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Sheldon Episcopal
Church
BEAUFORT COUNTY
The ruins of Prince William's Parish Church,
later known as Sheldon, stand today as a monument to the past.
There is a sadness in the atmosphere which surrounds these
brick columns and walls, and the ancient graveyard.
The
parish was first founded in 1745, and the consecration service
of the church was celebrated in 1757.
The land was
given by the widow of the second Landgrave Edmund Bellinger.
The name Sheldon was taken from the estate of Lieutenant
Governor William Bull, an adjoining plantation, which had in
its turn acquired its name from the ancestral seat of the Bull
family, Sheldon Hall, in Warwickshire, England.
Evans
Palmer, Esquire, in 1753 presented two silver communion cups
to the church, and a complete set of communion silver
waspresented by Lieutenant Governor Bull in 1756, all of which
may be seen in use in the chapel at McPhersonville
today.
This old church, together with its early
records, was destroyed during the Revolutionary War. Rebuilt
in 1824-25, it was burned by Sherman's troops in January,
1865.
According to the early records of the church,
many of the most prominent families of the community worshiped
here.
These magnificent ruins exhibit today to a
greater extent than any others the grandeur of our early
churches. Sheldon was mentioned by Robert Mills as being the
handsomest rural church in the state.
BY
HAZEL CROWSON SELLERS
South Carolina Churches
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