Foot Point Plantation – Spring Island – Beaufort County

Basic Information

• Location – Spring Island, Colleton River, Beaufort County

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – ?

• Current status – ?

Timeline

• 1718 – Earliest known date of existence

  Sir John Colleton was granted 12,000 acres which he called Devil's Elbow Barony (1, p. 12).
  

• 1777 – Sir John Colleton died. The large land holding had remained together up until his death. (1, p. 12).
  

• ? – The Colleton family sold 6,000 acres of the barony (1, p. 68).
  

• ? – House built

• 1860 – Charles J Colcock owned Foot Point Plantation (2, vol. I-XII, x: 35).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – ?

• A 10-acre field of olives were grown at Foot Point Plantation which was destroyed during the Civil War. It is believed these were the first olives grown in America (3).
  

Owners

• Alphabetical list – Charles J Colcock (1860); Sir John Colleton (1718-1777); James M. Eason (1864); Charles T. Lowndes
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – Over 100 according to the Federal Census of 1860 (2, vol. I-XII, x: 35)
  

References & 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. Information contributed by Lancy Burn from the Handbook of South Carolina, 1908, second edition, page 349