USA > South Carolina > Historic houses of South Carolina > Part 7
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HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
called Lewisfield," which still retains that name, and was in possession of his grandchildren in 1851. After serving his country, when Charleston fell into the hands of the British, Keating Simons became a prisoner on parole, and retired, as he had a right to do by capitulation, to reside on his plan- tation, Lewisfield.
Many of Simons' neighbors were unguarded in their ex- pressions of hatred to the British victors. (Mr. Broughton, of Mulberry, was one of these, who for his discipline had a troop of horses quartered on his land.) Shortly after this Lord Cornwallis, passing down-says Dr. Johnson-from Cam- den to Charleston, sent a courier to announce that he and his "family" would dine with Mr. Simons the day after. "Accord- ingly Mr. Simons provided amply for his reception; killed a lamb for the occasion and poultry and other plantation fare in abundance, and arranged his sideboard in accordance. But his lordship had his cook and baggage wagon with him and was well served by those who knew his inclinations. Accordingly, they killed the old ewe, the mother of the lamb; and on Mr. Simons telling the Scotch woman, the cook, that this was un- necessary, and showing the provisions, she replied that his lordship knew how to provide for himself wherever he went."
The story goes on to show how Mr. and Mrs. Simons were invited to sit at their own table as guests, but Mr. Simons, while accepting for himself, said that "He could not think of his wife becoming a guest instead of presiding at her own table," and told his lordship that Mrs. Simons was "other- wise engaged." At this dinner a great game was played over the wines, Mr. Simons generously providing some of his best, but again his lordship "enquired of his aides if they did not bring with them some of his old Madeira, and called for a bottle or two." His lordship pretended to enquire the history of it, whether "London particular, " or imported directly from Madeira, and the young gentleman had an answer ready for the occasion. It proved, afterwards, that the wine had been plundered from old Mr. Mazyek's plantation when it had been visited by Cornwallis.
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WESTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER
Mr. Simons remained on parole at Lewisfield waiting to be exchanged, until the middle of July, 1781, when General Greene : sent his cavalry down into the lower part of the State, even within sight of Charleston, and Colonel Wade Hampton com- manded part of this expedition. It seems that the gallant Ilampton was at that time courting Mr. Simons' youngest sister, then living at Lewisfield. "Love rules the court, the camp, the cot," and "Love-directed-Hampton" came near to Lewisfield. He galloped up the avenue to see his "lady love, "". but found instead a party of British from two vessels at the landing, which vessels were fast aground. Nothing daunted, Hampton (being an elegant horseman, in the habit of gallop- "ing his steed and at this speed stooping from his saddle to.pick up from the ground his cap. sword, whip or glove) galloped back to the main road, vaulted upright in his saddle, waved his sword over his head and shouted to his command to return.
This they did, and engaged the enemy. Somo of the Brit- ish escaped, although many were taken and the boats burned. Suspicion falling on Mr. Simons as being accessory to the surprise and capture, an expedition of Black Dragoons was immediately sent out from Charleston with orders to bring him in dead or alive, but being warned, he did not await their arrival, broke his parole, and joined General Marion in the Swamp. Meanwhile his house and plantation were being searched for him, but luckily he was away, and remained with the old Swamp Fox as an aide, to whom he continued firmly attached, not only to the end of the Revolutionary War, but also to the end of his life; at the death of General Marion, Simons' loyalty was transferred to his family, and at the death of Mrs. Marion (so says Dr. Johnson, from whom all the above narrative is extracted and quoted) she left her plantation and · negroes to Mr. Simons' eldest son, Keating Lewis Simons.
Lewisfield is now in possession of Mr. Charles Stevens, whose wife was the fascinating Mary Wharton Sinkler, of Belvidere. An amusing story is told that at Lewisfield, during the Civil War, a clever ruse was employed by the owner's family to save their valuables. It was given out that a relative had died in Charleston, and that the body would be interred
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"DOUKON," WESTERN BRANCH COOPER RIVER
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"LITTLE LANDING" OR "LEWISFIELD." THE STEVENS HOUSE WESTERN BRANCH COOPER RIVER
HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
upon the plantation. Accordingly a coffin was brought, but in it was secretly placed the family silver, plate, etc; An elab- orate funeral was held and the valuables buried. As the negroes never discovered the ruse employed, raiding parties could not extract from them information they did not possess, and the valuables remained hidden safely until after the strife was over and the former owner returned to his home. One day he decided to recover his buried possessions, taking with him an old negro man, who had been present at the "funeral" years before, to assist him. The owner waxed so hot in the search that the old darkey, who was helping to dig up the supposed relative, exclaimed : "Lord, Maussa! By dis time you sho mus be unjint 'um" (unjoint him).
The house at Lewisfield is the regulation square pine or cypress building, facing the river landing. The establishment is set up on a high brick foundation, as a precaution against the rising of the river in freshet times. From the ground a high flight of steps leads to the wide piazza which forms the front to the lower story of Lewisfield, and lying along this piazza are the two front rooms of the place. There is no "front door" proper, but entrance into the house is made (as is often- times the case in houses of this section) through long French windows opening directly into these rooms. The only other entry into the house is at the rear where another flight of steps is found leading to the back hall, which penetrates only half the depth of the house, and affords space for stairs leading to the upper story, while separating the two rooms in the rear.
In all these old plantation places, which are ringed around with rice fields and blue-gum and cypress swamps, the out- buildings are set a little way from the main building in order to dispense with the household. offices going forward in the main house. The servants like this arrangement, as it gives them greater freedom, and a little domain all their own. Many a southern child has looked with delight upon a stolen visit to the servants' quarters and there learned folk-lore stories akin to those "Uncle Remus" told the "Little Boy." No one lives at Lewisfield now, and the name is being changed (against history) to "Chacan," an adjoining place across the river,
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WESTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER
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also :owned by the same Stevens family, the very handsome house upon which was unfortunately burned.
ÉXETER
Sir John Colleton, the fourth Baronet, made the following transfer of property-"On the 15th September, 1767, to Mary Broughton, 988 acres on the river front, adjoining the 511 acres transferred to Thomas and Nathaniel Broughton." In this deed the 988 acres is styled "Exeter" plantation, by which name it has ever since been known. Miss Marie. Heyward, of Wappahoola plantation, is the authority for the statement that the house at Exeter was built by Governor Broughton for his daughter.
Exeter house is two miles north of Mulberry. It is a quaint dwelling of bricks of English measurement laid in Flemish bond. The two houses are in plain sight of each other ; Exeter, with the date 1712 engraved in its brickwork on the chimney- side, and Mulberry with the date 1714 in its weathervanes, are companion houses in historic interest. The plantations of Mulberry and Exeter were Broughton residences, but Sir Nathaniel Johnson was supposed to have lived at Exeter at one time, before he lived at Silk Hope, on the eastern branch of the Cooper River.
A portrait of Sir Nathaniel was at one time in possession of Dr. Barker, of South Mulberry, and one of his wife, said to be Anne Overton, a descendant of the general of that name who served under Cromwell, hung for a time at Exeter along with other interesting portraits. Wherever he lived, it is cer- tain that Sir Nathaniel Johnson was buried at Silk Hope, in St. Thomas' Parish, and from respect to his memory his grave was surrounded by a brick wall by Mr. Gabriel Manigault, who purchased the plantation, many years after the death of the old knight, from his descendants.
In "Cameos of Colonial Carolina," exquisitely written by that most "perfect, pure and gentil" knight of the pen, the Rev. P. D. Hay, which Cameo appeared in Harper's, Vol. LXVI, No. 391, 5, a full history of Sir Nathaniel Johnson is given, and Exeter is described as being his home.
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"We have but to step over the threshold of one of the old houses to cross a chasm of two centuries. Let us, for instance, visit Exeter, the country home of Sir Nathaniel. As we enter, two cabinet pictures, representing respectively a blonde and brunette of the time of Charles II, welcome us, clothed, as to their shoulders, in wonderful folds of white and blue and crim- son, Their stories and their names are alike forgotten.
"Skied up over a door of the hall is the portrait of a young Huguenot maiden dressed as a shepherdess, and taken in Lon- don, it is said, by Sir Peter Lely, as she passed on her way from France to Carolina, On the left of the chimney a robust English matron appears in heavy bronze satin, while over her shoulders is thrown a snowy kerchief of lawn. On the opposite side is her daughter as a younger matron, born about 1703, with a complexion as fair as the wide band of pearls encircling her neck, and a face eloquent of sweet womanly virtues. She is dressed in blue silk, cut away from the neck only enough to show its slope, the waist just under the arms, wide sleeves held open by a fall of lace, a heavy piece of corded silk several shades lighter than the dress passing down the entire front, looking as straight and stiff as a cuirass of steel. In another place we see a boy of five clad in a short-waisted light gray surtout reaching almost to the ankles, white stockings, and crimson shoes. Into a room with walls so peopled it would not seem very strange to see the good Sir Nathaniel himself walk, dressed in a shag gown, trimmed with gold buttons and twist, silk tops for his legs, and a camlet cloak thrown over his martial shoulders.
"But paintings are not the only art treasures which these colonial houses contain. Pieces of old jewelry are here-dia- monds and brilliants set in silver; rare specimens of napery, which have escaped by successive miracles the accidents of great wars and fires, expressing in exquisite damask-work legends such as Elijah fed by the ravens; antique musical in- struments; which have by turns shivered to the Cavalier tune of 'Green Sleeves,' or pulsated responsive to the rhythm of some soft air born among the vine-clad hills of France ; time- stained inventories of the furniture once filling a stately Eng- lish home in the days of Charles I; and deeds of the same period conveying now in their heiroglyphical characters to the heirs nothing but doubt and confusion. These, with fragments of old lace, moth-eaten letters, vellum-bound diaries of the time, and remnants of beautiful china and glass, may yet be seen.
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"With such. a treasury to choose from, it would not be difficult to furnish forth an old-fashioned.tea table on the lawn at Exeter, realistic in its minutest details ; nor would it be hard. to fill the punch bowl.again with genuine Barbadoes shrub, if Carolinians could be made to agree whether the sweet orange and lemon should be used in the brewing or the juice of the sour orange alone.
"Judging from the size of the tea service, genuine Bohea must have been a rare commodity in those days, and in looking over an old bill I find Dr. William Rind to have been a debtor to Alexander Cramale and Co. 'to I lb. Bohea tea, £4 10s.' Dr. Rind was a gay bachelor, and in case the reader should wish to know what was required by a man of fashion during the first half of the eighteenth century, I will quote another bill against him by the same firm :
"To 1 Wigg Comb
To l pr. Pumps.
To 1 Thread hose
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To 7 yds. blne silk
. 4 . To l doz. gold breast buttons
To 2 bottles treacle water.
To l pair glaz'd white gloves.
.
To 11% doz. silver breast buttons @ 25s.
. . To 1 prayer book
. To 14 cask rum.
66 Sir Nathaniel served the colony as Gov- ernor for two terms. He was the first one of these officials who set an example of civil service reform by alienating from him- self the monopoly of the Indian trade-a perquisite which his predecessors had apparently enjoyed without embarrassment.
"Governor Johnson was at pains during his administration to conciliate the Indians, and they did him 'yoeman's service' when the province was invaded.
"In the parish register of St. Thomas and St. Denis, one of the parishes which he founded, under the date 1712, we may now read these words :
"The Right Honble Sir Nathaniel Johnson. Buried ye 2ª of July.
His grave lies on Silk Hope plantation."
Since the days of Sir Nathaniel Johnson Exeter has passed through many interesting adventures, and was near the scene of action of some sharp encounters during the Revolutionary War. It is now in the hands of Mr. A. J. Jones.
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HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
The Colleton mansion house stood on Fairlawn Barony at. a spot about a mile east of the present Monck's Corner station, on the Northeastern R. R. (the county seat of Berkeley County) between the main public road and Cooper River, and about a mile from the river. It presents the remains of the most extensive brick mansion house and offices, and adjacent buildings in South Carolina of the period. During the war of the Revolution, the British turned it into a fort and storehouse and when they were compelled to evacuate the post, set it on fire, and destroyed it in 1781.
When the British retreated, states Mrs. Graves, the daugh- ter and heiress of Sir John Colleton, "they burned down the mansion and destroyed every building, including a Town built on the Barony for the residence of several people belonging to the estate, with the granaries, mills, &e. On this occasion, in addition to the furniture, paintings, and books, plate, etc., a large sum of money which was in my father's strong box, and my jewels, were lost, either destroyed or plundered." Finding that desolation brooded where plenty formerly had revelled in her gayest mood, the mansion at Fairlawn was never repaired nor rebuilt ; a crumbling mass of broken brick and tile, with fragments of glass and pottery in a jungle of weed and shrubs is all that marks its site.
The account of Mrs. Graves' life is taken from a little pub- lication by her, entitled "Desultory Thoughts on Various Subjects, by Louisa Carolina, Wife of Rear Admiral Richard Graves, of Hembury Fort, Devonshire, and Daughter of Sir John Colleton, Baronet, Born Baroness of Fairlawn, Land- gravine of Colleton, and Sovereign Proprietress of Bahama. Printed at the British Press 1821." The only known extant copy of this work in South Carolina was the property of Theo. G. Barker, Esq.
"Mrs. Graves in so entitling herself was under some mis- apprehension. She was not the descendant of Landgrave Colleton, but of the Proprietor, and was therefore not Land- gravine; nor is the female heir of a baronet a baroness, " says Judge Smith. Mrs. Graves comes in as a descendant of one of the John Colletous, who was twice married. She is the
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WESTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER
child by his first marriage, his wife being Anne Fulford, daughter of Frances Fulford, of Great Fulford. His marriage to Anne Fulford having been dissolved by Act of Parliament, he married in 1774 Jane Mutter, and died in September, 1777, at Fair Lawn and was interred at Biggon Church. By his will he left all his property to this daughter (by his first wife), Louisa Carolina, who married Capt. (afterwards Admiral) Richard Graves, of the British Navy, and during her lifetime the sale and breaking up of the rest of the Barony took place ; although the final sales of the last of it were not had until after her death.
The following sales were made by Admiral Graves and his wife, vie .: 1st November, 1815, to A. C. Mazyck-Ellery ; 26th March, 1816, to M. W. Smith-416 acres, no name.
Under a family arrangement the estate had been trans- ferred to Samuel Colleton Graves, the son of Admiral and Mrs. Graves, and he made sales as follows: to John White- Moss Grove; to Keating Simons-no name to tract; to John White-the tract called Gippy Swamp; to Samuel G. Barker (Trustee)-the tract called the "Old House."
Fairlawn Barony has furnished the background for a his- torical romance of colonial days. The "Story of Margaret Tudor," by Miss Annie T. Colcock is drawn from some of the Shaftesbury papers. Miss Colcock has made romance fit into history better than any other recent writer of fiction dealing with colonial history of South Carolina excepting perhaps Miss Annie Sloan in her "Carolina Cavalier."
INLAND PLANTATIONS OF FAIRLAWN BARONY GIPPY
In addition to the plantations lying along the western bank- of the river were several inland tracts sold subsequent to the breaking up of the Barony. The history of these tracts is of no special significance, except that one of them, Gippy, originally bought by Alonzo White, possessed a river landing. A list of these plantations includes Fairfield, Castle Ruin, Bamboretta, Moss Grove and Gippy, upon which latter a house still stands, and is now found in the possession of Mr. White's descendants.
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HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
A picture of this shows the southern aspect of the house, and gives a fair idea of the plantation home of that period. For many years Gippy was the residence of the Stoney family, representatives of which are found throughout the State, and a direct branch of which is located in El Paso, Texas.
FAIRFIELD, CASTLE RUIN AND BAMBORETTA
Behind Mulberry, having no river landings, lie the three places known as Fairfield. Castle Ruin and Bamboretta, all originally part of one tract.
On July 26th, 1769, John Mitchell, of Salisbury, North Carolina, acquired 1004 acres of Fairlawn Barony, "not situ- ate on the water front, but bounding to the East on the public road to Moncks Corner." He died, leaving two sons, John Mitchell and William Nesbit Mitchell, and by his will his plantation, which he styles "Fairfield," is left to his son John, who died in 1800 and left it to his son William. with remainder over to his brother, William Nisbet Mitchell, should his son die before twenty-one years of age, without children. The child must have so died, as we find William Nisbet Mitchell in possession of the whole, which at his death appears to have been divided into two plantations, one called by the original name of Fairfield, containing some 470 acres, and the other of some 521 acres, on which William Nisbet Mitchell lived, called Castle Ruin and Bamboretta.
"This William Nisbet Mitchell directs, in his will on rec- ord, that the burial ground at Fairfield, in which his brother and his children were buried, and in which his own body was to be deposited, should, by his executors, be enclosed with a substantial brick wall." The foregoing is quoted from an article in the South Carolina Historical Magazine dealing with Fairlawn Barony.
Showing how tradition in some instances differs greatly from actual facts, an extract from Dr. Irving's "Day on Cooper River" says: "Mitchell directed in his will that his body should be burned. He died in 1826: many years before his death he purchased an iron chest or coffin, he used it during his lifetime as a cupboard or bin. After his death his body
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"CHIPPY" WESTERN BRANCO COOPER RIVER
WESTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER
was burned and ashes put in this iron chest and locked and key thrown into. Cooper River. In his will he directed that his remains were not to be buried, but placed above ground in the woods on two brick piles with brick enclosure around it. "This wish was complied with, and body placed near his former residence about two miles West of the 28 mile stone on the Moncks Corner road, where it may be seen to this day. The burning of his body was conducted by Thomas Broughton, Esq." It is said that the old iron coffin is in use as a drinking trough for horses.
Beyond Fairlawn Barony lay Wadboo, Keithfield, Somer- ton and several other plantations of great historical signifi- cance and interest, but as no houses now stand upon these places we pass them over with this bare mention.
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CHAPTER IV EASTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER ABOVE. THE "TEE"
WESTERN SIDE OF EASTERN BRANCH OF COOPER RIVER
FISH POND AND THE HUT
CROSS the river from Dean Hall, and near Comingtee on the western side of the eastern branch, are Fish Pond and The Hut. At the time Irving wrote his " Day On Cooper River " they were owned by John Henry Ingraham. These planta- tioris were originally the property of the Harlestons, who settled there to be near their sister, Mrs. Affra Comings, at Comingtec. The plantations on this part of the river front were not large, and · were in comparatively .close proximity so as to form a social - neighborhood of society, the members of which were in easy circumstances and more or less connected by ties of blood or marriage or early association.
According to Theodore D. Jervey, the Harlestons were identified with the history of South Carolina from the settle- ment of the Province. They were descended from an old and illustrious family of the county of Essex, England, and bore a conspicuous part in the Wars of the Roses, being adherents of the house of York. One member of the family, Sir John Harleston, was governor of Havre du Grace in the reign of Edward IV, another was Vice-Admiral Richard Harleston. In the family records John Harleston is described as of South Ossenden, while his son is later described as of Malling, More than one hundred years prior to this-about 1532 -- we find the same name and place in the County of Essex, England.
The first of the name to come to Carolina was Affra, who married in 1672 Captain John Comings, the mate of two ves-
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sels, The Carolina and The Blessing, plying between this prov- ince and England, and whose Carolina home was the plantation at Comingtee, which she later left to Elias Ball, who had mar- ried her sister.
Affra Comings was a woman accustomed to wealth and refinement. "Her father's 'inventorie' shows the furniture of her early home Mollyns from 'the seller, the parlour, the Inner parlour, the ball, the kitchen, the larder, ye great Cham- ber, the hall chamber, the painted chamber, the nurserie, the buttrie chamb" the back chamb" the gallerie' to " the garretts'."
Mrs. Comings died in 1699 and. as she had no children she devised all her estate, at her husband's request, in "joint tenancy " to the aforementioned Elias Ball, and her nephew, "John Harleston in the Kingdom of Ireland, the son of John Harleston late of Malling in the county of Essex in the King- dom of England." The family tradition places the arrival of John Harleston in America at 1699 or 1700. From letters to him and his replies to same soon after his marriage to Eliza- beth Willis in 1707 it is apparent that he was a person of im- portance in the province and that he must have occupied close personal relations with its rulers at that time. A letter of John Harleston to John Page (subsequently Lord Mayor of Dublin) displays the position they held in the colony :
"The Chief Justice M". Nicholas Trott, who is my Perticu- ler Friend in Carolina . Invited him & his wife to my Weding & set him at table with the Governor & Capt of men a ware that lay in oure harbor that saime time, & with the best of the Country."
Perhaps the most distinguished public member of the fam- ily of Harlestons was Isaac Child Harleston, who had a notable record during the Revolution, winning the title of Major, and bring elected a member of the first Provincial Congress. He was a great horseman, and upon the death of his cousin John, son of Edward, by a provision in John's will, he became sole owner of the celebrated imported stallion Flimnap. The will reads as if this cousin had a deep respect for the Almighty even though he was a thorough sportsman. It states:
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HISTORIC HOUSES OF SOUTH CAROLINA
"Also my moiety of the above mentioned sted horse Flim- napas also my wearing gold watch and the oll-family watch I give unto my cousin Isaac Harleston, son of John Harles- ton, deceased."
Speaking of Flimnap, a celebrated visitor to South Caro- lina in 1773, Sir Joshua Quincy, witnessed a race between this horse and Little David, in which $1000 were won and lost. He writes :
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