City Directories and History: The Bluff plantation, just north of Dean Hall, is situated on a low bluff (from which location! it probably gets its name) by the western landing of Strawberry Ferry, the road to the ferry running on the other side of the fence at the foot of the garden. This was a Harleston place and Major Isaac Harleston of Revolutionary War fame “seems to have built this little house . . . shortly after the war . . . and its simplicity gives it all the charm which comes with close attention to the functional needs of a region.” The Bluff came “into the Moultrie family through the marriage of Dr. William L. Moultrie to Hannah, daughter of Major Isaac Child Harleston.” Mr. Stoney has the date of this house as 1790.
In an article entitled “The Harlestons,” by Theodore D. Jervey, it is noted that he has Hannah (b. 1755), the daughter of Isaac, as having died unmarried. He also has a Hannah Child Harleston (b. 1791), as the daughter of William Harleston (brother of Isaac) and states that this Hannah married William L. Moultrie. The Moultrie family chart67 At The Bluff there was one room called “Travelers Joy,” where ferry users were made welcome as guests of the family, whenever the occasion demanded. It was also at The Bluff that the roster of Marion’s Men and a number of Marion’s letters were found in the wall of a small house in the yard, when it was being repaired.
R&R HISTORY LINK: the Family History – Gaston
Hannah C. Harleston as the first wife of William Lennox Moultrie, M.D. Dr. Moultrie did not die until 1865, so it does not seem possible that Major Harleston’s daughter, Hannah, born in 1755, could have been the wife of Dr. Moultrie. It makes one wonder if the house was not built by William Harleston instead of by Isaac Harleston, as Mr. Stoney goes on to say that the simplicity of this house may be accounted for by the fact that Major Harleston had a house which he considered his home elsewhere on the river. This, coupled with the fact that William Harleston’s daughter brought The Bluff into the Moultrie family, certainly makes that seem a possibility. This plantation is presently owned by Mrs. Storm.
(Information from: Names in South Carolina by C.H. Neuffer, Published by the S.C. Dept. of English, USC)
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