Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir

George Yeardley Sir George Yeardley (1587 – November 13, 1627) was a planter and colonial governor of the colony of Virginia. He was also among the first slaveowners in Colonial America. A survivor of the Virginia Company of London's ill-fated Third Supply M ...

, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of on the south side of the James River. Yeardley probably named the

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 ...

after his wife's wealthy father, Anthony Flowerdew, just as he named another plantation "Stanley Hundred" after his wife's wealthy mother, Martha Stanley. (Yeardley's wife, Temperance Flowerdew, came from English gentry in the County of Norfolk.) A "

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

" was historically a division of a shire or county. With a population of about 30, the plantation was economically successful with thousands of pounds of tobacco produced along with corn, fish and livestock. Sir George paid 120 pounds (possibly a hogshead of tobacco) to build the first windmill in British America. Today, Flowerdew Hundred plantation is a private residence.

History

The plantation survived the

Indian massacre of 1622 The Indian massacre of 1622, popularly known as the Jamestown massacre, took place in the English Colony of Virginia, in what is now the United States, on 22 March 1622. John Smith, though he had not been in Virginia since 1609 and was not an e ...

with only six deaths, remaining an active and fortified private plantation unlike many others in the area, such as the Citie of

Henricus The "Citie of Henricus"—also known as Henricopolis, Henrico Town or Henrico—was a settlement in Virginia founded by Sir Thomas Dale in 1611 as an alternative to the swampy and dangerous area around the original English settlement at Jamest ...

and

Martin's Hundred Martin's Hundred was an early 17th-century plantation located along about ten miles (16 km) of the north shore of the James River in the Virginia Colony east of Jamestown in the southeastern portion of present-day James City County, Virgin ...

, that were abandoned. The first windmill erected in English North America was built at Flowerdew Hundred by 1621, and was an English

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...

. In 1624, Abraham Piersey, Cape Merchant of the Virginia Company, purchased Flowerdew Hundred renaming it Piersey's Hundred. Piersey's Stone House was the first home with a permanent foundation in the colony. The 1624 Muster lists approximately sixty occupants at the settlement, including some of the first Africans in Virginia. Throughout the seventeenth century, Flowerdew Hundred continued to prosper with the establishment of a secondary settlement. In 1683, with the passage of the king's Advancement of Trade Act, Flowerdew Towne was formed down river, but it was not very successful within the James River planter economy. Sometime after 1720, a ferry ran from Flowerdew Hundred across the stretch of the James known as "Three Mile Reach" to the north bank of the James. An ordinary or tavern was eventually built there for the convenience of the passengers. Part of the old Hundred was acquired by Joshua Poythress and passed through several of his descendants also named Joshua Poythress. The property was shelled during the 1781 campaign of Gen. Benedict Arnold. He ordered Lt. Col. Simcoe and some Queen's Rangers to spike the guns near Hood's fort on the eastern edge of the property and then continued to the capital of Richmond, setting it afire. The Plantation was re-formed again through the work of John Vaughn Willcox, a Petersburg merchant. He married the last Poythress heiress and bought up the surrounding tracts that were part of the original land grant that had been sold off during the 18th century. In 1804 they built a new farmhouse on the high ridge overlooking the fertile bottom lands along the James, but maintained their primary residence in nearby Petersburg. The Civil War came to Flowerdew in June 1864 when the Commanding General of the Armies of the United States

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

ordered his men to cross the James River in an effort to outflank Gen. Robert E. Lee and capture the City of Petersburg and its rail hub that was vital to the Confederate war effort. In support of the Overland Campaign, the Corps of Engineers, in a remarkable feat of construction, built a

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses floats or shallow-draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maximum load that they can carry. ...

across the James in one evening, setting a record for the longest floating bridge ever built. Grant's Crossing from Weyanoke to Flowerdew (or Wilcox Landing as it was then known) held this record until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The Army of the Potomac with three corps and a supply train crossed the river in about three days heading for City Point to begin the

Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a cla ...

. The site of the pontoon bridge was found again in 1986 by Eugene Prince and Taft Kiser. Using Prince's Principle, a simple 35 mm camera, a cypress tree on the riverbank, and an Andrew Joseph Russell photograph taken in 1864, they were able to place the bridge into the modern landscape. A dead limb on a cypress tree in the Gardner photograph was still present 122 years later and confirmed the location as the site of the crossing. The old Willcox house was torn down in 1955 though a magnolia planted in 1840 still survives in the yard of the large mansion that was built on its former site in the late 20th century. The bald cypress tree that anchored the great pontoon bridge also remains. In 1978, a commemorative windmill of English post design was built on the farm by English Millwright Derrick Ogden. The windmill has since been removed from the property. Over the years the name has been spelled as Fleur de, Flowerdieu, Flower de and Flourdy Hundred. Other names for the property include Piersey or Peircey's Hundred, Selden's (

Selden family The Selden family has a long history both in the United States and in England. The name originated from the ancient location of Selkeden in Eccleston, Sussex, England. The first known Selden in this family was John, born about 1210. A subsequent J ...

), Hood's, and Bellevue. It is listed on Virginia's

Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail is a series of water routes in the United States extending approximately along the Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary, and its tributaries in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, ...

, Civil War Overland Campaign Lee-Grant Trail, and the National Register of Historic Places. Flowerdew Hundred Plantation is currently owned by local businessman and former

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

driver Jeff Oakley.

Archaeology

The original land grant of 1,000 acres contains over 60 archaeological sites ranging from archaic Native American encampments to twentieth century homesteads. Registered sites include 44PG64 (Stone House excavation); 44PG65 (Fortified Area); 44PG113 (Selden House sites) and 44PG98 (Flowerdew Towne/Ferry Complex). Archaeological investigations began at Flowerdew in the late 1960s and continued through 1995, when archaeologist

James Deetz James Deetz (February 8, 1930 – November 25, 2000) was an American anthropologist, often known as one of the fathers of historical archaeology. His work focused on culture change and the cultural aspects inherent in the historic and archae ...

led the final excavation within the original limits of the fortified area. The excavations yielded more than 500,000 artifacts, all of which are currently housed at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. One of many notable artifacts is the Prince of Orange medallion, which was minted in 1615. Three other such medallions have been found, including one at Historic Jamestowne, and in a Native American grave at Burr's Hill, Rhode Island. In addition, one medallion is held by the British Museum.

Foundation

In 1975, David A. Harrison III, then owner of Flowerdew Hundred, created the Flowerdew Hundred Foundation. The Foundation operated a museum and conducted tours of the plantation and reconstructed windmill until 2007. The windmill was donated to the American Wind Center and Museum in Lubbock, Texas. It was dismantled and moved to Lubbock in 2010. The Foundation closed its doors on October 12, 2007. After Harrison's death the plantation was sold.

References

Sources

*Dawson, Henry B., ''Battles of the United States'', (Vol. I. New York. 1858). *Deetz, James, ''Flowerdew Hundred: the Archaeology of a Virginia Plantation 1619-1864''. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993). *Frassanito, William A., ''Grant and Lee, the Virginia Campaigns, 1864-1865'' (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983). *Hannum, Warren T., "The Crossing of the James River in 1864," ''The Military Engineer.'' 1932. Vol. XV. No. 81. P. 229-237. *Hatch, Charles E., ''The First Seventeen Years: Virginia, 1607-1624'' (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1957). *Huston, James A. "Grant's Crossing of the James" (''The Military Engineer''. 1953. Vol. XLV, No. 303. P. 18-22). *Jester, A., ed., ''Adventures of Purse and Person, Virginia 1607-1624/5'' (Alexandria: Order of First Families of Virginia, 1987). *Hume, Ivor Noël, ''The Virginia Adventure''. (New York, Alfred A. Knopf. 1994). *Prince, Eugene. ''Antiquity''. (March, 1988. Vol. 62, No. 234. P. 113-116). *Prince, Eugene. "Photography for discovery and scale by superimposing old photographs on the present-day scene." '' Antiquity.'' 1988. Vol. 62, No. 234. P. 113-116.

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