— Middleburg Plantation House © Brandon Coffey —

Basic Information

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

  Located off Cainhoy Road on Middleburg Lane
  

• Origin of name – Named after the city of Middleburg, Zeeland, Netherlands where the builder, Benjamin Simons, spent a portion of his youth.
  

• Other names – Pimlica Maptica, Indian name for the area (Timmons)

• Current status – Privately owned and is the oldest wooden house in South Carolina

— Middleburg Plantation Upstairs Hall © Brandon Coffey —

Timeline

• 1693 – Earliest known date of existence (Timmons)
  

  A 100 acre tract of land was marked for Benjamin Simons (Timmons).
  

• 1697 – House built by Benjamin Simons (Timmons)
  

• 1717 – Benjamin Simons died leaving the plantation to his 4 year-old son Benjamin II (Timmons).
  

  Benjamin II owned Middleburg until his death and increased the plantation's size to over 3,000 acres (Timmons).
  

• 1772 – Benjamin Simons III inherited the plantation upon his father's death (Timmons).
  

  Revolutionary War battles surrounded Middleburg. British Colonel Banastre Tarleton targeted the house to be burned. It is unknown why the house was spared this fate but scars remain. Colonel Tarleton's saber left a lasting mark in a column by the front door (Timmons).
  

• 1787 – Benjamin Simons III had 10 children but only three young daughters remained at his time of death. He left the plantation to his 7 year old daughter Sarah Lydia Simons (Timmons).
  

• 1799 – Sarah married Jonathan Lucas, Jr. Jonathan built the first public toll rice mill at Middleburg (Timmons).
  

• ? – Sarah and Jonathan's children would jointly inherit the plantation (Timmons).
  

• 1840 – Jonathan Lucas III purchased Middleburg at auction from his brothers and sisters (Timmons).
  

• ? – The plantation passed to Jonathan Lucas III's children at his death (Timmons).
  

• ? – Dr. Benjamin Huger leased the plantation (Timmons).
  

• ? – The Simons descendants used Middleburg as collateral for a loan from John Coming Ball (Timmons).
  

• 1872 – Ball foreclosed on the loan for lack of payment and took possession of the plantation. He married a Simons descendant and once again turned Middleburg into a profitable rice plantation (Timmons).
  

• 1937 – Marie Guerin Ball Dingle inherited the property upon her father's death (Timmons).
  

• 1963 – Marie Guerin Ball Dingle died leaving the plantation jointly to her nephews John, Charles, Coming and James Gibbs (Timmons).
  

• 1981 – Jane and Max Hill purchased the property from the Gibbs and worked to restore as much of the property and buildings as possible.
  

• 2007 – The property and house were for sale.
  

  Click here to read an article concerning the sale. Update: The auction did not receive a bid for the minimum reserve price so the plantation was not sold.
  

— Middleburg Plantation Side of House © Brandon Coffey —

Land

• Number of acres – 100 in 1693; 3,000 in 1772; 326 in 2007

• Primary crop – Rice

• The garden is known as the oldest original garden in America being laid out in the early 1800s. In 1997, the current owner was working to retain as many of the original plants as possible (Munday),

• The lands are slowly being returned to their pre-1926 appearance. All 326 acres of the plantation have been granted to the Lowcountry Open Land Trust.
  

Owners

• Chronological list – Benjamin Simons (1693-1717); Benjamin Simons II (1717-1772); Benjamin Simons III (1772-1789); Sarah Lydia Simons and Jonathan Lucas (1787-?); Jonathan Lucas III (1840-?); John Coming Ball (1872-1927); Marie Guerin Ball Dingle (1927-1963); John, Charles, Coming and James Gibbs (1963-1981); Jane and Max Hill (1981-?)
  

Slaves

• Number of slaves – ?

— Middleburg Plantation Commissary & Slave Jail © Brandon Coffey —

Buildings

• A complete structural restoration of the house has been accomplished (Timmons).
  

• The kitchen had been restored but was subsequently destroyed. It is now being restored again (Timmons).
  

• Short term stabilization of the surviving outbuildings is underway with hopes of long-term plans for restoration of remaining outbuildings and pond (Timmons).
  

• Other buildings found on the plantation are the commissary, carriage house, slave cabins, and rice mill. There is a two cell jail located under the commissary.
  

• Brandon Coffey shares the legend of a woman who fell down the stairs in the middle of the night and died. Her ghost is said to be wandering the house.
  

Web Resources

• Brief History of Middleburg Plantation: Click here

• National Register of Historic Places
  – Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1976
  – Photographs, architectural overview
  

• Benjamin Simons Family

• Dave Munday, At the Crossroads Middleburg Owner Seeks to Save Garden (Post & Courier Newspaper: September 28, 1997)
  

Print Resources

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

• William P. Baldwin Jr., Plantations of the Low County: South Carolina 1697-1865 (Westbrook, ME: Legacy Publishing, 1994)
   Order Plantations of the Low County: South Carolina 1697-1865
  

• 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
  

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

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

— Middleburg Plantation Music Room © Brandon Coffey —

— Middleburg Plantation Music Room © Brandon Coffey —

— Middleburg Plantation Living Room © Brandon Coffey —

— Middleburg Plantation House © Brandon Coffey —

— Middleburg Plantation Marks on Jail Wall © Brandon Coffey —

— Middleburg Plantation Gate © Brandon Coffey —

— Middleburg Plantation Avenue of Oaks © Brandon Coffey —