Minutes of the Vestry
of
St. Helena's Parish, SC
1726-1812
(Beaufort County)
By A. S. Salley, Jr., 1919
296 pages, indexed, searchable
- Bonus Book -
Address to the People
of
St. Helena's Parish
By Hon. William Elliott, 1832
15 pages, searchable
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vestry (in the Protestant Episcopal Church: a committee elected by the congregation to work with the
churchwardens in managing the temporal affairs of the church)
The Commons House of Assembly, under the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, established St. Helena’s
in 1712 as a colonial parish of the Church of England. The church was built in 1724 and is one of the
oldest active churches in North America. Construction of the church building was delayed by the
Yemassee Indian War of 1715. Built of brick, much of which originally was ship’s ballast, and smoothed
over with stucco, the church has excellent exterior proportions and fine interior detail.
During the Civil War, when Union forces occupied Beaufort in November 1861, the entire congregation fled.
Initially during the occupation, church services were held in St. Helena’s, but eventually Federal troops
converted the church to a hospital. The church was stripped of its furnishings, marble tombstones were
brought in for use as operating tables, and the balconies were decked over to make a second floor.
A hurricane in 1896 destroyed the east end of the church. When the debris was cleared away, the
altar remained intact. The building was subsequently rebuilt in its present form.
http://www.sthelenas1712.org/current/history/