history

While early Drayton family history is somewhat uncertain, it appears that in 1675, Thomas Drayton and his son, Thomas, Jr., boarded the ship, Willing Wind, and left England for Barbados to capitalize on England’s growing stake in the New World. Sugar plantations had sprung up all across the Caribbean and West Indies making rich men out of those Englishmen willing to take a gamble in the New World. The population of Barbados quickly became the most densely populated portion of the British Empire, but the majority of the best land had already been taken by the time the Draytons arrived. Like many other Barbadian settlers, the Draytons began soon looked to other British outposts to seek land of their own. The new Carolina colonies, more specifically Charles Towne and the surrounding Lowcountry, offered the family the greatest risk for their investment, but also the greatest opportunity to make their fortune.

During this same period, Stephen Fox, another Barbadian, also settled in Charles Towne. He acquired a tract of land along the Ashley River, which was later named Magnolia Plantation. The marriage of Thomas Drayton, Jr. to Stephen Fox’s daughter, Ann, proved to be the beginning of a long line of Drayton family ownership of Magnolia Plantation. In the 1680s, the first residence and small garden were constructed on the property, making Magnolia-on-the-Ashley among this hemisphere’s oldest estate garden still in existence. The plantation soon became home to extensive rice crops, one of the most profitable exports of any British colony. The Lowcountry of South Carolina, with its swamps, marshes, and inland fresh-water rivers, was the perfect environment for growing such a crop and the plantation thrived.

Right: (top) Rev. John Drayton. (bottom) Magnolia Plantation.
Courtesy Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.