On Hilton Head Island: 38BU59/869/1163

General Information -   

• Location – overlooking Calibogue Sound

• Origin of name – named for sweet water springs or wells found here which were used by the Spaniards for ships sailing between Florida and Virginia.

Owners -

• Roger Moore, who purchased from Agent Trench

• William Spode (Spoad?)

• John David Mongin  

• Thomas Baynard purchased before 1792

• William Eddings Baynard (1800-1849) inherited; also owned Braddock’s Point

• Redeemed, along with Braddock’s Point, by his sons August 2, 1875 for $533.41 in taxes

• In 1893 Elizabeth Baynard Ullmer filed suit against the other heirs to establish the claim of the children of the deceased Ephraim to share in the estate.  The court ordered the land sold to satisfy her claim, and in 1894 Braddock’s Point and Spanish Wells were bought by Will Clyde.

• Will Clyde purchased in 1894 for $300 an acre.

Land - 600 acres

Maps - Hack, "Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, before 1861"

Bibliography -

 Holmgren, Research on Hilton Head Island 
 Holmgren, Hilton Head, A Sea Island Chronicle
 Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names

Additional Information:

Thomas Baynard acquired the 600 acre plantation from the Mongrins in 1790.   The land passed to Baynard's nephew, William Eddings Baynard (1800-1849), and remained in the family until 1894.

• South Carolina Institute of A & A original listing

"His (William Eddings Baynard) father, Thomas Baynard, planter of Edisto Island, had bought 600 acre Spanish Wells Plantation from the Mongins in 1790."

• Peeples, Tales of Ante Bellum Hilton Head Island Families, p. 12

"....Spanish did use Escamus for a watering place, and the name Spanish Wells is still used on the island's landward shore near the entrance to Broad Creek."

• Holmgren, Virginia C., Hilton Head Island, A Sea Island Chronicle, p. 27

"....Mongin (Mungen) plantation at Spanish Wells, possibly Roger Moore’s old land."

• Holmgren, p. 49

"Evidently the Spanish Wells Plantation supported all the Mongin clan, although they did move to Daufuskie.  Wherever they lived, they must have been prosperous, for the nickname 'Money Mongin' clung to the head of the family for many years."

• Holmgren, p. 60-61

Thomas Baynard of Edisto Island bought Spanish Wells before 1792...inherited by Thomas's son, William Eddings Baynard...married to Catherine Adelaide Scott, evidently an island girl (four daughters, two sons)... Catherine survived her husband, dying in 1856, but William's will had already provided that the estate be divided among his sons (Ephraim and Joseph) and their children...In August 1875 (Joseph and ten other descendants of William) filed a petition to regain Spanish Wells...under the Redemption Act, and did so by paying $533.41 in taxes...In 1893 Elizabeth Baynard Ulmer filed suit against the other heirs to establish the claim of the children of the deceased Ephraim to share in the estate...The court ordered the land sold to satisfy her claim, and in 1894 it was bought by W.P. Clyde.

• Holmgren, p. 125

In 1902 William Clyde sold one portion of the land to Luke Graham. In 1945 Graham's holdings were conveyed to his sister, Catherine Johnson.   She sold it to Jacob Brown in 1972 who presumably still owns it (1992).

• Brockington, Archaeological Survey of a Proposed Twenty Acre Development Tract, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, p. 16

c. 1920, families in this area included Brown, Mitchell, Williams, Campbell, Young, Hamilton, Frazier, Chisholm, Cohen

• Grant, Moses, Looking Back, p. 14

The earliest archaeological work on the island by Alan Calmes at Spanish Wells 38BU59/869 and 58/1161 was done in the late 1960's (for Fred Hack?)

• Trinkley, Chicora Research Series 28, Archaeological Testing at the Stoney/Baynard Plantation, Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, South Carolina, p. 16 (Source material listed in survey)

The ships log of Captain John Gascoigne, 1729, states that he did see and map this area on Hilton Head Island and states that no one lived there.

• Inglesby, Edith, Islander Magazine, January 1967

The Indians first discovered, used and introduced the Spaniards to the sweet, fresh water springs or wells on the island’s bluff (later Mongin’s Bluff) overlooking Calibogue Sound.  As long as the Spaniards attempted to defend their claim to the territory between Florida and Virginia the wells were a convenient source of fresh water for their ship’s casks.  Though the Spanish claim was decisively lost at the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simon’s Island in 1742, the name Spanish Wells has persisted.  One of Agent Trench’s sales of Bayley’s Barony plantations was to Roger Moore who sold to William Spoad who left it in his will to John David Mongin in 1790.  William Eddings Baynard (1800-1849) inherited it and after the confiscation his sons redeemed it.  It was sold to William Clyde in 1894 to settle the estate.

• Peeples, An Index to Hilton Head Island Names (Before the Contemporary Development), p. 38