Ann Fox Drayton (–1742) was an American landowner, prominent in the American South during the early 18th century. Along with her relatives Rebecca and Charlotte, she became known as one of the women of

Drayton Hall Drayton Hall is an 18th-century plantation located on the Ashley River about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Charleston, South Carolina, and directly across the Ashley River from North Charleston, west of the Ashley in the Lowcountry. An e ...

, which her youngest son, John (1716–1779), built. Drayton Street in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, is named for her.

Life and career

Ann Fox was born in the second half of the 17th century. Around 1698, she married Thomas Drayton, who regarded Ann's father, Stephen, as a mentor. Ann was Thomas' second wife. After arriving from Barbados in 1678, they were bequeathed today's Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, by Ann's father around 1704. She became a widowed mother when Thomas died in 1721 at the age of 71. Her children were Mary (born 1704; married colonel Thomas Fuller), Thomas (born 1710), Stephen Fox (1713 or 1714) and John (1716). Choosing not to remarry, she began to establish herself alongside the male planter elite in

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. After her husband's death, she served as the manager of the family estate, and had extensively increased its properties by the time of her death. In 1730, Thomas married Elizabeth Bull, daughter of William Bull, who assisted general

James Edward Oglethorpe James Edward Oglethorpe (22 December 1696 – 30 June 1785) was a British soldier, Member of Parliament, and philanthropist, as well as the founder of the colony of Georgia in what was then British America. As a social reformer, he hoped to re ...

in the laying out of Savannah,

Province of Georgia A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

, three years later. In 1737, Bull became the 24th governor of South Carolina. Drayton's son, Stephen, died in 1733, shortly before his 21st birthday.

Death

Drayton died in 1742. Having possessed a deep distrust of her son-in-law Thomas Fuller, she left an "estate in trust" to her daughter Mary, stipulating that Fuller would have nothing at all to do with any part of her daughter's inheritance. As a legacy, Drayton Street in Savannah, Georgia, was named in her honor, after she had lent four

sawyer *A sawyer (occupation) is someone who saws wood. *Sawyer, a fallen tree stuck on the bottom of a river, where it constitutes a danger to boating. Places in the United States Communities *Sawyer, Kansas *Sawyer, Kentucky * Sawyer, Michigan * Saw ...

s to assist colonists in building one of the first homes in the city.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drayton, Ann 1678 births 1742 deaths Barbadian women People from Charleston, South Carolina American planters American women landowners 18th-century American landowners