Meeting Street MemoriesTimothy Ford House: 54 Meeting St.

By Peg Eastman

The much photographed and admired home at 54 Meeting St. was built by Timothy Ford from Morristown, New Jersey. Born in 1762, he was the son of Jacob and Theodosia Johnes Ford. During the Revolution, the Fords’ handsome brick mansion had been General George Washington’s headquarters from December 1779 to June 1780.

That summer, young Ford volunteered with Washington’s Life Guard at Connecticut Farms and was wounded at the Battle of Springfield. His will recounts that after his father’s death, his beloved mother “girded his sword on my thigh at the age of 16 and I wore it in the field of battle.” (A sacred family relic of the Revolution, the sword was left to his nephew Frederic Ford, son of his brother.)

In the fall of 1780, Timothy Ford matriculated at the College of New Jersey (Princeton), and after his graduation, studied law under Robert Morris in New York.

Timothy Ford’s sister, Elizabeth, married Henry William DeSaussure, and he accompanied them to Charleston in 1785. He kept a diary of his journey that was later annotated by Joseph W. Barnwell for The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine.

Admitted to the bar in Charleston in 1786, he established a law partnership with his brother-in-law. He prospered and soon owned a house and lot in Charleston, property on Sullivan’s Island where his friend, the naturalist Louis Agassiz, lived while studying local sea life. 

Ford’s townhouse was built ca. 1800 following his marriage to Sarah Amelia DeSaussure, daughter of Daniel DeSaussure and Mary McPherson, in 1793. It was located on arguably the most fashionable street in the city. (Meeting Street was 60 feet wide, unlike neighboring streets and lodged many city leaders.)

Ford’s three-and-a-half-story stuccoed brick Charleston single house was built on a raised basement and boasted a slate roof, a course of dentals below the eave and a wide belt course between the floors. The piazza screen has a 20th-century Colonial Revival doorway, complete with an open pediment, Ionic engaged columns and a fanlight. In the upstairs drawing room, an Adamesque mantle has floral spray and Grecian urn motifs in gesso relief. Other rooms also feature mantels and woodwork.

The kitchen building was joined to the house at an unknown date. The house and kitchen building addition borders Fort Court. In the 20th century, the renowned landscape architect Loutrel Briggs designed the side garden.

In his prime, from 1792 to 1797, Ford was a dedicated public servant who served in the General Assembly representing St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s parishes. While in the House, he served on the committees on grievances, privileges and elections, and the judiciary.

In 1794, using the pseudonym “Americanus,” Ford wrote a series of newspaper articles that were later published as The Constitutionalist or Enquiry how far it is expedient and proper to alter the constitution of South Carolina. These writings defended the Lowcountry’s refusal to give equal apportionment to the Upcountry, arguing that there was a difference between the original settlers and the more recent immigrants, and sought to avoid creating an “internal enemy” in the Upcountry. (The “parish system” gave the Lowcountry greater representation; it was not eliminated until a new constitution was written in 1867.)

With his wealth and social connections, Ford belonged to the American Revolution Society, was junior and grand warden of the Ancient Free Masons, held offices in the state militia, was president of the Literary and Philosophical Society, president of the prestigious Charleston Library Society and was commissioner of the Charleston Workhouse, among other affiliations.

He was also director of the Santee Canal Company, director of the South Carolina Insurance Company, warden for Moultrieville, on Sullivan’s Island and commissioner for Charleston to open subscriptions for stock of a company constructing railroads and canals.

A dedicated Christian, he was a lay member of the Charleston Bible Society, which had the ambitious goal of distributing Bibles throughout the world. Organized in 1810, the Charleston Bible Society wanted to encourage a study of the Holy Scriptures. Ford was one of the laymen chosen to write its constitution. Another founder was the pastor of the Circular Congregational Church, the Rev. Isaac Stockton Keith, a distinguished scholar and Princeton graduate who had come from the Presbyterian church in Alexandria, Virginia. Thus, it is not surprising that Ford was a member of a committee for the Independent (Congregational) Church of Charleston. The first treasurer of the Bible Society was Nathaniel Russell, a highly successful merchant from Rhode Island who lived in a townhouse that was across the street from Timothy Ford’s home. Russell’s home is recognized as one of America’s most important Adamesque dwellings. (See the January 2026 Mercury.) He, too, was a member of the Congregational Church.

In 1793, Ford married into the DeSaussure family. They had one daughter, Charlotte Matilda. His wife died in 1799 and the following year he married Mary Magdalen Prioleau, the daughter of Samuel Prioleau, Jr. and Catherine Cordes. Ford’s daughter Charlotte married Edmund Ravenel, M. D., a noted conchologist and one of the founders of the Medical College of South Carolina in 1824. Dr. Ravenel built his office in the southwest corner of the lot, a one-and-a-half-story wooden building now numbered 52 Meeting St. The Ravenels are buried at Somerton Plantation in Berkeley County.

When the Revolutionary hero, the Marquis de Lafayette, visited Charleston in 1824 on his triumphal return to the United States, Ford entertained him in his home.

By the time Timothy Ford died in 1830, however, his fortune had suffered financial reversals, and his estate was not very large.

The home at 54 Meeting St. remained in the Ford family for more than 100 years and is a lasting reminder of one of our courageous founding fathers as the country celebrates its 250th anniversary.

My appreciation to Bob Stockton for contributing to this article.

A Charlestonian by birth, Margaret (Peg) Middleton Rivers Eastman is actively involved in the preservation of Charleston’s rich cultural heritage. In addition to being a regular columnist for the Charleston Mercury, she has published through McGraw Hill, The History Press, Evening Post Books and Carologue, a publication of the South Carolina Historical Society. She is a member of the city of Charleston History Commission and serves on the board of the Friends of the Old Exchange.