John Hankinson, a native of Monmouth County, New Jersey, and his wife, Francise McRae, commissioned Monmouth in

1818. Probate records of George McCracken document him and John Munce as Monmouth’s builders and include a paid invoice to “Levi Weeks Dr. [director]” for “measuring and valuing works between him [McCracken] & John Munce done at the House of J. Hankinson.” Weeks was possibly the architect.

In 1826, John A. Quitman and his wife, Eliza, bought what was then a two-story Federal-style brick house fronted by a center-bay, double-tiered portico. In 1853, the Quitmans hired James McClure to enlarge and remodel Monmouth. McClure replaced the Federal portico with a colossal Greek Revival portico supported by massive piers linked on the second story by bold zigzag wooden railings. He added a rear wing and connected it to the main house with an L-shaped gallery. Semicircular fanlights with radiating and swag muntins crown all exterior doors and are echoed on the interior by a large fanlit door between the double parlor. McClure’s interior alterations were limited to marble mantels on the first floor. McClure also designed and built the Natchez mansions Weymouth Hall, Monteigne, and Melmont, all in 1855. John Quitman was an attorney and cotton planter who

became state senator, governor of Mississippi, U.S. congressman, and Mississippi’s premier secessionist, one of the most prominent pro-slavery radicals in the South.

Today, the property includes a small historic cemetery and the original two-story gable-roofed brick kitchen building with second-story slave quarters and is a luxury inn open to the public.