SO. CA. HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL MAGAZINE,Vol 20

 

 

156               SO. CA. HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL MAGAZINE

 

spot.  The tract continued to be the Parish glebe for years.  The Parish Church in Dorchester having been long abandoned, and in ruins, the property was by an Act of the General Assembly passed in December 1855 transferred to the Episcopal Church of St. Pauls, Summerville, and by the vestry and churchwardens of that Church conveyed in February 1857 to John R. Stall for Joseph W. Davis and became a part of the Dorchester plantation.

 

OAK GROVE

 

            Next west of the Glebe was a plantation which was composed of a number of the Dorchester subdivisions.  Prior to 1785 Ste­phen Cater had acquired lots 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24 all lots in the first range fronting on the river and aggregating 350 acres.  On 4 January, 1785, this 350 acres were by the executors of Ste­phen Cater conveyed to Peter Horlbeck who was one of the two Horlbeck brothers who came to the Province about 1764 and were before the Revolution large constructing contractors in Charles Town. Peter Horlbeck, having acquired a competency, bought this property and made it his residence.  An account of Peter Horlbeck and of the place is given by Mrs. Poyas[1] where she states that according to tradition the beautiful live oak avenue (some of which still remain) was planted by Mrs. Peter Horlbeck.  To this 350 acres Peter Horlbeck added in 1788 fifty acres (lot No. 17) purchased from Juhn Postell Senr[2] and after his death the whole 400 acres "late the residence of Mr. Peter Horlbeck deceased" was in 1807 conveyed to Thomas Baas.[3]  The Oak Grove property was well known in the locality for its fine live oaks and the lands were reported to be the best in the limits of the lines of the Dorchester grants which contained in the part away from the river a good deal of infertile pine land. During the ownership of Thomas Baas he added to the plantation lots 15 and 16 and part of lots 13 and 14 so that the plantation aggregated 557½ acres.


 

THE UPPER ASHLEY                                                   157

 

PRIOR'S TAVERN

 

            Next to Oak Grove was a tract of 100 acres consisting of two of the original Dorchester subdivisions (Nos. 11 and 12).  Lot 11 had been originally allotted to the Rev. Joseph Lord the Minister who came with the Dorchester settlers from Massachusetts.  Lot 12 seems to have been originally allotted to John Simmons who seems to have transferred to Daniel Chastaigner whose exe­cutor Isaac Porcher Junr under authority of an Act of Assembly passed in 1712 conveyed to Joseph Lord.[4]  The Rev. Joseph Lord returned to Massachusetts and in 1721 conveyed the two lots to Thomas Osgood Junr[5] by whose son the Rev. John Osgood, who had removed to Midway, Georgia, they were in 1757 transferred to John Edward[6] and were afterwards acquired by one Seth Prior who established a tavern on the roadside long known as Priors Tavern, which continued to be kept until the advent of railroads, and the decay of travel on the public roads rendered such places of entertainment unprofitable.  According to Mrs. Poyas, Seth and Sam Prior two of the descendants still kept it as late as 1830.  In 1882 the remains of the old tavern and its out buildings could still be seen on the north side of the public road but they have since all disappeared.

 

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

 

            Next west of Prior's property was an 100 acre tract which belonged to the Congregational Church of Dorchester.  The set­tlers of Dorchester were largely Congregational immigrants from Dorchester, Massachusetts, and at the subdivision of the original grants, lot 9 fronting on the river in the first range of lots and containing 50 acres was in 1700 set aside for the ministry, and the original meeting house—for many years called the White Meeting—was constructed on this lot. The Parish Church of St. George was built in the "place of trade" or Town of Dorchester but the Meeting house of the Congregational body was on this lot 9.  The adjoining lot—No. 10—also containing 50 acres had been allotted to the Rev. Joseph Lord who in 1721 conveyed it to trustees for the

 

 

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157 SO. CA. HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL MAGAZINE

     

Congregational body.[7] The tract of 100 acres constituted the parsonage for the residence and use of the Minister of the Congregational Church for many years as long as there was a resident minister, but in latter years—after 1865—the entire tract, with the exception of the site of the Meeting house and a few acres around it, was sold off. The old walls of the building were shaken down in the earthquake of 1886, but the fragments of the brick work still remain with the adjacent cemetery.

 

BARREN HEATH, OR ROSE HILL

 

          Northeast of the Prior's Tavern tract and the Congregational Parsonage was a plantation of some 479 acres which in 1717 belonged to Robert Miller. Robert Miller if not among the first members of the Dorchester settlement from Massachusetts was early con­nected with them and apparently obtained several of the sub-divisions for this 479 acres was entirely within the lines of the Dorchester grants.  Apparently to fortify his title he took out in December 1717 a grant to himself for this 479 acres.[8]  He also owned an additional tract of some 544 acres not far removed and which was apparently part of a grant made 17 May 1700 to Robert Fenwick[9] for 1000 acres.  From the first Robert Miller the property passed to his son Robert Miller,[10] after whom it is next found in the possession of John Perdriau, whose adminis­trator in 1787 conveyed it to Benjamin Waller[11] by whom it was transferred in 1789 to Morton Waring,[12] who in 1803 conveyed to John Rose,[13] the same who is mentioned by Mrs. Poyas as Deacon John Rose of the Congregational Church,[14] and who owned it for many years.  On an early plat it is designated by the suggestive name of "Barren Heath" but after it was acquired by John Rose it was known as Rose Hill.  The swamp or creek through a part of the property and which debouches into the Ashley River at

 

 


 

THE UPPER ASHLEY                         159

 

 

the site of the old village of Dorchester and there had the Indian name of Boshoe or Bosua Creek became known as Rose Creek and the public road running along Rose's property to the main Dorchester Road became and is still known as the Rose Creek Road.

 

SUMNERS

 

          Next west of Barren Heath was a small plantation composed of an aggregation of several of the Dorchester subdivisions in what was called the second range in the first division.  Starting from lots originally allotted to Joseph Sumner and William Way and increased by small additions in the hands of subsequent owners, John Cousins, Mary White, Gillson Clapp, John Sumner, until it finally reached an aggregate of over 200 acres. It does not seem to have had any distinctive name or in any wise to have been of any interest.  It represented the extreme western limit of the original Dorchester grant, of that part of it called "Roses" land from an original Rose (probably Thomas Rose) for whom it had been surveyed prior to the Dorchester grant to John Stevens in 1696.

 

NEWINGTON

 

West of the Dorchester grants lay the Axtell property.  Daniel Axtell was a merchant in London.  There was a Daniel Axtell a competent officer in Cromwell's army who was in command of the guard at the trial of King Charles I, and who, after the Restoration, was tried in 1660 as one of the regicides and executed. The life of him given in the Dictionary of National Biography does not state whether he left any descendants, and there is nothing on the record here, save the identity of name, on which to base a conjecture of relationship between the London merchant and the officer who was executed.  Daniel Axtell the merchant together with Joseph Morton seem to have taken a great deal of interest in forwarding the settlement in Carolina.  In a letter from the Proprietors to the council in Carolina dated 18 October, 1690, they refer to "Landgraves Morton and Axtell who brought five hundred people to Carolina in a month."[15] Exactly when he first came to Carolina the writer has not found on the  record, but on 13 Decem-


 

[1] Our Forefathers, pp. 68, 69, 81.

[2] M. C. O. Charle Ibid., Bk. U. No. 7, p, 323.

[3] Ibid., Bk. U. No. 7, p, 323.

[4] M. C. O. Charleston, Bk. L, p. 4.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., Bk. SS, p. 364

[7] M. C. 0. Charleston, I3k. L, p. 8.

[8] Proprietary Grants, vol. 39, p. 196 (or 224).

[9] Ibid., vol. 39, p. 400.

[10] Memo. Bk. 3, p. 474.

[11] M. C. 0. Charleston, Bk. L, No. 5, p. 229.

[12] Ibid., Bk. C, No. 5, 1,. 286.

[13] Ibid., Bk. L, No. 7., p. 2.

[14] Our Forefathers, pp. 128, 130.

 

[15] Cal. St. Papers Am. and West Ind., vol. 1689-1692, p. 331.

 

Introduction