The Murdaughs of Magnolia Cemetery

The prominent Murdaugh family of Hampton, S.C. has been in local then national news for a while now. But it’s for all the wrong reasons: mysterious unsolved violent deaths, fraudulent financial and legal dealings involving millions of dollars and allegations of criminal and civil cover-ups. 

If you haven’t heard about all this, here are a couple places that can help you catch up if interested: FitsNews investigative journalist Mandy Matney’s “Murdaugh Murders” podcasts or just Google “Murdaugh South Carolina” and the floodgates of coverage will pour in. 

The recent rumblings at Charleston’s Magnolia Cemetery have been pinpointed to this plot. It is Murdaugh ancestors turning over in their graves! 

The Murdaughs buried here began, by virtue of one of their sons, the family’s legal dynasty in the southern part of South Carolina. 

Pictured below, Josiah Putnam Murdaugh (1830-1912) and his wife Ann Marvin Davis Murdaugh (1847-1919) had several children. One of them was Randolph who, in 1920, would become the first of three generations of Randolph Murdaughs (RM Senior, RM junior and RM the third) to be solicitors (district attorneys) of South Carolina's 14th Judicial District that encompasses five rural counties. That 86-year reign of status and power is now being scrutinized in light of the deaths, scandals and controversies that embroil today’s Murdaughs. 

Randolph Murdaugh Sr. died a violent death in 1940 when his car was struck by a train late at night at a railroad crossing in Hampton County where he lived and had begun the law firm that is today snarled in controversy.  Ironically, the firm's website has on its homepage an image of two men, backs turned to the camera, walking on railroad tracks. 

Ann Murdaugh was a first cousin to Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, according to a post on Ancestry.com. 

Times were simpler back in Josiah and Ann’s Day. Or were they? Josiah or Joe as he went by (he was a junior himself) fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He was part of wealthy planter and future S.C. governor Wade Hampton’s Hampton Legion. Murdaugh was an artillery soldier, according to documents found on Ancestry.com. He enlisted as a private soon after the war began and he was still a private when the war ended in 1865. So much for the Jefferson Davis connection! Well, in fairness he likely did not meet Ann Marvin Davis until after the war. 

Prior to the war, the Murdaugh family was planters, it appears. They owned 23 enslaved people on their property in St. Bartholomew’s County (today’s Colleton County), according to the 1850 federal Census Slave Schedule (found on Ancestry.com). Josiah was also a postmaster in the Barnwell area in the late 1850s. And after the Civil War, he became part of the Freedman’s Bureau. This may be why he is described as a “local money lender for the people of Varnville,” in a June 2021 Augusta Chronicle article about the Murdaugh family.  Josiah must have been a member of the Masonic fraternal organization based on the Masonic symbol on his obelisk. 

This link gives a rough outline of Josiah's life. 

The family plot at Magnolia Cemetery has three small headstones. These belong to three Murdaugh youngsters who died well before they should have, as was not uncommon for the times- in fact, it was very common, sadly. 

On the Find A Grave website, there is a drawing of the Murdaugh plot. It identifies one of the children as Wade Hampton Murdaugh (Middle stone) and one as Paul Murdaugh (right). 

Chillingly, Paul seems to be is a popular family name. Twenty-two-year-old Paul Murdaugh and his mother Maggie, 52, were brutally shot to death on June 7, 2021 at their large hunting property in Colleton County. Their murders are still unsolved at this writing. 

Ancestry.com has a detailed history of the first Murdaugh who came to America (Maryland) from Ireland in the 1660s. The piece is co-written by two people with Murdaugh last names. Another tidbit from the research is that the first Murdaugh to come to South Carolina, John, died in 1780 from wounds received during the British siege of Charleston. You must be a subscriber to Ancestry.com to see this and related material cited in this posting.

Murdaughs go way, way back in American history. It’s a shame the name has been tarnished by the deaths and scandals involving some of today’s descendants. 

I have written two books about Magnolia Cemetery. Several weeks ago I became curious, as the Murdaugh case continued to have dramatic twists and turns, about whether any murdaughs connected with today's Hampton family members were buried at Magnolia Cemetery- and yes there are, as you have read here. The maps on Josiah's Find A grave post helped me locate his grave.