MAGDALEN TRAPIER KEITH
Magdalen Trapier (1777-1852) inherited the house on the Bluff from her Aunt Elizabeth Trapier Martin in 1817. Like many Georgetown region girls, Magdalen attended school in Charleston. In the Wilkinson-Keith Family papers at the College of Charleston, there is a letter dated December 10, 1785 from Samuel Baldwin, a Princeton graduate and schoolteacher who opened a classical school in Charleston. He writes to Paul Trapier, Jr. regarding his grand-daughter, Magdalen, as a pupil. Baldwin praises her disposition, and her rapid acquisition of knowledge. [Wilkinson and Keith Family Papers, 1785-1920, Special Collections, Addlestone Library, College of Charleston at https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:40601].
In 1793, Magdalen married Major John Keith (1763- c.a.1823), the son of Dr. William Keith of Scotland and his wife Anne Cordes of Barbados. [Records of Prince George Winyah: 11.] It is believed John Keith came to America as a teenager with his father, who at the time was a medical student. In 1797, John Keith acquired lands and developed Keithfield Plantation on the Black River.
A politician as well, Keith held a seat in the South Carolina State Senate from 1804 to 1808 and again from 1816 to 1817. [Linder and Thacker, Historical Atlas: 448.] Following the incorporation of Georgetown in 1805, he was elected the town’s first intendant (mayor) and served two terms, 1806 to 1807 and 1808 to 1809. Keith served as a militia officer in the War of 1812. He was a director of the Bank of South Carolina in Georgetown and was elected a trustee of South Carolina College. He was also an editor of the Winyaw Intelligencer from 1817 until his death.
John and Magdalen had two children, John Alexander Keith (1796–1857) and Rev. Paul Trapier Keith (1801-1868). The latter would serve for over a decade as rector of the parish of Prince George, Winyah, and for almost three decades as assistant minister and rector of Saint Michael's in Charleston.
When John Keith died in 1823, Keithfield was encumbered in debt. Magdalen renounced her dower on the mortgage of Keithfield, and she was able to keep her own property, [Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of South Carolina, Book 2 (South Carolina Supreme Court: Elihu Hall Bay West Publishing Co.), 1917: 34. See Magdaline [sic] Keith v. Paul Trapier, executor of John Keith, and R.O. Anderson.]. Magdalen Keith owned the house until her death in Charleston in 1852.
From their mother, the Keith sons inherited the family house on the Bluff, as well as a portion of the property around it. They soon sold it out of the family line to Mary Vernon.
In 1855, Mary Vernon purchased the house and three lots of the Keith property, for 2,000 dollars. A fourth lot, which had been added to the property during the Keith’s tenancy, had been sold earlier by the Keith sons. At the time Mary Vernon made the transaction in 1855, a law office existed on the parcel of the original property that abutted Front Street, which was not included in the sale. This was likely the fourth lot, mentioned above.
by Jennie Holton Fant