Bugby Plantation – Wadmalaw Island – Charleston County

Basic Information

• Location – Bohicket Creek (a branch of the North Edisto River), Wadmalaw Island, St. John's Colleton Parish, Charleston County

  Located off Maybank Highway at 1884 Bugby Plantation Road
  

• Origin of name – Named for the Bugby family's ship anchorage on Thames River in London, England, which was called Bugby Hole (5)
  

• Other names – Bugby's Hole; Quiet Corner
  

• Current status – About 200 acres are still be farmed under the name Bugby Plantation (2).
  

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence
  

• ? – House built

• Founded circa 1705 – The Laroch [LaRoche] family plantation, Quiet Corner, on Wadmalaw Island, may have been later called Bugby or became part of Bugby Plantation (10).
  

• 1790 – William Carson owned Bugby Plantation. At this time, the plantation was located on both sides of Bohicket Creek with the majority of the property on Wadmawlaw Island. There was also a bridge at the plantation that crossed the creek (1, p. 101).
  

• 1801 – Survey shows William Carson still owner (9).
  

• 1835 – Captain Richard and Phoebe Waight Jenkins owned Bugby Plantation (8, p. 36).
  

• ? – Captain Richard and Phoebe Waight Jenkins' daughter Mary Caroline Jenkins Townsend inherited Bugby Plantation. She was married to John Ferrars Townsend (7).
  

• ? – Susan Grace Townsend Sosnowski inherited Bugby from her parents, Mary Caroline and John Townsend. Susan was married to Dr. Julius Christian Sosnowski (6, p. 69) (7).
  

• Circa 1900s – John Ferrars Sosnowski, son of Dr. Julius and Susan Sosnowski, owned the plantation and along with his son, John Ferrars Sosnowski, Jr, still farmed the property. They also leased and farmed the neighboring Wilson Bugby tract owned by Mr. Wilson. The Sosnowskis purchased the Wilson Bugby tract from Mr. Wilson bringing Bugby Plantation's size to about 3,000 acres (6, p. 69).
  

• 1900s – The original plantation house is no longer standing. Sometime in the early 1900s another house was built at Bugby (1, p. 224).
  

• 2007 – 906 acres of Bugby Plantation were placed under a conservation easement (3).
  

• 2013 – Dr. John Richard Sosnowski was owner of Bugby Plantation when he passed away at the age of 92. Dr. Sosnowski had grown up at the plantation (3).
  

• 2016 – About 200 acres are still be farmed by Adair McKoy under the name Bugby Plantation (2).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 102 in 1840; 3,000 in 1900s; about 2,000 in 2003; 906 acres placed under conservation easement in 2007
  

• Primary crop – ?

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 26 (6, p. 12)
  

Buildings

• Slave cabins – 9

References & Resources

1. Layton Wayne Jordan and Elizabeth H. Stringfellow, A Place Called St. John's (Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1998)
   
   

2. Stratton Lawrence, Charleston City Paper Business Listing
   

3. South Carolina Conservation Bank File
   

4. Dede Waring, Dr. John Richard Sosnowski, The Gentlemanly Physician (Charleston Mercury, 2013)
   

5. Information contributed by descendant Dale Bugby.
   

6. Michelle Adams and Kate Di Silvestre, Wadmalaw Island (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012)
   
   

7. Chris Sosnowski, 2003 Bugby surname post
   

8. Alicia "Lish" Anderson Thompson, Rockville (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2006)
   
   

9. Charleston County file, Large PDF
   

10. Rootsweb File