“P” is for Prince George Winyah Parish

“P” is for Prince George Winyah Parish. Comprising portions of modern Georgetown, Horry, Marion, and Dillon Counties, Prince George Winyah Parish was established in 1721 to accommodate a wave of European settlers who had taken up residence north of the Santee River following the Yamasee War. One year earlier the inhabitants of “Winyaw” a burgeoning settlement on “Sampeet Creek,” had petitioned the assembly for parish organization because they were “so far distant from the next parish church to them that they had received no benefit from the same.” By the 1730s rice cultivation had begun to dominate the local economy, the port of Georgetown had been founded, and the parish’s center of population had shifted to the coast. With the abolition of the parish system in 1865, Prince George Winyah Parish became part of Georgetown, Horry, and Marion Counties.