support of this exists, although it is plausible and likely. On the plan of the villaoe as originally laid out in 1697, as afterwards, in 1742, recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, no fort is set down, although the site of the parish church, constructed in 1719, is mentioned. There are a number of appropriations for fortifications in the tax Acts passed bv the Assembly from 1740 on, but in none of such as are published in the Statutes at Large is any specific mention made of the fort at Dorchester.
In 1775 the Council of Safety of the Province directed Dorchester to be fortified, and in December, 1775, they directed Fort Lyttelton, near Beaufort, to be repaired with "tappy". Commissioners of fortifications for Dorchester were appointed by the Council of Safety, and in December, 1775, urgency was recommended to them in the erection of barracks, a guard room, and a place for confinement of prisoners; and on January 31, 1776, the Council of Safety authorized the payment of L271.10.07 on account of the fortification of Dorchester, and in February the military stores were placed in the fort and magazine at Dorchester, with a further payment of L271.10.00 on February, 6, 1776, for hire of negroes on the works at Dorchester.
Whatever fort or strong-work may have existed prior to 1775 it is safe to infer that the present fort represents the fortification constructed in that year by order of the Council of Safety.
The old "White Meeting", or Congregational Church, the place of worship of the "Church" proper, who emigrated from Massachusetts, to carry the Gospel into Carolina, was located about two miles from the village, near the public road, on lot No. 9, in the first range. Lot No. 10, adjoining was afterwards donated to the church by the Rev. Mr. Joseph Lord, so that at that point there was l00 acres devoted to the use of the church. The first building is said to have been of wood, replaced by a brick structure erected in 1700 on the site where the ruins now stand. The only authority for this appears to be the statement to that effect made in the petition to the Legislature for incorporation of the United Independent Congregational Church of Dorchester and Beech Hill in 1793. All later statements in sermons and histories are apparently based upon this petition. The removal of practicaly the entire congregation to Georgia in 1752-56 caused for many years nearly an entire discontinuance of services in the church building or "White Meeting House", as it was then commonly called, and in which the celebrated Whitefield, in 1744, preached to a crowded congregation. During the Revolutionary War the British are said to burnt its interior, but the walls were left standing. In 1794 the church was reorganized, a charter was procured from the State, a constitution adopted, and the church ediface repaired. But what a change! Not a single descendant (unless perchance thro' female lines in different names) of the original members of the old congregation formed one of the new.
The church continued to be intermittently used for many years; having entered into affliation with the Presbyterian Church in the State a supply of ministers was procured. In 1848 Mr. George Sheldon, the then minister, delivered in the church that sermon in commemoration of its 150th anniversary, to which reference has been made. But the same cause which led to the abandonment of the parish church of St. George's finally caused the abandonment of the old original "White Meeting". In 1813 Mr. Jacob Williman donated four acres in Summerville for a summer retreat for the minister of the church. It is on part of this four acres that the present Presbyterian parsonage in Summerville still stands. A house or parsonage was built on the four acres.
Then in 1815 the parsonage house in Dorchester was sold. Then most of the lots 9 and 10 around the church (all between the public road and the river) were sold, and finally the attendance at the Presbyterian Church in Summerville superseded the use of the old building.
In 1882 it was ruinous, but still capable of repair. The earthquake of 1886 practically destroyed it, and now but a remnant of its walls remains.
The ruins stand among a grove of trees with quite an extensive country grave-yard around them. The oldest stones are those to Dr. Samuel Stevens (son of the original John Stevens), who died in 1760, and his wife. There are no other stones prior to 1800.
The first Act creating a free school in Dorchester was passed in 1724. Ten years later, in 1734, another Act passed. The commissioners named in the last Act were Alexander Skene, Thomas Waring, Joseph Blake, Arthur Middleton, Ralph Izard, Robert Wright , Paul Jenys, Waplter Izard and Benjamin Waring, Esqrs., Rev. Francis Varnod, William Cattell and John Williams, Esqrs.
There is nothing to show the steps taken under this Act, but on March 19, 1756, an Act was passed for more effectually putting in force the provisions of the former Act of 1734. It recited that the commissioners under the former Act were all dead, and appointed the following new commissioners to execute the Act, viz: The rector of the parish for the time being, and Henry Middleton, Walter Izard, Ralph Izard, Daniel Blake, John Ainslie, Esqrs., Mr. Benjamin Waring, Mr. Richard Waring and Mr. Joseph Waring.
The minute book from this date is in existence, and shows at the first meeting of the commissioners, under the new Act, was held June 27, 1757. The meeting, was held in the vestry room of the parish church in Dorchester, and the commissioners present were the Rev. Mr. Langhorne, Walter Izard, Ralph Izard, Daniel Blake, Henry Middleton, John Ainslie, Benjamin Waring and Joseph Waring.
They elected Henry Middleton, president, and Daniel Blake, treasurer. Mr. Middleton was the Henry Middleton, of Middleton Place, on the Ashley River, afterwards president of the First Continental Congress and a Member of the Council of Safety in South Carolina. Mr. Blake was the owner of the Newington place, and the members of the commission were all prominent and influential citizens of the Province.
A legacy of L500 (currency), left for the school by Mr. Thomas Diston, was paid to the commission, and the treasurer reported that he had in his bands L2,600 (currency) to be put out at interest. The commissioners went to work and at their meeting on March 27, 1758, ordered that two brick houses, twenty-three feet wide and thirty-six feet long, one story high, with a Dutch roof, be built - one to serve for the school and the other as a dwelling for the master and his family.
The houses were shortly completed, and the school continued in active existence and operation in the village of Dorchester for many years. A large number of donations were made - among the most prominent were one in 1739, by Samuel Wragg of L100 (sterling) for the erection of a free school, one of L500 (currency) by Peter Taylor in 1764, and one of L380 (currency) by Daniel Blake in the same year - the two latter to be let out at interest, and the income applied to supporting poor children who might thereafter be charitable educated at the free school.
After the Revolution, in 1789, an Act was passed reciting that the school had received many donations from charitable persons, and possessed much and valuable property, and appointed the following commissioners to continue it with the power of nominating successors when vacancies occurred, viz: William Postell, Mathias Hutchinson, Thomas Waring, of Pine Hill, Joseph Waring, Morton Waring, Daniel Stewart, John Dawson, Richard Wainwright, Thomas Smith and George Evans.
The school continued in active operation. but, as all its patrons and their children who formed its scholars gradually came from the growing village of Summerville, in 1817 the commissioners procured an Act allowing them to remove the school from the village of Dorchester to any other part of St. George's Parish, and it was accordingly removed to Summerville, and a building constructed on land given by Mr. James R. Stewart, somewhere on the lot now owned by Mr. H. M. Manigault. There it continued for many years, and the remnant of the fund so originally arising from donations beginning under the Act of 1734 is still in the hands of the commissioners of the free school in Dorchester, residing in Summerville, and is used and applied for school purposes.
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