John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore was a Scottish peer, military officer, and colonial administrator in the Thirteen Colonies and The Bahamas. He was the last royal governor of Virginia. Dunmore was named governor of New York in 1770. He succeeded to the same position in the colony of Virginia the following year after the death of Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt. As Virginia's governor, Dunmore directed a series of campaigns against the trans-Appalachian Indians, known as Lord Dunmore's War. He is noted for issuing a 1775 document, Dunmore's Proclamation, offering freedom to slaves who fought for the British Crown against Patriot rebels in Virginia. Dunmore fled to New York after the burning of Norfolk in 1776 and later returned to Britain. He was Governor of the Bahamas from 1787 to 1796.
York County is a county in the eastern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia, located in the Tidewater. As of the 2020 census, the population was 70,045. The county seat is the unincorporated town of Yorktown.
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, settled in 1613 and is also the oldest family-owned business in North America, when it was acquired by the Hill family, with operations starting in 1638. White indentured servants were initially used as the main labor force until the early 1700s, when black slavery became the primary source of Virginian labor. 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.
Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is a United States Navy base in York County, James City County, and Newport News in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. It provided a weapons and ammunition storage and loading facility for ships of the United States Atlantic Fleet, and more recently, for those from the Fleet Forces Command.
The Battle of Great Bridge was fought December 9, 1775, in the area of Great Bridge, Virginia, early in the American Revolutionary War. The refusal by colonial Virginia militia forces led to the departure of Royal Governor Lord Dunmore and any remaining vestiges of British power over the Colony of Virginia during the early days of the conflict.
Camp Peary is a U.S. military reservation in York County near Williamsburg, Virginia, which hosts a covert CIA training facility known as "The Farm". Officially referred to as an Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) under the authority of the Department of Defense, Camp Peary is approximately 9,000 acres. The Farm is used to train officers of the CIA's Directorate of Operations, as well as those of the DIA's Defense Clandestine Service, among other intelligence bodies. Its facilities are available to the members of the intelligence community for "off-site" activities such as conferences and working groups. Camp Peary has a sister facility, "The Point", located in Hertford, North Carolina.
The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia, was the official residence of the royal governors of the Colony of Virginia. It was also a home for two of Virginia's post-colonial governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, until the capital was moved to Richmond in 1780, and with it the governor's residence. The main house burned down in 1781, though the outbuildings survived for some time after.
The Gunpowder Incident was a conflict early in the American Revolutionary War between Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and militia led by Patrick Henry. On April 21, 1775, two days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Lord Dunmore ordered the removal of the gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia to a Royal Navy ship.
Elsing Green Plantation, a National Historic Landmark and wildlife refuge, rests upon nearly 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) along the Pamunkey River in King William County, Virginia, a rural county on the western end of the state's middle peninsula, approximately 33 miles (53 km) northeast of the Richmond. The 18th-century plantation, now owned by the Lafferty family, has been in continuous operation for more than 300 years. In addition to the plantation house, dependency buildings and cultivated land, Elsing Green includes 2,454 acres (993 ha) of surrounding farmland, forest and marsh land. Elsing Green has been on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places since 1969, and received formal National Historic Landmark status in 1971.
Scotchtown is a plantation located in Hanover County, Virginia, that from 1771 to 1778 was owned and used as a residence by U.S. Founding Father Patrick Henry, his wife Sarah and their children. He was a revolutionary and elected in 1778 as the first Governor of Virginia. The house is located in Beaverdam, Virginia, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Ashland, Virginia on VA 685. The house, at 93 feet (28 m) by 35 feet (11 m), is one of the largest 18th-century homes to survive in the Americas. In its present configuration, it has eight substantial rooms on the first floor surrounding a central passage, with a full attic above and English basement with windows below. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
Greenway Court is a historic country estate near White Post in rural Clarke County, Virginia. The property is the site of the seat of the vast 18th-century land empire of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron (1693–1781), the only ennobled British colonial proprietor to live in one of the North American colonies. The surviving remnants of his complex — a later replacement brick house and Fairfax's stone land office — were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960.
Dunmore's Proclamation is a historical document signed on November 7, 1775, by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of the British colony of Virginia. The proclamation declared martial law and promised freedom for slaves of American Patriots who left their owners and joined the British Army, becoming Black Loyalists. The same right was offered to indentured servants. Most relevant historians agree that the proclamation was chiefly designed for practical rather than moral reasons.
The Peyton Randolph House, also known as the Randolph-Peachy House, is a historic house museum in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Its oldest portion dating to about 1715, it is one of the museum's oldest surviving buildings. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 as the home of Founding Father Peyton Randolph (1721–1775), the first and third President of the Continental Congress.
The James Semple House is a historic house on Francis Street in Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Virginia. Built about 1770, it is a prominent early example of Classical Revival residential architecture, whose design has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
The Wythe House is a historic house on the Palace Green in Colonial Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. Built in the 1750s, it was the home of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence and father of American jurisprudence. The property was declared a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970.
Beverley, also known as Bullskin, is a farm near Charles Town, West Virginia that has been a working agricultural unit since 1750. The narrow lane that leads from U.S. Route 340 to the Beverley complex was, in the 18th and 19th centuries a toll road. The main house was built about 1800 by Beverley Whiting on the site of a c. 1760 stone house. The house is Georgian influenced Federal style, with a later Greek Revival portico. A number of outbuildings dating to the original 1760 house accompany the main house.
The Burning of Norfolk was an incident that occurred on January 1, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. British Royal Navy ships in the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia, began shelling the town, and landing parties came ashore to burn specific properties. The town, whose significantly Loyalist population had fled, was occupied by Patriot forces from Virginia and North Carolina. Although the Patriots worked to drive off the British landing parties, they did nothing to impede the progress of the flames, and began burning and looting Loyalist-owned property instead.
Maple Grove Farm is a historic farm property on Boners Run Road in Shawsville, Virginia. The farm complex includes an early 20th-century Colonial Revival farmhouse and a number of outbuildings, including a small log house that dates to the early period of the property's agricultural use. The property also includes a small mill complex. The land was part of a large tract given to Ephraim Vause in 1748, and developed later in the 18th century by the Madison family. The property was used for dairy and cattle production for most of the 20th century.
The Scott-Hutton Farm is a historic farm property at 1892 Turnpike Road in rural Rockbridge County, Virginia, west of Lexington. The farm property includes an early 19th-century farmhouse, to which an older log structure is appended, an early 19th-century springhouse, and several late 19th and 20th-century outbuildings. The house features fine Greek Revival styling, part of an 1843 enlargement. The early settlers were William and Ann Scott, who came to the area in 1802, and the Greek Revival alterations were made by James Hutton after he purchased the property.
The Jacob Bowman House is a historic house at 2470 Polk Road in rural south-central Shenandoah County, Virginia, southwest of Edinburg. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, with a truncated hip roof and weatherboard siding. It was built about 1840, and is a good early example of vernacular Greek Revival architecture in the county. The property also includes a 19th-century bank barn and other outbuildings, as well as the remains of an early springhouse.
