Rebecca Brewton Motte (1737–1815) was a plantation owner in South Carolina, patriot in the American Revolution, namesake of Fort Motte and mother-in-law of Major-General Thomas Pinckney.
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Rebecca was the daughter of Robert Brewton a wealthy resident of Charleston, South Carolina. She married Jacob Motte (1729–1780) in 1758. Jacob was a plantation owner and involved in politics.[1] The Mottes had seven children two of whom died young and two daughters who married Thomas Pinckney in 1779 and 1797.[2]
The Mottes were living at Fairfield Plantation (Charleston County, South Carolina) on the South Santee River outside of Charleston by 1758 and also in town until Jacob died of illness in 1780 leaving Rebecca to inherit the plantation and 244 slaves.[3]
Rebecca's brother Miles Brewton (1731–1775) also died during the Revolution; he and his family were lost at sea on their way to Philadelphia - he having been elected to the second Provincial Congress.[4] Miles had owned up to eight ships and was soon South Carolina's largest slave dealer as well as one of the wealthiest families in the province.[5] He had numerous plantations (growing rice and indigo) including Mt. Joseph (later known as Fort Motte).[6]
In 1765 Miles had begun building a lavish home in King Street in Charleston that still stands today beautifully preserved and known as the Miles Brewton House. Upon the deaths of her husband and brother, Rebecca was one of (if not the) wealthiest people in South Carolina in the Revolutionary War Era.[7]
The family were supporters of the American Revolution and supplied soldiers with rice, beef, pork, corn, and fodder from 1778-1783.[8] During the war, she and her children were living in her brother's former town house when it was commandeered as British headquarters.[9] She soon left for the comparative safety of Mt. Joseph plantation on the Congaree River outside of town.
In June 1780 the British occupied Belleville Plantation near Mt. Joseph even though the latter held a more commanding view of the river,[10] possibly because of a smallpox scare.[11] By December 1780 Rebecca and her daughters, one being Elizabeth with her infant who was the wife of Thomas Pinckney, and others were at Mt. Joseph. Thomas was there too, recuperating, having been wounded in August fighting at the Battle of Camden with General Gates.[12] In January 1781 the Pinckney family left for Charleston then Philadelphia with other captured American officers awaiting possible exchange. Shortly thereafter, the British left Belleville and encamped at Mt. Joseph and began to fortify the house and surrounds.[13] Rebecca's entourage then moved to the overseer's house.
Brigadier General Francis "Swamp Fox" Marion and Lt. Col. Henry Lee III of Virginia were sent by General Nathanael Greene to capture Fort Motte in what became known as the Siege of Fort Motte. They arrived in May 1781 with about 400 men and an artillery piece. After five days of attack, Marion and Lee decided to burn the house which had a dry wood shingle roof. Mrs. Motte didn't hesitate to "burn her home" and even provided the arrows which would be lit and shot onto the roof of her house.[14]
In the 1790s Rebecca Motte continued to manage her affairs after paying off her family's war debts. She and son-law Thomas Pinckney also built the rice plantation, Eldorado Plantation (Charleston County, South Carolina), (now in ruins) on the South Santee River downstream from her first Santee home "Fairfield".[15] There she lived out her days with some of her grandchildren who remembered the old arrow quiver holding her knitting needles hanging on the back of her chair.[16]