Plowden Charles Jennett Weston, Lt. Gov. South Carolina

Online records state: baptized in Marylebone. London UK. 13 Oct 1819 Baptized at St Marylebone Church.

Plowden C.J. Weston's parents were cousins - Francis Marion Weston and Mildred Weston, born in England

Plowden Weston came from a wealthy family who had made their fortunes with rice plantations. He spent his early years on the Laurel Hill Plantation where he was taught by an English tutor. At the age of twelve he was sent to England to attend Harrow School (a prestigious private school for boys) and thereafter he was admitted to the University of Cambridge. A friend from Harrow also went to the Univ of Cambridge and introduced his sister Emily Esdaile to Plowden. He travelled back to the U.S to ask for his father's blessing to marry her, an English girl.. Subsequently Emily and he were married in Somerset, England in the 3rd quarter of 1847.

[Source: Registration records from:

• District Taunton
• County Somerset
• Country England
• Volume 10
• Page 631
• Record set England & Wales Marriages 1837-2008
• Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
• Subcategory Marriages & divorces]

As a wedding gift they received the Hagley Plantation. He subsequently managed this property. He was one of the richest men in South Carolina and was one of the largest slaveholders. His wife, an artist, designed a summer home on Pawleys Island and from 1844 the family spent the summer months there. (It is now known as The Pelican Inn). Besides their large, elegant home at Hagley, they also had a smaller home at Conway, SC.

Many of their homes, plantation houses of worship, other buildings including a house belonging to a 'washer woman', a plantation barn, flora and fauna (insects, snakes and butterflies) were recorded by Emily in a series of drawings and paintings which have survived to today.

From the late 1850s Weston cared seriously about the future of his homeland and his own existence. He saw the conflict between the North and the South as a serious threat and initially turned to an exit of South Carolina from the Union. As this step was as then not yet completed, he stood unconditionally behind the cause of confederation .

At the beginning of the Civil War he set up a company of state militia the 10th South Carolina Infantry, which he commanded as one of its first captains. He remained with his unit stationed in South Carolina and participated in any military conflict.

1860 US Census lists: Francis Marion as 40 years old and born in the U.S.

In 1862 he became ill with tuberculosis and had to quit his military service.

Politically, Weston was a member of the Democratic Party . By 1862 he was in the South Carolina General Assembly on the side of Milledge Luke Bonham, vice governor of his state. This post he held between December 17, 1862, his death on 25 January 1864. He was deputy governor. He died of tuberculosis, which undermined his health during his last months of life.

He was one of the most wealthy men in South Carolina, one of the largest slave owners in the South, a scholar, and a man that opposed secession - he supported the Confederacy with everything he had, donating money, slaves, and cannon to aide South Carolina.

Although Weston never fought in a major battle and never rose above the rank of captain, he went with his command when it was transfered from its hometown, around Georgetown, SC, to Corinth, MS. There he was engaged in a skirmish as Halleck probed the town's defences in May of 1862. After that he contracted TB and his health steadily declined. He was offered the position of Lieutenant Governor that Fall in an attempt to get him to leave the field. He accepted and moved to Columbia. He died there a little over a year later, in January of 1864.

As he and Emily were childless, she returned to live out her days back at her childhood home in Somerset, England.