Clarendon Plantation – Grays Hill – Beaufort County
Basic Information
- Location – Whale Branch (part of the Broad River), Grays Hill, St Helena Parish, Beaufort County
Located west of US 21 off Clarendon Road on Clarendon Plantation Drive
- Origin of name – ?
- Other names – ?
- Current status – Owned by Cox Enterprise, as of 2015
Timeline
- 1780 – Earliest known date of existence
- ? – House built
This house would be lost to fire (3).
- 1816 – Paul Hamilton, Governor of South Carolina from 1804 to 1806, was buried on Rhodes Plantation. The plantation later became part of Clarendon. Today the grave site is located on the border of Clarendon Plantation and the Federal Laurel Bay Housing Project.
- Circa 1940s-1950s – The house pictured above was constructed with the exterior sand blasted to have the structure appear older (3).
- ? – The plantation lands were converted into a cattle ranch (3).
- 1993 – Cattle ranching ceased at Clarendon and converted to producing hay and raising quail (3).
- 2002 – The crops grown changed to pine trees, corn, milo, and wheat on the 4,600 acre plantation (3).
- 2015 – Cox Enterprise was the owner of record (3).
Land
- Number of acres – 4,600 in 2015 with 29 miles of deep, water front property which includes 9 islands (3)
- Primary crop – Pine trees, corn, milo, and wheat in modern times (3)
Slaves
- Number of slaves – ?
Catherine Tolbert shares that her third-great-grandmother Binah Hamilton was a slave of Paul Hamilton and was his cook. Bianh was born on Edisto Island in 1855 but was moved to Clarendon Plantation.
References & Resources
- 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
- N. Jane Iseley and William P. Baldwin, Lowcountry Plantations Today
(Greensboro, NC: Legacy Publications 2001)
- Information contributed by Randall Moring who lived at Clarendon Plantation nearly 30 years.
