Abercromby Land Map 1737:

MARLBORO COUNTY SC
This aerial photo of the southern tip of Marlboro County, South Carolina near the Dillon County line [shown], highway I-95 [shown] and the Great Pee Dee River [shown] has superimposed on it [in red] the boundaries of a survey plat for a tract of 980 acres of land certified on 23 October 1736 for James Abercromby (1708-1775), who was then Crown-appointed attorney general of the province.  This tract was granted to James Abercromby on 11 May 1737.

The 1736 survey plat states:

"By virtue of a precept to me directed by James St. John, Esq., his Majesty's Sur. Gen. of the province, bearing date 6 Sep 1735, I have administered and laid out unto James Abercromby, Esq., his Majesty's Attorney and Advocate General, a plantation or tract of land containing Nine hundred and eighty Acres of land, situate and being in Craven County and parish of Prince Frederick, Butting and bounding to the SWrd on Pee Dee River, NWrd part on Pee Dee River and part on a lake, NErd on Joseph Yeats land and to SErd on Mr. Thomson's land, And hath such forms, shapes, buttings and boundings as the delineated plat doth represent. Certified 23 Oct 1736. Signed: George Pawley, D.S."

The lake was labeled "Pleasant Lake" on the 1736 survey plat, but is labeled "Rogers Lake" on the modern aerial photo.

This 1736 survey plat is one of the earliest records for the area of South Carolina that in 1785 became Marlboro County, but in 1736 was part of Prince
Frederick Parish of Craven County.  In 1734, when Prince Frederick Parish was taken from Prince George Winyah Parish in response to population growth
in the area, its western boundary was "as far as it shall be inhabited by his Majesty's subjects."  The statute of 1734 establishing Prince Frederick
Parish stated that the new parish was to embrace the region of the Upper Pedee on the West.  In 1768, after St. David's Parish was established, the
Abercromby tract of 980 acres was in St. David's Parish, just west of the boundary line between St. David's and Prince Frederick parishes.  The
western boundary of Prince Frederick Parish after 1768 is today the Marlboro-Dillon County line.  In 1769, when judicial districts were
established in response to settlers' concern about lawlessness in the back country, the Abercromby property was in Cheraws District, which was set up
to cover the same area as St. David's Parish.  In 1785 Cheraws District was further divided into three counties: Marlboro, Chesterfield and Darlington.

Adding further confusion, the boundary between North Carolina and South Carolina was not well established until the border survey of 1764.  Before that, Anson County, North Carolina, which was formed by 1749, had an indeterminate southern boundary and included all or parts of many modern South Carolina counties, including Marlboro.  Disputes and confusion concerning the border between North and South Carolina continued, and a new border survey was made in 1772.

This composite map showing the 1736 survey plat for James Abercromby scaled to a modern aerial photo was made possible by the skill and generosity of
Jeff Dudley, deputy tax assessor of Marlboro County, South Carolina, whose permission to use it I gratefully acknowledge.

Contributed by:  Brenda A. Ledet