Rich Neck Plantation was located in

James City County, Virginia James City County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,254. Although politically separate from the county, the county seat is the adjacent independent city of Williamsburg. Located ...

in the

Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

History

Rich Neck Plantation (not to be confused with Richneck Plantation in nearby Warwick County), was established around 1632 as part of the community of Middle Plantation. The latter was located on a ridge which ran along the center of the

Virginia Peninsula The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay. It is sometimes known as the ''Lower Peninsula'' to distinguish it from two other peninsulas to the ...

separating the watersheds of the York River to the north and the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

to the south. A palisade to secure the area east down the Peninsula to

Old Point Comfort Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton, Virginia. Previously known as Point Comfort, it lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States. It was renamed ...

ran across the land portion between

Queen's Creek Queen's Creek is located in York County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the Waller Mill Reservoir in western York County, it flows northeasterly ...

and

College Creek College Creek (formerly named Archer's Hope Creek) is located in James City County in the Virginia Peninsula area of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia in the United States. From a point of origin near the independent city of Willi ...

, with the new community as its centerpiece. Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg in 1699 after the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III a ...

was established nearby and the capital of the colony was relocated there from Jamestown. In the early 1700s, a

mill pond A mill pond (or millpond) is a body of water used as a reservoir for a water-powered mill. Description Mill ponds were often created through the construction of a mill dam or weir (and mill stream) across a waterway. In many places, the com ...

was constructed to power a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

which survives to present as

Lake Matoaka Lake Matoaka is a mill pond on the campus of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, located in the College Woods. Originally known both as Rich Neck Pond for the surrounding Rich Neck Plantation and Ludwell's Mill Pond for Phil ...

. Rich Neck Plantation was home to a number of noted Virginians, including three of seventeenth-century Virginia's big-name secretaries of the colony:

Richard Kemp Colonel Richard Justin Kemp (born 14 April 1959) is a retired British Army officer who served from 1977 to 2006. Kemp was an infantry battalion commanding officer. Among his assignments were the command of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan from ...

, Sir Thomas Lunsford, Thomas Ludwell, and brother

Philip Ludwell Philip Cottington Ludwell (1638 – 1723) was an English-born planter and colonial official who sat on the Virginia Governor's Council and briefly served as speaker of the House of Burgesses. Ludwell, in addition to operating plantations in Vi ...

, as well as dozens of slaves and servants. Later, Rich Neck became the home of Reverend Doctor

James Blair James Blair may refer to: *James Blair (Australian judge) (1870–1944), Australian judge, lawyer, and politician *James Blair (cricketer) (1900–1961), Australian-born New Zealand cricketer * James Blair (farmer) (1825–1901), Scottish-born farm ...

, who in 1693 became the founder and first president of the

. During the first half of the 20th century, although the house and dependencies had long since disappeared, local attorney Vernon Geddy and his wife Carrie (née Cole) Geddy built a home on a portion of the land west of College Creek. They named their home "Holly Hill" for numerous holly trees in near the house. Williamsburg's Holly Hills subdivision now occupies a portion of the former Rich Neck Plantation property west of College Creek. As of May 2010, Vernon and Carrie's grandson, Vernon Geddy III, and his wife, owned and occupied his grandparents' home, Holly Hill. He was also continuing a family tradition of the practice of law in the area. Extensive archaeological work has been done on portions of the Rich Neck Plantation site by groups from the College of William and Mary,

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location and ...

, and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

References

{{College of William & Mary Geography of Williamsburg, Virginia Geography of James City County, Virginia James River plantations 1632 establishments in Virginia

Archaeological sites in Virginia This is a listing of sites of archaeological interest in the state of Virginia, in the United States. {{Commons cat, Archaeological sites in Virginia Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlant ...