Bellefield Plantation – Georgetown – Georgetown County
Basic Information
- Location – Waccamaw River, Georgetown, All Saints Waccamaw Parish, Georgetown County
Original plantation lands were located on the Waccamaw Neck off US 17.
- Origin of name – ?
- Other names – ?
- Current status – Owned by the Belle W. Baruch Foundation as part of Hobcaw Barony which is open to the public for guided tours.
Timeline
- 1718 – John, Lord Carteret, one of the Lords Proprietors, claimed 12,000 acres and called it Hobcaw Barony (3).
- 1730 – Lord Carteret sold the property to John Roberts for £500.
John Roberts sold the land to three men: Sir William Baker, Nicholas Linwood, and Brice Fisher. The three men appointed two agents to sell off the land. Hobcaw Barony would eventually be divided into many plantations (3).
- 1767 – Records indicate that Henry James Daubuz received a tract of land from the Hobcaw Barony. No documents have been found regarding his ownership (3, p. 36).
- 1794 – Thomas Young was in possession of the property. It contained 870 acres, and he named it Bellefield (3, p. 36).
A plat dated 1798 shows a main house with outbuildings. Thomas Young and his family probably spent their time between this house and the one he owned at Youngville (3, p. 37).
- 1804 – Thomas Young died and his property was divided into smaller tracts. Bellefield remained intact and went to Dr. William Allston and was then sold to William Alston (3, p. 37).
- 1839 – Charles Coteswoth Pinckney Alston owned Bellefield. At this time Alston owned both Bellefield and Youngville (3, p. 37).
- 1881 – Charles C.P. Alston died and left his estate to his three children: Joseph Pringle, Charles Pringle, and Susan Pringle Alston. The three never married or had children (3, p. 38).
- 1906 – Susan and Charles Pringle Alston sold the plantations to Bernard M. Baruch (3, p. 38).
Baruch was in the process of acquiring all the plantations that were created from the original Hobcaw Barony. He called all of his property Hobcaw Barony using the original name.
- 1935-1943 – Bernard M. Baruch conveyed most of Hobcaw Barony to his daughter, Belle Wilcox Baruch (1).
- 1956 – Belle Baruch created the Bernard M. Baruch Foundation to manage the barony as an educational center focusing on forestry and marine science (3, p. 54).
- 1964 – Belle Baruch died and her father decided to change the name of the foundation to the Belle W. Baruch Foundation. The foundation still exists today and continues to provide educational opportunities in wildlife conservation and research (1).
Land
- Number of acres – 870 in 1794
- Primary crop – Rice
Slaves
- Number of slaves – 290 in 1860 (total for Alston's Bellefield Plantation and Fairfield Plantation) (5, p. 19)
References & Resources
- National Register of Historic Places
– Nomination form - PDF - submitted in 1994
– Photographs, architectural overview
- History of Hobcaw Barony: Click here
- Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River
(Columbia, SC: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2001), pp. 34-39
Order Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River - George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina
(Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Company, 1990)
Order The History of Georgetown County, South Carolina - Charles Joyner, Down by the Riverside: A South Carolina Slave Community, Anniversary Edition
(Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009)
Contact Information
- Belle W. Baruch Foundation
22 Hobcaw Road
Georgetown, SC 29440
Telephone: 843-546-4623
Website: Click here
