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Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Merry Christmas Robbie!
11:50 am est
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Garrett's Island House was constructed on land granted
to Jonathan Corpew by John Earl Granville. Daniel Garrett subsequently acquired the property. The original deed
dated December 22 1747 and the accompanying survey are still in the possession of Garrett family descendants.
In Daniel Garrett's will, dated January 14, 1758, he leaves property including his "manor plantation" and land in
"baly's Island" to his children. His son John married Sarah Carkeet in April of 1760, and most likely constructed
Garrett's Island House shortly thereafter as a statement of his success as a planter. The Garrett's grew rice,
flax and corn on the surrounding farmland. By 1782, John was paying taxes on 640 acres of land, eight slaves, seven
horses, and seventeen cows. According to the 1786 census of Tyrell County, John's household consisted of seven family
members and ten slaves. Due to their land and property holdings, the Garett's would have been considered upper-middle
class plantation owners. John Garrett's will, dated November7, 17890 gives his wife Sarah "the use and occuation
of one half of the Island whereon I know live, including the home plantation and other improvements..." At
Sarah's death the house and property then passed to John's son Joseph, who was born in 1769 and died in 1835. Joseph married Mary Elizabeth Wynne in 1792 and had seven children including
Alfred Franklin Garrett, born in 1807. Alfred Franklin inherited the Garrett's Island property after the
deaths of his father in 1835 and his older brother John in 1839. According to the 1850 census of Washington County,
Alfred Franklin was a farmer owning 8,000 acres. His household consisted of two children, Joseph and Caroline, by his
first wife Carey Ann Spruill (d. 1843) , his second wife Emily H. Staton and their daughter Henrietta. After Emily's
death, Alfred married a third time, to Mary Eliza Cotton. They had five more children. Their eldest son, Alfred
Cotton Garrett born in 1855, inherited the Garrett's Island property at his fathers death in 1888. After the death of
Alfred Cotton Garrett in 1934, the property passed to Laura Smith Johnston, daughter of Alfred Cotton's sister Caroline. Twenty four family members are buried in the family graveyard,
located across the road from Garrett's Island House. Local legend holds that the appearance of a phantom black
carriage in the Avenue of the Cedars always foretold a death in the family. Meredith Johnston Saunders, a seventh-generation
member of the Garrett family, now owns the property.
| Garrett's Island Home by Jeannine Saunders |
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| Island Home by Gene Harris |
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Dozens of artists, writers and photographers have made the Island Home the subject of their projects.
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