Mulberry Plantation

MULBERRY PLANTATION Broughton Family

On Jan. 20, 1708 Sir John Colleton conveyed to Thomas Broughton 4,423 a.cres granted to Sir Peter Colleton in I679. That convenance, in Grant Book 1701-1712, p. 37 stated that the plantation was then known as "Mulberry Plantation". This began a series of land transactions between the two families which would give the Broughtons title to the portion of Fairlawn on which Thomas Broughton had built his settlement. This must have been one of the choice spots in the Province having once been set aside for Lord Ashley.

The house built by Broughton in 1714 has come to be known as "Mulberry Castle," but in his will he calls it his mansion. Mansion house is a term found in early wills to describe the first retentious houses built by the first wealthy English settlers and the of self-made men who acquired fortunes in "Indian trading, planting, soldiering, and office holding."

Samuel Gaillard Stoney writes that Broughton built Mulberry to be a family seat for future generations. This assumption is borne out by Broughton's will which leaves it to his widow for her life, with the provision that it go to his eldest son Captain Nathaniel Broughton. From his study of the house Stoney concludes that only the second stony interior and the towers refIect truly "the taste of the old house." He states that the main rooms were redecorated in the late 1700's with the wealth from the rich swamp fields and the rice fields along the river. He further states that Mulberry "is one of the few buildings of brick laid in English bond" left in this section outside Charleston. The dates are cut through the weather vanes of the four towers. The house and grounds, including the gardens; have been preserved and carefully maintained by the owners during the last half-century. The present owner, Mrs. Fannie Brawley, has continued this tradition and has been most generous in permitting the citizens of Berkeley County to visit this historic spot during its most beautiful season.

Thomas Broughton was married about 1683 to Anne Johnson, daughter of Sir Nathaniel Johnson of Silk Hope. It is thought that they were married in England .and were related: He had relatives who remained in England, but his sister Constantia married the second Cassique John Ashby of Quenby Plantation, and their daughter married Gabriel Manigault, reputed to have. been one of the wealthiest men of that day in Carolina.

Like his father-in-law, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, he was of the high church party and involved in some of the unsavory practices of the Indian trade and in the effort to bar dissenters from participation in the government.

In 1708, Broughton was one of the signers, along with the Governor; in the report to the Crown on the state of the Province. When the Free School Act came into being, he was one of the Commissioners.

In 1709, there was a riot in Charles Town during the struggle between Thomas Broughton and Robert Gibbes as to which of the deputies of a Proprietor would fill the place of governor after the death of Governor Tynte. Broughton carried an armed force from his plantation, presumably Mulberry, to "Town." Gibbes was already in office in Charles Town and called out the militia to keep Broughton's forces outside the wallsof the Town. With help from within, the Broughton party forcibly entered. There was much confusion, but Broughton was unsuccessful in taking the office. The affair has been described as a "discreditable controversy" among men who called themselves the first citizens.

In 1716, when a Commission was set up to try captured pirates, the Hon. Thomas Broughton, Speaker of. the House of Assembly, was one of the Assistant Judges appointed. He later served again in the same capacity. During the Yemassee War of 1715 the Rev. Robert Maule of St. John's, Berkeley, and a number of the people remained,at Mulberry for safety for four months.

On April 30, 1717, Thomas Broughton was one of the group designated to serve as the Council when. the Proprietors issued a commission to Robert Johnson as Governor. In the last legislation under the Proprietors as ratified on March 20, 1718-19, Broughton was one of three commissioners to regulate Indian Trade. However during the struggle of the Proprietors to retain control of the Province, Broughton was left off the Council even though he was a brother-in-law to the Governor.

In 1731, when Robert Johnson returned to the Province from England as Royal Governor, he brought a Commission for Thomas Broughton as Lieutenant Governor; and when Governor Johnson died on May 3, 1735. Thomas Broughton, as Lieutenant Governor, proclaimed himself Governor, the fulfillment of an old aspiration. Historians have termed him plain and honest,. but freely permitting other leading men "without many scruples" to acquire large possessions.

At the very beginning of the Broughton administration, the Commons House of Assembly in March of 1735 challenged his attempt to add 2,100 pounds to the money bill as prepared by the Commons. Then the Lieutenant Governor and the Council challenged the Commons, the reply was a denial of any right of the Council to amend a money bill. On the 29th. of March Broughton adjourned the Assembly, until the l5th. of April. When the Assembly met again, the Commons refused to yield what it considered the parliamentary right of Englishmen to be taxed by their representatives only. For a year no supply bill was passed. The Lieutenant Governor died on the 22nd. of November, 1737 and was succeeded by William Bull, the senior member of his Majesty's Council. Under the Lords Proprietors, Carolinians had served as Governor, but under the Crown, local leaders could never expect any thing higher than Lieutenant Governor, and outsiders were sent in as Governor and to fill many other offices as favorites of the Crown.

Thomas Broughton had a daughter Joanna who was married in 1732 to Thomas Monck, Esq., who purchased Mitton Plantation from James LeBas in 1735, probably because it was near the Broughtons; but also very probably because he realized the commercial possibilities at the junction of the roads there.

In 1731/2, his daughter Christiana was married to the Rev. Daniel Dwight. His will also names an unmarried daughter Constantia and a daughter Anne, the wife of John Gibbes of Barbados and Goose Creek.

Of his sons, the eldest was Captain Nathaniel Broughton, who married Henrietta Charlotte de Chastaigner, commanded a company the Yemassee War (1715), lived for a time at Seaton, but gave it up in order to inherit Mulberry under the terms of his father's will. The second son Andrew married Hannah Guerard and received Seaton under the father's will. Robert received the tract called Mount Pleasant. In 1734 Nathanlel and Andrew, along with their father received Commissions as Justices of the Peace for Berkeley County. In 1737 the two sons again received such commissions.

Mulberry Plantation has long been listed as an important historic site and, under the National Historic Preservatlon Act of 1966, the Plantation is listed on the National Register.

Information and Article from "Historic Ramblin's Through Berkeley" written by and used with permission of Mr. J. Russell Cross