Auckland Plantation – Walterboro – Colleton County

Basic Information

• Location – Ashepoo River, St. Bartholomew's Parish, Walterboro, Colleton County

  608 Saxby Hill Road
  

• Origin of name – Named for the English town of Bishop Auckland (4)
  

• Other names – Aukland

• Current status – Privately owned – the plantation was put up for sale in December 2013 with an asking price of $1.5 million and removed from the market July 2015 (4).
  

Timeline

• Prior to 1705 – Earliest known date of existence (4)
  

  Thomas Pinckney established Auckland Plantation (4).
  

• ? – House built

• 1779 – British Dragoons plundered the plantation taking slaves and horses. They burned the house and books, smashed all the furniture, china, and crystal, and killed the sheep and poultry (2, p. 72) (4).
  

  Governor Thomas Pinckney had sent all the family's valuables to Auckland thinking they would be safer there for the duration of the Revolutionary War.
  

• ? – The Sanders family acquired the plantation and used it as farm and pasture land (4).
  

• 1989 – Mr. Gardener purchased Auckland from the Sanders but soon sold the property (4).
  

• 1990 – Wistar and Oliver Bjorksten, MD bought the plantation from Mr. Gardener for recreation use (4).
  

• 2006 – The Bjorkstens retired and traveled internationally. They then decided to settle at Auckland and built a house on the property. This 2,000 square foot house is styled after a Japanse temple and was the first house constructed at the plantation since the 1700s (4).
  

• 2013 – The plantation was put up for sale in December with an asking price of $ 1.5 million (4).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 139 in 2013 (4)

• Primary crop – Rice (4)

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

1. Lucius G. Fishburne, Plantation Notes, St. Bartholomew's Parish, 1960, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

2. Anne Baker Leland Bridges and Roy Williams III, St. James Santee, Plantation Parish: History and Records, 1685-1925 (Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1997)
   
   

3. Information contributed by Shannon Scott.
   

4. Information contributed by Cyndi Shull from:
   – 2013 Real Estate Listing