Baldrick Plantation – North Charleston – Charleston County

Basic Information

• Location – Cooper River, North Charleston, St James Goose Creek Parish, Charleston County
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Baldrick's

• Current status – ?

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• 1714 – Richard Baker II purchased the plantation from John Felbin. He did not live on the plantation - his main residence was Archdale Hall on the Ashley River (3, p. 27).

• 1742 – Richard Baker II owned Lot 8 in the town of Dorchester. His lot was situated along the Ashley River with a wharf running into the river from the south end of the lot. There were three buildings on his lot: a house, kitchen, and warehouse. The warehouse could hold 1,000 barrels of rice. It is assumed that Richard Baker II allowed people to store their rice in his warehouse for a fee. Since he had his own schooner he probably charged people to ship their rice to Charleston as well. Richard Baker II was a wealthy planter who probably made even more money storing and shipping other people's rice (2).
  

• 1752 – Richard Baker II died on July 16, the result of a duel with Joseph Butler. It is not known why they were dueling. At the time of his death he was quite a wealthy planter (4, p. 21-22).
  

  In his will he left Baldrick, consisting of 540 acres, to his grandson, George Logan. His other plantations Jack Savanna, Archdale Hall and Cow Savanna he left to his son, Richard Bohun Baker III (Click here to read excerpts of the will.)
  

  It is not known what happened to the lot in the town of Dorchester. The town has since disappeared and the site is known as Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site, owned by the South Carolina State Park Service. It is open to the public.
  

• 1835 – Baldrick and Hickory Hill Plantation were combined and sold to Rudolph C. Geyer. The property consisted of 806 acres.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 540 in 1752; 806 in 1835
  

• Primary crop – ?

Owners

• Alphabetical list – James Atkins; Richard Baker II (1714-1752); John Felbin (?-1714); Rudolph C. Geyer (1835-?); George Logan (1752-?); John Christopher Martin
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• ?

References & Resources

1. Families in Lowcountry South Carolina - information on the Baker and Bohun families
   

2. Colonial Dorchester WebQuest - scroll down to Lot 8 at the bottom of the page
   

3. Baker Family Papers, 1683 - ca. 1935. Chronicles of Archdale Hall, by Emma Drayton-Grimke. Located at the South Carolina Historical Society in File 1138.00.
   

4. Martha Zierden, Jeanne Calhoun, and Debi Hacker-Norton, Archdale Hall: Investigations of a Lowcountry Plantation (Charleston, SC: Charleston Museum, 1985)
    Order Archdale Hall: Investigations of a Lowcountry Plantation