Chelsea Plantation – Ridgeland – Jasper County

Basic Information

• Location – Chechessee River, Ridgeland, Jasper County

  1000 Chelsea Plantation Drive

• Origin of name – ?

• Other names – Monkey Jack; Tom Ellis Plantation (6)
  

• Current status – Privately owned

Timeline

• ? – Earliest known date of existence

• 1818 – House built (4, p. 136)
  

• ? – John Heyward owned Chelsea (4, p. 133).
  

• 1839 – Heyward died a the age of 32 after being thrown from a horse. His wife Constantia Pritchard Heyward and her three children inherited the property upon John's death (4, p. 133, 136).
  

• 1859 – Constantia died. Chelsea would have stayed in the Heyward family but her family, the Pritchard's called in financial notes on the property and took possession of it. The loans had already been paid off but the notes never destroyed and the Pritchard's used them to obtain the plantation. Constantia's brother, Dr. Paul Pritchard became owner of the property (4, p. 133, 136).
  

• 1902 – The plantation was acquired for the founding of the Chelsea Plantation Club, a private hunt club. The club added to the acreage over the years (4, p. 136).
  

• 1936 – The house was destroyed by fire (4, p. 136).
  

• 1937 – The property was sold to Marshall Field III who immediately began constructing a house. Field called this house his "Quail Lodge" (4, p. 136).
  

• 1956 – Field died this year and his wife Ruth inherited Chelsea and enjoyed it as her winter home (4, p. 137).
  

• 1994 – After Ruth's death, the plantation fell into the family's estate (4, p. 137).
  

Land

• Number of acres – 15,000; 20,000 in 1931 (4, p. 133); 300 in 2009

• Primary crop – ?

Owners

• Chronological list – John Heyward (?-1839); Constantia Pritchard Heyward (1839-1859); Dr. Paul Pritchard (1859-?); Chelsea Plantation Club (1902-1937); Marshall Field III (1937-1956); Ruth Field (1956-1994); Field Family Estate (1994-present, 2009)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• The white brick colonial house build by Marshall Field III still stands (2012).

References & Resources

1. 30-15 Plantation File, held by the South Carolina Historical Society
   

2. J. Russell Cross, Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley (Columbia, SC: R.L. Bryan Company, 1985)
    Order Historic Ramblin's through Berkeley

3. N. Jane Iseley and William P. Baldwin, Lowcountry Plantations Today (Greensboro, NC: Legacy Publications 2001)
   
   

4. Robert B. Cuthbert and Stephen G. Hoffius, editors, Northern Money, Southern Land: The Lowcountry Plantation Sketches of Chlotilde R. Martin (Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2009)
   
   

5. Information contributed by Jillian Olson
   

6. Information contributed Bert Ellis