Friendfield Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County
Basic Information
- Location – Waccamaw River, Georgetown, All Saints Parish, Georgetown County
Original plantation lands were located on the Waccamaw Neck off US 17.
- Origin of name – ?
- Other names – Trapier Tract
- Current status – Owned by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation as part of Hobcaw Barony which is open to the public for guided tours.
Timeline
- 1718 – John, Lord Carteret, one of the Lords Proprietors, claimed 12,000 acres and called it Hobcaw Barony (7, p. 3).
- 1730 – Lord Carteret sold the property to John Roberts for £500.
John Roberts sold the land to three men: Sir William Baker, Nicholas Linwood, and Brice Fisher. The three men appointed two agents to sell off the land. Hobcaw Barony would eventually be divided into many plantations (7, p. 3).
- 1767 – Benjamin Trapier purchased 1,515 acres of Hobcaw Barony (7, p. 17).
- 1781 – Benjamin Trapier provided 300 barrels of rought rice for the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War. He also hired out his slaves to work on the fortifications around Charleston (7, p. 17).
- 1784 – William Burnett owned the plantation. He may have bought it in 1782 at the death of Benjamin Trapier.
At this time Burnett divided the property into two tracts and sold them. The northern tract, consisting of 768½ acres, was sold to Peter Foissin who named it Friendfield. The southern tract was sold to Edward Martin and was later called Strawberry Hill (7, p. 23).
- 1785 – Peter Foissin sold the plantation to Charles Brown for £3,750.
- 1787 – Charles Brown sold the place to two brothers, John and William Waties.
- 1789 – William died leaving John as the sole owner of Friendfield. Six months later, John died and left the plantation to his cousin, Elizabeth Allston (7, p. 24).
Elizabeth Allston married Dr. Joseph Blyth, however, they did not have any children.
- 1840 – Elizabeth Allston Blyth died and left Friendfield to her nephew Robert F.W. Allston. He kept the property for only a year and then sold it because it was too far from his other properties to be managed conveniently (7, p. 26).
- 1841 – Arthur P. Hayne bought Friendfield from Robert F.W. Allston.
- 1847 – Arthur P. Hayne sold the plantation to his wife's older brother, William Algernon Alston.
- 1850s – Friendfield went to William Algernon Alston's grandson and namesake, William Algernon Alston.
During the Civil War Friendfield was confiscated under the Abandoned Lands Act. William Algernon Alston (grandson) had to petition the government to get his lands back (7, p. 26).
- 1866 – Friendfield was returned to William Algernon Alston, however, he died within the year and the property went to his cousin Thomas Pinckney Alston, Jr. However, since the will was made before the Civil War it included the division of slaves. The situation ended up in court in order to divide William Algernon Alston's property equitably (7, p. 26).
- 1874 – Hardy Solomon bought Friendfield at a public sale. Included in the sale were Marietta, Strawberry Hill, Calais, and Michau Plantations, all once the property of William Algernon Alston (7, p. 26).
- 1875 – Eliza Donaldson purchased the above plantations from Hardy Solomon, and called the whole thing Friendfield.
The Donaldson family built a house on the property. It is not clear if there was already a house there or not.
- 1905 – All of the plantations comprising Friendfield Plantation were sold to Bernard M. Baruch. Upon hearing the history of the original Hobcaw Barony, Baruch began acquiring the plantations that had been created from the Barony. He called all of his property Hobcaw Barony using the original name.
- 1935-1943 – Bernard M. Baruch conveyed most of Hobcaw Barony to his daughter, Belle Wilcox Baruch (1, p. 42 ).
- 1956 – Belle Baruch created the Bernard M. Baruch Foundation to manage the barony as an educational center focusing on forestry and marine science (7, p. 54).
- 1964 – Belle Baruch died and her father decided to change the name of the foundation to the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. The foundation still exists today and continues to provide educational opportunities in wildlife conservation and research (1, p. 42 ).
Land
- Number of acres – 768½ in 1784
- Primary crop – Rice
Slaves
- Number of slaves – ?
References & Resources
- National Register of Historic Places
– Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1994
– Photographs, architectural overview
- History of Hobcaw Barony: Click here
- 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
- Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company)
Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII
- Alberta Morel Lachicotte, Georgetown Rice Plantations
(Georgetown, SC: Georgetown County Historical Society, 1993)
Order Georgetown Rice Plantations - Julian Stevenson Bolick, Waccamaw Plantations
(Clinton, SC: Jacob Press, 1946)
Order Waccamaw Plantations - Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River
(Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001)
Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River - George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina
(Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1990)
Order The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina
Contact Information
- Belle W. Baruch Foundation
22 Hobcaw Road
Georgetown, SC 29440
Telephone: 843-546-4623
Website: Click here
