Stoney-Baynard Plantation
Fast Facts:
General Information - Location – north of Broad Creek, Lots 13 and 14 of Bayley’s Barony
Owners -
- John (Captain Jack) Stoney, in 1784, the nucleus of Otterburn
James Stoney
See also Braddock’s Point Plantation
Land - 422 acres
Maps -
Mosse, "Hilton Head Island 1783 Lots 13 and 14"
Hack, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, before 1861
Bibliography -
Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names
Additional Information:
38BU1161
Baynard Park Road, Sea Pines Plantation
Also see Braddock's Point
Two foot thick tabby foundation walls are all that remain of Braddock's Point Plantation House, built between 1800 and 1820 by James Stoney (1772-1827). William Eddings Baynard (1800-1849) acquired the 1,000 acre plantation c. 1840. Concurrently he bought as a townhouse the Davenport House in Savannah, now a museum.
- S.C. Institute of A & A, original listing
“Field notes, photographic materials, and artifacts have been curated at The Environmental and Historical Museum of Hilton Head Island as Acession numbers 1992.5 and 1993.5. The artifacts from 1992 excavations have been catalogued as ARCH 3305 through 3329 and the 1993 as ARCH 3349 through 3377 (using a lot provenience system).”
- Chicora Foundation Research Series 40;
- Adams, Trinkley, Hacker 1995, p.5
About 1920 the families living in this area included the Drayton, Stewart, White and Jones.
- Grant, Moses, Looking Back, p. 14
The site covers 9.8 acres and contains a main structure, 40'6" x 46'6 1/2", with a tabby chimney. Two smaller buildings, 30'3 1/2" x 13' and 26'1 3/4" x 16'6", may represent an earlier building phase than the main house.
Originally part of Bailey's Baroney, the lands were seized by the state after the Revolutionary War. The bulk of the land was restored to Benjamin Bailey, heir of John Bailey.
By early in 1811 John Stoney, merchant from Charleston and brother James of Hilton Head were purchasing large tracts of land and slaves. James Stoney died February 10, 1827 leaving the land to John along with heavy debts. When John died in November 183 he had mortgaged much of the land to the Bank of Charleston the year before. On December 17, 1845 the Bank sold this property to William Eddings Baynard for $10,000.
When Baynard died four years later records suggest this was not his primary plantation. His son, Ephraim, seems to have either inherited or been the manager for Braddock's Cove Plantation.
In 1850 the value of the crops and animals was listed at $12,000. No value for house or slaves is shown. In 1861 Baynard lists losses of $12,850 (check figure) including slaves and household contents but no structures. The plantation was bordered on the east by a drainage ditch separating it from Calibogia (Lawton's) Plantation.
In 1864 Captain Alfred Martin wrote about being quartered in a large plantation house on Baynard property. Major M.R. Delaney listed the Baynard property in 1867 as having 500 acres of cultivated land, 700 of woods, 300 of cleared land, mansion and quarters with a population of 84. Baynard's heirs failed to come forward and pay taxes, penalties, costs and interest of $155 on the property valued at $4,000. The Federal government bought it for $845. On August 2, 1875 the land was redeemed by Baynard heirs , except for the point which was reserved by the government for a light house. February 19, 1894 William P. Clyde bought the property for $4,683. In 1919 the land was sold to Roy A. Rainey, in 1931 to Thorne and Loomis and in 1951 to the Hilton Head Company. An aerial photograph taken in 1939 shows only the three most northeastern slave structures.
Braddock's Point Cemetery in Harbour Town is a black cemetery still in use. The state historical designation number is 38BU47.
- Chicora Foundation Research Series 24, Preliminary Historical Research on the Baynard Plantation, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, p. ?? (Source materials listed in survey)
Lists the tabby house as possibly being the only tabby house built on the island.
"The mean ceramic date for the main house is 1815.8 with a span of 1812-1847...the ending occupation in the 1840's." The nearest structure to the main house was probably a two room slave cabin. The large tabby chimney block is thought to have been part of the overseer's house. The earliest and latest artifacts were found here. The other small foundation was probably a tent base during the Union occupation made from pieces of the overseer's foundation.
- Trinkley, Chicora Foundation Research Series 28, Archaeological Testing at the Stoney/Baynard Plantation, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, p. ?? (Source materials listed in survey)
"One of the first teachers at Lawton in 1862 thought that the Baynard home at Braddock's Point was the only "gentleman's" house on the whole island."
- Martin, "Dear Sister" Letters Written on Hilton Head Island, 1867, p. xxii
"There are quantities of them (plums) down at Braddock's Point....they are large yellow plums and some red ones...Now blackberries are gone the children live on plums instead."
- Martin, p. 91
“The story goes that William Eddings Baynard, around 1840, won the house and plantation in a high-stake poker game in a Bluffton house which has since been called the Card House. Captain Jack Stoney had built the Baynard mansion in 1793 with his winnings from captured British cargo during the Revolutionary War.)
Baynard only enjoyed his house a few years, for he died in his prime, only 49 years old in 1849. His wife, Catherine Adelaide, was only 42 when she died five years later.. They were both laid to rest behind the carved doors of the Baynard mausoleum in Zion Cemetery, undisturbed until vandals, during World War II, crashed open the doors and threw the iron caskets into the nearby marsh.”
- Greer, Margaret, Real Estate of Hilton Head, A Window to the Past
On James death John inherited. He died in November 1838 bankrupt. In 1837 he had mortgaged all his real and personal property to Bank of Charleston for $40,000. A structure probably existed at that time but was not necessarily his home.
On December 17, 1845 the Bank sold the land to William E. Baynard for $10,000. He died in 1849 and his son Ephraim inherited.
The 1850 Agricultural Census for St. Luke’s Parish shows a value of $12,000 - raising cotton, corn, peas, sweet potatoes and making butter for sale. Livestock included horses, a mule, milk cows, oxen, cattle and pigs.
A main house with a support building in a fenced yard area about 250 feet square. The house was oriented north south. There were seven support structures in the fence and ten smaller structures that were probably slave quarters, In 1838 there seem to have been 22 slave quarters and a driver’s house.
After the Union occupation the estate claimed losses of $112,850 including 129 slaves valued at $91,000. The house contents were listed for $900 showing sparse furnishings which indicates this was not a main residence.
Records show the Union used the house as late as 1864. Captain Alfred Marple described it as old and quaint in a letter.
The August 1867 Monthly Report shows 500 acres under cultivation, 700 in woods, 300 cleared and a population of 84.
The heirs failed to claim the land and pay taxes and fees so it was auctioned and purchased by the government for $845. Records how the Stoney/Baynard mansion burned sometime between the middle of August and the middle of December 1867.
Heirs redeemed the property in 1875 “containing 1000 acres more or less...excepting about 45 acres on Braddock Point at the south western extremity of Hilton Head Island which is reserved for light house property.” The property sale to William P. Clyde on February 19, 1894 ($4,683) included “the land late of Lawton known as The Sister’s Place except for 23 acres reserved by the U.S. government for light house purposes.” A Confederate battery at Braddock’s Point is completely eroded away. By 1939 the plantation had all but vanished, an aerial photograph showing only three northeastern most slave structures.
Compared to other Hilton Head plantations the house was grander, better constructed, only one of tabby construction, of modest proportions and limited scale. The production was fairly average for island.
- Trinkley, Chicora Foundation Research series 40, In the Shadow of the Big House, etc. ps. 19-26
William Baynard died in 1802 and his son William Eddings Baynard (1800-1849) acquired the Baynard holdings on Hilton Head Island. Local tradition credits William’s poker playing proclivities with winning for himself the deed to 1000 acre Braddock’s Point Plantation around 1840. He erected an imposing granite mausoleum which still stands at the site of Zion Chapel of Ease at the head of Broads Creek.
The Braddock Point Plantation house apparently was built by the Stoney’s around 1796.
- Peeples, Robert E.H., An Index to Hilton Head Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p.3.