Anne Tilghman Boyce Coastal Reserve

Native American History

According to a report by Dr. Reinhold J. Engelmayer of Coastal Carolina University, dated March 30, 1976, there are numerous archaeological sites on Waties Island that can be attributed to Native Americans in the prehistory period.

Numerous campsites varying in size from one meter to thirty meters can be found on the island.  Those campsites that were tested showed a thin stratum of shells (clams, tidal and sub-tidal oysters) mixed with fragments of pottery of the Wilmington complex (ca. 0-700 A.D.) and the Savannah I phase (700 – 1200 A.D.).

At least one group of mounds has been identified so far.  One of the mounds is about three meters high and eight meters in diameter.  It is built on a round platform rising about half a meter above the ground level as of 1976.  A test showed that the shells covering this mound make up a 20 to 30 centimeters thick layer. This layer serves as a veneer for this mound which was built, as far as could be determined, from yellow beach sand.  The area around these mounds is littered with potshards of Wilmington and Savannah I origin.

William Waties

Waties Island is named for either William Waties, Sr. or Jr.  Originally from Wales, William Waties, Sr. settled near Charleston around 1694. In 1716 he was appointed as a factor for trading with the Indians north of the Santee River and established a trading house at Uauenee (Yauhannah), otherwise called the Great Bluff.  In 1735 his son, William Waties, Jr., also a former Indian trader, helped survey the boundary line between NC and SC in the area of present day Horry County. Waties Sr., Jr. and III accumulated large tracts of desirable land along the Waccamaw, Pee Dee, and Little Rivers in Horry County, as well as along the coast and in the Georgetown area.

King's Grant

The oldest known plat for Waties Island is a survey dated 7 May 1754 and certified 31 July 1754.  On the document it states, “South Carolina.  Pursuant to a precept from George Hunter Esq. Surveyor General, dated the 7th day of May, Anno Domini, 1754, I have admeasured and laid out an Island known by the name of Waties Island, in Prince George Parish, Craven County, unto William Allston:  Butting and bordering S.E. on the sea, N.E. on Waties Inlet, N.W. on a creek running through a Salt Marsh, and S. on Master’s Inlet, and containing Seventy one and a half acres; Having such shape and form as the above plat represents.  Certified this 31 July 1754.  Zech:Brazier, D.S.”

This plat would have accompanied a King’s Grant issued by the Royal Governor of South Carolina deeding the property to William Allston.  It is interesting that the island was already called Waties Island yet there is no evidence that William Waties ever owned the island.  It is possible, but there is no evidence, that he had a Proprietary Grant for the island but he never recorded it, and that Allston purchased the land from Waties’ heirs but still applied for a King’s Grant for the property to make sure that he had a clear title.  William Waties, Sr. left a Will but it has been lost.

It is possible that the island may have been named for William Waties, Jr. (rather than Sr.) who, according to records, owned 1,150 acres in the area as of 1733.  Five Hundred acres bordered the creek which ran behind the island, and at least two maps call that creek Waties Inlet.

Little River Neck

This area, between the salt marshes behind Waties Island and the Little River was first called Frink’s Neck for Nicholas Frink who settled here with his family in 1734.  Frink’s ancestors had settled in North America one hundred years earlier as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Nicholas Frink was born in 1696 and died 8 July 1749.  His grandfather was John Prentice, a sea captain who sailed up and down the coast between New England and the Carolinas.  It is probable that John Prentice influenced Nicholas to come to the Little River area.  Frink purchased 500 acres of land in Little River Neck about 1734 and for many years afterwards that area was known as Frink’s Neck.

Pirates

Little River is said to have been visited by the likes of William Kidd “Captain Kidd”, Edward Teach "Blackbeard”, Stede Bonnet and Anne Bonney. Sections of the coast that are laced with islands and inlets were often hideouts of pirates and others who sought concealment and secrecy.

For more articles on local history, see Ben Burroughs' page at: http://ww2.coastal.edu/ben