Memorial Books, 1731-1778
Item
Country
US
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
8301 Parklane Road, Columbia, SC 29223
Contact information: phone number
001 803 896 6196
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
S 111001
Type of reference number
Call number
Title (official language of the state)
Memorial Books, 1731-1778
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Auditor General
Date(s)
1731/1778
Language(s)
eng
Extent
41 volumes
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Satisfactory
Scope and content
This series is part of the records of the Auditor General. It consists of the registrations of land titles authorised by the Quitrent Act of 1731 to serve a dual purpose: 1) validating land grants made by the Lords Proprietors and 2) establishing a more efficient system of collecting quitrents. The documentation provided by the landowner to the Auditor General's office could be recorded in full or in an abstract, called a "memorial." Most of the documents are exact copies or abstracts of grants, but also included are plats and certificates of survey, deeds of gift, leases and releases, renunciations of dower, and wills. The copies of plats from the proprietary period are particularly valuable because few other plats from that period survive.
The series includes memorials of land titles pertaining to Sephardic Jews in South Carolina. Some examples are the following:
Vol. 6, p. 343: Memorial for 700 acres on Curral Tail Creek pertaining to Moses Lindo. November 11, 1764.
Vol. 9, p. 294: Memorial for 900 acres in Berkley County pertaining to Isaac da Costa. August 18, 1767.
The series includes memorials of land titles pertaining to Sephardic Jews in South Carolina. Some examples are the following:
Vol. 6, p. 343: Memorial for 700 acres on Curral Tail Creek pertaining to Moses Lindo. November 11, 1764.
Vol. 9, p. 294: Memorial for 900 acres in Berkley County pertaining to Isaac da Costa. August 18, 1767.
Administrative / Biographical history
After South Carolina was purchased from the Lords Proprietors and became a royal colony in 1729, the Crown enacted legislation to help facilitate the collection of quitrents. The Quitrent Act of 1731 required the registration of land grants issued during the proprietary period to validate the grants and establish an effective system to collect the rent (quitrents) due on the land. Later legislation provided for the registration of royal grants. The landholder was to present to the Auditor General or his Deputy documented evidence of the land title, including the amount of quitrent. However, because not all grants were registered and the Crown never established a successful mechanism to enforce the law, the payment of quitrents basically remained voluntary.
The system of quitrents and the Auditor General's records ended in the mid-1770s with the impending collapse of the royal government.
The system of quitrents and the Auditor General's records ended in the mid-1770s with the impending collapse of the royal government.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
This series is arranged into two subseries: original volumes and copies. Each subseries is arranged in roughly chronological order.
Access, restrictions
Some of the original volumes are severely damaged by mould. A number of the original volumes are boxed. The microcopy is served to researchers in place of the original or transcript volumes.
Finding aids
All personal names of owners in the chain of title and all surrounding landholders, as well as all geographic locations and features in the documents, are included in the repository's On-line Combined Index to Multiple Record Series, 1675-1929. Plantation names and names of baronies were indexed as topics rather than as geographic locations. These index terms are also included in the Combined Alphabetical Index produced by the repository on computer output microfilm (COM) in 1991 and in a separate five-reel computer output microfilm index produced by the repository in 1980.
Links to finding aids
Existence and location of copies
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022
Linked resources
Filter by property
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| Jews of Charleston, South Carolina Collection | Existence and location of originals |
| Title | Alternate label | Class |
|---|---|---|
| South Carolina Department of Archives and History | Collections (official language of the state) |