Camden District, South Carolina
         
   

   

Years in Existence

1st District Seat

2nd District Seat

1769 - 1800

Camden

None

Significant Towns Established 1769 - 1800 

Winnsborough

Columbia

Fergus's Crossroads

Singleton's Crossroads

Statesburgh

Lancaster

Chester
Click Here - To see how the Camden District evolved from 1769 to 1800 - includes all the known towns and villages. 

A History of the Camden District

In 1768, South Carolina eliminated all of the original counties and established seven new "overarching Districts," with judicial seats in each district. The Act creating these new districts was nullified by the British Parliament, but the re-introduction of the Act in 1769 was approved. From 1769 to 1785, these "overarching Districts" remained intact, however, the district seats did change some during that time-frame. After the American Revolution in 1785, South Carolina re-established the concept of counties and thirty-four (34) "new" counties were defined and established. Each of these new counties were "subsets" of, and subordinate to, the "overarching Districts" that had been in existence since 1769. Some of the newly-defined counties were abolished between 1785 and 1800, whereas other newly-defined counties were created during that period.

In 1785, seven newly-defined "counties" were created wholly within the existing overarching Camden District - Chester, Claremont, Clarendon, Fairfield, Lancaster, Richland, and York - but, the overarching Camden District remained intact. The town of Camden was always its district seat.

In 1800, South Carolina abolished all "overarching Districts" and essentially went with the county concept from that year forward. However, in 1800, all counties were now called "districts" and would continue being called districts until after the U.S. Civil War. In 1868, South Carolina reverted back to the term "county" and this term has been used continuously since then.


The boundaries of the original Camden District remained the same from inception in 1769 until 1791, when the new Pinckney District was carved out of the Camden District and the Ninety-Six District. In 1798, some of the Districts were re-defined with updated boundaries, and Camden District was again reduced in size, giving up lands to carve out a newly-defined Salem County in 1792 (which was later abolished).

The first United States Census was taken in 1790 and each of the original seven "overarching Districts" were enumerated within that census. By the 1800 U.S. Census, all of the original seven "overarching Districts" had been abolished and new counties (called districts at that time) were enumerated separately in that census.

Since its abolishment in 1800, there has been no Camden District or Camden County in South Carolina.


 


© 2007 - J.D. Lewis - PO Box 1188 - Little River, SC 29566 - All Rights Reserved