Unlimited Potential

After Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, he granted the chartered Province of Carolina to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, on March 24, 1663. It took seven years before the group arranged for settlement expeditions. In 1670, Governor William Sayle brought over several shiploads of settlers from Bermuda, which lies due east of Charleston although closer to Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and Barbados in the eastern Caribbean. These settlers established Charles Town at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River a few miles northwest of the present-day city center. Charles Town became English-speaking America's first comprehensively planned town with governance, settlement, and development to follow a visionary plan known as the Grand Model prepared for the Lords Proprietors by John Locke.