Blink Bonnie Plantation – Longtown – Fairfield County

Basic Information

• Location – Longtown, Wateree River, Fairfield County

  Longtown-Camden Road
  

• Origin of name – In Scottish vernacular, Blink Bonnie means beautiful view; the hillside location of the plantation provides views of several counties (1, p. 2)
  

• Other names – Robertson Place (1, p. 1)
  

• Current status – Private residence

Timeline

• 1793 – Earliest known date of existence (1, p. 3)
  

  Darling Jones, a banker from Camden, received a large land grant (1, p. 3).
  

• 1822 – House built by Darling Jones (1, p. 3) (4).
  

• ? – Blink Bonnie Plantation passed from Darling Jones to his son Abram Jones (4).
  

• Circa 1860s – After the Civil War, the house was sold by the Jones family at public auction and used as a stage station (1, p. 3) (4).
  

• ? – W.O. Robertson purchased the property (2, XII: 53).
  

• 1943 – Mr. and Mrs. Marion Adickes Kirkland purchased the house, which was in a state of dilapidation, and restored it. The original kitchen was converted for the commercial manufacturing of pickle and artichoke relishes (1, p. 3) (2, XII: 53).
  

• Early 1970s – The Sayers purchased Blink Bonnie (3).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – ?

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• House – One-half story clapboard house with brick foundation and two chimneys.
  

• There is a brick kitchen building to the left of the house.
  

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1972
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. 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
   

3. Information contributed by Walter T. Sayers.
   

4. Information contributed by Cyndi Shull from:
   Julian Stevenson Bolick, A Fairfield Sketchbook (Jacobs Brothers, 1963)