On February 5, 1698, Nicholas Trott was appointed as the first attorney general of South Carolina during its time as a British colony. He arrived in Charleston and assumed his duties the following year.
Alexander Moultrie, half-brother of Revolutionary War figure and future governor
William Moultrie, was named the state's first attorney general under its first state "president",
John Rutledge, in 1776. Rutledge had been provincial attorney general himself for 10 months before independence. Moultrie was impeached and resigned in 1792 for diverting state funds into the
Yazoo land company fraud. After the
1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election, the state was left with a contested election and a dual government, from the election in November through April 1877. Republican
Robert B. Elliott served briefly in this situation under Republican governor
Daniel Henry Chamberlain, while
James Conner held office under fellow Confederate officer and Democrat
Wade Hampton III. Hampton and Conner prevailed. == His Majesty's attorneys-general of South Carolina ==