Montpelier Plantation Cemetery
April 1781
The Montpelier Plantation Cemetery, located within the modern grounds of Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, serves as a poignant physical reminder of the brutal “neighbor-against-neighbor” warfare that defined the Beaufort District. This site is the ancestral burial ground of the Pendarvis family and is situated near the location of one of the most famous partisan executions of the Revolutionary War.
The Rise of “Tory Dick” Pendarvis
Richard Pendarvis, known infamously as “Tory Dick,” was a wealthy and influential Loyalist leader who operated out of the May River and Daufuskie Island areas. Pendarvis was a polarizing figure who used his intimate knowledge of the Lowcountry waterways to lead the Daufuskie Royal Militia in devastating raids against Patriot neighbors.
The cycle of violence escalated significantly following the murder of Patriot militia commander James Doharty. Doharty, a prominent Patriot from Bear Island near Hilton Head, was targeted and killed by Loyalist forces, an act that demanded immediate and lethal retaliation from the local Patriot “Bloody Legion”.
The Execution: April 1781
In April 1781, a Patriot raiding party led by John Leacraft and James Davant (brother of the later-ambushed Charles Davant) tracked Pendarvis and his associate, Lieutenant William Patterson, to the vicinity of Montpelier Plantation.
The Patriots captured both men and, rather than taking them as prisoners of war, executed them on the spot as common criminals and “banditti”. This summary execution was intended to decapitate the Loyalist leadership on Daufuskie Island and serve as a warning to those still under British protection.
A Site of Reconciliation and Memory
Today, the Montpelier Cemetery remains as a quiet, wooded sanctuary containing the graves of the Pendarvis family. While “Tory Dick” himself was a figure of great controversy, the cemetery anchors the history of the land to the complex loyalties of the 18th century. It provides a rare opportunity to interpret the war from the perspective of those who lost—families who were once pillars of the community but found themselves on the wrong side of the revolution.
