The Beaufort College was chartered in 1795 as a local school
for the sons of wealthy planters who preferred not to send their sons away to
Europe or up North. The first college chartered in SC was the College of
Charleston in 1785 and the Beaufort College was second, chartered ten years
later. The founders of the College were among South Carolina’s most influential
men.
Instruction began at the Beaufort College in 1803. The
College boasted an excellent faculty, full classes and an impressive list of
alumni. When the economy did well, the school thrived but hard times reflected
negatively on enrollment. Beaufort College became widely regarded as a first
rate preparatory and feeder school for SC College, later to become the
University of South Carolina, and premier colleges of the North such as
Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Columbia.
Though the College never functioned
again after the Civil War as it was originally intended, the trustees
reorganized in 1866 and have remained active for the past 221 years in
promoting higher education in Beaufort and designating the board as the oldest
incorporated body in Beaufort. A brief history of the Beaufort College can be
viewed in bas relief on the façade of the Sandstone building on the USCB
campus.
