Yellow Fever

Yellow fever was the most deadly and feared of the ‘fevers’ to strike South Carolina. Outbreaks were almost an annual occurrence, with no fewer than 11 major epidemics between the turn of the 19th c. and the Civil War. The year Elizabeth Barnwell Gough contracted yellow fever and died an estimated one-sixth of the population of Beaufort succumbed to the disease.⁸

Throughout the country the fear was both so great and understanding of the disease so lacking that many stopped shaking hands and avoided passing close to houses where someone had died. Some even endeavored to remain upwind from all others they encountered. The belief that the disease was contagious resulted often in sufferers being sent to quarantine islands.

Not until the beginning of the 20th century would a mosquito, the Aedes aegypti, be identified as the carrier of the disease. Until then, medical authorities could only observe that there was a higher risk of outbreaks during the warmer months and near swamp or marsh areas. The generally accepted interpretation was that the higher incidence was due to unhealthy air.

Early treatment included bloodletting and large doses of calomel (a purgative and fungicide also known as mercurous chloride). One South Carolinian doctor practicing “mild” bloodletting took as much as 72 ounces of blood from yellow fever patients, drastically reducing the chances of recovery. Elizabeth at least may have escaped such treatment. Beaufort’s Dr. James Robert Verdier, whose residence is now known as Marshlands, is reported to have had a higher success rate than others in treating the disease, suggesting that he spurned the drastic measures of the day. But even the possibly forward thinking Verdier could do little against an epidemic of such proportions.

Elizabeth died October 10th, 1817 and is buried in St. Helena’s Churchyard.

⁸Joseph Waring, M.D., A Hstory of Medicine in South Carolina 1670-1825, South Carolina Medical Association, 1964, page 157

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Robert Barnwell Rhett - The Father of Secession

Known as the “Father of Secession,” Robert Barnwell Rhett was born December 21st 1800 most probably in the Elizabeth Barnwell Gough house and was raised there by his grandmother until her death in 1817.

Like his grandmother and her grandfather before her, Robert Barnwell Rhett is known as one of Beaufort’s more colorful personalities. One of the earliest and most ardent and voices for States’ Rights and Nullification, he played a major role in eventually propelling South Carolina into the vanguard of the Secessionist Movement. One of the last of the Barnwell family to wield tremendous wealth and political influence, his single minded devotion to the cause helped to bring on a war that would end five generations of Barnwell reign.

Admitted to the bar in Charleston in 1822, he practiced law briefly with his cousin Robert Woodward Barnwell, before launching his high profile political career. In 1837, along with five brothers, he changed his last name from Smith to Rhett to honor his paternal great-great grandfather Colonel Rhett of Charles Town whose name had died out.His long political career included twelve years in Congress and chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He was a delegate to the Nullification Convention of 1832 and a US senator before resigning in 1852.

A powerful and compelling public speaker, he was known by his contemporaries as a “fire eater.” Praised for his honesty and high standards of conduct, he was alternately described as impulsive and rash – his colorful personality not unlike his grandmother’s.

The traits that made Robert Barnwell Rhett one of Beaufort’s most famous antebellum figures may well have been instilled at 705 Washington Street by a strict disciplinarian grandmother who once had been a fiery tempered, impulsive young woman.

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The Barnwell Brothers

During the Revolution Elizabeth’s three brothers John, Robert and Edward all served as officers. In a war where many withdrew or changed sides under pressure, all three brothers served steadfastlly on the patriot side. By the war’s end, John had reached the rank of Brigadier General; Robert had been promoted to Colonel and Edward, a lieutenant at only 18, had reached the rank of Lt. Colonel.

February 9th 1779, Robert and Edward fought in brother John’s troop in a battle on Port Royal Island, remembered now for the two British officers who were killed and buried in St. Helena’s churchyard at John’s direction, reportedly saying:

“We have shown the British we not only can best them in battle but that we can also give them a Christian burial.”sup>6

Robert was wounded 17 times in one battle and left for dead.

For more than a year, all three brothers were held on the British prison ship Pack Horse in Charleston Harbor. In 1781, when the ship left to transport its prisoners to Philadelphia, the brothers helped to commandeer the ship and guide it into patriot hands.

After the war, John and Robert served in numerous important political positions. John was elected to the SC Senate in 1782 and with the exception of 1788-1791 was a senator until his death in 1800. He was promoted to Major General of the 2nd Militia in 1799. Robert and John were both part of South Carolina’s delegation to ratify the Constitution. Robert was a US congressman and declined to stand for a virtually assured election as a US senator. He served on Beaufort’s first City Council and was Beaufort’s first intendant (mayor). Both were active in the founding of Beaufort College and served as vestrymen of St. Helena’s Church. During their lives, John or Robert served in (or was offered) every public position of power or influence in Beaufort.

Their power was further enhanced by their early involvement with the growing of sea island cotton. Before the war, indigo had been the staple crop of the area, but with the post-war loss of a British subsidy it proved no longer a profitable crop. Brothers John, Robert and Edward were among the first to recognize the potential of sea island cotton and so were among the first to reap its rewards.

The tremendous impact of cotton on the post-war economy and the fortunes of the Barnwell brothers is evident in a comparison of export figures over a single decade. Between the fall of 1789 and 1790, South Carolina exported 9,840 pounds of the long staple crop. Between the fall of 1800 and 1801, the amount had risen to 8,301,907 pounds.⁷ The Revolutionary War had made them heroes. Cotton made their names synonymous with wealth, power and influence. If Tuscarora Jack can be said to have laid the foundation of Beaufort, then John, Robert and Edward were responsible for its cornerstone.

⁶The Story of an American Family, page 33

⁷The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, page 281

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The Revolutionary War

Caught in the middle of British and American forces vying for control of Charleston and Savannah, Beaufort suffered more than its share of turbulence and devastation during the Revolution. At one point, from July through September 1779, the British ship Vigilant was anchored in Beaufort Bay with its 24 cannon “ready to defend or destroy the town if necessary.”³ In 1780, Colonel Banastre Tarleton, in one of many troop plunderings, appropriated all of the horses from Beaufort and the Sea Islands as mounts for his “bloody legion.”

In addition to numerous regular troop actions was an almost endless round of raids and reprisals. For many of Beaufort’s families were bitterly divided over the war, with Elizabeth’s own family at the center of one of the bitterest feuds.

Her brothers John, Robert and Edward and the husband of her sister Anne, Gen. Stephen Bull, were all major players in Beaufort on the side of independence. On the side of the British was Elizabeth’s cousin Andrew DeVeaux, who was one of the most vengeful and ruthless in the war. He is said to have used the war as an opportunity to act on his personal hatred of John, Stephen and especially Robert. DeVeaux was responsible for carrying off of hundreds of their slaves and for numerous acts of destruction directed at his cousins personally, including the burning of Sheldon Church (which had been built largely with Bull family money) and Anne and Stephen’s plantation, Laurel Bay.

Even after regular forces had withdrawn from the area, guerrilla raids, murders, reprisals and a climate of lawlessness continued to plague Beaufort until the end of the war. In the chaos, travel and day-to-day commerce came to a virtual halt.The Reverend Archibald Simpson’s description of Beaufort immediately after the war is particularly telling:

“All is desolation…Every field, every plantation…No garden, no enclosure, no mulberry bush, no fruit trees, nothing but wild fennel, bushes, underwood, briars to be seen…a very ruinous habitation…“Every person keeps close to his plantation. Robberies and murders are often committed on public roads. The people that remain are peeled, pillaged and plundered.”⁴

“An entire generation had grown up between 1775 and 1783, and many knew only the uncertainty, violence and terror of a long war that in Beaufort… took a particularly vengeful turn.”⁵

In this climate, it is extremely unlikely that Elizabeth would have begun construction on her imposing home. More probably, she began building a new home and a new life for herself and her daughter when Beaufort (and the new country) began rebuilding in the latter half of the 1780s.

³Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore and George C. Rogers, Jr., The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 1, 1514-1861, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC 1996, page 226

⁴Ibid, page 254

⁵Ibid, page 255

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Richard Gough

Like many of the early settlers in South Carolina, Richard Gough’s grandfather, John Gough, came to Charles Town from Barbados. His original land grant, dated October 12, 1709 included 3500 acres, part of the Barony of Thomas Colleton, in an area known as Goose Creek.

Born November 1750, Richard Gough was the son of John Gough’s second son Richard and wife Rachel Keating. Richard Sr. presumably enjoyed more than moderate success as a planter for his will directed that his son Richard be educated in England upon reaching the age of thirteen.

Why Elizabeth Barnwell’s family objected to her attachment to Richard Gough remains a cause of speculation. In social standing, financial status and political allegiance, Richard would have been an appropriate match for Elizabeth.Richard, like Elizabeth’s brothers, had aligned himself with the patriot cause even before the Revolution. Like Elizabeth’s brothers John, Robert and Edward, Richard served throughout the Revolution without wavering. Richard, also like the brothers, was a voice for moderation in the treatment of those who had been forced to change sides to protect their families or property during the war. Once again like them, he enjoyed the high regard of his peers for his brave and valuable service during the Revolution. Richard served as a Captain in the brigade of South Carolina’s most famous Revolutionary War hero, General Francis Marion, who was known as the “Swamp Fox” for his brilliant and elusive guerrilla tactics.

The most probable cause for the Barnwells’ objection to Richard Gough was his character. His spiteful and acrimonious nature is born out not just in the tales passed down, but also by his will of October 1791. He states in a clear attempt to prevent Elizabeth from securing funds rightfully due her:

“I give and bequeath unto Elizabeth Gough my Wife the Sum of Fifty pounds Sterling in lieu, compensation and final Extingishment of her Dower or Thirds and all and every other her rights, Titles, Claims, or demands whatever, of into, against or out of my Estate either real or Personal Item I give and bequeath unto Mary Ann Daughter of Elizabeth Gough my Wife, Fifty pounds and it is my particular Will, desire and Intention that the said Mary Ann shall not inherit any part or parts of my Estate either real or personal but the Fifty pounds given as above.”

The fact that the will was executed just two months prior to Marianna’s marriage together with his reference to “Mary Ann” as Elizabeth’s daughter, not his or “our” daughter prompts the inference that he was attempting to deny not just any financial claims Marianna would have (or her future husband would have on her behalf) but also any parental connection.

The will goes on to bequeath three slaves to a goddaughter and his cattle, horses and sheep to Keating Simons. The bulk of his sizable estate he gave to his mother for her lifetime and after her death to his godson Edward Simons, son of Keating Simons. Described in his will as his friend, Keating Simons was also the executor for Richard’s will and a cousin from Richard’s mother’s side of the family.Richard Gough died at his plantation in St. James Parish February 2, 1796.

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Tuscarora Jack Barnwell

John Barnwell was by all accounts a heroic leader in battle, an adept statesman on both sides of the Atlantic and a visionary who helped secure the future of fledgling Beaufort. A skilled mapmaker in uncharted lands, John Barnwell literally and figuratively put Beaufort on the map. He also founded a family that would increasingly dominate Beaufort politically, socially and economically with each succeeding generation.

For more than 130 years after his death, Tuscarora Jack’s exceptional personality and spirit lived on in his descendents – as they, in turn, helped to mold the history of Beaufort.Born in Ireland to a well-connected, titled family of Barons, Baronets and Viscounts, Barnwell left for Charleston (then Charles Town) to seek his fortune around 1700. Founded only 30 years before, the once tenuous toehold in the New World had become a bustling port prospering from the cultivation of rice. Barnwell quickly established himself, serving first as Clerk of the Governor’s Council, later as Deputy Secretary of the Council and ultimately as Comptroller of the Province.

Governor Sir Nathaniel Johnson (for whom Barnwell would name his first son) was one of his early patrons. In the years leading up to 1709, Barnwell was favored with a series of land grants on Port Royal and vicinity for holdings totaling over 3,400 acres. His first contact with the area, where he would play an even more prominent role, was in 1703, when he was directed to map Port Royal Sound. Often a part of expeditions against the Spanish and French, Barnwell continued to map the region, eventually making “the great mother map of the American southeast from which all subsequent maps of the area were made.”²

In 1711, his extensive military experience led to his being given the command of a party of militia and 500 Indians (predominantly Yemassee) sent against the powerful Tuscarora Indians who had been raiding English settlements in what is now North Carolina. Outnumbered, under provisioned, and contending with both poor discipline and bitter winter conditions, the expedition under Barnwell’s leadership nevertheless managed to rout the Tuscarora. The success of his mission and his status as Carolina’s most experienced Indian fighter earned him the epithet -- Tuscarora Jack.

His trusted allies the Yemassee, however, in just four years would turn against the English. For years, Barnwell and Port Royal neighbor, planter and Indian agent, Thomas Nairne, had warned that the official exploitive policy toward the Indians was pushing them toward revolt.Their warnings proved correct on Good Friday 1715 when the Yemassee together with Creeks, Choctaws and Catawbas struck first at Pocotaligo Town. Two, perhaps three, colonists escaped the massacre, fleeing to Barnwell’s plantation.

Alerted to the uprising, 300 colonists fled to Beaufort and crowded aboard a smuggling ship that had been seized and detained in the harbor. Among the passengers was Barnwell’s ten year old son Nathaniel. Over 400 settlers, though, were killed in the uprising among them Thomas Nairne. Once again Tuscarora Jack was pressed into service to lead forces against the Indians, this time to drive his former allies the Yemassee into Florida.

In 1717, John Barnwell was also appointed to the first Board of Commissioners who were assigned the task of reforming Indian policy. He was also given the additional responsibility of directing the defense of the colony from the Stono River to St. Augustine.Although the Yemassee were ultimately routed, the uprising helped to fuel the colonists’ dissatisfaction with their governing authority, the Lord Proprietors. Their lack of support for the defense of the colony and self-interested rule led the colonists to petition for direct rule by the crown. The emissary deemed to have the requisite expertise and experience to plead their case was Colonel John Barnwell.

Arriving in London in 1720, he met with the Board of Trade and Lords Justices and successfully argued for transfer of power over the Carolinas to the King. His second mission was to propose that a string of defensive forts be built along the southern frontier. The financially conservative Lords Justices approved the building of only one, on the Altamaha River. On returning to the Carolinas, Barnwell oversaw its construction. Named Fort King George, it was the first permanent English presence in Georgia.A member of the assembly from 1717 until his death in 1724, Barnwell also served as Justice of the Peace for Granville County and commander of the county militia.

A widower at the time of his death, he left two sons, six daughters and an estate of over 6,500 acres.A founding father of Beaufort, he was also the patriarch of a prolific family that prospered, married well and carried on his legacy of public service to become one of the most powerful of Beaufort families.

²Stephen Barnwell, The Story of an American Family, Marquette, 1969, page 5

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Elizabeth Barnwell Gough

For over 200 years, the hopes, struggles, triumphs and defeats of Beaufort, South Carolina have been played out within the walls of the Elizabeth Barnwell Gough House. An ill-fated romance, Revolutionary War heroes, leaders of a young nation, architects of its near demise in civil war, heroes on the side of the Union, pioneering women for women's rights, and members of the infamous Ku Klux Klan are all part of the home’s history.

It is a history as richly patina-ed as the tabby walls of its exterior. Extraordinary people came, lived and died here. Ordinary people have added to its history as well. There were people of great wealth and people who struggled with economic hardships. There were people who helped shape their eras and people whose lives were shaped by their times. Their stories tell the history of Beaufort and a much larger one that I will begin to share with you in exerpts from my research and writing for the owners of this remarkable home.

Traditionally, the history of the Elizabeth Barnwell Gough House begins in 1775 with the death of Elizabeth’s father Nathaniel Barnwell. The eldest son of Tuscarora Jack Barnwell, Nathaniel had amassed a sizable fortune, 1600 pounds of which he left to his daughter Elizabeth. The legacy provided for her lifetime support and for her daughter’s until Marianna’s marriage in 1791. The legacy also enabled Elizabeth to build one of Beaufort’s grandest and most beautiful homes.
But in a broader sense, the history of the Elizabeth Barnwell House begins long before the legacy or the home’s construction.

It can be argued that the history of the house begins even before Elizabeth’s birth with the remarkable life and achievements of her grandfather, Tuscarora Jack Barnwell. (More about Tuscarora Jack in my next blog.) Though he died 29 years before her birth, he left a legacy of bold action and independent spirit that shaped the character of the Barnwell family and undoubtedly played a large part in making Elizabeth who she was, the choices she made in life and even in the commanding presence of her home.

Elizabeth’s story, like her grandfather’s, is a colorful one. In fact and legend, it is one of Beaufort’s more intriguing tales. At 18, Elizabeth Barnwell had attracted the attention of 21-year-old James Island planter, Richard Gough. At the time, the Barnwell family already had numerous ties with Charleston area society. Elizabeth’s mother was the daughter of a planter from neighboring John’s Island as was her brother Nathaniel II’s wife. Her aunt Anne’s first and fourth husbands and her aunt Katherine’s husband were all John’s Island planters.

Richard Gough would most certainly have been well known to Elizabeth’s family, who responded to his overtures by objecting to the match. Elizabeth’s family is said to have considered him “dissipated.” There may also have been concerns about his temper, which would later prove to be violent. To discourage the attachment, the family sent Elizabeth to London in the company of her aunt and uncle, her mother Mary’s brother John Gibbes and his wife.

Richard Gough followed her to London and the couple eloped to Greta Green. The town, just across the English border in Scotland, had laws between 1754 and 1856 that permitted hasty marriages and was notorious as a destination for eloping couples. On their return Elizabeth’s uncle, John, insisted on a church wedding and they were married again in London in May of 1772.

Elizabeth’s act of defiance in marrying Richard was not a singular event in the spirited Barnwell family. Her uncle, John Barnwell, had eloped with his mother’s ward Elizabeth Fenwick. A cousin, Ann Perroneau, left her husband to “elope” with the married Governor of South Carolina, Thomas Boone. Elizabeth marrying against her family’s wishes was nevertheless a daring act for a young woman of her time and one with unfortunate results.

The couple returned to James Island from London that August. The following year, on March 1st, 1773, their only child and daughter Marianna was born. Two months later, Elizabeth took her daughter to Beaufort never to return to Richard Gough. Accounts vary as to the cause of the sudden and permanent rift. One account places the blame on the couple’s fiery tempers. Another places it on her family. Hearing that Elizabeth was unhappy, they are said to have sent a boat for her and then stood in the way of her return to James Island. According to Elizabeth, the estrangement was perpetuated by her family’s refusal to consider a reconciliation. Their stand actually may have been in her best interest, for other credible accounts paint a disturbing picture of Richard’s character.

One such account maintains that when Elizabeth left for what she considered only a visit with her family in Beaufort, Richard in a pique of wounded pride had a housemaid gather up all Elizabeth’s belongings and sent them to Beaufort with the message that she was not to return. When Elizabeth, according to the law and custom of the time, petitioned the court to have Richard pay for her support as his wife,¹ Richard at first agreed but later became violent, assaulting Elizabeth’s counsel and fighting a duel with the counsel’s nephew. Elizabeth, fearful that someone would be hurt or killed on her account, withdrew her petition. Richard Gough’s last will, dated 1791, gives further evidence of an angry and spiteful character. From an estate valued at 15,000 pounds sterling, he left just 50 pounds to Elizabeth, stipulating that it was in lieu of her dower. Another 50 pounds he left to Marianna, referring to Marianna as “her” daughter, not “our” or “my.” After his death, Elizabeth was able to sue for and regain her rightful dower, substantially more than the nominal sum Gough attempted to leave her. She also petitioned for the back alimony denied her by Gough. Her request, however, was refused as a personal claim that had died on the death of her husband in February 1796.

Fascination with the history of the couple has led to a number of other stories being passed down through the generations. One tale has Elizabeth’s younger brother Edward and Gough fighting a duel. Another tells of Elizabeth’s brother John passing Richard on the street in Charleston, each placing his hand on his sword as the only acknowledgement of the other. Yet another story has Richard Gough noticing a beautiful young woman in a shop in Charleston. When he inquired as to her identity, he was told that she was his own daughter, Marianna.

Whatever the reasons were behind the couple’s estrangement, Elizabeth and her daughter initially lived with her family until her father’s death in 1775 and in all likelihood until the end of the Revolutionary War. Although her inheritance from her father gave her the means to build a home, building in Beaufort would have been virtually impossible in the town during the war.

Until her home could be built, Elizabeth may have lived with her widowed mother and younger sister Sarah, eleven years Elizabeth’s junior. We know that her widowed mother and Sarah spent the war years living in the “Big House” built by Nathaniel Barnwell in Beaufort on the bay. Another possibility is that Elizabeth and Marianna lived with her brother Nathaniel II.

Nathaniel, a semi-invalid since suffering exposure as a boy during the Cherokee War, was made guardian of Elizabeth’s inheritance in their father’s will. Nathaniel had inherited their father’s Parris Island plantation known as “Old House.” His wife, also named Elizabeth, is believed to have died shortly after the birth of the couple’s third child, William, in 1774. His other surviving child, Nathaniel III, was born in 1772, making his two sons close in age to Elizabeth’s daughter Marianna. It is possible Elizabeth spent the war years rearing the three young cousins together.

It is unlikely that Elizabeth lived with any of her other immediate family members. Her other brothers John, Robert and Edward were all actively involved in the war and her only other surviving sibling, Anne, was married to Gen. Stephen Bull, one of the main targets of British reprisals during the Revolution.

By the war’s end, Elizabeth, at thirty, was the survivor of nearly a decade of upheaval. The years immediately following the Revolution, however, were marked by more than just the work of recovering from the devastation. A new nation was being built. Beaufort was on the verge of an all-new and highly profitable economy based on cotton. And Elizabeth’s family was at the epicenter of the social, economic and political rebirth taking place.

Following the war, the Barnwell family through marriage added an even longer roster of prominent names to the family tree that already included Berners, Stanyarne, Reeve, Stuart, Gibbes, Sams, Bull and Elliot. Her sister Sarah married James Hazzard Cuthbert. Her brother John wed Anne Hutson. Brothers Robert and Edward married sisters Elizabeth Hayne Wigg and Mary Hutson Wigg. In subsequent generations, the intermarriage between branches of the family would further solidify Barnwell power and wealth.

As the Barnwell family grew during the second half of the 1780s, so did its political influence. In 1788, all eight of the delegates sent by South Carolina to ratify the young country’s new constitution were related to Elizabeth by blood, marriage or both. In the influential extended Barnwell family, Elizabeth’s brothers, John and especially Robert, became leading political figures in Beaufort.

Their prominence was reflected in the homes they built. Robert purchased and rebuilt Laurel Bay, his sister Anne Bull’s plantation home that had been burned by the British. Robert and Edward built an immense, three-story duplex on Bay Street known as “The Castle” for their sister-brides where they would raise their families side by side. In this heady climate, Elizabeth began construction on a magnificent tabby home for herself and her daughter.

In 1791, Marianna Gough married 30-year old James Harvey Smith of Charleston. From an equally well-connected family, he was a descendent of Governor James Moore and Colonel William Rhett, one of the most powerful of early Charles Town merchants. His siblings had married into the prominent Rutledge, Grimke and Bee families. Smith had studied in London and was regarded as having a fine intellect. Unfortunately his brilliance did not extend itself to the running of a plantation. About 1800, after an unsuccessful start as a planter in the Beaufort area, he and Marianna moved to a Cape Fear River plantation in North Carolina where his family had interests. In North Carolina, however, Smith enjoyed only modest success and all of the couple’s sons are believed to have been reared by their grandmother, Elizabeth, presumably for the benefits she could offer, not the least of which was the superior education available in Beaufort.

With the support of its wealthy planter population, Beaufort had earned a reputation for providing one of the finest educational opportunities in the South, most notably at Beaufort College. Originally located at Bay and Church Streets, it had among its original trustees the boys’ uncles, Robert and John, and a distinguished faculty that included the influential William J. Grayson and respected legal authority James Louis Petigru. Young men educated at Beaufort College frequently went on to distinguished academic careers at the country’s most respected universities.

When Elizabeth’s grandsons were still boys, they are said to have played frequently on the land facing the house. The land that had been an open field when the house was built was, by the time the boys played there, a town block. Between 1801 and 1809 Washington Street (along with Greene and Congress Streets) had been established by statute to accommodate a prospering Beaufort.

Elizabeth was reportedly a strict disciplinarian. Judging from the adult characters of her grandsons, she also instilled a good measure of her own personality and the Barnwell spirit before her death in 1817. Her influence may have even played a role in subsequent South Carolina history in the person of her fourth grandson, Robert Barnwell Rhett, the “Father of Secession.”

Elizabeth died in October of 1817 during one of the worst epidemics of yellow fever to hit Beaufort. By then her grandsons Thomas, James, Benjamin, Robert, Edmund and Albert were 23, 20, 19, 17, 9 and 7 years of age respectively. It has been a matter of speculation whether Elizabeth also had charge of her granddaughters. One fact perhaps supports the theory that the girls were reared by their parents in North Carolina. At the time of Elizabeth’s death and the Smiths’ subsequent return to Beaufort, their daughters Mariana, Claudia, Emma and Elizabeth were aged 18, 15, 14 and 2 respectively. Their eldest Mariana eventually married a North Carolinian, Dr. Joseph Rogers Walker. Making it plausible that the daughters were reared in North Carolina and only Mariana was old enough by 1817 to form an attachment there.

Whether Elizabeth reared only her grandsons or her granddaughters as well, the house was undoubtedly a hub of activity. The grandchildren had no fewer than 49 cousins from Elizabeth’s branch of the Barnwell family alone, all of whom most likely frequented the house, judging from the family’s numerous alliances with other Barnwell family members. Grandson Thomas married Caroline Barnwell (a daughter of Elizabeth’s brother Edward). Granddaughter Elizabeth married Nathaniel Barnwell Heyward (a son of another daughter of Edward’s). Edmund and Claudia married Stuarts. Robert Barnwell Rhett’s law partner was cousin Robert Woodward Barnwell, son of Elizabeth’s brother Robert.

Though Elizabeth was an anomaly for her era, a woman living independent of her husband, she was not living on the periphery of society. The countless connections and interconnections within the family and the Barnwell’s political and economic position in Beaufort would have made the house in Elizabeth’s lifetime part of the social fabric of Beaufort.

After Elizabeth’s death, James and Marianna Smith sold the house. And, with the sale and inheritance from Elizabeth’s estate, they presumably enjoyed a change in financial circumstances. For, while their elder sons benefited from an exceptionally fine education in Beaufort, many of their more affluent cousins were able to continue their education at New England preparatory schools and Ivy League colleges, an expense the couple could not afford for Thomas, James, Benjamin or Robert. But the two youngest Edmund and Albert went on to Philips Andover Academy after Elizabeth’s death with both grandsons eventually graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Yale.

James Smith died in 1835 and Marianna in 1837. She was buried in St. Helena’s Churchyard in the same plot as her mother. The weathered inscription on their marker reads simply:

BeneathThis Slab

Beside each other

Lie the remains of

Mrs. Elizabeth Gough

And her only child, and daughter

Mrs. Marianna Smith

The former dau of

Nathaniel and Mary Barnwell

and the wife of

Richard Gough

Was born on the 19th of June AD 1753

Died on the 10th day of Oct. AD 1817

The later wife of

James Smith

Was born on the 1 day of March 1773

And Died on 20 day of Oct. 1837

¹De Sausaure’s Equity Reports, Vol. 2, page 197

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