The Neely’s Creek ARP Church Plat and Deed Collection consists of early nineteenth-century land records documenting property ownership, land use, and institutional development associated with the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) congregation at Neely’s Creek in York County, South Carolina. Materials include plats and deeds dating from 1811 to 1823 that reflect both congregational landholdings and private land transactions connected to families central to the area’s early settlement. The collection contains a plat created in 1823 for land held by the Neely’s Creek congregation; a deed of sale for two acres between the Associate Congregation of Neely’s Creek and David McCance, dated 1819 and signed in 1823; and an agreement from 1823 documenting the conveyance of twelve acres between the congregation and John Campbell. Also included is an 1811 plat for 699 acres belonging to the Alexander Black family, providing broader context for land distribution and ownership patterns in the Neely’s Creek area during the early nineteenth century. Neely’s Creek ARP Church is one of the oldest Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregations in York County, established in the late eighteenth century by Scots-Irish settlers who migrated to the Carolina Piedmont. The ARP Church played a significant role in shaping the religious, social, and educational life of the region, with congregations often serving as focal points for community organization and land stewardship. The land records in this collection illustrate the process by which congregations secured property for worship, burial grounds, and related uses, as well as their interactions with prominent local landowners. Together, these materials provide valuable insight into early church history, land tenure, and settlement patterns in York County. The collection will be of interest to researchers studying local history, early South Carolina religious institutions, genealogy, and historic land use.
Neely's Creek Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (Thu,) studied this question.