Conveyance Books, 1776-1785
Item
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Country
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US
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Language of name of institution
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eng
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Contact information: postal address
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8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, SC 29223
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Contact information: phone number
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001 803 896 6196
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Reference number
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S 363001
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Type of reference number
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Call number
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Title (official language of the state)
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Conveyance Books, 1776-1785
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Register of Mesne Conveyances
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Date(s)
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1776/1785
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Language(s)
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eng
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Extent
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16 microfilm reels
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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This series forms part of the records of the Public Register. It consists of copies of leases and releases, mortgages, deeds of feoffment, deeds of sale, deeds of gift, and other forms of conveyance, primarily for real property. Powers of attorney, bonds, plats, and occasional renunciations of dower rights are also present. Information includes the names of the parties to the transactions; descriptions of the property or power being conveyed; the payment or other form of consideration for which the transfers are being made and conditions (if any) of the transfers; dates of transactions; and names of witnesses to the transactions.
Property descriptions for real estate usually include acreage; physical location including natural features, boundaries, and surrounding landholders; buildings and other improvements on the property, if any; and previous property owners. The descriptions of previous owners (chains of title) sometimes provide a history of property ownership back to the original land grant.
This series is commonly called the "Charleston Deeds" and it continues from the earlier Conveyance Books kept by the Public Register, 1719-1776. It is followed by the volumes in the Conveyance Books series, 1785-1915, of the Charleston County Register of Mesne Conveyances.
Some records of this series relate to Sephardic Jews living in South Carolina, such as the following examples:
Vol. 5B, pp. 201-205: Indentures of lease and release of a parcel of land in the parish of Saint Philip in Charleston by Patrick Hinds and his wife, Ann, to Isaac da Costa. A plat is included. Sworn on August 9, 1779. The following pages include other deeds involving Isaac da Costa.
Vol. 5C, pp. 250-252: Indenture of lease of a land lot in Chambers Alley, Charleston, from Isaac da Costa Junior and Abraham da Costa to Rabone Crinson and Company of Exeter, Great Britain. January 29, 1781.
Vol. 5C, pp. 326-328: Mortgage for the sale of nine enslaved people by Joseph de Palacios and Isaac da Costa Junior to William Smith. A bond is included. March 10, 1781.
Vol. 5E, pp. 424-429: Indenture of release in fee of a moiety of a lot on the Bay of Charleston from Abraham Seixas to William Smith, Lease And Release. May 20, 1782.
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(source: South Carolina Archives Series Description)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The South Carolina Constitution of 1776, section 22, provided that the Register of Mesne Conveyances would "be chosen by the General Assembly and legislative Council, Jointly by Ballot and Commissioned by the President and Commander in Chief during good behaviour, but shall be removed on address of the General Assembly and legislative Council." George Sheed, Esq., was duly elected and commissioned as the first Register of Mesne Conveyances on March 27, 1776.
The 1778 Constitution provided for "Registers of Mesne Conveyance in each District" that were to be chosen "by the Senate and House of Representatives, jointly, by Ballot, in the House of Representatives, and commissioned by the Governor and Commander in Chief for two Years." Despite the latter provision for dispersed offices, the Charleston Register of Mesne Conveyance functioned as the state's recording officer of conveyances and deeds until 1785, when Beaufort and Georgetown districts received registers. The County Court Act of 1785 provided for the registration of deeds throughout the state.
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(source: South Carolina Archives Series Description)
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System of arrangement
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The series is arranged roughly chronologically in letter-designated volumes.
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Access, restrictions
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Records are available in the repository on microfilm only.
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Finding aids
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Names of the principal parties to the transactions are indexed in the repository's On-line Combined Index to Multiple Record Series, 1675-1919.
These index entries are also included in a one-reel computer output microfilm (COM) index to this series and the Conveyance Books of the Public Register, 1719-1776, produced by the repository in 1980. The entries are also in the Combined Alphabetical Index produced by the repository on computer output microfilm in 1991.
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Holcomb, Brent H. 1993. South Carolina Deed Abstracts, 1773-1778. Columbia: SCMAR.
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Langley, Clara A. 1983-84. South Carolina Deed Abstracts, 1719-1772. 4 vols. Easley: Southern Historical Press.
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An Index to Deeds of the Province and State of South Carolina, 1719-1785, and Charleston District, 1785-1800 (Easley, S.C.: Southern Historical Press, 1977)
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2022
