Elsing Green Plantation, a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

and

wildlife refuge A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

, rests upon nearly along the

Pamunkey River The Pamunkey River is a tributary of the York River, about long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in eastern Virginia in the United States. Via the York Rive ...

King William County, Virginia King William County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,810. Its county seat is King William. King William County is located in the Middle Peninsula and is included in the Greater R ...

, a rural county on the western end of the state's middle peninsula, approximately northeast of the

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

. The 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 ...

, now owned by the Lafferty family, has been in continuous operation for more than 300 years. In addition to the

plantation house A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and e ...

, dependency buildings and cultivated land, Elsing Green includes of surrounding farmland, forest and marsh land. Elsing Green has been on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places since 1969, and received formal National Historic Landmark status in 1971. Its history dates back nearly three centuries with ties to the West family of

Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr ( ; 9 July 1577 – 7 June 1618), was an English merchant and politician, for whom the bay, the river, and, consequently, a Native American people and U.S. state, all later called "Delaware", were named. He wa ...

(a/k/a Lord Delaware). The original structure, a brick Jacobean lodge now serving as the east dependency of the manor house, was built before 1690 by his descendant, Colonel John West. Lord Delaware used the building as his hunting lodge, supposedly escaping to the King William woods by way of the

. Now primarily a wildlife refuge, no hunting is allowed on the property or surrounding wetlands.

History

Although fire during 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 th ...

destroyed many of the records detailing the history of Elsing Green, the Lafferty Foundation holds to what it believes as an accurate account of the plantation's history. The plantation was passed down through the West family after the death of Colonel John West in 1692. Col. William Dandridge, who served on the Governor's Council from 1727 until 1743 and whose descendant would become the father of George Washington's wife,

Martha Dandridge Custis Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...

, named the plantation after his home parish, Elsing, in Norfolk, England. He built a house, as well as a kitchen outbuilding between 1715 and 1720. Tradition claims that Martha Custis Washington actually rode her horse through the house. Carter Braxton, a

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

and signer of the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ...

, bought the plantation in 1753. According to a plaque on the building, he built the Queen Anne manor house in 1758.NRIS Section 8 Dissatisfied with the results, or because of financial problems, he sold the plantation. Several additional inheritances and purchases followed. In the 1930s Beverly D. Causey purchased the degraded property and restored it. In 1950, Edgar R. Lafferty, Jr., and his wife, Margaret, continued the restoration and expanded the plantation by adding previously purchased land adjacent to Elsing Green. The Lafferty family formed the Lafferty Foundation to help preserve and protect Elsing Green after Edgar Lafferty, Jr.’s death. To further ensure its preservation, Lafferty granted historic preservation easements to the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, and his foundation acquired the plantation after Edgar Lafferty, Jr.’s death.

Architecture and furnishings

The exterior of the Queen Anne manor house is

Flemish-bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by ...

brickwork, with its erection dating back to between 1715 and 1720. It is two-stories and U-shaped, with east and west wings jutting to the north. Doors on either side of the wing lead to a detached east dependency home (the original hunting lodge) and a west kitchen house. The

lies just from the home. The home features 18th-century American and English furniture, including the "Surrender Table" on which the American and French negotiated terms of surrender with the English over the

Battle of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

References

External links

Elsing Green website

King William County website

* ttp://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/declaration/site48.htm Elsing Green at the National Park Service websitebr>Elsing Green, State Route 632 vicinity, West Point, King William County, VA
8 photos and 3 data pages at

Historic American Buildings Survey Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Historic Landmarks in Virginia Houses completed in 1758 Dandridge family of Virginia Carter family residences * * Houses in King William County, Virginia Plantations in Virginia Plantation houses in Virginia Georgian architecture in Virginia Jacobean architecture in Virginia Protected areas of King William County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in King William County, Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Homes of United States Founding Fathers

History

Architecture and furnishings

See also

References

External links