Conveyance Books, 1719-1776
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 372001
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (official language of the state)
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Conveyance Books, 1719-1776
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Language of title
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eng
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Creator / accumulator
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Public Register
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Date(s)
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1719/1776
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Language(s)
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eng
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Extent
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93 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 and bonds 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 the 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 is continued in the Conveyance Books series, 1776-1785, of the South Carolina Register of Mesne Conveyances and, following that, 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. 2X, p. 32: Lease for 150 acres of land in Fredericksburgh Township from Isaac da Costa to William Pinckney, July 11, 1761.
Vol. 3A, p. 150: Mortgage for eight town lots in Jacksonborough and a slave called Cuffee from Alexander Shwab to Isaac da Costa, July 19, 1763.
Vol. 3C, p. 108: Indenture of lease and release of land in Charleston from Isaac da Costa to the Congregation Beth Elohim of Charleston for a burial ground for the use of the Jews residing in the Province of South Carolina. The indenture is made between Costa and members of the congregations of Charleston, New York, Newport, Savannah, London, Kingston (Jamaica) and Bridgetown (Barbados). A plat is included. March 13, 1764.
Vol. 4F, p. 200: Indenture of lease and release of 1638 acres of land above Ninety Six District from Joseph Salvador (attorney Richard Rapley) to Abraham Prado, October 29, 1773.
Abstracts of this series are available in Langley (1983-84) and Holcomb (1993).
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(source: South Carolina Archives Series Description)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The requirements of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina in their Fundamental Constitutions and instructions and of colonial statutes to "register" land conveyances were in advance of English practice at the time. South Carolina Statute 1698 (2) 137, an "Act to Prevent Deceits by Double Mortgages and Conveyances", provided that a deed was not valid until it was proved by the oath of two witnesses and recorded.
In the Proprietary Era of South Carolina, the office of register was often ancillary to the secretary's office. However, during the revolt against the Proprietors' government in 1719, the Public Register's function and duties were separated from the secretary's office. South Carolina Statute 1731 (3) 289, the "Quit Rent Act", contained a provision forbidding the recorder or register of deeds and conveyances of land from holding any other office. The General Assembly thus established the integrity of the Public Register's office and the principle of separation of the Crown's delegation of authority to grant land out of the royal domain from the settlers' right to regulate the land transfer and improvements on it.
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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 and, through volume 3A (1763-1764), broad geographic locations are indexed in the repository's On-line Combined Index to Multiple Record Series, 1675- 1929. After
Volume 3A's property descriptions are generally not given in the index abstracts, and only the names of principal parties are indexed.
These index entries are also included in a computer output microfilm (COM) index produced by the repository in 1980, including the Conveyance Books series of the South Carolina Register of Mesne Conveyance, 1776-1785. 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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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2022
