For those unfamiliar with the term "Huguenot, "it describes French Protestants who adhered to the teachings of John Calvin, a theologian and reformer of the 16th century, which emphasized predestination and the sovereignty of God. The Huguenots were followers of the Reformed tradition of Protestantism, also known as Calvinism. The term "Huguenot" has uncertain origins, but it was used to distinguish the French Protestants from other religious groups in France during the 16th century, particularly Lutherans. By the mid to late 1500s, the Huguenots comprised approximately 10 percent of France's population. Huguenots were concentrated in the western and southern parts of the country. Huguenots faced persecution and violence from the Catholic government of France, especially during the French Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1598. In those 36 years, about two to three million French died, whether from combat, famine, disease, or other causes resulting from the wars. The most prominent event during that time was the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, which began in Paris in 1572. Catholics orchestrated a series of attacks and killed thousands of Protestants. Modern estimates of the deaths from this Massacre range from 5000 to 30,000 people. Many leaders of the Huguenot Protestants were killed in this Massacre. Still, as a result, many of the rank-and-file converted to Protestant Christianity and joined the ranks of the Huguenots. And as could be expected from a slaughter like this, many were radicalized to extreme violence.
The Catholic church perpetrated unfathomable evil at this time by persecuting those who disagreed with their church. However, the entire Reformation of Christianity had been an attack on the Catholic Church. Given the nature of humanity and rebellion in general, it is not a far stretch to ascertain why war came about. There were numerous causes, but my intent in this brief overview is not to discuss the details of wars and their causes. One must acknowledge that we live in a fallen world before making assumptions and passing judgments on these actions. Sin is not exclusive to those who don't believe in Jesus Christ and profess to be Christians.
The persecution during this time in France was as bad as during the time of Christ when the Romans expelled the Jews. The established government of France and the Catholic Church could neither understand nor countenance the growing number of French Protestants, known as Huguenots. By the 16th century, the Huguenots had spread to 2 million in France. By the mid-1600s, when Louis XIV ( the King of France from 1643 until he died in 1715) ascended the throne, he displayed brutality toward Protestant Christians. He wanted one religion in France, Catholicism. He believed in complete state control of one religion. His belief in Cuius regio, eius religion, literally meant "whose realm, their religion." meant he was going to get rid of the Protestants if they did not convert to Catholicism. Beginning in 1681, he put down the Huguenots by force. Four years later, in October 1685, Louis issued the Edict of Fontainebleau. The gist of which said, "Convert to Catholicism or die." With one fell swoop of his pen, Louis wiped out nearly eight decades of relative peace for the Huguenots. By the Edict of Fontainebleau, Louis XIV revoked the peace and ordered the destruction of Huguenot churches and the closing of Protestant schools. The proclamation made official the policy of persecution that had already been enforced since 1681. Louis' attempts to convert Huguenots to Roman Catholicism or be sent to their death merely strengthened their resolve to resist. To his surprise, many refused to acquiesce to his demands. They were subjected either to virtual slavery in the French navy or a series of bloody executions as their Protestant bibles burned.
This ‘strategy’ completely backfired. The surviving Huguenots fled to England and Germany, who gladly accepted this influx of devout Protestants, eager to swear allegiance to their new masters. The remaining French Catholics were horrified at the brutality and torture of the French Protestants, which destroyed any sentiment they still had towards their monarchy and arguably laid the foundation for the French Revolution. Louis had banished or wasted the lives of two million people. How much wiser would it have been to have accepted their differing beliefs and let them work profitably for his realm?
Many Huguenots fled France and settled in other countries, such as England, Holland, Switzerland, Prussia, and the colonies in America and Africa. They contributed to their new homes' culture, economy, and politics.
My 10th Great-Grandfather Benjamin Simons was a Huguenot emigrant born in France in 1672 in La Rochelle and the Ile de Re on the Bay of Biscay. He was orphaned early when his parents, Cornelius Simons and Catherine Brabant, were killed during the persecution of Protestant Huguenots in France.
Benjamin was adopted by his aunt Martha DuPre and her husband Josias DuPre, a Huguenot minister. They fled to the Netherlands, then later to England. While in England, Benjamin, now 20 years old, married his cousin Mary Esther DuPre in 1692. I'll surmise he didn't want to look further for a wife, so he chose the girl he had been in the same home with since childhood.
I can only surmise Benjamin and Mary's difficulty abandoning their home country to come to the British colonies in America. The persecution of Protestants had been relatively quiet through much of the 1600s in France, but when Louis XIV came to power, the persecution of protestant Christians began again.
In 1685, when Louis passed the Edict of Nantes, the Catholic Church gained the power to persecute Huguenots and threaten them with death or imprisonment if they did not convert back to Catholicism. Benjamin and Mary knew their lives were in danger if they remained in France. So they decided to make the arduous journey to Carolina (The two states had not yet been separated, and their collective name was Carolina) and settle near the Cooper River, where Benjamin built a plantation. He named the plantation "Middleburg." after his first place of refuge in Middleburg, Zeeland, The Netherlands, where he and his cousin, aunt, and uncle had fled after the death of his parents.
Middleburg Plantation in the early 1900s.
Benjamin Simons became a prominent landowner and a respected citizen of the Charlestown area of South Carolina. He and his wife had ten children, some of whom became influential in the colonial history of South Carolina. He is buried under the Pompion Hill Chapel, which he helped to build.
The only written record Benjamin Simons left behind is a detailed list of his 14 children's births and baptisms, transcribed from his son James Simons's 1812 family Bible.
The nearest possible dating of the construction of the Middleburg house is found in this 1812 Bible record of the children's birth. The record states the fourth child was born in December 1697 in the house of "Maptica" but that "the fifth child is a girl born on Tuesday, 2lst. of April 1699, at 6 p.m. in the house at Middleburg Plantation:".
Benjamin and Mary Ester made certain that between 1693 and 1712, seven of the first nine children who survived long enough to be named were baptized in the French Church in Charlestown(Charleston SC), the one in Orange Quarter or, if at home, by the first names in Lowcountry Hugenaut Church history: Pastors Trouillart, Priloeau, L'Escot, and LaPierre.
The house Benjamin built at Middleburg Plantation near Charleston, SC, still stands today. In 1971, Middleburg was listed on the National Historic Registry as a significant historic landmark. The house was occasionally sold but remained in the hands of Simons's descendants for over 300 years until it passed out of the family in 1981. Since then, it has been bought and sold several times. The current owner, Jeffrey Wise, is the North Carolina Whitewater Center CEO in Charlotte, NC. Wise turned the area into a tourist attraction and has helped boost the economy of the area where Middleburg is located. It is used as a hotel/B & B for guests to the area. It's also used as a wedding and event venue. It is one of the oldest houses in the country. Middleburg is also the oldest house or building in South Carolina, and it is still standing. The home was constructed around 1697, and the area was once a rice plantation.
The original house had two stories with two rooms on each floor. Sometime before 1717, an addition, with one room on each floor, was added to the house. When Benjamin Simons died in 1717, he left the plantation to his four-year-old son, Benjamin Simons II. Benjamin Simons II left the property to his son Benjamin Simons III, who owned Middleburg during the tumultuous years of the American Revolution. During the Revolution, in about 1780, British Colonel Banastre Tarleton had targeted the house to be burned. It is unknown why the house was spared, but scars remain. Colonel Tarleton's saber left a lasting mark in a column by the front door, and a British general etched his name on a window.
In 1970, Middleburg Plantation was added to the list of National Historic Landmarks.
Middleburg Plantation circa 1968
More on Benjamin Simons and Middleburg Plantation at these links: https://santee.whitewater.org/accommodation/middleburg/
and more on the sale to Wise: https://www.postandcourier.com/business/real_estate/built-in-the-1690s-historic-middleburg-plantation-sells-for-nearly-4-5m-in-berkeley-county/article_f0dd894e-2064-11ec-9b4e-2b50b37d31ed.html
Middleburg Plantation as it looks today in 2023 Photo credit: Samuel Martin-Santee Whitewater Center
Article on Middleburg Plantation from the March 29, 1987 Times and Democrat-Orangeburg South Carolina
A story about a new owner of Middleburg Plantation in 1987 from the Charlotte Observer
The Family of Benjamin Simons of Middleburg Plantation
Benjamin Simons I (1672-1717) M. 1692 Mary Esther DuPre (D. 1737).
Children:
1- Peter Simons (1693-1724).
2- A son (1695-1695).
3- Samuel DuPre Simons (1696-1759).
4-Francis Simons I (1697-1731).
5- Ann Simons (B. 1699).
6-Mary Simons (B. 1701).
7-Elizabeth Simons (B. 1704) M. 1728 James Paul Cordes (B. 1699) o. s. p.
8-Martha Simons (B. 1706) M. 1726 Archibald Young.
9-Benjamin Simons (1708-1709).
10-Esther Simons (B. 1710) lived to old age, D. N. M.
11- Judith Simons (1712-1781).
12- Benjamin Simons II (1713-1772).
13-Thomas Simons (1715-1716).
14-Catherine Simons (1717-1731),
My line to Benjamin Simons-I am a descendent of the 8th child(Martha) of Benjamin and Mary Simons
-----Benjamin Simons 1672-1717 married Mary Ester Dupree 1674-1737
daughter-Martha Simons Born- 8, February 1706 Died 1760 Charlestown South Carolina Colony
-----Martha Simons married November 22, 1726, Berkley, South Carolina, British Colony- to Archibald Young-Born 1700 Charlestown, South Carolina, Died June 23, 1749, Charlestown, South Carolina daughter-Jane Elizabeth Young
-----Jane Elizabeth Young Born February 28, 1730 Charlestown South Carolina British Colony, Died 1809 Spartanburg, South Carolina married Andrew Jackson Brown Born 1730 Spartanburg, South Carolina, British Colonial America Death 1783 Elberton Georgia--daughter Mary Lucian Brown
-----Mary Lucian Brown Born November 1, 1750 Ninety-Six District South Carolina Colony(near present-day Pendleton) Death 1790 near present-day Abbeville, South Carolina married
Walter Neal Burrell Sr Born March 28 1742 Falkland, Fife, Scotland Died 1810 Pendleton, South Carolina--son Walter Burrell Jr.
-----Walter Burrell Jr. Born 1775 Wadesboro, Anson County, North Carolina Died before 1840 Macon County North Carolina married Phoebe Pruitt Born 1776 Ninety-Six District, South Carolina(present-day Greenville County, SC) daughter Drusciall Burrell
------Druscilla Burrell Born January 1, 1815 Buncombe County, North Carolina Died July 20, 1902 Norton Community, Jackson County, North Carolina married Rodric Norton January 1, 1832 Macon County, NC Rodric Norton Born January 18ry 1808 Pickens County, South Carolina Died June 9 1866 Norton Community, Jackson County, North Carolina --daughter Octavia Norton
------Octavia Norton Born, September 22, 1851, Macon County, NC Died, August 11, 1932, Jackson County, North Carolina married William James Henderson Sr. December 14, 1855, Macon County, North Carolina ) Born December 29, 1919, Jackson County North Carolina son Deck(Dexter) Henderson.
-----Deck Henderson Born, September 10, 1880, Jackson County, North Carolina Died, December 16, 1965 Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina married Dessie Moss BorMay 31, 1882 Jackson County, North Carolina June 26, 1967 Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina--daughter Myrtle Cora Henderson
-----Myrtle Cora Henderson November 14, 1904 Jackson County, North Carolina December 12, 1978 Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina married Robert Lee Reese Sr. October 7, 1902 Highlands, Macon County, NC DieNovember 2 1984 Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina--son Dallas Ray Reese Sr.
-----Dallas Ray Reese Sr. Born October 14, 1930, Highlands, Macon County, North Carolina June 18, 2014, Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina married Ila Sue Johnson BornJuly 29, 1936, Died, September 26, 2008, Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina--son Dallas Ray Reese Jr.
-----Dallas Ray Reese Jr--That's ME!!
Bibliography, references, notes
--Smith, Daniel Elliott Huger. The Dwelling Houses of Charleston, South Carolina. United States: Diadem Books, 1917.
--Warrants for Lands in South Carolina, 1672-1711: 1692-1711. United States: Historical Commission of South Carolina, 1915.
--Simons, Robert Bentham. Thomas Grange Simons III, His Forebears, and Relations. United States: Privately printed, 1954.
--Eastman, Margaret Middleton Rivers., Donohoe, Richard., Thompson, Maurice., Stockton, Robert P.. The Huguenot Church in Charleston. United States: History Press, 2018.
--Orangeburg SC Times & Democrat NewspaperMarch 2929, 1987 c Orangeburg Times & Democrat
--The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine. United States: South Carolina Historical Society., 1923.
--Johnson, Joseph. Traditions and Reminiscences, Chiefly of the American Revolution in the South: Including Biographical Sketches, Incidents, and Anecdotes, Few of which Have Been Published, Particularly of Residents in the Upper Country. United States: Walker & James, 1851.
--South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine. United States: South Carolina Historical Society., 1917.
--South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine. United States: South Carolina Historical Society., 1919.
--Eastman, Margaret Middleton Rivers., Donohoe, Richard., Thompson, Maurice., Stockton, Robert P.. The Huguenot Church in Charleston. United States: History Press, 2018.
--Archaeology in South Carolina: Exploring the Hidden Heritage of the Palmetto State. United States: University of South Carolina Press, 2016.
--Prioleau, Horry Frost., Manigault, Edward Lining. Register of Carolina Huguenots, Vol. 3, Marion - Villepontoux. United Kingdom: Lulu.com, 2007.
--Muldrow, Ralph C.. Charleston Renaissance Man: The Architectural Legacy of Albert Simons in the Holy City. United Kingdom: University of South Carolina Press, 2022.
--Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. United States: Huguenot Society of South Carolina, 1977.
--Leiding, Harriette Kershaw. Historic Houses of South Carolina. United Kingdom: J.B. Lippincott, 1921.
--The Dupré Trail: Abstracts of Documents and Miscellaneous Information Relating to the DuPré, DuPree, Dupree, Deupree French Huguenot Families of the United States of America. United States: E.P. Langley, 1965.
--Gregg, Alexander., Dargan, John Julius. History of the Old Cheraws: Containing an Account of the Aborigines of the Pedee, the First White Settlements, Their Subsequent Progress, Civil Changes, the Struggle of the Revolution, and the Growth of the Country Afterward, Extending from about A.D. 1730 to 1810, with Notices of Families and Sketches of Individuals. United States: State Company, 1905.
--Hewatt, Alexander. A Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia: In Two Volumes. .... United Kingdom: Alexander Donaldson, London, 1779.
--Hewatt, Alexander. An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. United Kingdom: Reprint Company, 1779.
-McCrady, Edward. The History of South Carolina Under the Royal Government, 1719-1776. United Kingdom: Macmillan, 1899.
--Ramsay, David. Ramsay's History of South Carolina: From Its First Settlement in 1670 to 1808. United States: W.J. Duffie, 1858.
--Stoney, Samuel Gaillard. Plantations of the Carolina Low Country. United States: Carolina Art Association, 1955.
Additional stories on Middleburg Plantation.
This is from March 7, 1997, Atlanta Constitution and columnist Eliott Brack.
Some fascinating history on the Simmons Family of Charleston, SC, from other researchers:
A Brief History of Middleburg Plantation East Branch of the Cooper River
Parish of St. Thomas and St. Denis, Huger, SC
In 1693, a 100-acre tract of land and swamp known to the local native American tribes asPimlica Maptica was marked for a warrant to a young orphaned French Huguenot emigre from the Bay of Biscay named Benjamin Simons. He about clearing the land for the three primary plantation enterprises of 17th C. Carolina: cutting timber for export, making pine tar and turpentine for naval stores, and raising beef cattle for export to the sugar planters of the Caribbean.
A letter still in the possession of his descendants announces that their house was completed on December 7, 1697, in time for the birth of his fourth child, Francis. Shortly after, he finally received his written warrant for the land, faithfully improvising and paying his quitrents.
Although his first land grant was not issued until 1704, his ownership was sufficiently secure by 1702 for his donation of 2 acres for the construction of Pompion (pronounced"Punkin") Hill Chapel, the first Church of England edifice to be built in the colony outside of St. Phillips in Charles Towne. The creation of this congregation, along with that of St.James in Goose Creek, started a political revolution in the Proprietary Colonywhich resulted in the victory of the "Church Party" over the "Dissenters," and this powershift resulted in the creation of the Parish system and the eventual overthrow of the ownership of the Lords Proprietors and the conversion of the colony to Royal rule.
The original two-story, gable-roofed wooden house had two rooms per floor,heated by exterior brick chimneys on the gables, and one-story porches running the length of the house. By the time Benjamin died in 1717, two more rooms were probably added to the southwestern end, and the roof was changed to a hipped roof, no doubt due to the presence of his 14 children.
His youngest son inherited the plantation at age 4, and while his oldest brothers Peter and Samuel were settled on their lands by then, they managed the property. In contrast, young Benjamin and his mother moved to Charles Town, where he was to be apprenticed to a master builder. At that point, Middleburg ceased to be a primary year-round residence and has remained so ever since.
Benjamin Simons II owned Middleburg until he died in 1772, and during that time, he increased his family to 11 children. He increased Middleburg's size from 350 acres to over 3,000, with the bulk of the land devoted to producing rice grown inland in rice fields formed from dammed streams. When England was at war with France, indigo was made as well, and when French indigo was available, planters were subsidized to create it to retain the workers' skills. Middleburg passed to his eldest son, Benjamin Simons, III, upon his death.
Benjamin III's tenure witnessed the devastation of the economy and the neighborhood due to the lull caused by the Revolution between 1775 and 1783 and the loss of their primary English market. Although the war passed the area by during the early years, from 1780 - 1782, the land around Middleburg was the center of dozens of pitched battles, and the house itself was set to be torched by Col. Banastre Tarleton following the Battle of Quinby Bridge. Why the British left without firing the house is not known, but their presence is still witnessed by the mark of Col. Tarleton's saber in a column by the front door. Benjamin III spent much of his effort rebuilding and redeveloping Middleburg'srice fields from the ancient and flood-prone inland system to the newly-developed tidally-flooded and drained system.
Plats dating from 1772 to 1789 show that the construction of the 100 acres of riverfront fields took years and that they were not quite finished by the time of his death in December of 1789. His other improvements include the kitchen building (c. 1786) and probably the Commissary (3rd quarter 18th c.). While BenjaminSimons III had 10 children, only three young daughters survived him, and upon his death in 1789, Middleburg passed to his youngest, 7-year-old Sarah Lydia Simons. Her marriage to a young Englishman, Jonathan Lucas, Jr., in 1799 at the family summerhouse on SeeWee Bay marked the beginning of a complete restructuring of Middleburg. It changed the focus from growing rice to milling rice. Although Jonathan and his father were known for building private rice mills on individual plantations, he completed the first large public toll mill at Middleburg in 1799. He also redesigned Middleburg, moving the field hindquarters from the area now occupied by the stable ruins, moved the barns away from the house, and abandoned the 17th-century gardens on the land side of the house, moving them to the riverside. He also built new servant's quarters next to the house, a Flemish-style stable inspired by a visit to the Town of Middelburg in Zeeland and the toll office and rice mill. With the overwhelming success of the mill, in 1806, he bought and built large rice mills in Charleston and then around the world, enabling him to ship rough, unmilled rice to foreign markets. He invented and patented a new method for milling grain with rollers in 1808 and had to become an American citizen at that time. After one of his slaves was charged and hanged as one of the primary leaders of the Denmark Vesey slave revolt in 1822, he moved his wife and ten youngest children to his estate in London and, for ten years, ran his worldwide empire from there, including plantations growing rice in the Lowcountry (Middleburg, Old Town, Rice Hope-Santee), cotton in Egypt, indigo in Hindustan, dozens of rice mills in Charleston, England, Germany, Belgium, and Egypt, and real estate housing developments in London.
Upon his death in 1832, his son Jonathan Lucas III ran his enterprises, eventually purchasing Middleburg at auction from his brothers and sisters in 1840. His most noticeable improvement to Middleburg was the avenue of oaks (c. 1832). At his death, Middleburg passed to his children and was run first by his son Thomas Bennett Lucas, and then upon his untimely death in 1858, his brother, Simons Lucas, stepped in as executor. Middleburg was leased out to Dr. Benjamin Huger and mortgaged to a child's estate, John Coming Ball.
War came late to Middleburg when, on February 14, 1865, a band of Union Army looters called Potter's Raiders burned the neighborhood but were stopped at Middleburg by the arrival of the Union Army. All of the enslaved people were assembled, a roster made, they were told that they were "free as birds," and with that, they returned to work. Over time, as more and more of the skilled laborers moved away, the quality of the crop diminished, but in 1872, John Coming Ball came into his inheritance, foreclosed on the unpaid mortgages his father's estate had lent, and became one of the few successful post-war rice planters. Although not a descendant of Benjamin Simons, he soon married one, and Middleburg continued to have the Simmons' descendants. Middleburg continued to grow, mill, and export Carolina Gold rice until 1926, but with his death in 1927, the rice era drew to a close in Charleston.
John Ball's daughter, Marie Guerin Ball (Dingle), and her husband, the noted ornithologist and painter Edward Von S. Dingle, lived at Middleburg periodically, growing timber, raising sheep, and leasing the rice fields to hunt clubs until she died in 1963. Although the title passed to her four nephews, John, Coming, Charles, and James Gibbs, Mr. Dingle lived at Middleburg until he died in 1975. During their tenure, the GreatDepression brought ruin to the economy, perpetual flood waters to the East Branch due to the outflow of the Santee-Cooper system, and the dismantling of the rice mill, overseer's-house, and several other structures due to the need for maintenance and lack of funds.
The Gibbs family decided to sell Middleburg in 1981 and transferred the title to Jane and Max Hill. Since then, a complete structural restoration of the house has been accomplished, the kitchen has been restored, destroyed, and restored, and the lands are slowly being returned to their pre-1926 appearance. Short-term stabilization of the surviving buildings is underway, and long-term plans for restoration of the Stable, Servant's Quarters, Toll Office, threshing yard, and reserve ponds are ongoing.
Middleburg has entered its fourth century, still recognizable to its builder; thanks to the conservation easement granted to the Lowcountry Open Land Trust, it will remain for generations.
MLH, III 2003
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