BRABANT PLANTATION Padget and Smith Families

Brabant, like many other plantations, was made up of a number of small tracts of land. Francis Pagett had a grant of 299 acres here in 1704. Included in Brabant were grants of 200 acres to Lewis Juin in 1696, 210 areas James Belin in 1704, 500 acres to Daniel Brabant in 1709 and 26 acres m 1710, 200 acres to Julien Carteau in 1704, 150 acres to Philip Norman 1705, 390 acres to Francis Pagett in 1714, 70 acres in 1719 and 52 acres in 17I8/19, 200 acres to Anthony Poitevin in 1707 and 150 acres to Peter Potevin in 1713. The place took the Brabant name from the largest single tract.

Francis Pagett married the widow Frances Juin. When he died about 1730; the property went to their three sons, Francis, Peter. and John. John eventually. came into possession of the entire 2,528 acres to which he added other tracts to increase the acreage to 3,600. John Pagett became very wealthy. His will and that of his mother mention his sister.Susannah Dubois, nephews and nieces, Walter and Francis Dallas, Elizabeth Quash, Mary Bonneau and Frances Dubois. He left 100 pounds to the poor of the French Parish. of St. Denis and 100 pounds to the Rev. John James Tissot. These people have descendants in Berkeley County today. Much information on this family will be found in he "`Peyre Records" {Including Juin-Padget-Dubois Records) in Transactlon No. 80 of The Huguenot Society of South Carolina.

Judge H. A. M. Smith, a descendant of the Bishop and his second wife, and other writers describe the burial of the Church silver and that of Bishop Smith by the overseer, an Irishman named Mauder, when Quarter Master Jack made thf s his headquarters for pillaging during the American War for Independence. The overseer did not reveal the hiding place, although he was hanged for a short period of time; three times in succession. Ironically, the hanging occurred from the very tree under which the silver was buried.

For a time during the siege of Charles Town by the British, Brabant served as headquarters for Lord Cornwallis who commanded the British forces on the Cooper River.

Here at Videau's Bridge across French Quarter Creek, on Jan. 3, 1782 the encounter took place between Major Coffin with his British troops defeating part of Marion's command under Richard Richardson. At the same place, Mad Archie Campbell of the British Army was killed by Nicholas Venning when the captured Campbell tried to escape. Thls place is said to have been first on Sir Henry Clinton's list for confiscation.

The house is pictured in two views among  the forty watercolor drawings in Charles Fraser's A Charleston Sketchhook 1796-1806 as it appeared on April 18, 1800. From what appears to have been a dormer wmdow m the roof, this was.a two and a half story frame building with a porch extending around one side and one end of the house. In the picture are dependency buildings and fences of paling, split rail and board.

Bishop Smith and this first wife (Elizabeth Padget) had no children.  The right of inheritance was questioned but under the Bishop's Brabant went to his oldest son, Robert, who sold off parts of the plantation. Judge Smith states that Pagett's Landing, then a part of Brabant, was the site of a brick manufacturing industry and was acquired and added to the Moreland Tract in 1828 by John Gordon who continued the brick business. He further states that the landing became known as Brickyard Landing and was used by the steamboatvvhen that mode of travel came to Cooper River.

In 1852, the remainder of the property was sold by the Smith heirs to Dr. Edmund Ravenel who acquired from Governor Bennett and the heirs of John Gordon "The Grove," Moreland, Pagett's Landing and other lands that had been sold off by Smith heirs bringing Ravenel's holdings here to 7,6I5 acres.

Abandonment after the Confederate War resulted in the destruction by fire in the Iate 1860's of this once fine house and the signs of  prosperity that had been created here by the early Huguenots who received grants here and the wealth amassed by Francis Pagett his son John Pagett, and grandson Francis Dallas. The Pagett connection was loyal to the Huguenot Church of St. Denis as long as it remained open.

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