Berkeley Plantation
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| Berkeley Plantation | |
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| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
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| Nearest city: | Charles City County, Virginia |
| Built/Founded: | 1726 |
| Architectural style(s): | Georgian |
| Added to NRHP: | November 11, 1971 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 71001040 [1] |
| Governing body: | Private |
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first great estates in America, comprises about 1000 acres (4.0 km²) on the banks of the James River on State Route 5 in Charles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally called Berkeley Hundred, and named after one of its founders of the 1618 land grant, Richard Berkeley.
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For more details on this topic, see Berkeley Hundred.
Among the many American "firsts" that occurred at Berkeley Plantation are:
- The first official Thanksgiving: 4 December 1619
- The first bourbon whiskey distilled: 1621, by George Thorpe, an Episcopal priest
- First time Army bugle call Taps played: July 1862, by bugler Oliver W. Norton; the melody was written at Harrison's Landing on the plantation by then General Daniel Butterfield.
On December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred, about eight thousand acres (32 km²) on the north bank of the James River near Herring Creek in an area then known as Charles Cittie (sic). It was about 20 miles upstream from Jamestown, where the first permanent settlement of the Colony of Virginia was established on May 14, 1607.
The group's charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a "day of thanksgiving" to God. On that first day, Captain John Woodleaf held the service of thanksgiving. The Charter of Berkeley Plantation specified the thanksgiving service: "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god."[citation needed]
During the Indian Massacre of 1622, nine of the settlers at Berkeley Hundred were killed, as well as about a third of the entire population of the Virginia Colony. The Berkeley Hundred site and other other outlying locations were abandoned as the colonists withdrew to Jamestown and other more secure point.
After several years, the site became Berkeley Plantation, and was long the traditional home of the Harrison family, one of the First Families of Virginia. In 1634, it became part of the first eight shires of Virginia, as Charles City County, one of the oldest in the United States, and is located along Virginia State Route 5, which runs parallel to the river's northern borders past sites of many of the James River Plantations between the colonial capital city of Williamsburg (now the site of Colonial Williamsburg) and the the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia at Richmond.
Benjamin Harrison IV built the mansion on the estate in 1726 and married Anne Carter, daughter of Robert "King" Carter of Lancaster County, Virginia, who was the most powerful land baron in the area. His son, Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the American Declaration of Independence and a governor of Virginia, was born at Berkeley Plantation, as was his son William Henry Harrison, a war hero in the Battle of Tippecanoe, governor of Indiana Territory, and ninth President of the United States.
During the American Civil War, Union troops occupied Berkeley Plantation, and President Abraham Lincoln twice visited there in the summer of 1862 to confer with Gen. George B. McClellan. The Harrisons were not able to regain possession of Berkeley Plantation after the war, and it passed through several owners' hands and fell into disrepair. In 1907, it was bought by John Jamieson, a Scotsman who had served as a drummer boy in the Union army during the Civil War, and it was his son Malcolm Jamieson (who inherited it in 1927), and Malcolm's wife Grace, who restored the manor to the beauty that attracts visitors from all over the country and other parts of the world, today.
The architecture is original, and the house has been filled with antique furniture and furnishings that date from the period when it was built. The grounds, too, have been restored, and cuttings from the boxwood gardens are available as living souvenirs for its visitors.
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
[edit] External links
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