Brandon | |
![]() Brandon | |
Location | Burrowsville, Prince George County, Virginia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°15′27.1″N76°59′36.2″W / 37.257528°N 76.993389°W |
Built | c. 1765 |
Architect | unknown |
Architectural style | English Palladian |
NRHP reference No. | 69000271 |
VLR No. | 074-0002 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 11, 1969 [1] |
Designated NHL | April 15, 1970 [2] |
Designated VLR | September 9, 1969, December 5, 2007 [3] |
Lower Brandon Plantation (or simply Brandon or Brandon Plantation and initially known as Martin's Brandon) is located on the south shore of the James River in present-day Prince George County, Virginia.
The plantation is an active farm and was tended perhaps from 1607 on, and more clearly from 1614 on, making it one of the longest-running agricultural enterprises in the United States. It has an unusual brick mansion in the style of Palladio's "Roman Country House" completed in the 1760s, and was perhaps designed by Thomas Jefferson. [4]
The Virginia plantation was established in 1616 by Captain John Martin, one of the original leaders of the Virginia Colony at Jamestown in 1607. The plantation was owned by the Harrison family for over two centuries, from 1700–1926. Restored by Robert Williams Daniel in the early 20th century, it is a National Historical Landmark.
Brandon Plantation was part of a 1616 land grant of approximately 7,000 acres (28 km2) on the south bank of the James River to Captain John Martin (1560–1632). Captain Martin was one of the original colonists and a member of the first Council in the spring of 1607, when Jamestown was established.
Martin's new plantation built on the 1616 land grant was initially named "Martin's Brandon", apparently incorporating the family name of his wife, Mary Martin (née Brandon), daughter of Robert Brandon, a prominent English goldsmith and supplier to Queen Elizabeth I of England. They married in 1586.
In 1619, Martin's Brandon was one of the plantations represented when what became the House of Burgesses, the first representative legislative body in the English colonies, met at Jamestown. The representatives of Martin's Brandon were Thomas Davis and Robert Stacy.
During the Indian Massacre of 1622 which occurred on Good Friday, March 22, 1622, there were 7 deaths recorded at Martin's Brandon, including one woman and two boys. 347 deaths were recorded during the coordinated attacks along both shores of the James River, from the mouth of the river at Newport News Point on Hampton Roads, west to Falling Creek.
Captain John Martin died at Martin's Brandon Plantation in 1632. His grandson, Captain Robert Bargrave, inherited the plantation on Martin's death. In 1637, merchants John Sadler and Richard Quiney and mariner William Barker, who patented the nearby Merchant's Hope plantation, bought Martin's Brandon. They and their heirs farmed it until 1720 when it was sold to Nathaniel Harrison (1677–1727).
After Nathaniel's premature death in 1727, it passed to his son Nathaniel Harrison II (1703–1791) who built the current manor house around 1765. Brandon then came into the possession of American Revolutionary War Colonel Benjamin Harrison (1743–1807). At his death, the property was divided between his two sons, and Upper Brandon Plantation was created.
In 1824 tax records show that Brandon had 93 slaves and Upper Brandon had 94.
Brandon Plantation (aka Lower Brandon) remained in the Harrison family until 1926, when it was acquired by Robert Williams Daniel, a Richmond banker. The Daniels undertook the restoration of the house and grounds and purchased several adjacent tracts of land that were part of the original land grant that had been separated from the estate over the previous three centuries. U.S. Congressman Robert W. Daniel, Jr. (1936–2012) inherited the property from his parents. [4]
Brandon was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, [1] and was further declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1985. [2] [4] [5]
The restored manor house was furnished by the Daniels with 1760s era English and American furnishings. Brandon is a working farm and the agricultural enterprise is one of the oldest continuous farming operations in the United States.
The 4487.5-acre property was sold at auction by the estate of Robert W. Daniel, Jr., on 23 June 2013. [6] In late 2013 the purchase contract with the buyer fell through and the estate was put back on the market with an asking price of $20 million. [7] Midway through 2014, a Florida family purchased it for $17.8 million (~$22.6 million in 2023); soon after acquiring it, the new owners announced their intention to continue the agricultural operation and to occupy the historic manor house for part of the year. [8]
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first plantations in America, comprises about 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the banks of the James River on State Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally called Berkeley Hundred, named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, it became the home of the Harrison family of Virginia, after Benjamin Harrison IV located there and built one of the first three-story brick mansions in Virginia. It is the ancestral home of two presidents of the United States: William Henry Harrison, who was born there in 1773 and his grandson Benjamin Harrison. It is now a museum property, open to the public.
Prince George County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,010. Its county seat is Prince George.
Colonial National Historical Park is a large national historical park located in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia operated by the National Park Service. It protects and interprets several sites relating to the Colony of Virginia and the history of the United States more broadly. These range from the site of the first English settlement at Jamestown, to the battlefields of Yorktown where the British Army was defeated in the American Revolutionary War. Over 3 million people visit the park each year.
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.
Varina Farms, also known as Varina Plantation or Varina Farms Plantation or Varina on the James, is a plantation established in the 17th century on the James River about 10 miles (16 km) south of Richmond, Virginia. An 820-acre (330 ha) property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as "Varina Plantation". At that time it included two contributing buildings and one other contributing site.
Historic Jamestown is the cultural heritage site that was the location of the 1607 James Fort and the later 17th-century town of Jamestown in America. It is located on Jamestown Island, on the James River at Jamestown, Virginia and operated as a partnership between Preservation Virginia and the U.S. National Park Service as part of Colonial National Historical Park.
Curles Neck Plantation is located between State Route 5 and the north bank of the James River in the Varina district of Henrico County, Virginia. One of the great James River Plantations, Curles Neck has remained in active use for almost 400 years and remains a privately owned working farm which is not currently open to the public.
Capt. John Martin (c.1560—1632) was a Councilman of the Jamestown Colony in 1607. He was the proprietor of Martin's Brandon Plantation on the south bank of the James River. Located in modern-day Prince George County, Virginia and known as Lower Brandon Plantation, in the 21st century, his c. 1616 plantation is both a National Historic Landmark and one of America's oldest continuous farming operations.
Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir George Yeardley, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the south side of the James River. Yeardley probably named the plantation after his wife's wealthy father, Anthony Flowerdew, just as he named another plantation "Stanley Hundred" after his wife's wealthy mother, Martha Stanley. A "hundred" was historically a division of a shire or county. With a population of about 30, the plantation was economically successful with thousands of pounds of tobacco produced along with corn, fish and livestock. Sir George paid 120 pounds to build the first windmill in British America.
Merchant's Hope was the name of a plantation and church established in the Virginia Colony in the 17th century. It was also the name of an English sailing ship, Merchant's Hope, which plied the Atlantic bringing emigrants to Virginia in the early 17th-century. The Merchant's Hope was owned by a man named William Barker who was a wealthy English merchant and mariner who patented land in Virginia.
Carter Hall was the Millwood, Virginia, USA estate of Lt. Col. Nathaniel Burwell (1750–1814). It is located in the upper Shenandoah Valley, off Virginia Route 255 northeast of Millwood. The estate includes a grand plantation house, a great lawn, and terraced gardens, and has panoramic views in all directions. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lt. Col. Samuel Mathews (1630–1660), Commonwealth Governor of Virginia, of Warwick County in the English Colony of Virginia, was a member of the House of Burgesses, the Governor's Council, and served as Commonwealth Governor of Virginia from 1656 until he died in office in January 1660. There was no Royal Governorship at the time of the "Protectorate", and the Governor technically answered to the Cromwellian Parliament, although Royalist sentiment was prevalent in the colony of Virginia at this time. The former Royalist governor Berkeley arrived to replace him on March 13, 1660.
Windsor Shades is located on the Pamunkey River in Sweet Hall, Virginia, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Archeological native artifacts found on the property surrounding the house suggest it was the site of Kupkipcok, a Pamunkey village noted on John Smith's 1609 map.
William Powell, was an early Virginia colonist, landowner, militia officer and legislator. Considered an ancient planter for living in the Virginia colony during its first decade, he was one of two representatives from what became James City County, Virginia in the first Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. His former plantation, now across the James River in Surry County, Virginia is now within Chippokes State Park.
Bellwood, also known at various times over the past two centuries as Sheffields, New Oxford, Auburn Chase, and currently as Defense Supply Center Richmond Officers' Club-Building 42, is a historic plantation house located south of Richmond in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Upper Brandon Plantation is an historic plantation in Prince George County, Virginia on the James River. It was listed as a Virginia Historic Landmark in 1996.
Edmund Rossingham was the nephew of and factor or agent for Sir George Yeardley, who was Governor of the Colony of Virginia, three times between November 1616 and November 1627, and his wife Temperance Flowerdew. Rossingham was a member of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses at Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 for Flowerdew Hundred Plantation, Yeardley's plantation.
Robert Stacy was a colonist and politician in the Colony of Virginia who briefly served as one of the 22 members of the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) (at Virginia DHR, includes map of the plantation)