John Stanyarne Brisbane

John Stanyarne Brisbane seems to have been a fellow who attracted anecdotes. Eduardo Hillman records that when his father, James Brisbane, was banished from Charleston in 1782, he intended taking his son, John, with him, but at the last moment, as the vessel was about to sail, (John) got into one of the small boats on which passengers had come on board, hid under a seat, and returned on shore, where he remained with an old aunt, probably Susannah Stanyarne.

Mr Dickerman, in House of Plant, records that he became heir to an earldom in England conditional on going to live there. When the tidings came he answered "No, I would rather be an American gentleman than an English lord". I have no other source for the anecdote, which may have been embroidered at some point. But it is nevertheless worth recording, as much for what it tells us about the 1890s when Mr Dickerman was writing as for what it tells us about the antebellum world of John Stanyarne Brisbane himself.

EG came across an extract from the writings of Edmund Ruffin, which gives a view into some of the experiences and insights of John Stanyarne Brisbane. Ruffin was researching agricultural practices in the region. He visited, stayed with and toured with - John Stanyarne Brisbane. They were taking samples of marl all along the Ashley River. [I think that was used as fertilizer] Brisbane was one of the few planters experimenting with marl at thisn time. If, as I believe, this was the same as the potash that subsequently would be mined in the area, he did subsequent generations a service, since rice planting ceased to be practicable after the Civil War outcome had eliminated the availability of the slave labour necessary for rice planting.