Sumter County was created from Clarendon, Claremont and Salem Counties as Sumter District in 1798, named after General Thomas Sumter, and became effective in 1800. When the home of Sumter District's clerk of records burnt in 1801, the formative records of the three predecessor counties were also destroyed in the conflagration. So documentary evidence that the three counties were within St. Mark's Parish (formed in 1757 from Prince Frederick's Parish, Craven County) in Camden District (formed 1769) derives from family genealogies and legislative records.