Robert Woodward Barnwell married August 9, 1827 Eliza Barnwell, daughter of his first cousins John Gibbes Barnwell and Sarah Bull. Their nephew, Joseph Barnwell, who said he spent more of his youth with them than with his own family, felt that she was every bit a match for her talented husband:

"She was a great reader and had the very best memory for dates and persons I have ever known. Uncle Robert always appealed to her to give him the names of persons they had met in Washington or elsewhere and dates of every character. I do not ever remember her failing. She was a fine housekeeper, and she had a special carpenter named David to do whatever work she desired done: she was fond of making changes for the convenience of herself and the family in the arrangement of their house. . . My first recollection of her was seeing her sitting at the head of the dinner table in summer in Beaufort, helping an enormous dish of shrimp from a chafing dish . . . Aunt Eliza always kept a bountiful table, as was the custom everywhere in her day." After the war, "it was not the least of her distress that it might appear that she was stinting the family or guests."

They had thirteen children:

1. Eliza Woodward Barnwell, b. Aug. 22, 1829; d. Jan. 29, 1887.
2. John Gibbes Barnwell. b. June 16, 1831; d. Sept. 19, 1888.
3. Esther Hutson Barnwell, b. Jan. 8, 1833; d. Sept. 3, 1839.
4. Robert Hayne Barnwell, b. June 21, 1834; d. July 14, 1872.
5. William Hazzard Wigg Barnwell, b. July 7, 1836; d. Sept. 11, 1837.
6. Mary Gibbes Elliott Barnwell, b. Feb. 10, 1838; d. Jan. 3, 1864.
7. Sarah Bull Barnwell, b. Sept. 5, 1840; d. Jan. 11, 1850.
8. Ann Barnwell, b. Nov. 27, 1842; d. July 11, 1845.
9. Nathaniel Berners Barnwell, b. Mar. 5, 1845; d. Jan. 5, 1883.
10. James Stuart Barnwell, b. Mar. 5, 1845; d. July 7, 1864.
11. Stephen Elliott Barnwell, b. Oct. 16, 1846; d. Aug. 15, 1849.
12. Charlotte Bull Barnwell, b. Sept. 28, 1848; d. Jan. 24, 1850.
13. Emily Howe Barnwell. b. Sept. 17, 1850; d. Mar. 24, 1887.

-Biography information submitted from 'Barnwell: Story of an American Family.'

"Mrs. Robert Barnwell called. She is the purest type of Anglo-Saxon. Exquisitely beautiful, cold, quiet, calm, ladylike, fair as a lily. With the blackest and longest eyelashes - and her eyes so light in color, someone said they were the hue of cologne and water. At any rate, she has the patent right to them. There are no more like them to be had. The effect is startling but lovely beyond words." Mary Chesnut's Civil War, ed. C. Vann Woodward (1981), p. 419.
Contributor: Bham85 (48240040)