Charleston's Intendants and Mayors

Halsey Map | Preservation Society of Charleston

Preservation Society of Charleston

During the colonial era, South Carolina, including Charlestown, was ruled from England by a succession of governors sent by the Lords Proprietors and then by the King. Local decision-making, more or less in accord with London's directives, rested with a Grand Council and Commons House of Assembly.

On August 13, 1783, the South Carolina General Assembly passed "An Act to Incorporate Charleston." The city was divided into thirteen wards, their boundaries spelled out in the Act. Citizens of each ward voted for their wardens. Once wardens were elected and had taken their oaths, one of them was elected intendant in a second city-wide election. "And if any person, on being elected intendant, shall refuse to act, he shall forfeit and pay to the treasurer of the city, for the use of the same, the sum of thirty pounds sterling. And if any person, on being elected warden, shall refuse to act, he shall also pay to the treasurer of the city the sum of twenty pounds sterling."

Annual wardens' election took place the first Monday in September, with the intendant's election a week later. A third election was then required to replace the warden who had been elected intendant.

Beginning in 1809, voters could elect as intendant any qualified citizen (white men who met certain residency and financial thresholds). Although the intendant was no longer elected from among the wardens, separate elections continued. Citizens chose their wardens in early September, and the intendant two weeks later. City Council reconfigured the wards from time to time. Before the 1810 election, the thirteen wards were redrawn into four, with a total of twelve wardens. After 1817, there was only one election day for wardens and intendant.

In December 1836, Charleston's corporate charter was amended. Henceforth, although wards remained election districts, city officials were known not as intendant and wardens, but as mayor and aldermen. Elections continued annually.

After the northward expansion of the city from Boundary [Calhoun] Street to Mount Pleasant Street, four new wards, each with an alderman's seat, were added in 1850. Beginning in 1853, the mayor and aldermen were elected for two-year terms. By an Act of Assembly in December 1878, the term of office was extended to four years. Mayor William A. Courtenay, elected in 1879, was the first to hold a four-year term.

In 1959, Mayor J. Palmer Gaillard began Charleston's first annexation drive, extending city limits into St. Andrews Parish, west of the Ashley River. Annexations during Mayor Joseph P. Riley's first term, in the late 1970s, extended the city up Charleston Neck, and onto James Island and Johns Island. Continuing annexations have brought Daniel Island and Cainhoy [both in Berkeley County] and large rural tracts in St. Andrews Parish into the City of Charleston.

Edwards, Alexander. Ordinances of the City Council of Charleston, In the State of South-Carolina, Passed Since the Incorporation of the City. Charleston, 1802. (http://books.google.com/)
Fraser, Walter J., Jr. Charleston! Charleston! The History of a Southern City. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989.
McCord, David J. The Statutes at Large of South Carolina. Vol. 7, Acts Relating to Charleston, Courts, Slaves and Rivers. Columbia, 1840. (http://books.google.com/)
Sparkman, Mary A. "List of Intendants and Mayors of the City of Charleston from Date of Incorporation in 1783 to the Present Day." Historical Commission of Charleston, 1947. (Copy in Civic Government Folder, South Carolina Room, Charleston County Public Library)
VerPlank, Christopher. "Historic Context Statement." Vision, Community, Heritage. A Preservation Plan for Charleston, South Carolina. San Francisco: Page & Turnbull, Inc., for the City of Charleston and Historic Charleston Foundation, 2008.