Around 1820 Patience Wise Blackett Izard, named after her aunt by marriage, Patience Wise Blackett, the daughter of John Erasmus Blackett, planted an avenue of oak trees along the drive of Tomotley Plantation, near Charleston, South Carolina, where she was living with her parents.
Patience Wise Blackett was the younger sister of Sarah Blackett, the wife of Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood (see Naval Blacketts). It is not known whether Patience Izard was inspired to plant the avenue by the example of Lord Collingwood, who regularly sowed acorns in his walks in the country to ensure that there would always be a supply of timber for the Royal Navy’s ships, or whether she was Patience by nature as well as by name.
Although the original plantation house was destroyed by General Sherman’s troops in 1865, the avenue was spared and is still there.