Windsor Plantation History
Palmetto Commerce Parkway passes through a portion of former Windsor Hill Plantation. Joseph Child received the original grants for Windsor Hill in 1701, just 30 years after the founding of the new Carolina Colony. Historians believe Joseph Child began building the extensive rice fields at Windsor Hill as early as 1710. He seems to have owned 35 slaves, a relatively large number for the time, and the lack of high land on his property probably left him with little choice. The inventory attached to his will lists chains, whipsaws, and irons; eighteen sickles; numerous work horses and oxen; and a set of cooper tools. All of these tools are necessary for clearing and planting land. The sickles are used to harvest grain, and the cooper tools suggest that slaves were making barrels (used to ship the rice). In 1725, Joseph Child willed the land to his son Benjamin saying,
“I leave and Bequeath to my Eldest Son Benjamin One Tract of Land containing Eight Hundred Acres, and all the houses and Edifices thereon contained.”
From Benjamin, the property passed to Mary Child, who married John Ainslie in 1750, and from the Ainslies to their daughter Hannah, who married Lieutenant William Moultrie, son of General William Moultrie of Revolutionary fame. Their daughter Eliza Charlotte Moultrie acquired the property in 1797. The land stayed with Eliza and her husband, Dr. Edward Brailsford, until 1837. There is an 1808 plat that shows the primary rice fields were located north and southeast of the settlement site.
In the 1880s, the southern portion of the plantation was sold to the Ashley Phosphate Company. The company constructed a tramline from their works on the Ashley River to a station on the South Carolina Railroad. Today Ashley Phosphate Road follows the old tram line.
In the 20th century, the land was used as timberlands by Cooper River Timber Company. In 1918, the City of Charleston Public Works reworked one of Windsor Hill’s old rice drains as part of a drainage project for the area.
Windsor Hill is best known for its association with General William Moultrie. According to family tradition, General Moultrie was buried in the family burial ground at Windsor Hill. In the 1960s, General Moultrie was reburied at Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island, and other family members were reinterred at St. James Parish Church near Goose Creek. Today Palmetto Commerce Parkway passes through fields that were located in the eastern portion of Windsor Hill Plantation.
An 1808 plat of Windsor Hill Plantation.