Our History
St. Johns Parish Berkeley’s
The Carolina Assembly colonial legislature of the early 1700s passed “The Church Act of 1706” which first established “One upon the western branch of Cooper river, called by the name of St. John’s” (now in Berkeley County). Note that [Old] St. Andrew’s Parish (like most of the original parishes whose names derived from the parishes of Barbados), was the first to be publicly funded and was built ca. 1706.
In the early 1700s, a Planter of the area, Mr. James Child, laid out a new town on the upper Cooper river and called it Childsbury (later it became known as Strawberry). The first (Mother) Church of St. John’s Berkeley was Biggin Church, funded and built in 1710-1711, now in brick ruins on S.C. Hwy. 402. SJPB Vestry erected a fence to reduce brick vandalism and began brick restoration in 2024. Grounds & cemetery upkeep are kindly done by the local community.
As Childsbury grew, to accommodate the settlers, an act was passed by the General Assembly on Dec. 9, 1725 to construct a Parochial Chapel of Ease at Childsbury, which is the structure we now know and love as Strawberry Chapel.
The Acts of the Assembly stated the Rector/ Minister of the Parish should: “every fourth Sunday throughout the year, and not oftener, repair to the said Chapel, and the and there declare Divine Service, according to the Rubric of the Church of England, and at proper times preach and do and perform all such sacred and ministerial Offices which by him my be done, exercises and performed.”
Our Strawberry Chapel is architecturally notable with its classic colonial church cruciform pattern and unadorned hipped gable roof with symmetrical doors and fanlight-topped windows; it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Chapel still owns several sets of historic silver (e.g., a Miles Brewton chalice and paten, on permanent loan to the Charleston Museum). Pictures of the decorated altar and silver are included herein.
*Thanks to Rev. John Scott and Robert Ball for much of this information.
Contributions for our Chapel [a religious nonprofit organization] may be made during a service, given to a Vestryperson or sent to: St. John’s Berkeley, Strawberry Chapel, UPS Box 334, 1150 Hungryneck Blvd., Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464. Funds may be designated for the general operating fund or for specific purposes (e.g., a family graveyard fund, in Memory of, or in Honor of, etc.). Friends of Strawberry, an independent 501(c)3 organization formed in 2017, also raises funds for restoration and preservation of our Chapel and land. Please check out our DONATE Page for all options.
Questions? Please contact Senior Warden Robert T. Ball Jr, MD at RBall8AP@gmail.com or 843.709.3779, or Junior Warden Mr. Mark Ball at stevenmarkball@gmail.com
or 843.801.1719. A group tour of the Chapel & grounds may be arranged via the Wardens.
To update our records/ provide your mailing and email address, please notify: Ms. Jane Stoney Cook, 322 Bayview Drive, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 (janestoneycook@gmail.com) or Junior Warden Mr. Mark Ball at stevenmarkball@gmail.com or 843.801.1719.
Strawberry Chapel information via SC Picture Project Berkeley County
https://www.scpictureproject.org/berkeley-county/strawberry-chapel.html
“Strawberry Chapel is on private property. It is not open to the public except during its four annual services, held each October, November, March, and April. No valuables are ever kept at in the chapel; nevertheless it has been the victim of repeated horrific expensive vandalism.
“Strawberry Chapel is the only remaining structure from the 1707 Childsbury settlement. Built as a chapel of ease in 1725 as part of the St. John’s Berkeley Parish, it is located at present-day Cordesville in Berkeley County. Established as a mission church to the main parish church at Biggin Church, its early minister was a French Huguenot (Msr. Du’Tarque).
Childsbury was one of the first towns to be laid out by Englishmen arriving in the Carolina colony. It was named after founder James Child, who established a Cooper River ferry and helped design the settlement. Child also donated 600 acres of land for inhabitants to use for farming. The ferry, known as Strawberry Ferry, served residents of the area as a direct route to Charleston. Rivers were the main mode of transportation in those times.”
Strawberry Ferry operated near the chapel, at the bottom of the bluff and about 100 yards from the modern dock there today on the Cooper River. It went across the river to Bluff Plantation, somewhat near Cypress Gardens, where a road would take travelers to the Broad Path (modern-day Highway 52), providing a direct route into Charleston.
Farmers from Childsbury had a hard time competing with the prosperity of other Lowcountry plantations, and the town did not last. Eventually the settlement’s buildings were absorbed into nearby Strawberry Plantation (from whence the chapel gets its name).
Part of the original Childsbury plan, Strawberry Chapel was built to make it easier for the villagers to attend worship without traveling to Biggin Church- which was 10 miles away in Moncks Corner. This chapel-of-ease was unusual in that the sacrament of baptism and funeral services, usually reserved for full parish churches, were regularly performed here.
Strawberry Chapel is rectangular in plan. An anteroom (the “Sacristy”) at the rear (north side) of the Chapel, built in the early 1800s, allowed the minister to change into vestments and prepare for services. It has been used as a Vestry meeting room, social room, and for storage. The Chapel ceiling is domed, and the floor is paved in original square cut stone. Entrance doors exist on three of the four walls. These align with each other, as do the windows, in order to ensure proper ventilation in the heat and humidity of the Lowcountry. Written on the east altar wall, under a circular window above the altar, are the words “Glory to God in the Highest”. Each letter was made using pine cone scales, each hand-sewn on heavy paper backing and tacked onto the altar (east) plaster wall. In 2022 they were restored and replaced in situ.
The Harleston Family vault served as a receiving tomb for the chapel. Bodies were stored here while plots were prepared for burial. The interior of the vault has a dirt floor and a barrel (domed) ceiling made of brick; it is partially underground, providing a cool environment to help preserve the remains of the deceased during the funeral service.
A Few Factoids about Strawberry Chapel
Funded by the Carolina Assembly in the early 1700s, the official date of service was 1725. The next TriCentennial is 2025. The Chapel’s base is a classic colonial brick in-ground rectangular base on which the original floor stones remain. The walls are a combination of brick, mortar, stucco, and other materials. Sadly, 3 centuries of moisture have badly damaged the Chapel, but in the 2000s, the Wardens and Vestry began a once-per-century restoration. An anteroom was added to the northwest Chapel in the early 1800s; it served as a Vestry meeting room, a vestment changing area for our various itinerant Priests, and storage area.
In the 1850s, the Wardens and Vestry built a balcony at the rear of the Chapel to accommodate nearby residents and crowds. Sadly, this balcony fell during the 1886 Charleston earthquake and was donated by the Wardens and Vestry to a nearby Taveau Methodist Church, founded in 1835 by a Ball family ancestor. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, is located between Strawberry Chapel and Mepkin Abbey (a Trappist monastery), currently undergoing restoration.
After several decades of locating and organizing many boxes of old Strawberry Chapel records, the current Wardens and Vestry in 2022 donated these invaluable records to the South Carolina Historical Society. They are preserved in the “vault” on the 3rd floor of the Addlestone Library at the College of Charleston and are available for historic researchers and Wardens and Vestry.
A number of SC lowcountry notable personages (especially politicians) were associated with Strawberry Chapel. One of the most notable was Clare Boothe Luce (née Ann Clare Boothe; March 10, 1903 October 9, 1987), who was an American writer, politician, U.S. ambassador, public conservative figure, .and a versatile author. She was reportedly buried initially at Strawberry Chapel but relocated to Mepkin Abbey. Other notable lowcountry citizens were reportedly buried at Strawberry Chapel, although records are sparse.
A true story involves an early French Huguenot minister, Monsieur Dutarque, an angry schoolmaster and local bully at Childsbury and
“Little Mistress Chicken”. Ms. Catherine Chicken, step-daughter of Elias (“Red Cap”) Ball, had dawdled in the woods and was late for supper.
Msr. Dutarque became enraged and cruelly tied her tightly to a tombstone overnight and forgot about her. In spite of her cries for help,
none came. In the middle of the night, the slave “Money” found her cold, pale and mute and untied her. A few days later, the Childsbury townfolk
stripped the schoolmaster of his wig and belongings, bound him with the same Mistress Chicken rope, and tied him face tailward
on a mule and rode him out of town, gone forever.Family weddings, baptisms, and burials occur at Strawberry Chapel per Vestry protocols.
A June 12, 2020 Charleston Post and Courier article on Strawberry Chapel is found at https://www.postandcourier.com/features/country-chapel-built-in-1725-is-all-that-remains-of-colonial-era-town-near-charleston/article_84f82984-8671-11ea-9a60-336136ced0ec.html. This article includes an interesting 1707 map of the town of Childsbury and some recent history.
