Belfair Plantation, Bluffton SC
- Don Schueler
- Sep 6, 2025
- 9 min read
Updated: Dec 29, 2025
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The Early Days
Like much of the area, the land known as Belfair today was likely originally inhabited by the Yamasee tribe and even earlier indigenous natives, but in those days, it was a sparsely populated area. For a period before the Revolutionary War, it became part of the "Devil's Elbow" barony claimed by the Lord Proprietor Sir John Colleton. Learn more about the "Lords Proprietors of Carolina" by clicking HERE.
The Colleton Legacy and Devil’s Elbow Barony
The Colleton family passed down their fortunes and titles through the generations — including the Devil’s Elbow Barony in Bluffton, SC.
Below is the lineage of some of the most prominent members of the Colleton family.
Sir John Colleton, 1st Baronet (1608–1666)
Born: 1608, England
Died: 1666 (age ~58), England
Notable Titles: First Baronet, Lord Proprietor (The Lords Proprietors started in 1663 so he had that role for just 3 years)
Sir Peter Colleton, 2nd Baronet, MP (1635–1694)
Born: 17 Sept 1635, Devon, England
Died: 24 Mar 1694 (age 58)
Sir John Colleton, 3rd Baronet (1669–1754)
Born: Aug 1669, England
Died: Sept 1754 (age 85), England
John Colleton (c.1701–c.1750)
Born: ~1701 [uncertain], England
Died: ~1750 (age ~49), South Carolina
Note: He predeceased his father (the 3rd Baronet)
Sir John Colleton, 4th Baronet (1738–1777)
Born: 1738
Died: Sept 1777 (age ~39), Province of South Carolina
Louisa Carolina Colleton Graves Baronetess (1763–1822)
Born: 14 Mar 1763, Fairlawn Barony, Charleston, South Carolina, America
Married British Rear Admiral Richard Graves Sept 23, 1787
Died: 25 Dec 1822 (age 59), London, England, United Kingdom
She Inherited the Fairlawn and Devils Elbow Baronies along with many other holdings in America, England and The Bahamas at the age of 14.
Click HERE for more on Louisa
Sir John Colleton, 4th Baronet of SC (1738-1777). He inherited the Devils Elbow Barony and his daughter, Louisa Carolina (Colleton) Graves (1763 - 1822), who subsequently inherited the Barony along with many other holdings in America, England, Barbados and all of the Bahamas and her husband, Rear Admiral Richard Graves (1758-1836).
Post Revolutionary War
In 1775 the Revolutionary War started and South Carolina was a hotbed with 137 significant battles, the most of any other state. Louisa returned to England to live with her mother and her parents at Great Fulford in Devonshire. In anticipation of the upcoming war, Sir John put his lands into a trust for Louisa so that he could ensure that in the event of his death, his estate stayed in her hands. In 1777, the war concluded, and Sir John Colleton, 4th Baronet, passed away and Louisa inherited the Fairlawn Plantation/Barony on the Cooper river in Charleston and Devils Elbow Barony and the Bahamas at the age of 14.
In addition to the Devils Elbow Barony, the Colleton's owned Fairlawn Plantation/Barony in Charleston SC.
Documentation from that era is scarce, with many records lost, but here is the overall timeline for Belfair through the years.
Timeline
• Louisa Carolina (Colleton) Graves inherits the whole Devils Elbow Barony
• Louisa and Richard largely remained in England. Their son Samuel had come to America to help manage their properties. Eventually, he even tried to mortgage and sell them unbeknownst to Louisa and Richard.
• 1777 Fair Lawn and Devils Elbow Baronies up for sale
• 1780 Louisa Carolina Colleton sells part of the Devils Elbow Barony land to Benjamin Guerard (the Belfair land)
• Louisa Carolina Colleton marries Rear-Admiral Richard Graves in 1787
• Benjamin Guerard dies and in 1789 the property is sold to William Telfair (Not totally confirmed, see NOTE 1 below)
• William Telfair is born in 1746 in Scotland
• Comes to Savannah in 1767
• Co-owner of Cooper and Telfair's Company
• A loyalist during the revolution
• Marries Elizabeth Bellinger in 1768
• 1811 - Belfair Plantation is established
NOTE 1: This part is a bit unclear. Some records show that Elizabeth "Betsy" Bellinger Telfair's father, landgrave Edmund Bellinger III, originally owned the Belfair land as records point to him buying 1,667 acres from Sir John Colleton. He may have sold or given the property to Betsey and her new husband William Telfair. William Telfair married Betsy Bellinger and established Belfair in 1811. It is believed they named their new plantation by combining the first part of "Bellinger" with the last part of "Telfair." (Bellinger Telfair). William met and married Elizabeth Bellinger in St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. After William died in Surinam, Dutch Guiana in 1812, Elizabeth went to England (1817) and took their daughter, Mary Lucia Telfair with her.
• 1817 -Devils Elbow tracts for sale
• 1821 Louisa and Richard Colleton come to the Carolinas to inspect their properties and ultimately to stop them from being sold off by their son Samuel and they attempted to ensure that their daughters had an inheritance. This was the last time Louisa was in the United States.
• 1821 Son Samuel continues to spend dig a deeper financial hole and continued to try to sell off property to pay for his debts.
• 1822 In May Richard returns alone to Carolina and the Devils Elbow, Samuel ran back to his mother in Paris. Samuel and Richard's creditors are lining up to claim land holdings, slaves, and anything else they can to recoup their losses.
• 1822 Louisa and Richard are estranged and both are insolvent. His creditors track her as she goes back to London from Paris.
• 1822 Louisa passes away in December at the age of 59 in England, essentially insolvent, having sold all her jewels, clothes and assets just to meet her expenses.
• 1823 Samuel Graves passes away in America at the age of 35, essentially penniless, 6 months after his mothers death
• 1828 Efforts to sell off the land. This may have been the point in time where James B. Kirk bought the land.
• 1831 After years of suits and counter suites with creditors, Fair Lawn and Devils elbow were liquidated.
• 1836 Richard Graves passes away at the age of 78 in England.
• 1838 James Brown Kirk gives Rose Hill as a wedding gift to his daughter Caroline Kirk in 1838, who married Dr. John Kirk.
• 1842 Various Tracts of Devils Elbow Barony up for sale
• 1850 James B. Kirk of Rose Hill dies on 9 Nov 1850 (aged 69)
• 1851 Mary E Kirk dies on 31 Oct 1851 (aged 57)
• Bluffton is incorporated in 1852 and the Mary and James Kirk estate is being liquidated
• Belfair was owned by Rollin Henry Kirk during this period. Below is a post from Jan 26, 1856 found by Bluffton historian Michael Reynolds showing Belfair for sale by George Anna "Georgiana" Kirk, Rollin's wife. Rollins had passed away on Dec 2, 1854 at the age of 36. His father James Brown Kirk and mother Mary had passed away just a short time before, in 1850/51. So its possible that he inherited Belfair at that time from them. Rollin Henry Kirk was born near Kirk's Bluff, attended University of South Carolina and University of Virginia, and was a lawyer and cotton planter. He his interred at Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery on Hilton Head Island, SC.
• There was likely another owner here when the Belfair lands were bought from the Kirks estate. If anyone know who this was please let us know
• 1861 - The Civil War starts on April 12, 1861, when the Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter in South Carolina
• 1861- Caroline and Dr. John Kirk fled from Rose Hill to nearby Grahamville, S.C. during the Civil War. Caroline died there during that time in 1864. Her husband Dr. John Kirk later returned to Rose Hill, died there in 1868 and was buried beside his wife in Grahamville Cemetery (near Ridgeland, S.C. between Bluffton and Beaufort).
• 1863 - Sold to Theodore D. Wagner
• 1864 - Sold to Edward Barnwell (unclear if this is accurate)
• 1865 - April 9 - The Civil War ends
• 1869 - TD Wagner sold Belfair to George Trenholm
• 1877 - Sold to Henry A.M. Smith
• 1924 - Sold to William Mosely Swain during a trend of Northerners buying Southern Land
• 1951 - Sold to Walter Lee Mingledorff
• 1982 - Sold to Welton Corporation (who also owned Rose Hill at the time)
• 1994 - Sold to John Reed, John Cardamone, Phil Herrington and Ed Blakely who formed Belfair Plantation, L.L.C and then developed the Belfair golf community we see today.
Revisit the Early 1900's
During the 1920s, affluent northern "Yankees" frequently came south and transformed into "gentleman plantation owners" in the South. This trend led William Moseley Swain Sr., along with his wife and three children, to move from Philadelphia to Belfair in 1928. His grandfather, who was also named William Moseley, amassed wealth by establishing The Ledger newspaper and telegraph in Philadelphia in 1836 and The Sun newspaper in Baltimore in 1837.
As a typical third-generation heir, Bill Sr. focused on spending the family fortune. He found his dream plantation for himself and his family in Bluffton, SC, and began by building a new mansion and planting the oaks that now line the Avenue of the Oaks at Belfair. Unfortunately, not only did the stock market crash in 1929, but much worse, Bill's first wife, Jean Coltart Scott Swain, also passed away in Bluffton leaving Bill and her children :
Louise Morse Scott Swain Gay - Born: 31 Mar 1901, Age in Dec 1929: 28 years old
Phyllis Coltart Swain Robinson - Born: 30 Sep 1903, Age in Dec 1929: 26 years old
William Moseley “Billy” Swain Jr. - Born: 27 Sep 1911, Age in Dec 1929: 18 years old
Earlier in the 19th century, Belfair was owned by William Wigg Barnwell and sometimes referred to it as Barnwell. Wigg Point, where Mr. Swain built his house, is named after this ownership by William Wigg Barnwell.
The Swain house boasted arched front doors with curved double steps leading from the porch, supported by four Corinthian-style columns. The surrounding grounds were adorned with roses, cedars, camellias, and evergreen hedges. The Swains frequently hosted parties there, some of which attracted national attention.
However, there was a flaw in the house's construction. Swain's home was built using tabby, a coastal material commonly used for plantation houses and fortifications, known to strengthen over time. Mr. Swain took on the engineering role himself, and he faced challenges in preparing the tabby. Just a few years after it was built, the steel rods in the foundation began to corrode from the overly high salinity content in the tabby.
The Swain mansion at Belfair (Including an AI Rendering), as well as the mansion in its last days. Bill Swain Sr. architected and built the mansion, including the use of Tabby. Unfortunately, his tabby mix was off, and this helped cause the decay and demise of the mansion.
The old mansion was razed in 1985 and the new home was built on the footprint. While the new home retained many design cues from the orignal mansion, the only thing that survived were the four front columns which came from Italy.
Swain's Belfair mansion was located in what is today's Rose Hill. In the black and white aerial from the 1940's you can see the Oak Trees on todays Avenue of the Oaks. This road led straight back to the Swain mansion as you can see on the color aerial map. Here is a link to the new home that is on the property today: Click HERE.
The Family Moves On
Daughter Phyllis was married in 1935, Billy Jr. was married in 1937, and Louise married in September, 1938.
William Sr's Death
William Swain Sr. passed away in 1940 and is interred at Washington Memorial Chapel Churchyard Valley Forge, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania along with his first wife, There are some records of his marrying Flora Eugenie Rose 1875-1947 but we can't substantiate that 100%. Flora Eugenie Rose
We can assume that either Flora or, more likely, Billy Jr. and wife Frieda lived in the Swain Mansion after Bill Sr.'s passing since the girls had moved back to the North with their husbands.
Billy Jr's Death
On a December night in 1949, Billy and his wife Frieda and a 35-year-old Callawassie Island resident named Victor Strojny who was also Billy's auto mechanic, were celebrating Swain's achievement of obtaining a $50,000 mortgage for the house. Billy was a real estate agent. However, later that night, Swain fell and ended up at the base of the mansion's staircase, suffering fatal injuries. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a skull fracture and scalp laceration. The county coroner stated that it was likely a blow to the head with an object like a hammer, rather than the fall, that caused Swain's death. Strojny, the suspect, insisted on his innocence and was released from jail when prosecutors declared they lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him. The prosecutor was Randolph "Buster" Murdaugh Jr. of the infamous Murdaughs!
Billy Jr and his first wife, Frieda (who died in 1974), are interred together at Bluffton Cemetery.
Recent Times
In 1951, Walter Mingledorff from Myrtle Island, owner of Savannah's Marine Railway Company, purchased Belfair. It was transformed into a working plantation and farm renowned for its prized Hereford cattle. By then, the house was beyond repair, so it was converted into a grain and hay barn.
Current Day
Belfair Plantation, L.L.C., the developer of Belfair, purchased the property in September 1994 and developed it into a world class community focused on golf. https://belfair1811.com/
Below is a PDF scan of the "out of print" book Belfair - Beyond the Avenue of the Oaks commissioned and copyrighted in 2010 by the Belfair Property Owners' Association, Inc.
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