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 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.
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.
Ferry Farm, also known as the George Washington Boyhood Home Site or the Ferry Farm Site, is the farm and home where George Washington spent much of his childhood. The site is located in Stafford County, Virginia, along the northern bank of the Rappahannock River, across from the city of Fredericksburg. In July 2008, archaeologists announced that they had found remains of the boyhood home, which had suffered a fire during 1740, including artifacts such as pieces of a cream-colored tea set probably belonging to George's mother, Mary Ball Washington. In 2015, the George Washington Foundation began constructing a replica of Washington's boyhood home on the site of the original building. The replica house was completed in 2018 and is open to the public.
Camp Peary is an approximately 9,000 acre U.S. military reservation in York County near Williamsburg, Virginia. Officially referred to as an Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) under the authority of the Department of Defense, Camp Peary hosts a covert CIA training facility known as "The Farm", which 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 entities. Its facilities are also 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.
Chippokes State Park is a Virginia state park on the south side of the James River on the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. In addition to forests and fossil hunting on the beach, it includes three historic houses as well as an open-air agricultural and forestry museum with seasonally appropriate events. Other recreational facilities include a visitor center, swimming pool, hiking trails, cabins, yurts and campgrounds). It is located at 695 Chippokes Park Road, in rural Surry County, Virginia off Route 10.
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 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.
Spence's Point is a historic estate on the Potomac River near Westmoreland, Virginia. Also known as the John R. Dos Passos Farm, it was the home of writer John Dos Passos (1896–1970) for the last 25 years of his life. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971.
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.
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.
Hunting Quarter is a historic plantation house located near Sussex Court House, Sussex County, Virginia. The main house was built between 1745 and 1772, and is a 1+1⁄2-story, five-bay, single-pile, center hall, frame dwelling. It has a gambrel roof with dormers and exterior end chimneys. Attached to the main section is a rear ell added in 1887, and two small porches added in the 20th century. Also on the property are a contributing smokehouse, the sites of four outbuildings, the Harrison family cemetery, and a slave cemetery. Hunting Quarter was built by Captain Henry Harrison, son of Benjamin Harrison IV of Berkeley. During the French and Indian War, Captain Harrison was stationed at Fort Duquesne, he served as a captain under Major General Edward Braddock and later under Lieutenant Colonel George Washington. Captain Harrison was a brother of Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the Declaration of Independence and the fifth Governor of Virginia. Captain Harrison was a breeder of Thoroughbred horses. Silver Heels, perhaps his most famous race horse, was listed among other Thoroughbreds in the inventory of his estate taken after his death in 1772. According to tradition, a walking cane that belonged to US President William Henry Harrison, a nephew of the builder, once hung over one of the mantels in the house. Captain Harrison is buried in the Harrison family cemetery on the property. "Hunting Quarter" remained in the Harrison family until 1887.
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.
