Huguenot Society of South Carolina

The Huguenot Society of South Carolina was founded in 1885 to preserve the memory of the French Protestants (Huguenots) who left France prior to the promulgation of the Edict of Toleration on November 28, 1787. Today, the Society has nearly 2,000 members from across the United States and several foreign countries who descend from these Huguenot refugees.

In 1885 descendants of the Huguenot immigrants to South Carolina attended a meeting at the French Protestant (Huguenot) Church of Charleston. Events were planned to commemorate the then 200th anniversary of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes which took place on 22 Oct 1685 and those in attendance decided to form the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. The objectives of the Society that they founded were:

• To preserve the memory of the Huguenots
• To promote a better understanding of the values and culture of the Huguenots.
• To maintain genealogical records of the immigrants to this country and their descendants.

To fulfill its stated purposes, the Society maintains monuments at the locations of the six Huguenot churches and settlements in South Carolina. The Society’s library and archive is considered one of the largest and most valuable repositories of Huguenot holdings in the United States and contains materials dating from the 16th century to the present day. Our scholarly journal, Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, is published annually.