Singleton and Related Genealogy Pages
A history of many families.
1794 - 1878 (83 years)| Name | Matthew Peterson MAYES [2, 3, 4, 5] | |
| Prefix | Squire | |
| Suffix | Jr. | |
| Birth | 24 Nov 1794 | Greensville County, Virginia  [6] |
| Gender | Male | |
| HIST | Matthew Jr. settled Mayesville, South Carolina The Mayes family farming tradition stretches back to the early 19th century, when Matthew Peterson “Squire” Mayes II moved to Sumter County, South Carolina, and gave Mayesville its name just after the war of 1812. Southern beauty: Mayesville founder's home on the market for 1st time in 124 years PHOTOS BY MICAH GREEN / THE SUMTER ITEM This Beaux-Arts style home, built by Robert James Mayes in 1895, is full of color, details and history. Posted Sunday, June 30, 2019 6:00 am WANT TO MOVE IN? Contact Jack and John Huguley at jack@danielravenelsir.com, (843) 224-7711 or (843) 723-7150. The house is listed for $599,500. BY KAYLA ROBINS kayla@theitem.com Mayesville's largest house is up for sale. Filled with both a town's and a family's history, the three-story, seven-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom Beaux-Arts style home, which Kathleen Hines says means there's a little bit of a lot of kinds of design in there, is looking for a new owner. It will be its first time on the market and leaving the family's hands in its 124-year history. Exclusively offered by father-son duo Jack and John Huguley with Charleston-based Daniel Ravenel Sotheby's International Realty, the home that signals motorists' arrival to Mayesville at 40 S. Lafayette St. was completed in 1895 on land owned by the town's founder, Matthew Peterson Mayes. People called him Squire. He established the town after his service in the War of 1812 and later signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Succession on Dec. 20, 1860. His son, Robert James Mayes, built the home after graduating from South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina, in 1892. "I remember moving here and thinking I can't believe that life is the pace it is here," said Hines, whose family, relatives of the Mayeses, moved from Virginia to South Carolina more than 20 years ago. "It's so slow and easy and beautiful." Hines now lives in Dallas as she studies for her doctorate, and she, her older brother and father are ready to downsize. They still own a small handful of properties in Mayesville, and she said she has a dream to continue renovating old buildings. She grew up in a massive home that still bears scratch marks from Mayes children hiding in the potato closet, the original custom molding, leaded-glass windows and her mother's handmade Scalamandre draperies. Out back sits Mag's House. The double-roomed Antebellum cabin was moved onto the five-plus-acre property shortly after the house was completed to accommodate Mag, the family's cook. Hines used to crawl under the cabin and find old biscuit tins. The property also features a chicken coop, gardening area and a bridge over what at some point is or was a creek. Next to the coop is a sprawling tree perfectly suited for climbing, it's magnolias overlooking the family's English Mastiffs' grave markers. Another shades the saltwater pool and its lifeguards, two lion sculptures. Throughout the home are more animals than wallpaper patterns. Moving through the two front formal living rooms, the dining room, the library, above the hand-painted marbleized fireplace columns, in wallpaper, behind picture frames, within paintings, mounted on the wall, there is a bull, a swan, a pheasant, pigs, chickens, dogs, lions, elephants, birds, giraffes. Portraits of family members are framed, including one unidentified woman Hines always thought was formidable. Almost anywhere the eye goes, it catches browns, gold, silver, deep reds, blues, pinks, greens sharing space. Books cover tables, walls, shelves. Modern aspects are speckled throughout, too, the house telling the story of one family over a century and a quarter. Copper pots and pans hang above a commercial-grade Viking cooktop. The bathrooms on the second and third floors have in-wall showers instead of clawfoot tubs. Books with jackets sit in neat piles in the bedrooms upstairs. A 1,001-piece puzzle of battles and a Lonely Plant travel book about West Africa sit among books that tell historical accounts of battles and other yellowed pages. Hines remembers her childhood at the home fondly, a smile spreading onto her face as she recounts every detail, her walks to discover blackberry patches, the cotton gin alarms serving as the country's version of the city's car horns. "Sometimes we want to focus on what we do instead of how we live," she said. "We want another family or another loving couple who wants that experience of living history to come here and enjoy this place as we have. It's just been a wonderful gift to us and a gem, but I think history like this is meant to be shared." Thank you for writing. Please be assured that I am empathetic, not critical, and some other cousins and I are eager to be of help. I remember recently sending only one such recent "comment" reply, but I did not record the site, although I might be able to find it in my "sent" e-mail file. The site I viewed contained several important errors. My fellow Mayes researchers and I do not yet have a posted Family Tree, so I suggest that you send me the connection to your site again and if I can make a copy of your chart/info, correct it and then try to send it back you on an e-mail with the corrected copy. Alternatively, I will try to send you the corrections in your "reply" function, but this may be difficult if I try to include the sources for the corrections, including wills, deeds, etc. You can also print your chart, etc., send it to me either (1) by e-mail w/copy or (2) send me a copy by "snail mail" and I will enter the corrections that have been proven so far by several other Mayes researchers, including other descendants of MATTHEW PETERSON MAYES. MPM (not MPM II) was my gg/grandfather. I descend from him through his son Matthew Peterson Mayes, Jr. and the latter's daughter Mary Frances Mayes who was my grandmother. She married (Reverend) William Bratton Steele Chandler, also a native of Mayesville in 1907. I am not a highly trained online communicator, but I am always happy to help cousins (or their researchers) about our Mayes family. Not only did they expand rapidly with many repetitive names, but is further complicated because of the loss of so many records, especially in the Civil War. Our family ultimately traces back to Prince George County, VA, just east of Petersburg, VA across the Appomattox River. PGC and other counties surrounding Richmond was among the most battle contested areas in the entire war because so many Confederate troops spent a large part of the war encircling the lands/counties surrounding Richmond, the South's capital. My "snail mail" is Joseph B. Chandler, Jr. 3108 Eastover Ridge Dr. Apt. 814 Charlotte, NC 28211. Warmest regards, joe Sorry, but I will have to look at your site again, but I can tell you the following. The "Mary Frances Mayes (not Mays)," daughter of Matthew Peterson Mayes, Jr. who d.ca. 1898 in Mayesville, was my grandmother. So, she was a granddaughter of Matthew Peterson Mayes (no "II"), founder of Mayesville and nicknamed "The Squire." He was b, in Greensville County, VA. on November 24, 1794 and died in Mayesville on November 1, 1878). Mary Frances Mayes was my grandmother (d. 1975) and she m. Reverend W. B. S. Chandler (d. 1948) as I wrote, both b, and reared in Mayesville. There were no people named Matthew Peterson Mayes I and Matthew Peterson Mayes II as written by Sallie Ruberry Burgess in 1930 or someone who copied her writing. Anyway, that's the source of most of your errors. Sallie was repeating the Mayes family manuscript as written by Judge Edward Mays of Jackson, Mississippi who died about 1901. After the Judge's death, his manuscript was circulated among numerous Mays/Mayes families asking for additions/corrections/additions. Our family was probably included because MPM was well known as a signer of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession in 1860. Thereafter, a revised version of the manuscript was published (less than 100 copies) by one or more of the Judge's descendants -- who did not identify themselves. Cousin Sallie worked either from a copy of the manuscript, but probably the Judge's book. She said therein that she was following Judge Mays' writings. By her own statement, Sallie came up a generation short (actually 17 years she wrote). So she re-named Matthew Mayes (MPM's father) in Greensville County, VA Matthew Peterson Mayes I and re-named "The Squire" of Mayesville Matthew Peterson Mayes II. In an interview of all SC Ordinance signers for a book that is in either the USC Library or the South Carolinina Library, or both, MPM gave his name as "Matthew P. Mayes" and stated that he "was born in Dinwiddie County, VA." He signed the Ordinance "M. P. Mayes." His signature appears in the Sumter County records without any "II" and is also named numerous times in the minutes of the meetings of the Session of Salem Black River Presbyterian Church a/k/a "Old Brick Church" without any "II," where he was also the Clerk of the Session for a time. I have copies. Finally, MPM's father and mother left wills in the Greensville County Court House (Emporia, VA). MPM's father gave his name as Matthew Mayes and signed his will "Matthew Mayes." I have a copy of both wills. Everyone I have ever known in the extended family of MPM descendants (I am now 78 y.o.) knew or believed Sallie was wrong, but no one did anything but copy and continue to distribute Sallie's account without questions or corrections until I took up genealogy as a hobby in my 20's. If you wish to have any other errors considered, please chose one of the options I listed in my earlier e-mail. Warmest regards, joe [1, 4, 7, 8, 9] | |
| MILI | He served in the War of 1812 and later signed the south Carolina Ordinance of Succession on Dec. 20, 1860 [8] | |
| Religion | Ruling elder of Salem Black River Presbyerian Church for 29 years [6] | |
| _UID | D11DE8AF266449D7A602A778D3958BAD9621 | |
| Death | 1 Nov 1878 | Mayesville, Sumter County, South Carolina [1, 2] |
| Person ID | I69294 | Singleton and Related Families |
| Last Modified | 18 Jul 2020 | |
| Father | Lt. Colonel Matthew Peterson MAYES, Sr., b. Abt 1750 d. 1796 (Age 46 years) | |
| Mother | Frances BROWN d. 1807 | |
| _UID | B3F4EBC986A3457FAA9CC2152CF7B80F4F9A | |
| _UID | B3F4EBC986A3457FAA9CC2152CF7B80F4F9A | |
| Family ID | F48365 | Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 1 | Henrietta Warner SHAW, b. 22/23 Apr 1806, Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina d. 6 Aug 1850 (Age 44 years) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Marriage | 1 Nov/Apr 1821 [3, 10] | |||||||||||||||||||
| _UID | C4AFF90B59C34EE8BAB59A952285E82319C1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| _UID | C4AFF90B59C34EE8BAB59A952285E82319C1 | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Family ID | F48367 | Group Sheet | Family Chart | ||||||||||||||||||
| Last Modified | 7 Nov 2020 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Family 2 | Martha CHAPPELL | |
| _UID | 175E82B5BC6A4E06877AE638A07DFD379611 | |
| _UID | 175E82B5BC6A4E06877AE638A07DFD379611 | |
| Family ID | F46363 | Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified | 23 Mar 2026 | |
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