William Screven

Front: In this cemetery is buried William Screven, first pastor of the earliest Baptist church in the South. A native of England, he ministered to the Baptists there before migrating to Maine, establishing a Baptist church in Kittery, Maine, in 1682. By 1698, he had led his church to Charleston, S.C. He later moved to Georgetown, exerting his Christian influence until his death in 1713. Reverse: Elisha Screven, founder of Georgetown, was a younger son of William, who owned and lived his final years on these Winyah lands. To promote settlement here, Elisha planned a town, to be called Georgetown, which reserved lots for Anglican, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches, as well as for a school and other public buildings. Retained in the plan was this Screven family cemetery. The town had been laid out by 1730.