Shipyard Plantation

Fast Facts:

General Information -  

  • Location - With two miles of frontage on deep-water Broad Creek, plus the asset of a good landing site (called Lighthouse Landing after 1881), to the Atlantic Ocean.

  • Origin of name - it appears that the Ficklings here conducted as a sideline, a shipbuilding operation which gave its name to the 1765-acre plantation. The name persists.

  • Other names – Brickyard Plantation, Ficklings

Owners -

  • Fickling family

  • John E. White Dec. 1, 1867, acquired from the government for $725, and deeded to Elisha C. White for same price.

  • Mary White purchased for $10,000 April 1869.

  • Jedediah Dwelle purchased for same amount in 1871.

  • Will Clyde purchased from Dwelle 1892 for $37,000 some 1720.6 acres.

  • Roy Rainey

  • Thorne and Loomis

Land - 1765 acres

Maps - Hack, "Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, before 1861"

Bibliography -

 Holmgren, Research on Hilton Head Island
 Holmgren, Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle
 Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names

Additional Information:

This area was known as Brickyard in the early 1700s.  It was owned by Henry Talbot, a bricklayer from Dublin, Ireland. He also owned a home on Whale Branch near Beaufort. A deed of land transfer to his son John was recorded in London with the name Talbird. Most of the family adopted this spelling.

  • Holmgren, Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 54

"Both William and Samuel Fickling resided on Hilton Head in 1798...They (Fickling heirs) may have sold their land at Possum Point and Shipyard before secession...bought by W.D. Brown, in April 1876...The Shipyard plot, part of which was also described as Ficklings by islanders was acquired in 1867 by John E. White, who purchased it from the government for $725. He was evidently acting as agent for Elisha C. White to whom he deeded it for the above price. The 1765 acres were sold back to John's wife Mary for $10,000 and sold by her to Jeddiah Dwelle for the same amount in 1871. Twenty years later Clyde paid over three times that sum, as well as Dwelle's unpaid taxes. Clyde sold it to Rainey and he to Thorne and Loomis."

  • Holmgren, p. 127

John and James Stoney were early residents of the island...It is not known when they bought or sold Shipyard...had been sold by the Federal government after confiscation and were not redeemable. The report that Shipyard was once called Brickyard indicates that it may have once belonged to the brickmaking lighthouse builder, Henry Talbot-Talbird, before the Stoneys took over.

  • Holmgren p. 132-133

"Over on Scull Creek John Talbird and his wife Mary Ann Ladson, had a pre-Revolutionary  War plantation which was given to him by his father, Henry Talbird. This land had been granted Henry Talbird in part payment for his supplying the bricks and building the first Tybee Lighthouse."

  • Peeples, Robert, Tales of Ante Bellum Hilton Head Island Families, p. 7

With two miles of frontage on deep water Broad Creek, plus the asset of a good landing site (called Lighthouse Landing after 1881), it appears that here the Ficklings conducted as a sideline, a shipbuilding operation which gave its name too the 1765 acre plantation.  Samuel Fickling married Elizabeth Davant (1775-1807) whose inheritance from her father, James Davant, included a 300 acre plantation in the area. William Fickling, brother of Samuel, also lived on the island in the eighteenth century. After confiscation Shipyard was owned by Jebediah Dwelle from 1871 to 1891 when he sold it to Will Clyde. The name persists.

  • Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p. 38