About the Collection
The Register of the Independent or Congregational Church, 1732-1796, is a bound volume kept by members of the church in Charleston, South Carolina. The earliest dissenting congregation in South Carolina, this church was formerly known as the Independent or Congregational (or Presbyterian) Church. It was founded in 1681 and was attended by both black and white members until 1867, when black members left to form Plymouth Congregational Church. The present church building was erected in 1892.
The register contains the church’s meeting minutes, the church constitution and by-laws, articles of faith, accounts of pew rentals, building funds, membership records, baptisms, deaths, burials, and marriages for both black and white members, copies of letters consisting of job offers for church ministers and preachers, church elections of committees and officers such as clerk, sexton and treasurer, and various notations on the British occupation of New York, Pennsylvania and Charleston, South Carolina during the American Revolution.
