Castle Hill Plantation – Beaufort County

— The "Big House" at Castle Hill Plantation © Contributed by Elaine Gamble —
Owner Joseph T. Wearn on left with superintendent Dave Gamble and dogs Mike & Pete

Basic Information

• Location – Beaufort County

• Origin of name – Dr. James Cuthbert named the plantation in honor of his ancestral home in Inverness, Scotland (1, p. 125).
  

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Privately owned

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• ? – Original house built

• ? – Dr. James Cuthbert came to South Carolina in 1737. The exact year he established Castle Hill Plantation is not known (1, p. 125).
  

  Over the next century or so, Castle Hill was passed down through generations of the Cuthbert family (1, p. 125).
  

• 1838 – Col. James Cuthbert died from yellow fever. He had borrowed against the plantation in an effort to increase his crop production. The plantation was sold in an effort to reconcile his estate after his death. (1, p. 125).
  

• ? – Nathaniel Heyward purchased Castle Hill (1, p. 125).
  

• 1849 – G.M. Wilkins purchased the plantation for his daughter Ellen and her husband Col. John Screven (1, p. 125).
  

• Early 1900s – The original house was lost to fire (4)

• 1929 – Blair S. Williams, together with his son John S. Williams, purchased the plantation (1, p. 125).
  

• 1935 – The Williamses hired architect Willis Irvin to design a house. John's family spent winters at Castle Hill (1, p. 125).
  

• 1948 – The Williamses sold the plantation to P.O. Mead (1, p. 125).
  

• ? – Fred C. Koch owned Castle Hill (1, p. 125).
  

• ? – Dr. H.T. Weaver owned Castle Hill (1, p. 125).
  

• Late 1950s-Early 1960s – Dr. Joseph T. Wearn owned Castle Hill (4).
  

• 1984 – Dr. Wearn died and left Castle Hill to his daughter, Sue Wearn Drew (4).
  

• 1986 – Sue Wearn Drew sold the plantation (4).
  

• ? – Mr. Bostwick bought Castle Hill. He recruited 11 investors to develop the plantation into a hunting lodge (4).
  

• 1985 – Mr. Raymond P. Basso purchased Castle Hill (5).
  

• 2024 – Castle Hill was owned by Livia S. Basso (5).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,784 in 1929 (1, p. 125), 2,200 in the 1980s (4)
  

• Primary crop – Rice (1, p. 125)
  

• Elaine Gamble grew-up at Castle Hill. Her father, Dave Gamble, was the plantation's superintendent for 20 years. Elaine shared the following with us: "Castle Hill's nine-tenths of a mile entry lane is lined with bunkers on either side from the Civil War. Several cannonballs were found on the property as well as medical bottles.
  

  "The plantation has a rather large pond, possibly up to 100 acres including wetlands, which is populated with alligators. There is an old rice field that was used for duck hunting and a slave cemetery next to the pond complete with very old headstones [from the] late 1800s.
  

  "When I grew up, it had a prize-winning camellia garden which my father and Dr. Wearn cultivated and won many blue ribbons with. Castle Hill Plantation was visited by many well-known figures including Henry Cabot Lodge and E.B. White."

Owners

• Chronological list – Dr. James Cuthbert, Col. James Cuthbert (?-1838), Nathaniel Heyward, G.M. Wilkins (1849-?), Col. John and Ellen Wilkins Screven, Blair S. and John S. Williams (1929-1948), P.O. Mead (1948-?), Fred C. Koch, Dr. H.T. Weaver, Dr. Joseph T. Wearn (?-1984), Sue Wearn Drew (1984-1986), Bostwick, Raymond P. Basso (1985-?), Livia S. Basso (2024)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 111

• Former resident Elaine Gamble remembers, "One of the gentlemen who worked on the plantation was George Days. He was born there and his family members had been slaves."

Buildings

• The house was built in 1935. There are also older outbuildings including slave quarters that remain on the property.
  

Resources

1. Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius, editors, Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin (Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2009)
   

2. 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
   

3. 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)
    Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of the ACE River Basin - 1860
   

4. Information contributed by Elaine Gamble (2010).
   

5. Information contributed by owner, Livia S. Basso (2024).