Eltham is a small unincorporated community in New Kent County, Virginia, United States. Located along state routes 30, 33, and 249 in modern times, it is slightly west of the town of West Point. It was named for the Eltham slave plantation, across from West Point on the nearby Pamunkey River.
Captain William Bassett [1] (1630 to August 28, 1671) was from the Isle of Wight in England, and was given a contract to build a fort at Jamestown, Virginia. He married Bridget Cary, daughter of Colonel Miles Cary, of Southampton, England. [2] He received the patent for Eltham Plantation and lands in 1647. [3] As a minor, his son, later Colonel William Bassett, had a brick mansion built in New Kent County, Virginia, that was named "Eltham", after the Bassett family home in England. Colonel William Bassett (1671 - 1725) married Joanna Burwell, daughter of Lewis Burwell (1652 – c. 1710). [4] Their son, also named William Bassett, married Elizabeth Churchill. Their son, Burwell Bassett (March 3, 1734 - January 4, 1793), [5] married Anna Maria "Fanny" Bassett (1739–1777), sister to Martha Washington, and inherited Eltham slave plantation upon the death of his father. Burwell Bassett, Jr. (1788-1841), then inherited Eltham slave plantation upon the death of his father. He was a member of congress for thirty years, and died in 1841. At this time, the slave plantation passed to his brother, John Bassett (1768-1826). His son was George Washington Bassett, and his wife, Bettie Carter Brown, then inherited the plantation. Their son, George Washington Bassett, Jr., inherited the slave plantation. After the Civil War, the plantation home burned. [6]
Eltham Plantation was owned by William Burwell Bassett and his wife, Anna Maria Dandridge, the sister of Martha Washington. Martha's husband, General George Washington galloped from Yorktown to Eltham on November 5, 1781, to the bedside of his stepson, John Parke Custis, who had contracted camp fever during the Yorktown Campaign and subsequently died at the Pamunkey River plantation. [7]
Eltham Manor in Bassett, Virginia, is named for this plantation.
Eltham Landing played a prominent role for Union forces as a port during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. The manor house was destroyed by fire in 1876. The New Kent - Charles City Chronicle is published here. [8]
George Washington Parke Custis was an American antiquarian, author, playwright, and plantation owner. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. His father, John Parke Custis served in the American Revolution with then-General George Washington. John Parke Custis died after the Battle of Yorktown that ended the American Revolution.
Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee was the wife of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee and the last private owner of Arlington Estate. She was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis who was the grandson of Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington. Lee was a highly educated woman, who edited and published her father's writings after his death.
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis was a granddaughter of Martha Washington and a step-granddaughter of George Washington.
Daniel Parke Custis was an American planter and politician who was the first husband of Martha Dandridge. After his death, his widow, Martha Dandridge Custis married George Washington, who later became the first president of the United States.
Colonel John Custis IV was an American planter, politician, government official and military officer who sat in the House of Burgesses from 1705 to 1706 and 1718 to 1719, representing Northampton County, Virginia and the College of William & Mary. A prominent member of the Custis family of Virginia, he utilized his extensive landholdings to support a career in horticulture and gardening.
John Parke Custis was an American planter and politician. Custis was a son of Martha Washington and Daniel Parke Custis as well as the stepson of George Washington.
Ona "Oney" Judge Staines was a woman enslaved by the Washington family, first at the family's plantation at Mount Vernon and later, after George Washington became president, at the President's House in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital city. In her early twenties, Judge absconded, becoming a fugitive slave, after learning that Martha Washington had intended to transfer her enslavement to her granddaughter, known to have a horrible temper. Judge fled to New Hampshire, where she married, had children, and converted to Christianity. Though Judge was never formally freed, the Washington family ultimately stopped pressing her to return to enslavement in Virginia after George Washington's death.
Burwell Bassett, Jr. was an American planter and politician from New Kent County and for two decades from Williamsburg in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like his father, he served in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly, and in addition won election several times to the United States House of Representatives, where he served for more than a decade in three different districts, because of census-required reorganizations.
Frances Jones Dandridge was the mother of Martha Washington, the first First Lady of the United States. She was born in New Kent County, Virginia. Her father Orlando Jones and maternal grandfather Colonel Gideon Macon served on the House of Burgesses in Colonial Virginia. Her parents were prosperous Virginian landowners.
Lawrence Lewis was a Virginia planter, possibly best known as the nephew of George Washington, who married Nelly Custis, a granddaughter of Martha Washington, and as one of the executors of the late president's estate.
Martha Parke Custis Peter was a granddaughter of Martha Dandridge Washington and a step-granddaughter of George Washington.
Elizabeth Parke Custis Law, sometimes known as Eliza Law, was the eldest granddaughter of Martha Dandridge Washington and a step-grandchild of George Washington. She married Thomas Law, the youngest son of the late bishop of Carlisle, England, and an experienced administrator with the East India Company.
Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart, born Eleanor Calvert, was a prominent member of the wealthy Calvert family of Maryland. She was the wife of John Parke Custis who was the son of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge Custis. She and John had seven children. She was widowed when John Parke Custis died of disease at the end of the American Revolution at Yorktown where he served with his stepfather, George Washington. Eleanor married Dr. David Stuart, an Alexandria physician and business associate of George Washington on November 20, 1783.
The White House was a late 17th-century plantation on the Pamunkey River near White House in New Kent County, Virginia. There were a total of three White Houses all built on the original pre-1700 foundation. The original White House Mansion was built by Colonel John Lightfoot III just before 1700 and while he was Counselor of State.
Abingdon was an 18th- and 19th-century plantation owned by the prominent Alexander, Custis, Stuart, and Hunter families and worked at times by slaves. The plantation's site is now located in Arlington County in the U.S. state of Virginia.
David Stuart was a Virginia physician, politician, and correspondent of George Washington. When Washington became President of the United States, he made Stuart one of three commissioners appointed to design a new United States capital city.
Hope Park was an 18th and 19th-century plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, where Dr. David Stuart (1753–1814), an old friend of and correspondent with George Washington lived with his wife, Eleanor Calvert Custis (1758–1811), and family. It was approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Fairfax Court House.
William Costin was a free African-American activist and scholar who successfully challenged District of Columbia slave codes in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia.
Burwell Bassett Sr. was an American planter, patriot and politician from New Kent County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, who served in both chambers of the Virginia General Assembly, and in the Virginia Ratification Convention in 1788.
John Dandridge was a Virginia lawyer, planter and politician in New Kent County, Virginia, which he represented in the Virginia House of Delegates for four terms.
Municipalities and communities of New Kent County, Virginia, United States | ||
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