Old St. Paul's, Stono

THE GRAVESTONES IN THE CHURCH YARD OF

OLD ST.PAUL'S, STONO.

This survey first appeared in the South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol XI, No 1, Jan 1910, p 72-73.

The original parish of St. Paul was created under the Church Act of 1706, and the Parish Church, built under the provisions of that Act, was located on a high plat of land near New Cut on a piece of 30 acres of land donated by Landgrave Edmund Bellinger. "New Cut" is the cut that connects the Stono River with Wadmelaw River and the site of the old Church is near a small creek running out of the Stono River and is immediately on the bank or bluff of high land where it rises above the marsh on the mainland or Colleton County side of Stono River.

The Parish Church was built of brick on this spot in 1708 with a parsonage and outbuilding which latter were destroyed by the Indians in the Yemassee war of 1715. The creation of the parish of St. John's Colleton in 1734 out of the Parish of St. Paul left the old Parish Church in an inconvenient place for the residents of the residue of the Parish, and in 1756 the Parish Church was moved to a more central spot near the road leading from Rantowles ferry to Parker's ferry across the Edisto River. Nothing now remains of the old Church "on the salts" near New Cut except the foundations of a brick church in an irregular mass or mound and the following gravestones:

Here lyes Buried
y^e. Body of M^rs.
Sarah Seabrook,
dec^d.June y^e.16^th 1715
in the 47 year
of her age.

Here lyes the
Body of M^r.
Robart Seabrook,
dec^d. Dec^r.,y^r. 7^th.
1710, In y^e. 59 year,
of his age.

Here lyes y^e.
Body of M^r.
Benjamin Seabrook
Son of Mr. Robart
& Sarah Seabrook,
Dec^d. Jan,^r. y^e. 7^th 1717,
in y^e. 19 year of his age.
These three gravestones are all of a dark slate with foot-stones of the same material marked with the initials of the respective names and were on the 19^th. March 1899, in good preservation.

Alongside of these stones were two others of some softer, whitish stone deeply buried in the earth and apparently so decomposed by weather and moisture as to have nothing legible left.

On the other side of the old foundations from the stones above mentioned was the following one:

In Memory of
M^rs. Amerinthia Lowndes
the affectionate
and much beloved wife of Mr. Rawlins Lowndes,
of Charles Town, who lies buried here
at her own particular Desire near her deceased Parents
Jn^o Tho^s. & Mary Elliott
of this Parish-She died the 14^th.
of Jan^r., 1750-Aged 21 years.
This last stone is a hard brown sandstone, and the inscription on it is as clear and distinct as the day it was cut
Contributed by Mr. Henry A.M. Smith.
Published in South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol XI, No. 1 Jan 1910, p 72-73.

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