— Willtown Bluff Plantation © Brandon Coffey —

Basic Information

• Location – Edisto River, Adams Run, St. Paul's Parish, ACE Basin, Charleston County

  Located off SC 164 on Willtown Road
  

• Origin of name – The nearby village was called Wiltown probably for William of Orange (2, p. 627)
  

• Other names – Wilton, New Hope
  

• Current status – Privately owned
  

— Willtown Bluff Historical Marker © Gazie Nagle —

Timeline

• 1714 – Earliest known date of existence

  Granted to Landgrave Robert Daniel (2, p. 628)
  

• 1756 – Tract purchased by William Elliott from John Ash (2, p. 628)
  

• ? – Ann Morris, William Elliott's daughter, inherited the property from her father (2, p. 628).
  

• ? – Ann's son Lewis Morris V became owner (2, p. 629).
  

• 1809 – House built by Lewis V and Elizabeth Manigault Morris (2, p. 629)

  The date of the house construction is uncertain as the National Register has the date of 1820 (1, p. 2)

• 1863 – Lewis died after witnessing his property being destroyed by warring factions. Many houses in the area were burned but the house at Willtown Bluff was spared (2, p. 634).
  

  The house may have been used as a Confederate hospital during the Civil War (1, p. 3)

• 1871 – Morris' heirs sold the plantation to Edward Manigault Barnwell (2, p. 634).
  

• 1885 – John Grimball purchased the property from Edward Manigault Barnwell (2, p. 634).
  

• 1893 – John Grimball sold Willtown Bluff to Christopher FitzSimons (2, p. 634).
  

• 1911 – Christopher FitzSimons transferred ownership to Samuel G. FitzSimons (2, p. 634).
  

• 1925 – Samuel G. FitzSimons sold Willtown Bluff to William E. Harmon (2, p. 635).
  

• 1930 – Harmon's estate sold the plantation to Arthur Whitney (2, p. 635).
  

• 1945 – Hugh Lane became the plantation's owner (2, p. 635)
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,016 in 1714; 623 in 1851

• Primary crop – Rice

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Mr. and Mrs. Donald Allston; John Ash (?-1756); Edward Manigault Barnwell (1871-1885); William Elliott (1756-?); Christopher FitzSimons (1893-1911); Samuel G. FitzSimons (1911-1925); John Grimball (1885-1893); William E. Harmon (1925-1930); Hugh Lane (1945-?); Ann Morris; Elizabeth Manigault Morris; Colonel Lewis V. Morris (?-1863); Mr. and Mrs. Harold Stanley
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• Elizabeth Manigault Morris' father was a noted amateur architect. The house at Willtown Bluff is of Federal style with a polygonal room (2, p. 629).
  

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1974
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. Suzanne Cameron Linder, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860 (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1995) pp. 625-639
    Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860
   

3. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society

4. Margaret F. Kemp, Colleton County, South Carolina: A Pictorial History (Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1994)
   

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