South Carolina Jury Lists for the Ninety-Six Judicial District - 1779

In 1778 and 1779, the Whig General Assembly of South Carolina passed legislation establishing new lists of jurors for each of the seven Judicial Districts that had previously been created by the South Carolina Royal Government in 1769.  There were two lists established for each district, one for petit juries and one for grand juries.  Legislation for six of the Judicial Districts, i. e., Charles Town, George Town, Cheraws, Camden, Beaufort and Orangeburg was passed in March 1778.  The Legislation for Ninety-Six District was passed in February 1779.

The lists for each Judicial District were further broken down by certain geographical subdivisions within the District to more precisely identify where the jurors lived.  In the case of Ninety-Six District, one of these geographical subdivisions was the "Spartan Division" which corresponded to one of the Election Districts that had been previously established in 1778; this was the Upper or Spartan Election District. The area covered by the "Spartan Division" included what are now the modern-day SC counties of Union, Cherokee and Spartanburg.

These jury lists are the closest thing available to a household census of South Carolina before the Federal Census of 1790. It should be noted, however, that not every resident of South Carolina at the time was cited in the list.  Only free white males of good reputation, who owned at least some real property in the District, were eligible for jury duty.  Also, all of these men were, at least ostensibly, of the Whig political persuasion.  By 1778-1779, most of the politically/militarily active Loyalists and Tories had been expelled from the State or driven into hiding.  Many of these people were identified in the Proclamation Lists of 1779.  This fact notwithstanding, a review of the lists reveals the names of many men who, after the British capture of Charles Town in May 1780, became active Loyalists during the 1780-1782 time frame.

The main purpose of this web site is to provide at least some historical illumination on the more notable Loyalists and Rebels who resided in the Upper Saluda or Spartan Division.  Accordingly, I reproduce the petit and grand jury lists for the Spartan Division below.  The order of the names is the same as they appear on the original hand-written lists, which are stored at the SC State Archives in Columbia.  Since the order is not alphabetical, names that appear close together on the lists probably also lived in close geographic proximity to each other.

Spartan Division - Grand Jury List of 117 Men

(Men who had been Loyalists or who later became Loyalists are highlighted in red; men who were active or later became active in the Rebel/Whig Cause are highlighted in blue.)

Spartan Division - Petit Jury List of 351 Men

(Men who are known to have been Loyalists or who later became Loyalists are highlighted in red; ; men who are known to have been active or who later became active in the Rebel/Whig Cause are highlighted in blue.)