South Carolina’s first official graveyard, believed to have been lost for centuries, may have been recently rediscovered in West Ashley. If it turns out to be the real thing, its graves could date all the way back to the founding of Charles Towne.
Local real estate agent Charlie Smith, part of the West Ashley Historians group, believes the Early Hillsborough Cemetery could be nestled between Magnolia Road, St. Andrews Boulevard and Sycamore Avenue. It could be the final resting place of Col. William Sayle, the first governor of the colony of Charles Towne, among more than a dozen other historical figures.
“There’s a tremendous amount of prejudice about anything having any historical value outside the peninsula, but I think this is going to knock the socks off a lot of people once we figure out how far back it really goes,” Smith said.
Steeped in history
Early Hillsborough Cemetery was once part of the Proprietors Plantation, established in 1670 and owned by the Lords Proprietors who started South Carolina. It later was conveyed to the Hill family and renamed the Hillsborough Plantation. Some time between then and 1715, Smith said, the West Ashley Historians believe the family conveyed the plantation to the Godfrey family, which then split the 1,562-acre property into seven parts. But the maps were lost.
“There was supposed to be a four-acre site and a 16-acre site conveyed to Gov. Sayle, who died in 1671,” Smith said. “But there didn’t seem to be any record of where those two tracts were. Nobody seemed to know what happened. … The four-acre site, we assumed, was the church and the graveyard.”
Charles Hill, 1672-1734, left in his will that he intended to be buried in a vault on that site. His daughter, Sarah Hill, later married into the Lining family, whose descendents were later buried in another historic cemetery on Lining Island in what is now Maryville. But the Early Hillsborough Plantation cemetery predates the Lining family tomb by more than a century.
“The first person buried in the Lining Island cemetery was probably in 1801, but Hillsborough Plantation could be the final resting place of John Lining, of the Hills, the Godfreys — all of whom were deputies to several of the first Lords Proprietors,” Smith said. “Three governors died on that property before 1680. Where else would you bury them?”
Years in the making
A 1971 archaeology study for Charles Towne Landing, Smith explained, detailed the historian’s regret that he could not locate the site of the church or cemetery. But Smith later found a map from 1788 illustrating a couple plats of land marked with very small notations.
“I realized one of them was a little cross with a little building — that’s a universal mark for a cemetery,” he said. “And that mark lined up perfectly with another map from 1826.
Working together with other members of the West Ashley Historians, they were able to determine the location of the site when these maps were overlaid on a present-day map of West Ashley.
The group performed initial ground-penetrating radar studies on the site in fall 2023, finding four graves. With permission from the city of Charleston, the group moved forward with a more professional job, clearing the area of trees and partnering with archaeologists from Drayton Hall to bring a team with new equipment. The report is still in progress, Smith said, but the team found “all kinds of stuff.”
“Once the full report comes in and we can see what the anomalies are, we can decide how to approach the next steps,” Smith said. “I’m in favor of doing DNA analysis on the remains, because if we find these people are from the first year of the settlement of Charles Towne, that’s important. We can do exactly what we did downtown at the Gaillard.”
The city of Charleston in 2012 led a large-scale project to expand and renovate the Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, but workers digging a new foundation halted after finding human remains on the east side of Anson Street. A six-year archaeological study eventually revealed 36 individuals buried there. A memorial is planned to be erected on the site.
Smith, a direct descendant of the Godfrey family, said he hopes for similar results in West Ashley.
“It would be cool to finally have that connection, and I think half of Charleston would have the same connections, too.”
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.