Lady Mary died at sea on November 21st 1788. In her will dated October 23rd, 1788, which she made just before sailing, she left bequests of £2,000 each to her friends Eliza Lucas Pinckney and Harriott Pinckney Horry. After a small bequest to a MacKenzie relative, she left the rest of her estate to Edward Rutledge, husband of her stepdaughter Henrietta Middleton, to hold in trust for her son Thomas Drayton.

Thomas Drayton [son of Lady Mary Mackenzie Drayton & Thomas Drayton] was the child of his father's old age and grew up with two stepfathers, each with children of their own. Born in October of 1759, he was seventeen when the Revolutionary War began and joined as a cadet and served in Francis Marion's cavalry with the highest spirit and gallantry." Drayton ended the war with the rank of Lieutenant.222 In 1784, he incurred debt while of sound mind, but by 1786 he was declared insane and a lunatic.223 His older brothers William and Stephen were responsible for him. In 1788, his brother returned his estate to him, and he was responsible for the £2,000 sterling debt. The war had depleted his mother's estate due to financial depreciation leaving him in straitened circumstances.224 In the eighteenth-century, families with an insane member would keep them out of the public view by locking them in a room at the main house with a slave to attend to them. In the case of Tom Drayton, his family sent him to Beaufort to live on a 600-acre plantation called Crowfield. He was referred to as "Crazy Tom" or "Crowfield Tom." He died in 1801, unmarried, and cut off from the rest of the Drayton family. He was only forty-two years old. (According to cemetery record, he died of yellow fever.)

222 "Tom Drayton (Lady Mary's son ) to the surprise of everyone came out and joined Marion, and I have from some eye witnesses on whom I can depend that in several skirmishes he has behaved with the greatest spirit and gallantry." Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to Arthur Middleton , Joseph Barnwell, "The Correspondence of the Hon. Arthur Middleton," SCHMG, XXII (January, 1926.)

223 On Friday a Jury called by the Sherriff to enquire into the state of mind of Mr. Thomas Drayton, returned, and he appeared incapable of taking care of himself or of his estate , and that his insanity was heightened by his drinking. Charleston Morning Post, February 4th, 1786, found in the Weber Collection, Drayton Folder4, SCHS.

224 "A List of Property in which Thomas Drayton is concerned" Edward Rutledge's account leaves Thomas Drayton a balance due his trustee, Rutledge, of £5. Drayton certified on the document itself this was correct. Pinckney Papers, SCHS.

Spence Orsolits, Barbara, "The Draytons Of Drayton Hall: Land, Kinship Ties And The British Atlantic World." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2019.