South Carolina Land Records

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Land in South Carolina was granted by headright and bounty grants. The prospective grantee first petitioned the Grand Council for a warrant . The petition had to be made in person by the head-of-household; he had to give his name, the number of acres requested, and the location of the land. While there was no requirement to request all of the land due to the family, the household had to have as many persons as claimed. Petitions occasionally include names and ages of spouses and children or other genealogically valuable information. The date of petition or application is often called the precept, warrant, or pursuant date. The petitions are found at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

After receiving a warrant, the prospective grantee carried it to a surveyor who surveyed the land and drew a plat, or map, of its boundaries. Recorded plats have important information including: the precept date, necessary to locate the original petition; the survey (or certified) date; the recording date; and a full description of the land, including watercourses and location.

When the plat was returned to the Surveyor General's office, the prospective grant was checked against other plats to ensure that only one person was claiming the same land. If there were no problems, grant papers were sent to the Governor for his signature and seal.

The boundary between South Carolina and North Carolina was first surveyed in 1772, and a final agreement was reached in 1815. Land previously thought to be in Mecklenburg and Tryon counties, North Carolina, was found to be in South Carolina. Records of both Carolinas should be examined for colonial inhabitants of the area encompassed by present-day Cherokee, Greenville, Spartanburg, and York Counties.

• Headrights and Bounty Grants - Headrights were the “right” to free land of every “head” settling in the colony. Settlers who arrived with the first fleet were authorized headrights of 150 acres for every male aged sixteen and above and a hundred acres for every female and every male aged under sixteen. Heads-of-household could claim land for their slaves and servants as well as family members. Settlers who arrived after the first fleet and before 1756 were given fifty acres for each member of the household. After 1755, heads-of-household could receive a hundred acres plus an additional fifty acres for every other member of the household.
• Quitrent -  Once the land was finally granted, the owner was responsible for paying a quitrent. The first quitrent had to be paid within two years on headright grants and within ten years on bounty land grants. The quitrent was a land tax that had its roots in English manorial society where “the land obligations due the manor, such as plowing and haying the lord's land, were computed to an annual money payment. Upon payment, the obligations were `quit' for the year.”
• Memorial  -  From 1731 through 1775, those who had obtained land were tasked with preparing a memorial attesting to the location, quantity, names of adjacent land owners, and the boundaries of the land. Memorials also included a chain of title, often from the original patentee to the current owner. Original memorials are located at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History . Some memorials are on microfilme at the FHL.
• Mesne Conveyances -  In South Carolina, deeds are often called mesne conveyances, or conveyances, and are recorded in the office of the Register of Mesne Conveyance. Original records are found in each county's Clerk of Court office, and microfilmed copies of most pre-1865 records are available at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History and the FHL

State-land state surveyed in indiscriminate metes and bounds. A proprietary colony from 1670 to 1719 and a royal colony from 1719 to 1775, South Carolina’s gradual separation from North Carolina was recognized by parliament in 1729 and confirmed by the partial running of their dividing line in 1735. Subsequent segments were later run ever farther west, and many settlers unexpectedly found themselves inhabitants of the neighboring colony. Each colony made some grants in the other’s territory. South Carolina had headright grants, which are sometimes in council journals from the 1749 to 1773 period. No other recorded land warrants survive.

The colonial and state surveys/plats and grants are in the state archive and have been microfilmed. There are separate series with indexes for the proprietary, royal, and state periods. Land office business was suspended all through the 1720s, South Carolina having expelled the proprietary government in 1719. The situation was resolved when George II bought out the proprietors in 1729. In 1731, a more regularized processing of land titles was implemented, with the proprietary titles and claims to be registered as “memorials.” In 1744, this memorializing of land titles was required of all titles granted from 1731, a system that helped the government identify quitrent obligations. Five manuscript volumes of quitrents exist for the 1733-to-1774 period.

South Carolina land records created before the revolution may refer to the counties of Colleton, Craven, Berkeley, and Granville; these were nonfunctioning but useful as geographical locators. Deeds and mortgages were recorded only at Charleston until 1769–72; and until 1785, such records from local courthouses continued to be sent to and stored in Charleston. Pre-1719 records are at the state archive in Columbia. From 1785 to 1799, there were first seven and then nine “old” districts, where conveyances were stored. About 1799 these large districts were abolished and conveyances were recorded and stored at twenty-four small “new” districts. (These districts have been called counties since 1868.) The need, until about 1769–72, to go to Charleston to record conveyances, the turmoil of the revolution from 1775 to 1783, and the loss of many “old” district records means South Carolina deeds created before 1800 are very incomplete. The original tracts in the up-country vicinity of the Broad, Tyger, and Enoree rivers have been platted and published as Union County Historical Foundation, Land Grant Maps (Union, S.C.: A Press, 1976). South Carolina passed a bounty-land act and established a small military reserve. A unique land source is the state’s Reconstruction attempt to buy land for black freedmen. Some records exist showing whites selling to the project and blacks buying.

Land and property records are a big key to solving difficult research problems. South Carolina's colonial land records are among the most complete of thirteen original colonies, probably because all records were maintained in Charleston, and Charleston was not destroyed during the Revolutionary War. 

The Register Mesne Conveyance Office has its origins in colonial South Carolina, under the state's Office of the Secretary and Register of the Province. Some records of real estate transactions date back to the 1670s. Continuous records begin in 1719. In 1731, a separate land registry began to show all real property transactions for the entire state. In 1839, the Clerk of Circuit Court was declared as the RMC in each of the state's districts except for Charleston and Georgetown. When South Carolina RMC offices were abolished in 1896, only Charleston and Greenville retained their offices. Outside of these two counties, the duties devolved upon the Clerks of Court.

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