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After settlement, the name of the creek began to change according to ownership. The first person who was granted lands adjacent to the creek was Captain Florence O’Sullivan (for whom Sullivan’s Island is named) and during his ownership in the 1670s-80s, the creek was known as Sullivan’s Creek. Later, Barbadian colonist Captain George Dearsley owned the lands and the creek became known as Dearsley’s Creek. It was probably during Dearsley’s ownership that shipbuilding was introduced to the creek. The name then changed again throughout the 1700’s. It became Rowser’s Creek during the ownership of shipwright Richard Rowser and Parris’ Creek for later owner Alexander Parris, who owned Hog Island (now Patriots Point) and who was the same man for whom Parris Island in Beaufort County is named. During the Revolutionary War, the creek was called Lempriere’s Creek for Captain Clement Lempriere, a noted shipbuilder and master of the ferry to Charleston at Haddrell’s Point where Shem Creek enters the harbor. At a period in the early 1800s, it was briefly known as Distillery Creek for a short-lived distillery built along the creek’s shoreline. Between ownerships, it was always referred to as Shem Creek and the name remains today.