Pre-Drayton Hall

The South Carolina Frontier

Minor excavations along the north side of Drayton Hall in the 1980s identified structural and artifactual evidence of a colonial house that stood on the property prior to the construction of Drayton Hall in 1738. The only documentary evidence of this building can be found in a newspaper advertisement from January 12, 1738.

Artifacts recovered from the "pre-Drayton" site provide evidence of the early colonial home and the activities associated with living in the South Carolina frontier.

A gun flint and a lead fishing weight, for instance, were tools integral to self defense and subsistence living.

The flint, used to ignite a flint lock gun, would have been essential for hunting and protection, and the barrel style weight would have anchored a seine net used for catching fish.

Other finds include numerous pieces of turned lead. These thin lead strips were used to mount diamond or square shaped pieces of window glass called "quarries."

Artisans often stamped turned leads with a date of manufacture and future analysis will seek to identify this information in the hopes of recognizing when the "pre-Drayton" house was constructed.