New Bordeaux (1764)

The town of New Bordeaux, the last of seven French Huguenot colonies founded in colonial S.C. and the only one in the upcountry, was established 1 mi. E in 1764. After Protestants fleeing religious persecution in France petitioned the British crown for land to create a permanent settlement in S.C., they received a 28,000-acre grant in the newly-formed Hillsborough Township.

Almost 200 French Huguenots led by Rev. Jean Louis Gibert (1721-1773) landed at Charleston in April 1764 and began settling here in August. Others followed, including a group led by Jean Louis Dumesnil De St. Pierre (d. 1776), which arrived in 1768. The colony, which produced silk and wine on a modest scale, later furnished a militia company during the American Revolution.