Burgh Westra is a historic home located near

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

Gloucester County, Virginia Gloucester County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 38,711. Its county seat is Gloucester Courthouse. The county was founded in 1651 in the Virginia Colony and is named for Henry Stuart, ...

. Built between 1842 and 1851 on 2,400 acres, the estate's original design is a two and a half story brick dwelling in the Gothic Revival style. In addition to the main house, the property contains an original dairy, a rebuilt carriage house, guest cottage, gazebo built upon original sketches of Dr Taliaferro, north and south gardens modeled on the original house designs, and a kitchen vegetable garden. Additional dependency foundations of the kitchen, smoke, and ice houses on the property are currently under consideration for reconstruction. Still noticeable in the spring are native daffodils planted around the entrances to originally wooden servant houses on either side of the lane. Aspects of the original fruit and nut orchards are located next to the estate and near the remains of a barn burned by raiding union troops during the Civil War. The extended property contains the original farm managers house and working and fallow fields along the estate's nearly 2-mile long lane. Burgh Westra's floor plan is Design III in ''Cottage Residences'' (1842), by

Andrew Jackson Downing Andrew Jackson Downing (October 31, 1815 – July 28, 1852) was an American landscape designer, horticulturist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of ''The Horticulturist'' magazine (1846–5 ...

. The name "Burgh Westra" comes from the Scottish phrase for "Village of the West", symbolizing the cottage's location on the North River, Virginia. Burgh Westra's builder was Warner Throckmorton Taliaferro of Belleville Plantation on the North River for his son, Dr. Philip Taliaferro. Dr. Taliaferro discussed potential designs and a desire to build the estate on the eventual land tract while studying medicine in Scotland, Dublin, and London (receiving his degree from

William Wilde Sir William Robert Wills Wilde FRCSI (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and the author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland. He was the fath ...

, at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. During the Civil War, Dr. Taliaferro, the nephew of Confederate Secretary of War

James Seddon James Alexander Seddon (July 13, 1815 – August 19, 1880) was an American lawyer and politician who served two terms as a Representative in the U.S. Congress, as a member of the Democratic Party. He was appointed Confederate States Secretar ...

, accompanied his half-brother,

William B. Taliaferro William Booth Taliaferro ( ; December 28, 1822 – February 27, 1898), was a United States Army officer, a lawyer, legislator, Confederate general in the American Civil War, and Grand Master of Masons in Virginia. Early and family life and educ ...

, a general in the Confederate army, to serve with General

Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, considered one of the best-known Confederate commanders, after Robert E. Lee. He played a prominent role in nearl ...

(1824–1863) in the Shenandoah Valley as an aide-de-camp.

commanded Jackson's division at Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas and Fredericksburg. He commanded Fort Wagner, SC (famous for the movie Glory ), served on James Island, SC, and in Florida and Georgia (as head of the Confederate army in Savannah). an
''Accompanying two photos''
/ref> Upon returning to Burgh Westra during the war, Dr. Taliaferro opened up his estate as a hospital for wounded soldiers of both sides. The estates lawns were the site of occasional Union troop encampments during the war. At least two unidentified confederate soldiers who died at Burgh Westra are buried at nearby Ware Episcopal Church which union troops used as a stable during the war. Remains of soldiers have on occasion been found near the shoreline as recently as the 1950s. The home continues to be owned by the original family, and is suspected to be the oldest continual ownership of a house in

. The family has owned this and other land tracts and estates on the North River dating back to the early 1600s. Burgh Westra was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976.

Gallery

File:Sherwood picture5 enhanced.jpg, Burgh Westra about 1870 File:BURGH WESTRA WATER SIDE.jpg, Burgh Westra Water side File:Original Dairy Dependency to Main Cottage.jpg, Burgh Westra Dairy

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Gothic Revival architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1851 Houses in Gloucester County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Gloucester County, Virginia 1851 establishments in Virginia