Wedgefield History

Highly recommended!

Indigo

Indigofera tinctoria. Indigo is a flowering plant that was historically used to produce the dark blue dye also called indigo. Indigo is native to tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and was a successful cash crop in South Carolina. It was grown commercially from 1747 to 1800 and was second only to rice in export value. Carolina indigo was the fifth most valuable commodity exported by Britain’s mainland colonies and was England’s primary source of blue dye in the late-colonial era.
In North America, indigo was introduced into colonial South Carolina by Eliza Lucas, where it became the colony's second-most important cash crop after rice. It was also known as “Blue Gold” because of its value. As a major export crop, indigo supported plantation slavery there. In the May and June 1755 issues of The Gentleman's Magazine, there appeared a detailed account of the cultivation of indigo, accompanied by drawings of necessary equipment and a prospective budget for starting such an operation, authored by South Carolina planter Charles Woodmason. It later appeared as a book. By 1775, indigo production in South Carolina exceeded 1,222,000 pounds. When Benjamin Franklin sailed to France in November 1776 to enlist France's support for the American Revolutionary War, 35 barrels of indigo were on board the Reprisal, the sale of which would help fund the war effort.

Which is the real King George III ? One is the official portrait. The other is a lead actor in the Broadway play “Hamilton”.

King George III became king of Great Britain and Ireland in 1760. He reigned for 59 years. A year after his coronation, George was married to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the daughter of a German duke. It was a political union, in which, the two met for the first time on their wedding day. It must have been successful as Queen Charlotte gave birth to 15 children.

During his reign, he had bouts of insanity. Two theories suggest heredity or arsenic poisoning from cosmetics or medicines. His illnesses may have been caused by porphyria, an inherited metabolic disorder, though a 2005 analysis of hair samples suggested arsenic poisoning, possibly from medicines and cosmetics.

George III successfully led Britain through the Seven Years War, but lost the American Revolution.

King Charles III is a direct descendent after nine generations.

STORM FACTS

Christopher Columbus

During his second voyage in 1494, Christopher Columbus sheltered his fleet from a tropical cyclone. This is the first written European account of a hurricane. During his fourth voyage in 1502, Columbus warned the governor of Santo Domingo of an approaching hurricane, but was ignored, resulting in the loss of a Spanish treasure fleet of 20 ships and 500 men.

- Neal Dorst, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory

Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for eventual compensation or debt repayment, or it may be imposed as a judicial punishment. Historically, it has been used to pay for apprenticeships. Typically, an apprentice agreed to work for free for a master tradesman to learn a trade. Later, it was also used as a way for a person to pay the cost of transportation to colonies in the Americas.
Like any loan, an indenture could be sold; most employers had to depend on middlemen to recruit and transport the workers, so indentured workers were commonly bought and sold when they arrived at their destinations. Like prices of slaves, their price went up or down depending on supply and demand. When the indenture was paid off, the worker was free. Sometimes they might be given a plot of land.
Indentured workers could usually marry, move about locally as long as the work got done, read whatever they wanted, and take classes.

By the Revolutionary War, half of the Europeans that came to America arrived as indentured servants.

This photo is an infrared image. The bright blue lines on the left are streets in Wedgefield. The river to the left is Black River. The image clearly shows the dikes and ditches of the old ricefields. At its peak, the Georgetown area had 150 rice plantations. The Port of Georgetown was shipping half of the rice exported from the British Colonies. To the right side of the photo, the blue line is the road to White House Plantation. Carolina Gold rice is still grown there. It is processed by Marsh Hen Mill in Edisto Beach.

Rice

Rice is the primary staple for more than half the world's population, is produced worldwide, with about 90 percent grown in Asia. The United States is a major exporter, with the global market accounting for nearly half the annual sales volume of U.S.-produced rice. Four U.S. regions produce virtually all of the country's rice crop—three in the South and one in California—with the South growing mostly long-grain rice and California producing almost exclusively medium- and short-grain rice.

The great manors of Europe were built on wheat, livestock, and cheap labor.
For comparison, wheat could provide 6 million calories per acre while rice could provide 11 million calories per acre. Overall, the diet of Europeans was bland before the discoveries in the New World.

Botanist explorers do not receive enough credit for their early exploration of the colonies. One of the best known was John Bartram, known as “the father of American botany”, was aided in his collecting efforts by other British colonists. In Bartram's Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, he wrote of specimens he had collected. He brought back hundreds of samples, drawings, and seeds. He profited from sending seeds to collectors in Europe. His son, William Bartram, wrote extensively on his travels in South Carolina. Over 800 plant species were discovered in the Americas and introduced to Europe.

Over two-thirds of all types of food crops grown worldwide today are native to the Americas.

Great Britain came late to establishing colonies in the Americas. The Spanish were looking to colonize in the early 1500s, which was quickly followed by the Portuguese, French, and Dutch colonies. It wasn’t until the decisive victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588 that the English were able to flex their imperial muscles and truly begin establishing their colonial empire. The earliest successful English colonies were in the 1600s.

The earliest products from the Carolina Colony included naval stores, lumber, fish, cattle, crops and fur among others. Trade developed with the local indian tribes. As labor demands increase, the import of slave increased. Many were from an earlier British colony, Barbados. Many of the early African slaves were from areas in Africa that grew rice. Their expertise was put to use early in the Caribbean and later in the Carolina Colony.

The demand in Europe for products from the Americas was increasing. The products that Georgetown became known for was rice and indigo.

In the next few weeks, we will cover the period from 1729 to 1776.

Here are a few of the things that we are working on:

British Colonies
Rice
Indigo
Indentured servants
Slavery
King George III

Many of today’s street names in Wedgefield Plantation came from the early history of this area. The following are from the Royal Colony period:

King George Road

King George made the original land grant and started the process of converting the Carolina Province into a Royal Colony.

John Green Lane

In 1718, John Green received several land grants in the area. From these, the plantations of Wedgefield, Mansfield, Windsor, Beneventum and Peru would be developed.

John Waties Court

John Waties acquired the property from John Green. John Waties was known for trading with the local indians. In 1762, John Waties sold a piece of his land holdings to Samuel Wragg.

Wragg’s Ferry Road

During those Colonial years, Samuel Wragg established rights to operate a ferry at his Black River plantation. Since much travel was river-based and roads were limited, the ferry operation could be profitable. Wragg’s Ferry could generate a dollar for a four-wheeled carriage, 50 cents for a two-wheeled carriage and 20 cents for a horse and rider. Since the location was near Georgetown and P*e Dee plantations, the ferry provided good income.

The Royal Colony

https://www.carolana.com/SC/Royal_Colony/sc_royal_colony_overview.html

In 1712, the Carolina Province was divided into two colonies. The northern and southern regions of the province had very little similarities in terms of physical features, economic status and culture. North Carolina mainly depended on cultivating small portions of arable land and was farms, while South Carolina was expanding and establishing vast estates and plantations. When King George was crowned in 1714, he began to buy back the interest of the Lord Proprietors.

South Carolina became a Royal Colony in 1729 with the last purchases from the Lord Proprietors of the Province of Carolina. In 1729, there were six permanently-settled towns - Charles Town, Dorchester, Mt. Pleasant, Willtown, Beaufort, and George Town. George Town was established that same year. By 1775, twenty-two additional new towns were added in the colony.

The new status brought the protection of the Crown, but it also included included a new government with a Royal Governor. By the Revolution, South Carolina would become the most valuable of all the British colonies.

A detailed article on this period is found at the following link.

The Royal Colony of South Carolina - Overview On December 21, 1719, a popular uprising in Charles Town led to a rebellion against the Lords Proprietors and the ejecting of Governor Robert Johnson, who refused an offer by the people to continue to serve as governor under the direct control of the Crown. Upon his dismissal of this idea, the colon...

The Pirates

In 1718, King George was buying back the province from the Lord Proprietors. The first land grant was made that, along with additional land grants, would included what became Windsor, Wedgefield, Mansfield, Beneventum, and Peru Plantations. The earliest settlement within the land grant was on Mansfield Plantation.
The province was still recovering from the Yamasee War in the southern part of the province and the Tuscarora War in the northern part.

The most notorious pirate was William Teach, known as “Blackbeard”. From his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Blackbeard commanded a small fleet. He intimidated his victims by threatening to kill everyone on board if they resisted. If they complied he would take what he wanted and allow the ship to go.

With the influx of settlers and supply ships and the wealth that was being created, pirates were soon interested in Carolina. In 1718, Teach sailed north towards the capital of Havana at Cuba. He captured a Spanish ship there and added it to his fleet. Next they sailed towards the sunken wrecks of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet between Florida and the Bahamas. There they released the crew of the captured Spanish ship and began heading north towards the port of Charles Town, capturing three more ships along the way.

In May 1718, Blackbeard blockaded the port of Charles Town with his fleet. His demands included an extensive list of medical supplies. Samuel Wragg was an attorney and member of the Executive Council for the Carolina Province. During the blockade, Samuel Wragg and his son, William, were on a ship bound for England when it was seized by Blackbeard. The pirates took all the money he had with him, which was a considerable amount. He threatened him with death and subjected him with many hardships and humiliations before they released him and his son.

One of the captains in Blackbeard’s fleet at Charles Town was Stede Bonnet. Bonnet was called "The Gentleman Pirate" because he was a moderately wealthy land-owner before turning to a life of crime.

After leaving Charles Town, Blackbeard headed to his home in North Carolina. He was engaged by a Royal Navy sloop coming from Virginia at Ocracoke Inlet. The Queen Anne’s Revenge ran aground and Blackbeard was killed in the engagement.

Bonnet was later captured and hanged in Charles Town on December 10, 1718.

The original ideas of the series that would include “The Land, The King, The War, and The Pirate” was to give an idea of what this area was like when the original settlement was started. This time period also showed the inability of the Lord Proprietors to manage and defend the the provience.

The Wars
War actually started in 1711 in the northern part of the province. Today, in North Carolina, it is known as the Tuscarora War. The militias of the province, along with their indian allies, fought against other indian tribes.

The reasons for the wars are complex but included ideas that were new to the indigenous people. They faced new technology, more settlers, competition for resources, depletion of the deer population, and slavery. The Indians also saw the increase in the wealth of the settlers, while they were indebted to traders that offered easy credit.

In South Carolina, the war was known as the Yamasee War. It was finally settled went the Cherokee tribe changed side to fight their traditional enemies the Creek Tribes.

These wars are counted among the bloodiest wars in North America with about seven percent of the colonist killed. The tactics used by the indians were learned by the colonist and would be used by the colonist in the War for Independence. The link provided is a good summary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamasee_War

Next: The Pirate

The Province

The Carolina Province, as originally claimed by the English, included what is today the Bahamas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, part of Florida, and extended westward to the “South Seas”.

Traditionally, the King would give supporters land grants in lands that were conquered or in land claimed as colonies. The origin of the Province of Carolina in 1660 was a grant by King Charles. The province was given to a group known as “the Lord Proprietors”. Only three of the proprietors are known to have visited the province. They were given hereditary titles, such as Earl, Baron, Duke, etc., and they envisioned installing the feudal system that would even include serfs that were tied to the land.

When George became King In 1714, Carolina was not a “Royal Colony”. The proprietors were responsible for settling the area and defending it with local militias. The Royal Army and Navy were not responsible. It became apparent that the Lord Proprietors did not have the resources to develop and defend the province. The challenges included bloody local wars, pressure from the French and Spanish, and Pirates.

In 1718, King George started to locate the proprietors and buy back their land. That same year, King George gave a Land Grant to John Green. By 1729, seven of the eight proprietors had sold their property and South Carolina became a Royal Colony. That same year, the town of Georgetown was founded. Several grants followed and included property that extended along the Black River from the small creek that today separates Weehaw Plantation and Windsor Plantation to John Green Creek (known today as Six Mile Creek). It was eventually divided to be known as Windsor, Wedgefield, Mansfield, Peru, and Beneventum Plantations.

Next: The Wars

In 1714, George, son of the First Elector of Hanover, became King George of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire. He was heir to the throne, because his mother was the granddaughter of King James II. He was the first king of the House of Hanover. He is the sixth great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II. When he became king, he did not speak English.

He ran into problems that included a rebellion in Scotland; a financial market crash; difficulty in controlling Parliament; financial difficulties; problems in the colonies; and loss of supporters. He eventually spent more and more time in Hanover.

It’s not easy to understand the attraction of the colonies without understanding where the settlers came from. Here is an idea of what Europe was like when the first settlements in our area started.

The late 1600s were turbulent times for European nations with many engaging in dynastic struggle, religious conflict, wars, pandemics, and overseas colonization. England’s problems also included conflict between the royalty and parliament. Between the settlement in Charles Town in 1660 and the first settlers in the Winyah Bay area in the early 1700s, England was ruled by Charles II, James II, William III and Mary II as co-monarchs, and Queen Anne. Each monarch had to deal with Parliament.

Charleston was founded in 1670 as Charles Town at Albemarle Point on the west bank of the Ashley River but relocated in 1680 to its present site, which became the fifth-largest city in North America within ten years. Today, Charleston is the largest city in South Carolina and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The 2020 population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 799,636 residents.

In 1700, cities in Europe were dirty, noisy, and overcrowded. London had about 600,000 people. It would grow to almost a million residents in 1800. It’s hard to imagine how a city of that size could function without modern utilities, such as electricity.

On top of this, the World was dealing with climate change from the 1600s to the mid-1800s. A detailed article is found on Wikipedia and is titled “The Little Ice Age”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
The snowy picture is of London and the frozen Thames River during the “Winter Frost” in the 1700s.

By contrast, a long sea voyage to the colonies might not be that bad. Here are four topics that we are working on to give you an idea of the local area in 1700 when it was first settled:

The Land
The King
The War
The Pirate

The King’s Highway

In the 1600s, the rivers provided most access and transportation routes for the early settlers. Additional access was found in old trails built by the indigenous people. The remains of the Browns Ferry Vessel is on display on the third floor of the old Kaminski Hardware Building on Front Street as part of the Rice Museum. It is believed to be the earliest example of a commercial vessel built in the colonies.

Early in his reign, King Charles II ordered that a highway be built connecting all of the colonies from Charles Town to Boston. Thirteen hundred miles and 85 years later, it was completed. Each colony, town, landowners, and even churches were required to provide labor to build the road in their areas. Much of U.S.17 follows the route of the King Highway. On the Waccamaw Neck, you can find portions of the route that are still in use. The street that intersects U.S. 17 adjacent to the Founders Club clubhouse is now called the Kings River Road. In Murrells Inlet, the road that parallels US 17 behind Tidelands Waccamaw Hospital is still called Old Kings Highway. A great article, with pictures of a section of the old road that has not changed in South Carolina, is found with the following link:
https://www.scpictureproject.org/charleston-county/old-kings-highway.html

Old King's Highway This peaceful dirt road located near the Brick Church at Wambaw on the outskirts of McClellanville was once part of the King’s Highway. Originally an Indian trade route known as Sewee Broad Path for the Sewee Indians who lived in the area, the trail was transformed between 1650 and 1735 by order o...

The Province of Carolina was first described in the Charter of 1660 granted by King Charles II. The original boundaries were extended to join the Royal Colony of Virginia and eventually to include part of Florida that was also claimed by Spain. The charter described the boundaries extended westward to the “South Seas”.

The Charter guaranteed political and religious freedoms to the inhabitants of Carolina. Inhabitants of the new colony claimed many of the same rights as English citizens, including the right to import and export goods, the right to be tried in Carolina for a crime committed there, personal and property rights and a basic form of religious freedom.

North Carolina and South Carolina would not become Royal Colonies until 1729.

Charles Town - 1670

The original plan was to establish a settlement near present day Beaufort, SC. The local indians convinced the settlers that better farm land and river access was further to the north. It was also further from the Spanish in Florida. At the time, Carolina was not recognized as a “royal” colony, which would be protected with troops provided by the King. The British flag used over the settlement is called the “Red Duster” which was also used by British merchant ships and navy. The following link is to a good article on the history of Charles Town.

https://www.carolana.com/SC/Towns/Charles_Town_SC.html

What we are working on: Carolina, King George, and The King’s Highway

Over 170 years after Columbus discovered America, English settlers arrived in Carolina. As shown, the area was sparsely populated by indigenous people. Christopher Columbus had labeled them “Indians” because he thought that he had reach the East Indies while trying to find a trade route to the Spice Islands. He only missed by about 12,000 miles. With the Spanish in St. Augustine, the English wanted a settlement to solidify its claim on Carolina.

Indian tribes were not all the same. One of the main reasons that people believe that North American Indians were virtually all “nomadic” is the influence of Hollywood. Hollywood focused primarily on the plains Indians, such as the Lakota and Cheyenne tribes, and rarely portrayed Indian tribes that were very different.

The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico were not nomadic at all, and employed agriculture, much like the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. The Cherokee were known for their highly-successful use of agriculture. The Iroquois rotated their living quarters among several preferred locations that were regarded as the best for farming and hunting.

The Indians were pre-Iron Age. The Europeans that arrived were more advanced. They had fi****ms, sailing ships, domesticated animals, and many things that the Indians had never seen and wanted which was the basis for trade and cooperation.

Next: Charles Town - 1670

Thanksgiving, Part 2

Indigenous people

It has been estimated that the population of indigenous people in North America at the time of Columbus was about 20 million. The immigrants escaping from Europe brought new diseases to the Americas, such as small pox and influenza. The indigenous people of the Americas did not have the immunities that the Europeans had developed over many generations. The Aztecs and Incas were not conquered by the Spanish. They lost ninety percent of their population to European diseases, such as small pox and cholera.

The Wampanoag taught the Pilgrims how to hunt, fish, and plant crops. They lived peacefully together under a treaty signed in 1621 until 1675 and the outbreak of King Phillip’s War. “It is the only treaty signed between English colonists and Native Americans to have been honored, without modification, throughout the lives of its signatories and established the longest-lasting and most equitable peace between natives and immigrants in the history of what would become the United States of America.”

Early inhabitants of the Americas developed agriculture, developing and breeding maize (corn) from ears 2–5 cm in length to the current size that are familiar today. Potatoes, tomatoes, tomatillos (a husked green tomato), pumpkins, chili peppers, squash, beans, pineapple, sweet potatoes, the grains quinoa and amaranth, cocoa beans, vanilla, onion, peanuts, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, papaya, and avocados were among other plants grown by natives.

Over two-thirds of all types of food crops grown worldwide today are native to the Americas.

Thanksgiving, Part 1

We have all heard the stories of the Pilgrims coming to America and, despite the challenges they faced, they took the time to be thankful. The story that is not considered is why they were thankful.

Europe had gone through two thirds of a 450 year period of climate change starting around 1300. The temperature was lower than normal during this period which resulted in colder Winters and shorter growing seasons. The political map was continually changing with wars and other issues, including religious freedom, borders, trade, immigration, population density, resources, and pandemic diseases. The most famous was the Black Death in the early 1300s that killed half of the population of Europe, killing an estimated 25-30 million people.

Europeans had endured over a thousand years of living in poor conditions, which included poor food, dense populations in cities, disease, and wars.

When the Pilgrims arrived in America, the found a beautiful and bountiful land of peace and tranquility. They recognized the challenges and the opportunities that it represented. They were thankful.

November 11 - Veterans Day

Veterans Day is a United States federal holiday that honors all military veterans who have served in the U.S. military and is observed annually on November 11. The Day coincides with Remembrance Day and Armistice Day which marks the anniversary of the end of World War I, which ended on November 11th.

Robert Goelet was a multi-millionaire and one of the largest property owners in New York City. With the United States' entry into World War I, Robert Goelet enlisted. In the war, Mr. Goelet rose to the rank of Captain of Infantry in France, first with the 77th Division and later with the 82d.

The Argonne-Meuse offensive was the largest in U.S. military history involving 1.2 million American soldiers. It is the second deadliest in military history resulting in over 350,000 casualties including 28,000 German lives, 26,277 American lives and an unknown number of French lives. U.S. losses were worsened by the inexperience of many of the troops, the tactics used during the early phases of the operation and the widespread onset of the global influenza pandemic called the Spanish flu.

Captain Robert Goelet received our Country’s third highest award, the Silver Star, which was awarded for gallantry in action during the Argonne-Meuse battle.

Happy Halloween!

The Ghost of Wedgefield is based on a true story from the Revolutionary War. The following link tells all.

http://wedgefield.squarespace.com/the-ghost-story/

A Walk around Wedgefield

The Live Oak Trees

The live oak tree is symbol of beauty and endurance along the coastal areas of South Carolina. The wood of the live oak trees is very dense, strong, and one of the heaviest of American woods. The strength made the wood ideal for the interior hulls of ships. Live oak lumber was used to form the main curved structural supports of ship hulls and decking.

The early settlers recognized the value of these trees and maintained them. They were in high demand for use in building a navy for a growing country. New trees were planted to grow along entrance roads or in groves as investments in the future.

Wedgefield has over 60 large oaks in the club area alone. Several measure over twenty feet in circumference. The following link includes more information and an interesting timeline.
https://www.warnell.uga.edu/sites/default/files/publications/WSFNR-16-49%20Coder.pdf

Glenmere Court

Designed by famed architects, Carrère and Hastings, Glenmere was built in 1911 for multimillionaire Robert Goelet and his first wife. The Goelets’ charge to the architects was to think “Tuscan villa”. The mansion was built on a hilltop overlooking a lake amid an estimated 8000 acres purchased by Goelet. The stunning gardens surrounding the estate were originally designed by Beatrix Jones Farrand, America’s first major female landscape architect.

What has become of Glenmere?

Today, the mansion has been completely renovated and is an amazing hotel and associated with Relais & Châteaux. Established in 1954, Relais & Châteaux is an association of exceptional hotels and restaurants around the world.

Follow the link and tap on the photo to watch the great video!

https://www.relaischateaux.com/us/united-states/glenmere-chester

Glenmere Mansion, Boutique Hotel and Gourmet restaurant in the countryside Chester – Relais & Châteaux Just one hour from New York City, Glenmere Mansion is a magnificent 150 acre estate with spectacular gardens. A slice of Tuscany in the Hudson Valley

We could not leave “Cora” without showing this great video of the home of the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe. This has been the family home for 300 years. Mary Goelet enjoyed entertaining guest and fly fishing!

https://youtu.be/IX3Vaf6Y0PI

Floors Castle, Kelso, Scottish Borders Discover Floors Castle, the largest inhabited castle in Scotland and home of the 10th Duke of Roxburghe. Built in 1721 by leading architect, William Adam, Fl...

Could this be the real “Cora”?

The creator of Downton Abbey was in Scotland for the filming of the Monarch of the Glen over a five year period.

In Downton Abbey, Cora was an American heiress whose fortune saved Downton Abbey. One episode is centered on a visit by King George V and Queen Mary to Downton.

Mary Goelet was Robert Goelet’s older sister. She was the richest American heiress to find a noble husband in Great Britain.

Historical drama characters are fictional characters that may interact through the story with historical characters to tell a story. The fictional character in this case, Cora, was probably a combination of several heiresses.

Mary Goelet married an aristocrat, the Duke of Roxburghe, and brought a large dowery that saved and renovated the largest castle in Scotland. She was also a close friend of King George and Queen Mary.