Marianna Barnwell Smith

Following the war, the Barnwell family through marriage added an even longer roster of prominent names to the family tree that already included Berners, Stanyarne, Reeve, Stuart, Gibbes, Sams, Bull and Elliot. Elizabeth Barnwell’s sister Sarah married James Hazzard Cuthbert. Her brother John wed Anne Hutson. Brothers Robert and Edward married sisters Elizabeth Hayne Wigg and Mary Hutson Wigg. In subsequent generations, the intermarriage between branches of the family would further solidify Barnwell power and wealth.

As the Barnwell family grew during the second half of the 1780s, so did its political influence. In 1788, all eight of the delegates sent by South Carolina to ratify the young country's new constitution were related to Elizabeth Barnwell by blood, marriage or both. In the influential extended Barnwell family, Elizabeth's brothers, John and especially Robert, became leading political figures in Beaufort.

Their prominence was reflected in the homes they built. Robert purchased and rebuilt Laurel Bay, his sister Anne Bull's (married to General Steven Bull) plantation home that had been burned by the British. Robert and Edward built an immense, three-story duplex on Bay Street known as "The Castle" for their sister-brides where they would raise their families side by side. In this heady climate, Elizabeth began construction on a magnificent tabby home for herself and her daughter Marianna.