Pleasant Hill Plantation

Land Description

Pleasant Hill Plantation located in Garnett, South Carolina, the heart of the Lowcountry. Includes a main house, manager's house, outbuildings, large pond and horse stables. The grounds are adorned with majestic oak trees creating a beautiful setting.

Historical significance of Pleasant Hill:

Unfortunately, during the Civil War, the Beaufort County Court House and its records were burned and property titles and transfers were lost. What is known is that John Hancock Robert acquired 1840 acres, called Pleasant Hill Plantation, in 1855 by deed from James Tupper, Master. Mr. Tupper was representing the children of Elizabeth Robert Cruger. As Mrs. Cruger was a daughter of Anne Maner and John Hancock Robert (Sr.), it would appear that after the death of her father in 1835, the property was divided among the children and heirs.

John Hancock Robert, Jr., is a direct descendant of Pierre Robert who was born in St. Imier, Switzerland in 1656, and came to St. James, Santee, South Carolina, in 1686, and he was one of the first Huguenot ministers in this country.

Pierre Robert traveled around the Lowcountry, preaching at various settlements. His descendants acquired lands around the Savannah River and founded the town of Robertville.

Various sources indicated that there was a “large, grand” house at Pleasant Hill. In 1856, to celebrate the birth of his son Pierre, John Hancock Robert, Jr. planted the oak drives around and in front of the house.

During the civil war, the house and contents were burned. According to Robert and Bostick family members, the present home was built in 1890 on the site of the original house. It was said that one of the daughters of John Hancock Robert, Jr., Jennifer M. Jones, who had married and lived in Savannah, Georgia, wanted to come back “home.” She built the house, and a picture of it in its original state hangs in the front hall.

John Hancock Robert, Jr., died in 1897. He was known for his "elegant” home and his “splendid library, that for the number and value of his books was not surpassed by that of any other country gentleman.” That elegant house was built in an oak grove across the road from this property. His son Pierre lived there after his father’s death. That house burned in the 1950s. Robert’s knowledge and counsel was obviously of great use to the Robertville Academy, at one time considered to be one of the finest schools in the state. It was here that his great-nephew Henry Martyn Robert received his early educational training. That Robert entered West Point at the age of 16, and went on to write a 15 page manual of basic parliamentary procedure in 1869. He later revised this manual, and today his manual, "Robert’s Rules of Order” is the standard meeting procedure guide around the world..

Pleasant Hill was known as a place where “hospitality, intelligence, refinement, morality and religion” abounded during the many years it was owned by the Roberts.