1711

The town of Beaufort was chartered on the Port Royal Sound, making it the second oldest town in South Carolina. It was named after Henry Somerset, the 2^nd Duke of Beaufort and a Lord Proprietor from 1700-14. The Beaufort settlement made the Yemassee Indians unhappy, as it usurped a large part of their territory.  It was one of the factors that led to the Yemassee War, 1715-17.

1781 – British Occupation

The Knights Terrible Society was organized at Mr. Holliday’s Tavern, for the purpose of drinking once a week during the British occupation. They disbanded after the British evacuated the city.

1782 – American Revolution

Gov. John Rutledge and the South Carolina House convened in Jacksonboro, thirty miles from Charleston, near the site of the Stono Slave Rebellion on the Edisto River. Only persons loyal to South Carolina were allowed to vote. Christopher Gadsden was elected governor, but declined due to his health, which had suffered during his imprisonment in St. Augustine. John Mathews was chosen as governor, “a younger and more even-tempered individual.” 

Laws were quickly passed for raising Continental troops and for punishing “conspicuous Tories.” Called the “Act for Disposing of Certain Estates and Banishing Certain Persons” it banished Loyalists and provided for the confiscation and sale of their estates. The list of confiscation contained more than 700 individuals.