'Gaillard Family papers, 1758–1901' (SCHS 1033.00) — biographical note and scope, p1
Book 4, Page 27 ·1625–1906
Transcription
A typeset PDF page produced by the South Carolina Historical Society — the first page of the finding aid for the Gaillard Family papers (collection 1033.00, container 11/149). At the top of the page, a small SCHS letterhead banner shows the society’s stylized columned-building emblem flanked by “The South Carolina” and “Historical Society” in cursive script. The page proper is set in plain serif type.
Gaillard Family papers, 1758–1901
SCHS 1033.00
Container 11/149
Creator: Gaillard Family.
Description: 0.5 linear ft.
Biographical/Historical Note: South Carolina family. Joachim Gaillard (b. 1625), a native of France, arrived in Charleston, S.C. ca. 1687. His son Bartholomew’s children included Theodore Gaillard (1710–1781) and Tacitus Gaillard. Theodore Gaillard (1710–1781), a plantation owner of St. James, Santee Parish, S.C. was the father of Peter Gaillard (1757–1833), owner of The Rocks Plantation (located in St. John’s Berkeley Parish, S.C., later part of Orangeburg County). Children of Peter Gaillard included Peter Gaillard, Jr. (1783–1843) and James Gaillard (b. 1788) of Walnut Grove Plantation, who was the father of James Gaillard (1818–1906).
Scope and Content: Papers consist of estate and plantation papers, account books, legal documents, and other items. Included are the papers of Peter Gaillard, Jr. (1783–1843).
Papers of Peter Gaillard, Sr. (1757–1833) consist of a plantation journal (1803–1825) for the Rocks and other plantations recording the plantings of crops and other daily activities, returns of slaves and crops, lists of clothing given to slaves, and other matters; a plantation account and memorandum book (1783–1832) containing tax returns, accounts, lists of slaves’ births and deaths, and notes on Gaillard family births and deaths; grants, leases, plats, and other land papers of Peter Gaillard and Tacitus Gaillard; an estate account book (1781–1808) of Theodore Gaillard (1710–1781); the will and funeral directions of Peter Gaillard; and other items.
Papers of James Gaillard (1818–1906) are mostly records (1852–1863) of the Pineville Jockey Club including bills, receipts, and letters. There is also a (oversized) deed of assignment in trust (1843) between James Gaillard and the firm of Smith & Groning, a plat (1901) of land in Berkeley County, and notes on Gaillard family history.
Preferred Citation: Gaillard family. Gaillard family papers, 1758–1901. (1033.00) South Carolina Historical Society.
Search terms:
Couturier, Joseph, b. 1778 – Estate.
Gaillard, James, 1818–1906.
Gaillard, Peter, 1757–1833.
Gaillard, Peter, 1783–1843.
Gaillard, Tacitus.
Gaillard, Theodore, 1710–1781 – Estate.
Marion, Francis Dwight, 1777–1833 – Estate.
[Search terms continue on page 2.]
Source: South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston, S.C., Gaillard Family papers, 1758–1901 (collection 1033.00, container 11/149), finding aid, page 1. The source PDF is archived in this repository at additionalDocumentation/Gaillard-Family-papers-1033.00.pdf. Catalog descriptions of archival collections are factual statements about holdings and not subject to copyright; the SCHS publishes its finding aids for public reference.
AI Notes
Page 1 of the South Carolina Historical Society’s finding aid for the Gaillard Family papers, 1758–1901 (collection SCHS 1033.00, container 11/149). The finding aid is itself not a Gaillard family document — it is the archivist’s catalog description of the underlying collection — but for the present album its biographical note is the load-bearing item: it pins down the documented French émigré ancestor as Joachim Gaillard (b. 1625), arrived Charleston ca. 1687, with the descent Joachim → Bartholomew → Theodore (1710–1781) → Peter (1757–1833). The album’s own 1917 obituary of Maj. Theodore Gaillard Barker (book-001/p134, reproduced as a news obit also at book-004/p018) instead names the paternal-line émigré as “Pierre Gaillard … who fled France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.” “Pierre” is the French form of “Peter,” and a prominent Peter Gaillard exists in the documented line two generations down from Joachim (Peter of The Rocks, 1757–1833) — so the obit’s identification is most plausibly a memorial-tradition conflation of the actual emigrant Joachim with the later Peter, possibly cross-bred with the 1685 Edict-of-Nantes revocation date as a common Huguenot anchor.
The finding aid further establishes that the substantive Gaillard papers reside at SCHS in Charleston and consist of two distinct accumulations: the estate, plantation, and personal papers of Peter Gaillard Sr. (1757–1833) — a planting book for The Rocks and other plantations (1803–1825), a 1783–1832 plantation account & memorandum book that includes family birth/death notes, land documents, and his will and funeral directions — and the papers of James Gaillard (1818–1906), mostly records of the Pineville Jockey Club (1852–1863) with an oversized 1843 trust deed and a 1901 plat of Berkeley County land. These are the primary documents one would consult to extend any of the present album’s Gaillard-line claims beyond the family’s own oral tradition.
The Gaillard descent reaches the compiler Amy FitzSimons Walker via her paternal grandmother Susan Milliken Barker (wife of Dr. Christopher FitzSimons 3rd), whose own maternal grandmother Henrietta Catherine Gaillard carried the Gaillard name into the Barker line. The Gaillard kinship is therefore on Amy’s paternal-grandmother side, three generations back; the album’s most direct Gaillard reference is the obituary of Maj. Theodore Gaillard Barker (1832–1917), Susan Milliken Barker’s brother and the compiler’s great-uncle, who carried the Gaillard given name forward.
Pages 2 and 3 of the finding aid (p028 and p029) list item-level descriptions of every file in the collection.