The parish of St. Johns, Colleton, was created by the S.C. legislature in 1734 and included Johns, Edisto, Wadmalaw, Kiawah, and Seabrook Islands; it had previously been part of St. Paul's Parish, one of the ten original Church of England parishes of colonial S.C. The first parish church at this site was built by 1742 and fell into ruin after the Revolutionary War. After the war, St. John's became an Episcopal church, and by the 1830s most of its communicants were enslaved African Americans. A second church was built in 1817 and was destroyed by fire in 1864 during the Civil War. Members worshipped at Johns Island Presbyterian Church from 1868 until a third church was built in 1873, and the current church dates to 1955.