Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Its 301-acre (122 ha) historic area includes several hundred restored or recreated buildings from the 18th century, when the city was the capital of the Colony of Virginia; 17th-century, 19th-century, and Colonial Revival structures; and more recent reconstructions. The historic area includes three main thoroughfares and their connecting side streets that attempt to suggest the atmosphere and the circumstances of 18th-century Americans. Costumed employees work and dress as people did in the era, sometimes using colonial grammar and diction.
Shirley Plantation is an estate on the north bank of the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. It is located on scenic byway State Route 5, between Richmond and Williamsburg. It is the oldest active plantation in Virginia and the oldest family-owned business in North America, dating back to 1614, with operations starting in 1648. It used about 70 to 90 African slaves at a time for plowing the fields, cleaning, childcare, and cooking. It was added to the National Register in 1969 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. After the acquisition, rebranding, and merger of Tuttle Farm in Dover, New Hampshire, Shirley Plantation received the title of the oldest business continuously operating in the United States.
Mann Page (1749–1781), sometimes referred to as Mann Page III, was an American lawyer, politician and planter from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, who served in the House of Burgesses and first Virginia House of Delegates as well as a delegate for Virginia to the Continental Congress in 1777. His elder half brother was Virginia Governor John Page. Since the name was common in the family, and five men of the same name served in the Virginia General Assembly, relationships are discussed below.
The Wren Building is the the oldest building on the campus of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Along with the Brafferton and President's House, these buildings form the College's "Ancient Campus." With a construction history dating to 1695, it is the oldest academic building still standing in the United States and among the oldest buildings in Virginia. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Green Spring Plantation in James City County about five miles (8.0 km) west of Williamsburg, was the 17th century plantation of one of the most unpopular governors of Colonial Virginia in North America, Sir William Berkeley, and his wife, Frances Culpeper Berkeley.
Grove is an unincorporated community in the southeastern portion of James City County in the Virginia Peninsula subregion of Virginia in the United States. It is located in the center of the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, communities linked by the Colonial Parkway. This area is one of the busiest tourist destinations in the world.
Carter's Grove, also known as Carter's Grove Plantation, is a 750-acre (300 ha) plantation located on the north shore of the James River in the Grove Community of southeastern James City County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of Virginia in the United States.
Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia, was for more than 100 years the home of a branch of the Page family, one of the First Families of Virginia. Begun in 1725, the Flemish bond brick Rosewell mansion overlooking the York River was one of the most elaborate homes in the American colonies.
Philip Cottington Ludwell was an English-born planter and politician in colonial Virginia who sat on the Virginia Governor's Council, the first of three generations of men with the same name to do so, and briefly served as speaker of the House of Burgesses. In addition to operating plantations in Virginia using enslaved labor, Ludwell also served as the first governor of the Carolinas, during the colony's transition from proprietary rule to royal colony.
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.
Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, is the first neo-Palladian villa mid-Georgian plantation house built in the United States. It was constructed in 1764 for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his generation, upon the burning of his family's older house. John Ariss is the attributed architect and builder. Tayloe's daughter, Rebecca and her husband Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of the only pair of brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence are buried on the estate, as are many other Tayloes. Before the American Civil War, Mount Airy was a prominent racing horse stud farm, as well as the headquarters of about 10-12 separate but interdependent slave plantations along the Rappahannock River. Mount Airy is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark as well as on the Virginia Landmarks Register and is still privately owned by Tayloe's descendants.
Colonel John Page was a planter, slave trader, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia. Born in East Bedfont, Middlesex, Page eventually migrated to the colony of Virginia, where he lived in Middle Plantation and served as a member of the House of Burgesses from 1665 to 1677 and a member of the Virginia Governor's Council from 1677 to 1692. A wealthy landowner, Page donated land and funds towards construction of the Bruton Parish Church. Page was also involved in the establishment of the College of William & Mary in 1693, as well as being a chief proponent of Middle Plantation being designated the colony's capital in 1698.
Quarterpath Road is one of the oldest roads in James City County and the independent city of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Captain Hugh Norvell was a Virginia planter, soldier and politician. He served in King William's War, helped found and govern Williamsburg and several times served as a vestryman of Bruton Parish Church.
The Burwells were among the First Families of Virginia in the Colony of Virginia. John Quincy Adams once described the Burwells as typical Virginia aristocrats of their period: forthright, bland, somewhat imperious and politically simplistic by Adams' standards. In 1713, so many Burwells had intermarried with the Virginia political elite that Governor Spotswood complained that " the greater part of the present Council are related to the Family of Burwells...there will be no less than seven so near related that they will go off the Bench whenever a Cause of the Burwells come to be tried."
Nathaniel Burwell was an American politician and plantation owner. Perhaps the most distinguished of five men of that name to serve in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Civil War, this Nathaniel Burwell won election to the Virginia House of Delegates as well as the Virginia Ratifying Convention, and also served as the county lieutenant for the James City County militia.
Waverly is a historic home and farm located near Burnt Chimney, Franklin County, Virginia. It was built beginning about 1853 for Armistead Lewis Burwell (1809-1883) and his family, who inherited it from the parents of his wife, Mary Hix (1811-1895). Descended from the First Families of Virginia, Armistead L. Burwell operated a tobacco and grain plantation of about 350 improved acres using enslaved labor, and also had a chewing tobacco factory, gristmill and sawmill by 1860. His son William A. Burwell (1836-1882) ran the factory and bought the plantation from his father in 1864, and sold it in 1868 to his younger brother John Spotswood Burwell who operated a dairy farm until after the turn of the century.
Lucy Burwell Berkeley was courted by Governor Francis Nicholson when she was 17 years old. When she did not return his affections, the middle-aged Nicholson threatened her family. Burwell Berkeley was among the women of the early 18th century that sought a marriage based upon her feelings of love and affection—for a man of refined manners, good character, and emotional health—over political and financial status. Nicholson had threatened her family and the man that she would marry. Philip Ludwell, a family member, interceded on her behalf and the Virginia Governor's Council asked Anne, Queen of Great Britain to remove Nicholson from his role of governor of the Virginia colony.
Lewis Burwell (1711/1712–1756) was an American colonist and politician who served as a member of the Virginia Governor's Council and as acting Governor of Virginia.
Map of Fairfield within Colonial Virginia