Founding

Williamsburg, named after William of Orange

William III of England

William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...

, was one of eleven townships ordered by King George II

George II of Great Britain

George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...

 in 1730 meant to develop the "back country" of the Carolina Province

Province of Carolina

The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. Because the original Heath charter was unrealized and was ruled invalid, a new charter was issued to a group of eight English noblemen, the Lords Proprietors, in 1663...

. The township was a part of Craven County, one of the original four counties that encompassed present South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

. Williamsburg Township then included most of the present Pee Dee

Pee Dee

The Pee Dee region of South Carolina is the northeastern corner of the state. It is the area of the lower watershed of the Pee Dee River, named after the Pee Dee Native American tribe. Its center is Florence...

 region. The township consisted 20,000 acres (80 km²) and was located in front of the Black River

Black River (South Carolina)

The Black River is a blackwater river in South Carolina in the United States....

. It was later divided and became a number of separate counties, including present Williamsburg County, South Carolina.

A white pine

Eastern White Pine

Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...

 tree on the Black River was marked by early surveyor with the King's Arrow to claim it for the King. The tree was referred to as “The King’s Tree,” and became the center of the new township. Kingstree

Kingstree, South Carolina

Kingstree is a town in and the county seat of Williamsburg County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,328 at the 2010 census.-History:...

 eventually became the chief town of Williamsburg township.

In 1732 a colony of forty Scots-Irish

Ulster-Scots

The Ulster Scots are an ethnic group in Ireland, descended from Lowland Scots and English from the border of those two countries, many from the "Border Reivers" culture...

 led by Roger Gordon came up the river by boat and settled in the vicinity of the King's Tree. They were poor Protestants

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

, having escaped persecution by previous moves until they came to America.

It was an exceedingly difficult and primitive life for the early settlers and the life expectancy for those who did not die in infancy was around 50 years.
The settlers were surrounded by Indians

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 of the Wee Nee, the Wee Tee, the Chickasaw

Chickasaw

The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...

, the Creek

Creek people

The Muscogee , also known as the Creek or Creeks, are a Native American people traditionally from the southeastern United States. Mvskoke is their name in traditional spelling. The modern Muscogee live primarily in Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida...

, the Waccamaw

Waccamaw

The Waccamaw Indians of South Carolina, distinct from the Waccamaw Siouan Indians of North Carolina, are the first state-recognized tribe of Native Americans in South Carolina...

, and the Pedee

Pee Dee (tribe)

The Pee Dee tribe are a nation of Native Americans of the southeast United States, especially the Low Country of present-day South Carolina. Several tribes are recognized by the state, although none has federal recognition. The Pee Dee River and the Pee Dee region of South Carolina were named for...

 tribes, but had few conflicts with them. At first there was a lot of trade, but the Indians were decimated by European diseases the settlers brought with them. A hazard for the settlers was poisonous snakes and wolves which were very common in the early years.

Religion

Though nominally all the colony was Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

, and no churches or schools could be established without the consent of the Lord Bishop

Lord Bishop

"Lord Bishop" is a traditional form of address used for bishops since the Middle Ages, an era when bishops occupied the feudal rank of 'lord' by virtue of their office...

 or his agent, these people had suffered persecution from the Church of England. The colony quickly established a religious society which was actually Presbyterian

Presbyterianism

Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...

, though the name was not applied until later. In 1736 they called The Rev. John Willison from Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 to be their minister. They built a meeting house that became Williamsburg Presbyterian Church. Soon new daughter churches were established at Indiantown

Indiantown, South Carolina

Indiantown is an unincorporated community in rural Williamsburg County, South Carolina, United States. Prior to the arrival of Europeans to North America, it was the site of a Chickasaw village and the area was a favored hunting and fishing ground...

 and Black Mingo

Black Mingo Creek

Black Mingo Creek is a tributary to the Black River in coastal South Carolina. It derives its name from mingo or minko, the Chickasaw word for chief. This area was a special hunting ground and a center of the eastern Chickasaw in colonial times....

In 1780 John Witherspoon, grandson of one of the early settlers, who were all deceased by then, wrote: "...they were servers of God, were well acquainted with the Scriptures, were much engaged in prayer, were strict observers of the Sabbath, in a word, they were a stock of people that studied outward piety as well as inward purity of life."

Productivity

They also prospered. The wilderness abounded in deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

, wild turkey

Turkey (bird)

A turkey is a large bird in the genus Meleagris. One species, Meleagris gallopavo, commonly known as the Wild Turkey, is native to the forests of North America. The domestic turkey is a descendant of this species...

s, fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

 and muscadine

Muscadine

Muscadines are a grapevine species native to the present-day southeastern United States that has been extensively cultivated since the 16th Century. It differs from Vitis spp. in its number of chromosomes and its morphology...

 grapes. As the colony grew, they established plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

s. Wheat

Wheat

Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

 from Europe grew poorly, but corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

 produced abundantly. Flax

Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...

 was grown for cloth, later it was gradually replaced by cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

. Cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 and hogs that they brought with them reproduced and found abundant forage

Fodder

Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...

, running wild in the swamps and forests, with only the owner's mark

Brand

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...

 to identify them. About 1750 the crop indigo

Indigo dye

Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color . Historically, indigo was a natural dye extracted from plants, and this process was important economically because blue dyes were once rare. Nearly all indigo dye produced today — several thousand tons each year — is synthetic...

 was introduced, and many of the plantation owners became wealthy from it. Rice was grown along the river. Eventually a large naval store industry developed and this was followed by timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

ing which has continued into modern times.

War

In 1759 during the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

, the French enlisted the large Cherokee

Cherokee

The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...

 tribe as allies. Thought they lived to the northwest of Williamsburg, they threatened the entire state, and two companies of volunteer militia were organized to fight for the king (and for self-defense). Together with other companies from the rest of coastal Carolina, a regiment was formed, which mustered and drilled at Kingstree. They also built a stockade for the residents in case of Indian attack.

When the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 broke out some of the young men joined the army and were sent for the defense of Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

. After Charleston surrendered

Battle of Charleston

The Battle of Charleston can refer to several historical battles:* The Siege of Charleston - American Revolution, arguably the worst in the southern theatre.* The Battle of Charleston Harbor I...

 to the British in early 1780, the soldiers were paroled and returned home, expecting to remain neutral from then on.

The British quickly established garrisons throughout South Carolina, including a fort at nearby Georgetown

Georgetown, South Carolina

Georgetown is the third oldest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina and the county seat of Georgetown County, in the Low Country. Located on Winyah Bay at the confluence of the Great Pee Dee River, Waccamaw River, and Sampit River, Georgetown is the second largest seaport in South Carolina,...

 on the coast. In the upstate were a larger number of Tories

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

, who joined the British forces, but the Williamsburg Presbyterians were not fond of the king, and were inclined to sit out the war, until the British made a tactical error. An order was proclaimed that all who had taken parole must now take up arms for the King. This was considered by the people to be a unilateral violation of the terms of their parole. They sent a local militia officer as representative, Captain John James, to the fort at Georgetown for clarification, where he was treated abusively by the commander, Captain Ardesoif. Fleeing from Georgetown, he quickly raised a militia of four companies, which were put under the command of Francis Marion

Francis Marion

Francis Marion was a military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. Acting with Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, he was a persistent adversary of the British in their occupation of South Carolina in 1780 and 1781, even after the Continental Army was driven...

.

Marion was one of the most effective military officers of the Revolution, and he had the fervent loyalty of this militia, who served with no pay and no promise of pay, who provided their own weapons and horses, or secured them whenever they defeated the British.
The only area of South Carolina that was not occupied by the British was the Williamsburg area. The British tried to establish a garrison at Willtown, but Marion's men defeated them and drove them off in the Battle of Mingo Creek.
Marion not only won tactical victories against superior forces with small cost, but also won a moral victory which turned the tide in the Revolution in South Carolina. He did this in two ways, first by holding a section of the colony that the British could not penetrate, which raised morale of Patriot

Patriot (American Revolution)

Patriots is a name often used to describe the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation...

 forces elsewhere. And secondly he gave receipts for horses, boats, weapons and food supplies that were commandeered, or were destroyed to keep from falling into the hands of the British. This was in stark contract to the British officers Banastre Tarleton

Banastre Tarleton

General Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, GCB was a British soldier and politician.He is today probably best remembered for his military service during the American War of Independence. He became the focal point of a propaganda campaign claiming that he had fired upon surrendering Continental...

 and James Wemyss who burned and looted Williamsburg early in the war. Especially angering the public was the British burning of the Williamsburg and Indiantown Presbyterian Churches, which the British called "hotbeds of sedition."

Many of Marion's receipts were presented to the new state government after the war, and the state paid the claims.

Proof of this moral victory was the speed at which Marion gained information about British movements, but the lack of information of the British officers who tried repeatedly to neutralize Marion. Both relied on spies among the populace, but Williamsburg was loyal to Marion. Tarleton, cursing Marion, when he could not catch him, gave him his epithet, "The Swamp Fox."
The Williamsburg Militia served as needed, coming quickly when called, but remaining at home to plant and harvest crops and other duties whenever possible. Toward the end of the war, Marion could quickly call up a couple thousand men. Marion's Men held their territory alone until General Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene

Nathanael Greene was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. When the war began, Greene was a militia private, the lowest rank possible; he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer. Many places in the United...

arrived later in the war. They then helped Greene's forces evict the British from their upstate garrisons and drive them back to Charleston, from whence they eventually surrendered and left by ship.