Dating the Construction of Mulberry Plantation

Abstract

Research Notes Dating the Construction of Mulberry Plantation DIANE D. GREER Florida A&M University Figure 1. Mulberry Plantation, Berkeley County, South Carolina, 1711 (pavilions added 1714). Main facade of house (author). "Mulberry defies feverish attempts to find a word for it: it seems a sort of melting pot of architectural forms, as diverse in origin as the population of the colony." 1 Hugh Morrison's description in Early American Architecture From the First Colonial Settlements to the National Period captures the frustration of architectural historians in categorizing the architecture of the enigmatic main house of Mulberry Plantation (Figure 1), located in Berkeley County near Charleston, South Carolina. A closer examination of the design history of Mulberry Plantation may help to explain its seeming stylistic inconsistencies. Known locally and described historically as "Mulberry Castle/' the house was long believed to have been built in 1714, the date inscribed in each of four weathervanes atop the corner pavilions (Figure 2). However, it now appears 1. Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture from the First Colonial Settlement to the National Period, New York, 1952, 172. 2. Charleston County Miscellaneous Records, vol. 56, 1711-1715, 170, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston. This indenture, dated 17 May 1712, states that Thomas Broughton had "lately set up some erections and buildings on a part of fairlawns plantations." 56 that the house, without its pavilions, existed as early as 1711. Information found in the archives of the South Carolina Historical Society supports the notion that the body of the house, as built, was a typical example of early Georgian architecture and that only with the addition of the pavilions did its stylistic origins become clouded. In 1708, Thomas Broughton, an Englishman who later became lieutenant governor of South Carolina, purchased 4A23 acres of land from John Colleton, one of the proprietors of the colony. By 1712, Broughton had constructed a house overlooking the river.2 Unfortunately, the land on which he built this "Capitoll Mesuage Tenement Dwelling House Mansion" 3 was not a part of the 1708 purchase. Broughton and Colleton resolved the 3. Will of Thomas Broughton, Broughton Papers, South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston. Thomas Broughton died in 1737. This undated, handwritten document is concerned primarily with the disposition of the slaves at "Mulbery Plantation," a subject Broughton addresses in detail. Almost as an afterthought, he assigns the "Capitoll Mesuage Tenement Dwelling House Mansion" to his wife, Anne. ARRIS Volume 6: 56-57. 1995 problem amicably in May 1712 by executing a second indenture, an Agreement of Exchange.4 The second indenture documents the existence of the house as early as the spring of 1712. A letter written by Dr. Francis LeJau, a missionary to Charleston, supports an even earlier construction date. LeJau wrote in September 1711, "I have now no leading man or men ofauthority in my Parish. Col. Broughton left us 3 months ago to go and live upon his fine seat fourteen miles off." 5 The 1714 date indicated on the weathervanes corresponds to information contained in an undated document, probably a page from a personal journal, in the Broughton papers at the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston. The document states that "Gov Broughton built the present house at old Mulberry upon Sir John Colleton's land and the flankers were added by a vote of the General Assembly or the Council as a defence against the neighbouring Indians." 6 In the early eighteenth century, South Carolinians lived with the constant threat of Indian attack. Several histories of South Carolina refer to Mulberry's position on 4. Ibid. The property on which Broughton erected buildings was located on the extreme southeastern part of the Fair Lawn Barony. By the Agreement of Exchange dated 17 May 1712, Broughton retained the "bluff bank" and traded 300 acres off the northwest part of Mulberry Plantation back to Colleton along with 150 pounds, which represented the difference in value. 5. Mills Lane, Architecture ofthe Old South, South Carolina, New York, 1984,56. 6. Anonymous document, undated,Broughton Papers. Thisdocument, RESEARCH NOTES 57 Figure 2 (jar left). Mulberry Plantation. Detail of cupola showing 1714 date on weathervane of southwest pavilion (author). Figure 3 (left) . Mulberry Plantation. First floor plan...