Michau Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County

Basic Information

• Location – Waccamaw River, Georgetown, All Saints Waccamaw Parish, Georgetown County
  

  Original plantation lands were located on the Waccamaw Neck off US 17.
  

• Origin of name – Named after an early owner

• Other names – ?

• Current status – Owned by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation as part of Hobcaw Barony which is open to the public for guided tours.
  

Timeline

• 1718 – John, Lord Carteret, one of the Lords Proprietors, claimed 12,000 acres and called it Hobcaw Barony (4, p. 3).
  

• 1730 – Lord Carteret sold the property to John Roberts for £500.
  

  John Roberts sold the land to three men: Sir William Baker, Nicholas Linwood, and Brice Fisher. The three men appointed two agents to sell off the land. Hobcaw Barony would eventually be divided into many plantations (4, p. 3).
  

• 1767 – Samuel Clegg III bought 3,304¾ acres of Hobcaw Barony for £4,200 (4, p. 3).
  

• 1796 – Samuel Clegg III divided his land into two tracts. One tract went to Paul Michau. He had married Lydia Clegg Towner, one of the granddaughters of Samuel Clegg III (3, p. 4).
  

  The other tract was given to Reverend Hugh Fraser who was married to Elizabeth Clegg Porter, another granddaughter of Samuel Clegg III. He named the plantation Calais (5, p. 268).
  

• 1812 – In Paul Michau's will he left instructions for his property to be divided amongst his heirs. However, this did not happen.
  

  Paul Michau had mortgaged his property several times throughout his ownership. Since the mortgages had not been paid the court took over and foreclosed on the property (4, p. 8).
  

• 1822 – The court sold the property to Robert F. Withers.
  

• 1827 – Benjamin F. Hunt purchased the property when Robert F. Withers failed to make payments on the place (4, p. 8).
  

• 1837 – The court resold the land again. It is assumed that Reverend Hugh Fraser of Calais bought the land because it shows up in a sales advertisement along with his other property in 1840 (4, p. 8).
  

• ? – Robert F.W. Allston purchased Michau.
  

• 1843 – Robert F.W. Allston sold Michau, consisting of 2,845 acres, to William Algernon Alston.
  

• 1860 – By this time William Algernon Alston owned Marietta, Friendfield, Strawberry Hill, Calais, and Michau (1, p. 44).
  

• 1865 – William Algernon Alston's plantations were considered unoccupied and seized by the Freedman's Bureau. His grandson, William Algernon Alston, Jr. was able to reclaim the land before he died in 1867 (1, p. 44).
  

• 1874 – The executor of William Algernon Alston, Jr.'s estate sold all of the plantations to Hardy Solomon (4, p. 8).
  

• 1875 – Hardy Solomon sold the land to Eliza Donaldson. The Donaldson family referred to all the plantations as Friendfield Plantation. The family continued to plant rice on the plantations (4, p. 8).
  

• 1905 – All of the plantations comprising Friendfield Plantation were sold to Bernard M. Baruch. Upon hearing the history of the original Hobcaw Barony, Baruch began acquiring the plantations that had been created from the Barony. He called all of his property Hobcaw Barony using the original name.
  

• 1935-1943 – Bernard M. Baruch conveyed most of Hobcaw Barony to his daughter, Belle Wilcox Baruch (1, p. 42).
  

• 1956 – Belle Baruch created the Bernard M. Baruch Foundation to manage the barony as an educational center focusing on forestry and marine science (4, p. 54).
  

• 1964 – Belle Baruch died and her father decided to change the name of the foundation to the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. The foundation still exists today and continues to provide educational opportunities in wildlife conservation and research (1, p. 42).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 2,845 in 1843

• Primary crop – Rice

Slaves

• Number of slaves – 27 in 1812

References & Resources

1. National Register of Historic Places
   – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1994
   – Photographs, architectural overview
   

2. History of Hobcaw Barony: Click here

3. Julian Stevenson Bolick, Waccamaw Plantations (Clinton, SC: Jacob Press, 1946)
    Order Waccamaw Plantations

4. Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001)
    Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River

5. George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina (Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1990)
    Order The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina

Contact Information

• Belle W. Baruch Foundation
  22 Hobcaw Road
  Georgetown, SC 29440
  

  Telephone: 843-546-4623
  Website: Click here