Cedar Shoals Plantation was on Fishing Creek in eastern Chester Co., SC. It was the home of the Gaston family, having been a land grant from the king before the Revolutionary War. John, a Justice of the Peace in Craven (later Chester) County, was the first one who settled there. Mary Buford Gaston (1841-1924), was his great grand-daughter. She was born at Cedar Shoals and lived there until moving to Chester. I think the W on the chair was the identification mark of the maker, and the Roman numeral indicated it was chair number 7 (VII) of the same kind made by the maker. Hope this info helps you. There are still Gastons in Chester. I am descended from Justice John's daughter Margaret. I would be interested to know where the trashpile was! Regards, Mary Brown Powell >Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 21:20:10 -0400 >From: vriddle <vriddle@richlandone.org> >Subject: [SC] Mary B Gaston >To: SCROOTS-L@rootsweb.com >Message-id: <200009050137.e851atA21130@newmail.rootsweb.com> Content-type: text/plain >Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT >X-Message: #3 > >I recently found a beautiful old walnut victorian rocker that someone had put on the trashpile. Under four layers of old upholstery material, I discovered a small piece of paper. The paper is glued on the chair and says, "Purchased in Charleston by Mary B Gaston for Cedar Shoals Plantation." The chair has the Roman numeral VII and the letter "W" carved underneath. I am looking for any information on Mary B Gaston and/or Cedar Shoals Plantation. Also, if anyone can shed any light on the carving of the Roman numeral on the furniture, I would appreciate your comments. Thanks.