Talbird Island

The Talbird family letter, written by the Rev. Henry Talbird (1811-1890) to his cousin, Col. Nathaniel Henry Rhodes Dawson (who was a brother in law of President Abraham Lincoln), tells the romantic story of Henry Talbird, son of Sir John Talbot, Lord Mayor of Dublin, who was lost as a small boy while visiting an uncle in London, brought to South Carolina by Captain Haylton where he eventually married in 1750 Mrs. Mary Doherty, widow of a young subaltern.  They were parents of two daughters and four sons, one of whom, Revolutionary War Capt. John Talbird, was given a plantation on Skull Creek by his father who had received it from the Crown in part payment for building the first Tybee Lighthouse of bricks made on his Whale Branch Plantation.  Capt. John Talbird married Mary Jane Ladson, daughter of a neighboring planter, who eventually inherited her father’s, as well as her grandfather Conyers’ plantation; he also bought John’s Island which by 1783 was already known as Talbird’s Island. Their son, Henry Talbird, was born on Skull Creek on October 19, 1781, the day Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in Virginia; he had an extensive library and a “chemical laboratory” in which he enjoyed working, according to his son, the Rev. Henry Talbird, who was also born on the Hilton Head Island plantation..  Captain John Talbird’s daughter, Ann, marries Dr. Samuel Fyler (1782-1821). Talbird’s Island was sold to Isaac Rippon Jenkins.

  • Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p. 40