Port Royal Island

Last updated
Port Royal Island
1882 U.S. Coast Survey Map of Beaufort, South Carolina - Geographicus - Beaufort-uscs-1882.jpg
Beaufort River Station Creek Story and Harbor Rivers Forming Inside Passage Between Port Royal and St. Helena Sounds South Carolina
USA South Carolina relief location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Port Royal Island
Port Royal Island
North Atlantic Ocean laea relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Port Royal Island
Port Royal Island (North Atlantic)
Geography
Location North Atlantic
Coordinates 32°26′08″N80°44′19″W / 32.43556°N 80.73861°W / 32.43556; -80.73861
Administration
County Beaufort County

Port Royal Island (historically Port Royal) is an island located in Beaufort County, South Carolina. It is considered one of the Sea Islands in the Lowcountry region and is the most populous island in northern Beaufort County, containing most of the incorporated areas of Beaufort, Port Royal, and other unincorporated communities. The island also contains the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort and Naval Hospital Beaufort military installations. The island takes its name from the Port Royal Sound, a historically significant harbor during colonial settlement in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. From the time of its European discovery to the late 19th century, the name "Port Royal" typically applied to Port Royal Island as a whole and the surrounding waterways. In the early 21st century, the term Port Royal is understood to apply to the incorporated town of Port Royal.

Contents

History

In 1562, the French settlement of Charlesfort was established on Parris Island. The leader of the settlement was Jean Ribault, who referred to the name of the sound and the island as Port Royal, or royal port in French. After the Charlesfort settlement failed, the Spanish attempted to establish their own Santa Elena settlement in 1566, a name that is used to this day for nearby St. Helena Island. [1] During the English colonization of Carolina, the English adopted the name Port Royal for the sound and for the present-day Parris Island once their colonization efforts began, with the establishment of Charles Town in 1670. Later, after the death in 1736 of Colonel Alexander Parris, who owned that island, it came to be known as Parris Island, and the name Port Royal Island was transferred to the island to the north. [2]

In 1779 the Battle of Beaufort was fought on the island between American and British forces, resulting in an American victory. In 1861, the Battle of Port Royal was fought between Union and Confederate forces, resulting in a Union victory and the occupation of Beaufort for the remainder of the Civil War.

Port Royal Island, Camp Saxton (Smith's plantation) the new headquarters of the 1st S.C. Vol. (Colored), Col. Higginson in 1863 Port Royal Island - 1. Camp Saxton (Smith's plantation) - the new headquarters of the 1st S.C. Vol. (Colored), Col. Higginson LCCN2014647460 (cropped).jpg
Port Royal Island, Camp Saxton (Smith's plantation) the new headquarters of the 1st S.C. Vol. (Colored), Col. Higginson in 1863

Historically, the island has been predominantly agricultural and had been developed as plantations in the antebellum years. Since the 1960s, the island has become mostly residential and commercial in character, though rural areas continue to exist in the extreme northern and western portions of the island along the Whale Branch River.

Communities

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roanoke Island</span> Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States

Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was named after the historical Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English colonization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaufort County, South Carolina</span> County in South Carolina, United States

Beaufort County is a county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 187,117. Its county seat is Beaufort and its largest community is Hilton Head Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaufort, South Carolina</span> City in South Carolina, United States

Beaufort is a city in and the county seat of Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1711, it is the second-oldest city in South Carolina, behind Charleston. Beaufort is known as the "Queen of the Carolina Sea Islands". The city's population was 13,607 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parris Island, South Carolina</span> District of the city of Port Royal, South Carolina

Parris Island is a district of the city of Port Royal, South Carolina on an island of the same name. It became part of the city with the annexation of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island on October 11, 2002. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau previously defined Parris Island as a census-designated place (CDP) when it was an unincorporated area of Beaufort County. The population was 4,841 at the 2000 census. As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, Parris Island is included within the Beaufort Urban Cluster and the larger Hilton Head Island–Beaufort Micropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Royal, South Carolina</span> Town in South Carolina, United States

Port Royal is a town on Port Royal Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 14,220 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Hilton Head Island–Bluffton metropolitan area. Port Royal is home to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and United States Naval Hospital Beaufort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island</span> US Marine Corps base near Beaufort, South Carolina, US

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is an 8,095-acre (32.76 km2) military installation located within Port Royal, South Carolina, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Beaufort, the community that is typically associated with the installation. MCRD Parris Island is used for United States Marine Corps Recruit Training of enlisted United States Marines. Recruits living east of the Mississippi River report there to receive initial training. Recruits living west of the Mississippi River receive training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, but may train at MCRD Parris Island by special request.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Ribault</span> French navigator and colonizer

Jean Ribault was a French naval officer, navigator, and a colonizer of what would become the southeastern United States. He was a major figure in the French attempts to colonize Florida. A Huguenot and officer under Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, Ribault led an expedition to the New World in 1562 that founded the outpost of Charlesfort on Parris Island in present-day South Carolina. Two years later, he took over command of the French colony of Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. He and many of his followers died at the hands of Spanish soldiers during the Massacre at Matanzas Inlet, near St. Augustine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Helena Island (South Carolina)</span> Island in South Carolina, United States

St. Helena Island is a Sea Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The island is connected to Beaufort by U.S. Highway 21. The island has a land area of about 64 sq mi (170 km2) and a population of 8,763 as of the 2010 census. It is included as part of the Hilton Head Island-Beaufort Micropolitan Area. The island is renowned for its rural Lowcountry character and being a major center of African-American Gullah culture and language. It is considered to be the geographic influence behind the children's television program Gullah Gullah Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial period of South Carolina</span> History of South Carolina during the early modern period

The colonial period of South Carolina saw the exploration and colonization of the region by European colonists during the early modern period, eventually resulting in the establishment of the Province of Carolina by English settlers in 1663, which was then divided to create the Province of South Carolina in 1710. European settlement in the region of modern-day South Carolina began on a large scale after 1651, when frontiersmen from the English colony of Virginia began to settle in the northern half of the region, while the southern half saw the immigration of plantation owners from Barbados, who established slave plantations which cultivated cash crops such as tobacco, cotton, rice and indigo.

Charles Fort (1874–1932) was an American writer.

This is a chronology and timeline of the colonization of North America, with founding dates of selected European settlements. See also European colonization of the Americas.

Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th century.

Port Royal Sound is a coastal sound, or inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the Sea Islands region, in Beaufort County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the estuary of several rivers, the largest of which is the Broad River.

Santa Elena, a Spanish settlement on what is now Parris Island, South Carolina, was the capital of Spanish Florida from 1566 to 1587. It was established under Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the first governor of Spanish Florida. There had been a number of earlier attempts to establish colonies in the area by both the Spanish and the French, who had been inspired by the earlier accounts by Chicora and Hernando de Soto of rich territories in the interior. Menéndez's Santa Elena settlement was intended as the new capital of the Spanish colony of La Florida, shifting the focus of Spanish colonial efforts north from St. Augustine, which had been established in 1565 to oust the French from their colony of Fort Caroline. Santa Elena was ultimately built at the site of the abandoned French outpost of Charlesfort, founded in 1562 by Jean Ribault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Beaufort</span> 1779 battle of the American Revolutionary War

The Battle of Beaufort, also known as the Battle of Port Royal Island, was fought on February 3, 1779, near Beaufort, South Carolina, during the American Revolutionary War. The battle took place not long after British forces consolidated control around Savannah, Georgia, which they had captured in December 1778.

The Charlesfort-Santa Elena Site is an important early colonial archaeological site on Parris Island, South Carolina, United States. It contains the archaeological remains of a French settlement called Charlesfort, settled in 1562 and abandoned the following year, and the later 16th-century Spanish settlement known as Santa Elena. The Spanish remains include a fort built directly on top of the abandoned Charlesfort remains.

The history of Beaufort, South Carolina, is one of the most comprehensive and diverse of any community of its size in the United States.

Pedro Menéndez Márquez was a Spanish military officer, conquistador, and governor of Spanish Florida. He was a nephew of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, who had been appointed adelantado of La Florida by King Philip II. Márquez was also related to Diego de Velasco, Hernando de Miranda, Gutierre de Miranda, Juan Menéndez Márquez, and Francisco Menéndez Márquez, all of whom served as governors of La Florida.

Pocotaligo is an unincorporated community located in northeastern Jasper County, South Carolina, United States, close to the border of Beaufort County. The community takes its name from the Pocotaligo River, a small tidal creek that separates Jasper and Beaufort counties. Although historically significant, Pocotaligo today primarily serves as a junction point between U.S. Highway 17, U.S. Highway 17 Alternate and U.S. Highway 21. These roads lead to Interstate 95 at Point South and Yemassee, which have over time eclipsed Pocotaligo in population and importance. Very few people live in the community today.

Diego de Velasco was a career soldier who served as interim Lieutenant Governor of Spanish Florida between 1574 and 1576. His administration ended with his and his treasurer Bertolomeo Martinez's imprisonment by his successor as governor, Hernando de Miranda, following investigations of corruption in his administration, as well as crimes committed against Native Americans and the Spanish settlers of Florida.

References

  1. "Charlesfort-Santa Elena". National Historic Landmark, American Latino Heritage Sites. National Park Service. Archived from the original on February 21, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2018.
  2. Alexander Samuel Salley (1919). Parris Island, the Site of the First Attempt at a Settlement of White People Within the Bounds of what is Now South Carolina. The Commission. pp. 8–11.