The Three Chimneys was the site of the oldest British sugar plantation, sugar mill, and rum distillery in the United States. It operated from the late 1760's until the Revolutionary War. The site formed part of a 20,000-acre grant awarded to Richard Oswald by King George III in 1764 for the production of sugar, rum, and indigo. Originally known as the Swamp Settlement, it consisted of over 300 cleared acres and included outbuildings, an overseer's house, grain houses, a sugar house, distillery works, and a sugar mill.