SCIway interviewed Gretchen Huggins, who is a member of the prominent Richardson family of South Carolina, and she told us a few stories about the history of her family.

The Richardson family is significant to South Carolina for several reasons. For starters, it has been responsible six of our state governors!

The family's founder, Brigadier General Richard Richardson, arrived in South Carolina in the 1730s and established himself as a planter at Big Home in Clarendon County. Among many other civil and military accomplishments, he served valiantly as a patriot in the Revolutionary War.

Richardson's son, James Burchell Richardson, served as the governor of South Carolina from 1802 through 1804 – starting a long family tradition. He was followed as the head of our state by John Peter Richardson; John Peter Richardson, Jr.; Richard I. Manning; John L. Manning; and Richard I. Manning, III. (The latter three descended from Susannah Richardson, James Burchell Richardson's sister. She married Laurence Manning; thus they bear her husband's last name instead.