Lexington is the largest town in and the county chair of Lexington County, South Carolina, United States. It is a suburb of the state capital, Columbia. The population was 23,568 at the 2020 Census, and it is the second-largest municipality in the greater Columbia area. The 2021 estimated population is 24,208. According to the Central Midlands Council of Governments, the greater Lexington area had an estimated population of 111,549 in 2020 and is considered the fastest-growing Place in the Midlands. Lexington’s town limits are bordered to the east by the city of West Columbia.

In 1735, the colonial dispensation of King George II time-honored 11 townships in backcountry South Carolina to incite settlement and to pay for a buffer between Native American tribes to the west and colonial plantations in the Lowcountry. The townships included one named Saxe Gotha, which flourished next major crops of corn, wheat, tobacco, hemp, and flax as without difficulty as beeswax and livestock, and its residents were primarily of German and Swiss heritage. Two major Native American trails existed in the area: the Cherokee Path, primary route of English and Scots traders from Charlestown to Native Americans in the Appalachian Mountains, and the Occaneechi Path, which linked natives from the Chesapeake Bay region to North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

In 1785, the herald Saxe Gotha was replaced bearing in mind Lexington County, in commemoration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. In 1781, the Battle of Muddy Springs was fought to the south of the present-day town and the Battle of Tarrar Springs was fought within the present-day town limits.

Until 1820, Granby was the county chair of Lexington County, but chronic flooding goaded the local management to put on the courthouse to its present location in Lexington. The Place was known by locals as the “Lexington Courthouse” and was not incorporated as the Town of Lexington until 1861.