Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society members and special guests visited Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor on Tuesday, April 1 for a flag ceremony. Castle Pickney Guardian Matthew Locke, who led the trip, wrote the following article and provided the following photos afterward:
Ravenel Family flag flies over Castle Pinckney.
Castle Pinckney Historical Preservation Society Members Tom Saltzer and John Mahoney used their boats to transport the special guests — members of the Ravenel Family, including a cousin, Tanneguy Frain de la Gaulayrie, and his wife, Anne-Clothilde, from Vitré, France — to Castle Pinckney for the flag ceremony.
They lowered the Flag of France, raised on March 15 to honor of Lafayette’s visit to Charleston in 1825, and replaced it with a replica of the Ravenel Family flag, part of the Ravenel Family’s Woodboo Plantation history. Woodboo, a native-American word, means “big water.” The historic plantation is located next to Wantoot and Pooshee plantations in Berkeley County.
Tanneguy Frain de la Gaulayrie and his wife,
Anne-Clothilde
Isaac Mazyck I gave Woodboo Plantation to his youngest son, Stephen Mazyck, and his wife, Susanne Ravenel, daughter of Rene Louis Ravenel. The plantation was then left to their son, Stephen Mazyck II, and his wife, Ann Wilson. The St. John’s Hunting Club first met at Woodboo Plantation in 1800.
Woodboo Plantation eventually passed to Dr. Henry Ravenel who gifted it to his son, Thomas Porcher Ravenel, and his wife, Elizabeth Wilson, who created the flag.
The Woodboo flag, raised over Castle Pinckney on April 1, is a replica of the flag that Elizabeth Wilson created.
According to Ravenel Family lore, the homemade flag was raised at Woodboo Plantation on the evening of Dec. 21, 1860. The flag was then attached to a staff, and nailed to the northern post of the framed gate that led down the avenue toward to the house.
The ladies of the house, Mrs. T.P. Ravenel Sr. (Elizabeth Wilson); her mother, Mrs. T. J. Heyward; and her two sisters, Harriet G. Heyward and Meta C. Heyward, made the flag. The white flag had a green palmetto tree on one side, and green star and crescent on the reverse side.
The group departed Carolina Yacht Club for the flag ceremony at 9 a.m. and returned by 12:15 p.m.