03/10/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18FDjVgmPH/
DID YOU KNOW: One of the most significant women in Edisto Island’s history is Hephzibah Jenkins Townsend (1780-1847), the wife of Daniel Townsend, proprietor of Bleak Hall Plantation and one of the wealthiest planters on the island. She is best known as the driving force behind the establishment of the Old First Baptist Church, built in 1818. The original part of the church is the oldest church building still standing on Edisto. Nearly all the worshipers were Black, primarily the enslaved, and Hephzibah and some of her family members worshiped with them. She is buried in the church graveyard, one of only three White people to be buried there. She raised funds to build the church by making and selling baked goods, and the tabby ruins of her ovens can still be seen on land adjacent to Bleak Hall (currently known as Botany Bay Plantation). In raising the necessary funds and worshiping with the enslaved, Hepzibah not only defied her husband’s wishes but also societal norms at the time.
