Axtell was a prominent name is the Carolina Colony between about 1678 and 1692. That's when Daniel Axtell (son of Col. Daniel, the Regicide) and his son, Holland, were Landgraves near modern Summerville, South Carolina on the Ashley River.

Holland died childless in 1692. The name died with him, but the daughters married well and Thomas's descendants have millions of distant cousins from these early American Axtells.

Daniel Axtell encouraged so many settlers to come to South Carolina by 1682 that the Proprietors of the Colony awarded him the noble title of Landgrave which made him governor of a 3,000 acre grant. The term was taken by the English philosopher, John Locke (known for the Social Contract and his influence on the Declaration of Independence), from an older German term for a similar position. Locke designed the "Grand Model" for an ideal government. It didn't last. Still, the Axtells enjoyed wealth and influence for a while.

Daniel died in 1686 and his one surviving son, Holland, inherited the landgraviate. (His other son, Daniel, died at sea about 1680, childless). Holland died in 1692. The girls had all married by then and the only Axtell in South Carolina was Lady Rebecca (or Rebeckah) Axtell, the widow of the original landgrave. The wife of a landgrave got the title, "Lady."