Strawberry Hill Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County

Basic Information

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

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

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Trapier Tract, Belle Voir

• 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 – Benjamin Trapier purchased 1,515 acres of Hobcaw Barony (4, p. 17).
  

• 1781 – Benjamin Trapier provided 300 barrels of rought rice for the Patriot cause during the Revolutionary War. He also hired out his slaves to work on the fortifications around Charleston (4, p. 17).
  

• 1784 – William Burnett owned the plantation. He may have bought it in 1782 at the death of Benjamin Trapier. At this time Burnett divided the property into two tracts and sold them. The northern tract was sold to Peter Foissin who named it Friendfield, and the southern tract, consisting of 746½ acres, was sold to Edward Martin.
  

  Edward Martin's wife, Elizabeth Trapier Martin, named the plantation Belle Voir which means "beautiful view" in French (4, p. 18).
  

• 1786 – Edward Martin died and his brother, John Martin, inherited the plantation.
  

• 1791 – John Martin died and his son, John Petit Martin, inherited the property.
  

• 1792 – John Petit Martin sold the plantation to James O'Hear (4, p. 18).
  

• ? – Robert Kirkpatrick owned the plantation.
  

• 1804 – Belle Voir was sold at public auction to settle a suit against the estate of Robert Kirkpatrick. John Ashe Alston appears to be the buyer (4, p. 18).
  

• 1831 – By this time John Ashe Alston had sold Belle Voir, now called Strawberry Hill, to his father Colonel William Alston. Colonel Alston was in the habit of buying plantations to give to his sons when they turned twenty-one years of age (4, p. 18).
  

• ? – Thomas Alston, one of the Colonel's sons, appears to have received Strawberry Hill.
  

• 1839 – Colonel William Alston owned Strawberry Hill. It is not clear how or why he obtained it from his son. In his will, Colonel Alston leaves Strawberry Hill to his daughters Rebecca Brewton Hayne and Mary Pringle. Their nephew, John Ashe Alston, bought the plantation (this is a different John Ashe Alston from the one mentioned above) (4, p. 19).
  

• 1851 – John Ashe Alston sold Strawberry Hill to his nephew, William Algernon Alston (4, p. 20).
  

• 1867 – William Algernon Alston died leaving his plantation to Thomas Pinckney Alston, Jr.
  

• 1868 – The division of William Algernon Alston's property ended up in court to be divided more equitably (4, p. 20).
  

• 1874 – All of William Algernon Alston's property was sold to Hardy Solomon. The sale included five plantations: Marietta, Friendfield, Strawberry Hill, Calais, and Michau.
  

• 1875 – Eliza Donaldson purchased the property and called the whole thing Friendfield. The Donaldson family continued to plant rice on the plantations.
  

• 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 – 1,515 in 1767; 746½ in 1784
  

• Primary crop – Rice

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

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. Alberta Morel Lachicotte, Georgetown Rice Plantations (Georgetown, SC: Georgetown County Historical Society, 1993)
    Order Georgetown Rice 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