Mount Hope Plantation – Waccamaw Neck – Georgetown County

— Mount Hope (Whitehall) Plantation © Gazie Nagle, 2015 —
(Do Not Use Without Written Consent)

Basic Information

• Location – Sampit River, Waccamaw Neck, Georgetown, Georgetown County
  

  100 Whitehall Avenue
  

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Whitehall; Mayrant Property (3)
  

• Current status – Privately owned

Timeline

• 1711 – Earliest known date of existence

  The Lords Proprietors granted 48,000 acres to Landgrave Robert Daniell. The next day, Daniell sold 24,000 acres to Landgrave Thomas Smith, 12,000 acres of which were known as the Winyah Barony (2, p. 189) and (3).
  

• ? – House built

• Prior to 1801 – Peter Horry owned the property which had once been part of Winyah Barony (3).
  

• 1815 – Peter Horry passed away and left the property to his wife Margaret Guignard Horry (3).
  

• 1817 – Margaret Guignard Horry left the plantation to her niece Sarah Bay Mayrant in her will (3).
  

• 1868 – William Mayrant Richardson, grandson of Sarah Bay Mayrant, inherited Mount Hope (3).
  

• 1888 – William Mayrant Richardson passed away (3).
  

• 1894 – Gardner B. Penniman purchased the plantation and his wife, Mary Johnstone Penniman, soon began landscaping the gardens (3).
  

• 1928 – Mrs. Penniman's brother, Frank Johnstone, bought the property as well as neighboring Belle Isle Plantation (2, p. 565) (3).
  

• 1930 – Frank Johnstone disassembled the old house at Belle Isle Plantation and used what materials were salvageable to build a house at Mount Hope. The house did have indoor plumbing but no electricity. The plantation became known as Whitehall at this time (3).
  

• 1935 – William N. Beach purchased nearby Rice Hope Plantation in 1926 for use as a hunting preserve. Beach substantially increased the size of Rice Hope Plantation by purchasing several additional properties including part of Mount Hope (1, p. 493).
  

• 1989 – The house was used for the filming of the movie Shag (3).
  

• 2000 – The current owners (2015) purchased the property and have made many repairs and renovations to the house (3).
  

Land

• Number of acres – ?

• Primary crop – Rice (3)

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

References & Resources

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

2. 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

3. Information contributed by Gazie Nagle from the 2015 guide of the Episcopal Church Women of Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church Plantation Tour.