Newport Plantation – Beaufort County

— Oak Avenue at Newport Plantation © Gazie Nagle —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Combahee River, Prince William Parish, ACE Basin, Beaufort County
  

  Located northeast of Gardens Corner off US 17 on Nemours Plantation Road
  

• Origin of name – Speculation is that in the mid-1700s, locals found the plantation's area along the Combahee River the best place between Charleston and Port Royal to dock and petitioned the Provincial Council to make it a port (Linder, p. 371).
  

• Other names – New Port Plantation, Nieuport Plantation

• Current status – Owned by the Nemours Plantation Wildlife Foundation
  

Timeline

• 1762 – Earliest known date of existence
  

  Henry Middleton consolidated the following properties into one plantation known as Newport on February 25, 1762:
  –  1705 grant by the Lords Proprietors to Joseph Bryan
  –  June 19, 1732 land grant to Joseph Blake
  –  November 27, 1732 land grant to Samuel Clarke
  –  February 3, 1737 or 1738 grant to James Mulryne that consisted of the rice fields in the bend of the river
  (Linder, p. 371)
  

• ? – House built

  A house was constructed prior to Middleton's death in 1846 as his will specified the house at "New Port" should not be sold while his wife, Mary, was alive unless she agreed (Linder, p. 372).
  

• 1846 – Middleton died leaving the plantation to his son Arthur with the stipulation that Arthur must reimburse his brother, Henry, the amount that equaled half the plantation's worth (Linder, p. 372).
  

• 1912 – Middleton descendants were owners of the plantation and still planting rice (Linder, p. 374).
  

• 1930s – Percy K. Hudson was owner (Linder, p. 374).
  

• 1995 – Nemours Plantation Wildlife Foundation was owner of record of Newport (Linder, p. 374).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – Rice (Rowland, Moore, Rogers, p. 378)
  

Owners

• Chronological list – Joseph Bryan (1705), Joseph Blake (1732), Samuel Clarke (1732), James Mulryne (1738), Henry Middleton (1762-1846), Arthur Middleton(1846-?), Middleton descendants, Percy K. Hudson (1930), Nemours Plantation Wildlife Foundation (present)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 224 in 1846 (Rowland, Moore, Rogers, p. 378)
  

Buildings

• ?

Web Resources

• ?

Print Resources

• 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
  

• Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore, and George C. Rogers, Jr. The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: Volume 1, 1514-1861 (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1996)
   Order The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: Volume 1, 1514-1861

Contact Information

• Nemours Wildlife Foundation
  161 Nemours Plantation Road
  Yemassee, SC 29945
  

  Telephone: 843-846-2539
  Website: Click here