Basic Information

• Location – Waccamaw River, Georgetown, All Saints Parish, Georgetown County
  

  Original plantation lands were located on the Waccamaw Neck, off US 17, and stretched from the Waccamaw River to the Atlantic Ocean.

• Origin of name – Named after one of the owner’s mother, Mary

• Other names – Pleasant Fields

• Current status – Owned by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation
  

Timeline

• 1718 – John, Lord Carteret, one of the Lords Proprietors, claimed 12,000 acres and called it Hobcaw Barony (Linder & Thacker, 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 (Linder & Thacker, p. 3).
  

• 1767 – Peter Secare purchased 1,066 acres of Hobcaw Barony for £2,800 (Linder & Thacker, p. 29).
  

• 1769 – Peter Secare died and his property was divided up amongst his relatives. It is not known who received the 1,066 acres.
  

• 1789 – At this time the plantation was owned by Elizabeth Calhoun who was probably related somehow to Peter Secare (Linder & Thacker, p. 29).
  

  A plat dated 1789 shows that a Dr. Thomas Humphries owned Pleasant Fields (the name of the plantation before it was changed to Marietta). Not much is known about this, however, it is assumed that he probably married Elizabeth Calhoun (Linder & Thacker, p. 30).
  

• 1825 – Thomas Pinckney Alston was listed as the owner at this time. His father, Colonel William Alston, probably purchased the plantation in the early 1800s with the intention of giving it to one of his sons when they came of age (Linder & Thacker, p. 30).
  

  Thomas Pinckney Alston is probably the owner who named the plantation Marietta after his mother, Mary Motte Alston.
  

• 1841 – Thomas Pinckney Alston sold Marietta to Arthur P. Hayne, a brother-in-law.
  

• 1847 – Arthur P. Hayne sold Marietta to William Algernon Alston.
  

• 1850s – Marietta went to William Algernon Alston’s grandson and namesake, William Algernon Alston.
  

  During the Civil War Marietta was confiscated under the Abandoned Lands Act. William Algernon Alston (grandson) had to petition the government to get his land back (Linder & Thacker, p. 26).
  

• 1866 – Marietta was returned to William Algernon Alston, however, he died within the year and the property went to his cousin Thomas Pinckney Alston, Jr. 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
  (Linder & Thacker, p. 26).
  

• 1874 – Hardy Solomon bought Marietta at a public sale. Included in the sale were Friendfield, Strawberry Hill, Calais, and Michau Plantations, all once the property of William Algernon Alston (Linder & Thacker, p. 26).
  

• 1875 – Eliza Donaldson purchased the above plantations from Hardy Solomon, and called the whole thing Friendfield. The Donaldson family continued to plant rice on the plantations.
  

• 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 (National Register, 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 (Linder & Thacker, 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 (National Register, p. 42).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,066 in 1767

• Primary crop – Rice

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Thomas Pinckney Alston; Thomas Pinckney Alston, Jr.; Colonel William Alston; William Algernon Alston; William Algernon Alston (grandson); Sir William Baker, Nicholas Linwood, and Brice Fisher; Belle Wilcox Baruch; Bernard Baruch; John, Lord Carteret; Elizabeth Calhoun; Eliza Donaldson; Arthur P. Hayne; Dr. Thomas Humphries; John Roberts; Peter Secare; Hardy Solomon
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves –

Buildings

Web Resources

• National Register of Historic Places
  – Nomination Form - submitted in 1994 by Sarah Fick and John Laurens - requires Adobe Reader
  – Photographs, architectural overview
  

• Hobcaw Barony

Print Resources

• Alberta Morel Lachicotte, Georgetown Rice Plantations (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company, 1955).
  

• 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).
  

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

Contact Information

• Belle W. Baruch Foundation
  22 Hobcaw Road
  Georgetown, SC 29440
  

  Telephone: 843-546-4623

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