Steepbrook Plantation

Front inscription

This plantation was established in 1701 by a grant of 500 acres near Goose Creek to Lewis Lansac from the Lords Proprietors. In 1757 the original grant, with an additional 1,000 acres that had been owned by the Wilson and Godin families, was acquired by rice planter and legislator Peter Manigault (1731-1773). Manigault named his plantation for a stream that ran through his rice fields down to Goose Creek.

Reverse inscription

Peter Manigault’s two-story house sat on a nearby ridge on the bank of Goose Creek. Manigault, longtime member of the Commons House of Assembly, was Speaker of the House 1765-1772 and at his death the wealthiest man in North America. His son Gabriel (1758-1809), a planter and legislator, was best known as an amateur architect. W.J. Sineath acquired the 633-acre core of the plantation in 1833 and renamed it “The Oaks.”