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.
William Randolph I was an English-born planter, merchant and politician in colonial Virginia who played an important role in the development of the colony. Born in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, Randolph moved to the colony of Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham a few years later. His descendants include many prominent individuals including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Paschal Beverly Randolph, Robert E. Lee, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Randolph, John Randolph of Roanoke, George W. Randolph, and Edmund Ruffin. Due to his and Mary's many progeny and marital alliances, they have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia".
Colonel Robert Carter I was a planter, merchant, and government official and administrator who served as Acting Governor of Virginia, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and President of the Virginia Governor’s Council. An agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary, Carter emerged as the wealthiest Virginia colonist and received the sobriquet “King” from his contemporaries connoting his autocratic approach and political influence. Involved in the founding of the College of William and Mary, he acquired at least 300,000 acres and engaged one thousand enslaved laborers on fifty plantations. Carter was the largest land owner in Virginia.
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.
William Fitzhugh Gordon was a nineteenth-century, lawyer, military officer, politician and planter from the piedmont region of Virginia.
Colonel John Page was an English-born planter, merchant, slave trader and politician who spent most of his life in North America. Born in East Bedfont, Middlesex, Page eventually migrated to the English 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.
Thomas Randolph, also known as Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe, was the first European settler at Tuckahoe, a member of the House of Burgesses, and the second child of William Randolph and Mary Isham, daughter of Henry Isham and Katherine Isham (Banks).
Sweet Hall is a historic former plantation house for which the existing location Sweet Hall, Virginia is named. The only surviving house in the county with upper cruck roof framing, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1977.
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."
Waveland is a historic plantation house and farm located near Marshall, Fauquier County, Virginia in the Carter's Run Rural Historic District. It was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, and the surrounding district listed in 2014.
Henry Corbin was an emigrant from England who became a tobacco planter in the Virginia colony and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, in the House of Burgesses representing Lancaster County before the creation of Middlesex County on Virginia's Middle Neck, then on the Governor's Council.
Edward Dale was a Royalist who emigrated to Virginia, where he held various offices in Lancaster County, Virginia including as a member of the House of Burgesses.
John Carter was an English merchant who emigrated to the Virginia colony, where he speculated in land, established plantations using indentured and enslaved labor, and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He founded the more famous branch of the Carter family of Virginia. The immigrant ancestor of the other branch, Thomas Carter of Barford plantation may have been related since both came from the same English village, and while Thomas Carter initially settled in Northumberland County, both men eventually settled in Lancaster County.
James Gordon Sr. was a planter, military officer and politician in Lancaster County, Virginia. The son of a Scots-Irish merchant who emigrated to Virginia's Northern Neck, he became one of Lancaster County's representatives at the convention that wrote the first Virginia constitution in 1776, as well as the first Virginia House of Delegates, and supported ratification at the Virginia Ratification Convention of 1788. His daughter married his nephew, who became known as James Gordon, Jr. and also served in the Virginia House of Delegates as well as voted for ratification at the 1788 Virginia Convention. He inherited a plantation which he called Gordonville and operated using enslaved labor, but which his heirs sold to a family who renamed it Verville, which is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Thomas Carter was a planter, military officer and politician in southwestern Virginia.
John Carter was a Virginia planter, lawyer, merchant and politician who served for two decades as the secretary of state for the Colony of Virginia, as well as for the Governor's Advisory Council, but whose political career was overshadowed by that of his father Robert Carter, often nicknamed "King Carter" for his wealth and social and political prominence in the Colony of Virginia, with whom he served on the Governor's Council for nine years.
Charles Hill Carter was a Virginia planter who represented Lancaster County in the Virginia House of Burgesses (1758–1775) and all five of the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, and also sat on the first Council of State in 1776.
Edward Hill Carter (1733–1793) was a Virginia planter, military officer and politician, who served terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Virginia House of Delegates, representing Albemarle County. He was a neighbor and correspondent of Thomas Jefferson, and spent winters in Fredericksburg, which his wife preferred. Col. Edward Carter fought in what became known as the French and Indian War, and afterward operated several plantations in Albemarle as well as neighboring Amherst and Nelson Counties using enslaved labor. He was one of the wealthiest men in all three counties following the American Revolutionary War.
