Basic Information

• Location – Pee Dee River, Plantersville, Prince George Winyah Parish, Georgetown County

  Original plantation lands were located off Plantersville Road in the vicinity of Samworth Loop and Dirleton Road.
  

  For directions, click here and scroll down to the Samworth Wildlife Management Area Landing.
  

• Origin of name – Name after Dirleton Castle, the ancestral home of the Heriot family
  

• Other names – Richfield (until 1854)

• Current status – Samworth Wildlife Management Area

Timeline

• 1779 – Abraham Livingston purchased 1,455 acres, referred to as Richfield, from Daniel Huger (Linder & Thacker, p. 293).
  

• 1817 – George and Savage Smith were in possession of Richfield. They also acquired an additional 800 acres from John Huger. They eventually split their property into three tracts of land which later became Springfield, Benvenue, and Richfield (Linder & Thacker, p. 293).
  

  Sarah Smith Brown, daughter of George Smith, ended up with Richfield. Her husband amassed large debts and left her practically penniless (Linder & Thacker, p. 293).
  

• 1825 – Benjamin Faneuil Hunt purchased Richfield. He was only able to do so by mortgaging the property (Linder & Thacker, p. 294).
  

• 1854 – Benjamin Faneuil Hunt lost the property due to failure to pay the mortgage. Edward Thomas Heriot bought the plantation for $60,000. It was at this time that he changed the name of the plantation from Richfield to Dirleton in honor of his ancestral home in Scotland (Linder & Thacker, p. 295).
  

  He also owned Mont Arena and Northampton plantations.
  

• 1855 – Edward Thomad Heriot died and his estate was divided among his widow and children. Robert Stark Heriot, the eldest son, received Dirleton.
  

  Robert Stark Heriot decided to exchange Dirleton for Birdfield, a plantation owned by his sister, Mary, and her husband, Dr. James Ritchie Sparkman (Linder & Thacker, p. 295).
  

• 1850s – Dr. James Ritchie Sparkman began building a house in the late 1850s. It was three stories and had twenty-three rooms (Linder & Thacker, p. 296).
  

• 1917 – Philip R. Lachicotte, L.J. Upton, and T.R. Upton bought the plantation from the Sparkman heirs. L.J. Upton eventually owned the whole plantation.
  

• 1932 – L.J. Upton sold the plantation to Louis L. Hamby.
  

• 1945 – Thomas G. Samworth purchased the plantation.
  

• 1961 – Thomas G. Samworth donated Dirleton to the state of South Carolina. He and his wife kept the rights to the plantation house and the rest of the property became the Samworth Wildlife Management Area operated by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 624

• Primary crop – Rice

• Cemetery

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Edward Thomas Heriot; Robert Stark Heriot; Ragsdale; Thomas G. Samworth; Dr. James Ritchie Sparkman
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• The plantation house remains. It is three stories with twenty-three rooms.
  

• Pictures

Web Resources

• Dirleton Plantation

• Samworth Wildlife Management Area - SC Department of Natural Resources
  

• Samworth WMA - Ducks Unlimited conservation project
  

• Dr. James Ritchie Sparkman
  

Print Resources

• Initial references: 1, 2

• William P. Baldwin, Jr., Plantations of the Low Country: South Carolina 1697-1865 (Greensboro, NC: Legacy Publications, 1987).
  

• Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker (with preliminary research by Agnes Leland Baldwin), Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001).
  

• Catherine Campani Messmer, South Carolina's Low Country: a past preserved (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper Pub., 1988).
  

• George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1970).
  

Contact Information

• South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
  Great Pee Dee Scenic River Project
  P.O. Box 167
  Columbia, SC 29202
  

  Telephone: 803-734-3918
  

More about Georgetown County

• Learn more about historic Georgetown County, including the lovely town of Georgetown SC. We have helpful guides to Georgetown SC history and Georgetown SC libraries and museums – plus Georgetown SC restaurants, Georgetown SC bed & breakfasts, Georgetown SC hotels, and Georgetown SC real estate.