Exeter Plantation – Moncks Corner – Berkeley County
— Exeter Plantation 1938 © Library of Congress —
— Prints & Photographs Division LC-J7-SC- 1403 —
Basic Information
- Location – Western branch of the Cooper River, Moncks Corner, St. John's Berkeley Parish, Berkeley County
Located on Old US 52 on Exeter Plantation Road
- Origin of name – ?
- Other names – ?
- Current status – Berkeley Country Club and subdivisions
Timeline
- 1678 – Earliest known date of existence
Sir Peter Colleton received a land grant of 12,000 acres. The property became known as the Fairlawn Barony.
- 1726 – A tract of land from the Barony, known as Exeter, was leased to Hugh Butler by Sir John Colleton (son of Sir Peter) (1).
- 1726-1738 – House was built
Hugh Butler built a house on Exeter. The house did not belong to him since he built on leased lands (1).
- 1749 – Sir John Colleton died and left Exeter to his minor son, John Colleton (1).
- 1767 – John Colleton (grandson of Sir Peter) sold 988 acres known as Exeter to Mary Broughton (5, p. 109).
- 1842 – T.O. Dawson owned the plantation (5, p. 35).
- 1845 – Dr. Jacob Rhett Motte purchased Exeter (8, p. 82)
- 1868 – Dr. Motte died of Typhoid Fever at Exeter (9)
- 1902 – Jadon Solomon Jones, Sr. bought the plantation from the Motte estate (1).
NOTE: There are conflicting resources in regards of which party Mr. Jones purchased the plantation from. Please let us know if you have documentation regarding this transaction.
- ? – Mr. J.W. Jones owned the plantation (1).
- ? – Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Jones were the next owners of Exeter (1).
- 1959 – Berkeley Country Club with 9-hole golf course was formed when the property was purchased from the Jones family (10)
- 1967 – The plantation house was lost in a fire (10)
Land
- Number of acres – 12,000 in 1678; 988 in 1767
- Primary crop – ?
- Grave stones of the Exeter Plantation cemetery can still be seen today on the golf course
Owners
- Alphabetical list – Berkeley Country Club (1959-present, 2012); Mary Broughton (1767); John Colleton (1749-1767); Sir John Colleton (?-1749); Sir Peter Colleton (1678); T.O. Dawson (1842); Graves; Charles A. Jones (?-1959); J.S. Jones Sr. (1902-?); J. W. Jones; Mazyck; Morris; Dr. Jacob Rhett Motte (1845-1868); M.J. Motte; Simons
Slaves
- Number of slaves – 12 in 1848; 51 in 1859; 57 in 1865 (8, p. 82, 87)
Buildings
- Plantation house was lost in a fire in 1967 (10)
- Picture of Exeter Plantation house: Click Here
References & Resources
- Exeter Plantation: Butler and Colleton Families: Click Here
- J. Russell Cross, Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley
(Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 1985)
Order Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley - 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
- 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
- John Beaufain Irving, A Day on Cooper River (1842)
(Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010)
- Samuel Gaillard Stoney, Plantations of the Carolina Low Country
(Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1990)
- 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
- Larry E. Hudson, To Have and to Hold: Slave Work and Family Life in Antebellum South Carolina
(Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1997)
- Dr. Jacob Rhett Motte: Click Here
- Berkeley Country Club History: Click Here
- Information contributed by Bob Manning whose great-grandfather, Jadon Solomon Jones, at one time owned the plantation.
Contact Information
- Berkeley Country Club
772 Exeter Plantation Road
Moncks Corner, SC 29461
Telephone: 843-761-5871
Website: Click here
