Catalpa was an 18th-century

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

near Culpeper in

Culpeper County Culpeper County is a county located along the borderlands of the northern and central region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 52,552. Its county seat and only incorporated community is Cul ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. Catalpa is best known as the

birthplace The place of birth (POB) or birthplace is the place where a person was born. This place is often used in legal documents, together with name and date of birth, to uniquely identify a person. Practice regarding whether this place should be a cou ...

of John Strode Barbour, Jr. (29 December 1820 – 14 May 1892), a United States House Representative and

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from Virginia. Catalpa is also known as the scene of the first encampment of the

Culpeper Minutemen The Culpeper Minutemen was a militia group formed in 1775 in the district around Culpeper, Virginia. Like minutemen in other British colonies, the men drilled in military tactics and trained to respond to emergencies "at a minute's notice". Or ...

History

During Virginia's colonial period, the Catalpa estate was the seat of Major Philip Clayton. The

was named after a catalpa tree that Clayton brought from

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and transplanted on the property. Clayton's tree was the first catalpa introduced to Culpeper County. Philip Clayton married Ann Coleman the sister of Robert Coleman, on whose land the town of Culpeper was established in 1759, originally named "Fairfax" until the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. Philip Clayton was among the town's first

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

s, along with Nathaniel Pendleton, William Green, William Williams, and Thomas Slaughter. The

organized on 17 July 1775 under a large oak tree at "Clayton's old field" on the Catalpa estate.

References

{{Coord, 38, 30, 38.4, N, 77, 59, 15.9, W, display=title Barbour family residences Houses in Culpeper County, Virginia Virginia in the American Revolution Plantations in Virginia