Wantoot Plantation – Lake Moultrie – Berkeley County

Basic Information

• Location – Submerged under Lake Moultrie, St. John's Berkeley Parish, Berkeley County
  

  Plantation lands were originally located about five miles west of Bonneau and six miles from Pinopolis.
  

• Origin of name – Possible variation of a Native American word meaning deer (3, IX: 23)
  

• Other names – ?

• Current status – In 1939, work began on the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project. This project displaced many families and communities, and many historic homes were lost as the area was flooded.
  

Timeline

• 1688 – Earliest known date of existence (4, p. 287) (10)
  

  A proprietory grant for 1,000 acres was issued to Pierre de St. Julien de Malacare (4, p. 287) (10).
  

• 1712 – House built by Pierre de St. Julien (the family dropped 'de Malacare' after immigrating from France) (4, p. 14).
  

• Circa 1715 – During the Indian uprisings, a fort was established at Wantoot Plantation (10).
  

• 1718 – Pierre de St. Julien's will gave Wantoot to his son Pierre (4, p. 115) (8).
  

• Circa 1719 – Daniel Ravenel became the owner of Wantoot Plantation when he married Damaris Elizabeth de St. Julien, Pierre de St. Julian's daughter (10).
  

• 1781 – After the Battle of Eutaw Springs – the last battle of the Revolutionary War to take place in South Carolina – the British camped at Wantoot Plantation. British Officer Major John Majoribanks fell ill with a high fever from battle wounds and died while at the plantation. He was buried on the plantation's grounds. Major Majoribanks' grave was moved to the Eutaw Springs Battlefield in 1939 when work began on the Santee Cooper hydroelectric project (4, p. 263) (9) (10).
  

• 1793-1800 – Construction of the Santee Canal took seven years to complete and crossed Wantoot's property (4, p. 208).
  

• The Ravenel family owned Wantoot for about 150 years. It remained in the family but was held by the Macbeth branch after Charles Macbeth married Henrietta Gourdin Ravenel, the great-granddaughter of Daniel Ravenel, in 1835 (10).
  

• Circa 1868 – Charles Macbeth was disliked by the Union, and General Potter ordered the house to be burned during the Civil War (4, p. 14) (10).
  

• ? – Hawkins King Jenkins acquired the plantation and built another house on the property (4, p. 234) (7).
  

• 1910 – Four brothers – Olin M. Pegues, Hilliard E. Pegues, Sarius O. Pegues, and Frank W. Pegues – purchased the plantation from Hawkins Jenkins (7).
  

• 1918 – On December 28th, the brothers signed a contract to sell Wantoot to B.M. Hudson for $33,500. Hudson made a down payment of $5,510 with additional payments due directly to the Pegues brothers (7).
  

• 1919 – B.M. Hudson transfered the contract to J.W. Saverance and H.S. Scarborough on October 31st (7).
  

• Circa 1930s – John Kimberly became the plantation's owner (10).
  

• 1939 – Work began on the Santee Cooper Hydroelectric and Navigation Project and Wantoot Plantation was flooded to create Lake Moultrie (9).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 1,000 in 1688 (4, p. 287)

• Primary crop – Rice (10)

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. Historic Marker for the grave of John Majoribanks
   

2. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society

3. 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
   

4. J. Russell Cross, Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley (Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 1985)
    Order Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley

5. Sankofa's Plantation Data Collection
   

6. Ann Pamela Cunningham file 30-04, South Carolina Historical Society

7. Information contributed by Jim Pegues
   

8. Information contributed by Dee Green
   

9. Eutaw Springs Battlefield Park - SCIWAY
   

10. F. M. Kirk, St. Juliens and Ravenel Families - Wantoot Plantation
    

11. Macbeth Silver - held by The Charleston Museum
    

12. Maxwell Clayton Orvin, Historic Berkeley County, South Carolina: 1671-1900 (Self published, 1973)
     Order Historic Berkeley County, South Carolina: 1671-1900

13. Henry Edmund Ravenel, Ravenel Records - large PDF file - (Atlanta, GA: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1898) - Library of Congress