— Blessing Plantation © National Register of Historic Places —

Basic Information

• Location – Eastern branch of the Cooper River, Huger, St. Thomas and St. Denis Parish, Berkeley County

  Located off SC 41 on Cainhoy Road

• Origin of name – Jonah Lynch named the plantation after the ship,The Blessing, upon which he immigrated to Carolina.
  

• Other names – Mattesaw

• Current status – Privately owned

Timeline

• 1682 – Earliest known date of existence

  Jonah Lynch received a grant for 780 acres (Neuffer, bk. 1, vol. 12, p. 24).
  

  He called his property Blessing after the ship that brought him to the new colonies (Irving, p. 135).
  

• ? – The Blessing was divided up into three plantations: Cherry Hill, Cedar Hill, and the Blessing.
  

• ? – Henry Laurens purchased the Blessing and then proceeded to purchase Cherry Hill and Cedar Hill (Irving, p. 136).
  

  While in the possession of the Laurens family the plantations were once again divided.
  

• 1834 – James Poyas and his wife Charlotte Bentham purchased the plantation (National Register, p. 14).
  

  They built a two-and-a-half-story rectangular frame plantation house (National Register, p. 14).
  

• 1860 – By this time all three plantations were owned by William James Ball.
  

• 1865 – The three plantations were once again sold separately.
  

• 1927 – The Wellington Corporation purchased all three plantations (Irving, p. 136).
  

• 1928 – T. Ferdinand Wilcox, Esq. and Edward Roesler, Esq. purchased the plantation (National Register, p. 14).
  

  The new owners repaired the house built by James Poyas (National Register, p. 14).
  

• ? – 188 acres of the Blessing were put under the protection of the Lowcountry Open Land Trust.
  

Land

• Number of acres – 780 in 1682; 631 in 1786

• Primary crop – Rice

• The Bonneau Ferry landing is located at Blessing Plantation (National Register, p. 14).
  

• Blessing Plantation Rice Fields: Click here for picture
  

• Blessing Plantation Steam Engine: Click here for picture

• African-American Cemetery: Click here for picture

Owners

• Alphabetical list – William James Ball; Bonneau; Deas; Henry Laurens; Jonah Lynch (1682-?); James and Charlotte Bentham Poyas (1834-?); Wellington Corporation (1927-1928); T. Ferdinand Wilcox, Esq. and Edward Roesler, Esq. (1928-?)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

Buildings

• Blessing Plantation House: Click here for picture
  

Web Resources

• National Register of Historic Places
  – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 2002
  – Photographs, architectural overview
  

• SCDHEC's A Cultural Resources Management Plan for the Cooper River Drainage Berkeley County, South Carolina - PDF - pages 50, 55-57, 60, 64-65, 67-68, 70-71
  

Print Resources

• 30-15 Plantation File, South Carolina Historical Society
  –  Online Catalog

• 30-14 Plantation File, South Carolina Historical Society
  –  Online Catalog

• William P. Baldwin, Jr., Plantations of the Low Country; South Carolina, 1697-1865 (Greensboro, NC: Legacy Publications, 1987)
   Order Plantations of the Low Country; South Carolina, 1697-1865
  

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

• John Beaufain Irving, A Day on Cooper River (1842) (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 2010)
  
  

• Claude Henry Neuffer, editor, Names in South Carolina, Volume I through 30 (Columbia, SC: The State Printing Company)
   Order Names in South Carolina, Volumes I-XII, 1954-1965
   Order Names in South Carolina, Index XIII-XVIII