Appendix F

SUMMARY OF ACT NO . 1278 (1785) AND ACT NO . 1533 (1791)

By W. Foster Gaillard, Esq .

After the American Revolution, the Church in the United States was left “in an anomalous condition” since under the law of England and under the Church Act of 1706, the “parson” or Rector was a corporation sole, in whom property of the Church was vested. ²⁹⁹ The Revolution not only procured civil liberty for the state, but also ecclesiastical independence of the Church in the United States from the Church of England. ³⁰⁰ In his Sketch of St. Philip’s Church published in 1901, Dr. Edward McCrady stated that the disestablishment of the Church of England by the Constitution of 1778 left title to all Church property in question. ³⁰¹ To remedy any uncertainty following the Revolution and the disestablishment of the Church of England in the United States (including any uncertainty as to the title to various parish properties), the South Carolina General Assembly, in 1785, incorporated the vestries and church wardens of the Episcopal Churches in the Parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael with the power to hold and dispose of the lands and other property then vested in the Churches or any other that they may later acquire. ³⁰² Pursuant to Act No. 1278, signed into law on March 24, 1785, “…the present vestries and church wardens of the churches in the parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael, and their successors forever hereafter, shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, one body corporate, in deed and in name, by the name of the ‘Vestries and Church-Wardens of the Episcopal Churches of the Parishes of St. Philip and St. Michael, Charleston,’ and by that name shall, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, have perpetual succession and a common seal, and be capable in law, to have, hold, receive, possess and enjoy all of the lands, tenements and hereditaments, and the rents and income thereof, which now are vested in the said vestries and church wardens respectively, to them and their successors in office, and to sell, alien, exchange, demise or lease the same, or any part thereof, as they or a majority of them, shall think convenient.” This Act had the effect of vesting title to all lands then owned by the parishes of St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s in the newly created corporation.

According to Dr. McCrady, this joint corporate arrangement “did not…work well,” ³⁰³ and as a result, the Vestries and Wardens of the two Parishes approached the State Legislature in 1791 and obtained another Act splitting the two Churches and making each a separate and distinct body politic and corporate. By Act 1533 adopted on December 20, 1791, the South Carolina Legislature split the two Churches and created two separate corporate entities, one being known as “The Protestant Episcopal Church, of the Parish of Saint Philip, in Charleston, in the State of South Carolina,” and the other being known as “The Protestant Episcopal Church, of the Parish of Saint Michael, in Charleston, in the State of South Carolina,” which each separate corporation having the right to “possess and enjoy their respective properties severally, and shall also have, possess and enjoy, the same authority, powers and privileges, which [by Act No. 1278, adopted on March 24, 1785] are granted to them conjointly; and that the said vestry and church wardens of the Episcopal Church of the Parish of St. Philip, in Charleston, and their successors in office for ever hereafter, shall be and they are hereby declared to be incorporated, as a body politic and corporate, in deed and in law, by the name of ‘The Protestant Episcopal Church, of the Parish of Saint Philip, in Charleston, in the State of South Carolina’” with each separate corporation granted “perpetual succession…and capable in law, to have, hold, take, receive, possess and enjoy, all the lands, tenements and hereditaments, and the rents and income thereof, which now are, or hereafter shall be, vested in them, respectively, by gift, devise or purchase, to them and their respective successors in office forever.” ³⁰⁴ See Act 1533, adopted December 20, 1791. St. Philip’s Church, under the corporate name “The Protestant Episcopal Church, of the Parish of Saint Philip, in Charleston, in the State of South Carolina,” has continued to exist and function as a legislatively chartered South Carolina corporation, in good standing, since its incorporation in 1791 to the present.