Emmigration to South Carolina
Over many years, I have been told and did a little research on Ipswich families that migrated to South Carolina around 1696. What I found was that there were at least three emigrations from New England to South Carolina in that time period. Because many of the records were lost as the settlements waned, documenting the names of all has not been possible. What I have done is include in this section the raw materials that I have in my files on each of the three. There seems to have been some confusion of the stories of the first two groups. They settled near each other and arrived at nearly the same time.
The Ipswich connection is tenuous, mostly through my ancestors. Joseph Lord, son of Thomas Lord, son of Robert Lord was the leader of one such expedition as its minister. He led a group from Dorchester, MA in 1696 to a place that they named Dorchester, S.C. Included in that group was his aunt Susannah Osgood and her husband John. They were both born in Ipswich but were living in Andover when they left.
The second group appears to have been composed mainly of persons from Salem Village (now in Danvers) who appeared to be running from the witchcraft trials and tribulations of Salem. At least one, a man by the name of Way had been accused in 1692 but avoided execution. This group settled in Wappetaw, SC. The Wappetaw group had a particularly troubled voyage to SC finally escaping from a sinking ship off North Carolina and hving to be rescued by a ship sent by the Governor of SC. I have found no story on this voyage other than the fact of a shipwreck.
The third group came from Kittery, ME and was composed of Baptists. Since many of the families in Kittery came originally from Ipswich, I have included articles on this group as well.
There are many names in each section and I will leave it up to the reader to glean their ancestors from these pages. I have tried to group them according to one of the three settlements.
Dorchester:
THE TOWN OF DORCHESTER, IN SO CAROLINA—A SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY. ---Henry A. Smith
Dorchester County, SC by Legare Walker
Wappetaw:
WAPPETAW CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH By PETRONA ROYALL MCIVER
Wappataw Congregational Church
Baptists: