Overview

Location

Adams Co., MS, three miles north of downtown Natchez on Pine Ridge Road/M.L. King Blvd/highway 555. Marshall Road marks the entrance to the plantation which is on the east side of Pine Ridge Road. http://www.lansdowneplantation.com/ .

The land is at land coordinates T7N-R3W, section 11; and T7N-R2W, sections 35 and 38 on the original land survey. A map showing these land coordinates can be foune on-line at www.glorecords.blm.gov and also at the MS Department of Transportation website on their county highway maps.

Date Constructed/ Founded

Probably sometime between 1780 and 1800.

Associated Surnames

Dunbar, Ferguson, Hunt, Marshall

Historical notes

Lansdowne was originally known as Ivy Place (owned by Nathaniel Ivy). Robert Dunbar bought it and had his house there on the same spot where the Marshall house now stands. Robert bought land in the area as early as 1782 and slaves as early as 1786. Robert later moved his family to Oakley Grove Plantation. Ivy Place passed down to Robert's grandaughter Ann Ferguson who married David Hunt. Ann and David gave Ivy Place to their daugher Charlotte when she married George Marshall in 1852. George Marshall was a son of Levin R. Marshall, a very rich planter who lived on Richmond Plantation near Natchez.

George and Charlotte renamed the 600 acre property Lansdowne. George and Charlotte did not consider Lansdowne to be a big important cotton plantation like many of the other family plantations. Before the Civil War, Lansdowne was mostly for livestock and vegetable crops rather than very much cotton. Charlotte's father David Hunt also gave the couple Arcola Plantation so that her wedding gifts would equal that of her sisters. George and Charlotte were worth slightly over $300,000 just before the Civil War.

Before the Civil War, George Marshall spent a lot of time traveling to Europe to buy ornaments for his house on Lansdowne as well as on various projects on the plantation. One of these was to install a private gas works to light the chandeliers in his house.

George went to fight in the Civil War and was quickly wounded in the Battle of Shilo in TN. He paid someone to finish fighting the War in his place. While recuperating at Lansdowne, some Union soldiers entered the house to get whatever they could. Charlotte refused to give them the key to a locked closet and was struck in the face which caused a permanent scar.

After the War, George and Charlotte worked hard to make Lansdowne as productive as it could be. They were able to keep Lansdowne. In the 1950s, most of the land from the original plantation was subdivided into house lots and sold by the family to black people. The banks would not give mortgages to black people at that time, so the family held the mortgages. The big house and 120 acres of the original 600 acres of Lansdowne are still in the Marshall family today.

George and Charlotte are buried on Lansdowne.

Associated Slave Workplaces

• During Robert Dunbar's ownership, Lansdowne (known then as Ivy Place) was associated with Oakley Grove and Robert's other plantations.
• During Jane (Dunbar) and John Ferguson's ownership, this plantation was associated with possibly Mount Locust and John Ferguson's plantations including Oakley Grove.
• During Ann (Ferguson) and and David Hunt's ownership this plantation was associated with David's other 24 plantations - see Woodlawn Plantation MS for details of this.
• During Charlotte (Hunt) and Geroge Marshall's ownership this plantation was associated with Arcola Plantation in Tensas Parish, LA and probably some of Geroge's father (Levin R. Marshall of Richmond Plantation) plantations, and some of David Hunt's plantations.

Associated Free Persons

• Nathaniel Ivy
• Robert Dunbar and his wife
• David Ferguson and Jane Dunbar (possibly owned this land before it was passed on to David and Ann Hunt)
• David Hunt and his wife Ann Ferguson
• George M. Marshall and his wife Charlotte Hunt

Associated Enslaved Persons

• The plantation had 22 slaves when George Marshall and Charlotte Hunt owned it. ("Tumult and Silence at Second Creek," by Wintrop D. Jordan, 1995 LSU Press, page 125.)
• Robert was the butler in the big house on Lansdowne Plantation during the Civil War when George Marshall owned the property. His wife's name was Susan.

Research Leads and Plantation Records

• none reported yet

Miscellaneous Information

• none

References

• Plantations of David Hunt, by Andy McMillon. http://www.rootsweb.com/~msjeffe2/davidhunt.htm
• The Hunt Family of Jefferson County, by Andy McMillon. http://www.rootsweb.com/~msjeffe2/hunt_family.htm
• Lansdowne Plantation, no date, http://www.lansdowneplantation.com/ , (20 Oct 07).

Users Researching This Workplace

• Andy-McMillion

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