Weyanoke is a

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

farmstead in

Charles City County Charles City County is a county located in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated southeast of Richmond and west of Jamestown. It is bounded on the south by the James River and on the east by the Chickahominy River. The a ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 1619, the

First Africans in Virginia The first Africans in Virginia were a group of "twenty and odd" captive persons originally from modern-day Angola who landed at Old Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia in late August 1619 after their 11-week journey. Their arrival is seen as a b ...

arrived at the Weyanoke

Peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

. They created the first African community in North America. The Westover Plantation and related

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or recorded history, historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ...

s were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980. On October 30, 1665, Joseph Harwood was granted 422 acres of land on the north side of the James River. This land was known as Weynoke. This tract passed from the Harwood family to the Lewis family when Agnes Harwood married Fielding Lewis. Developed for tobacco culture by slaves, the Weyanoke Plantation includes a formal Georgian style

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

built in the 1790s. The mansion is a two-story frame house sheathed with molded weatherboards and set on a brick foundation. It was built by Fielding Lewis who was named for his uncle Col.

Fielding Lewis Fielding Lewis (July 7, 1725 – December 7, 1781) was an American merchant, member of the House of Burgesses and a Colonel during the American Revolutionary War. He lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia and also owned a plantation in Spotsylvania Co ...

of Fredericksburg. Some 40 archaeological sites, associated with Native American, African American, and European American activities, have been identified in the 20th and 21st centuries as part of the historic property. Weyanoke Plantation was passed through marriage to the Douthat family, whose descendants kept ownership through the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. In June 1864 the Union Army under General Grant crossed from Weyanoke Point to

Flowerdew Hundred Flowerdew Hundred Plantation dates to 1618/19 with the patent by Sir George Yeardley, the Governor and Captain General of Virginia, of on the south side of the James River. Yeardley probably named the plantation after his wife's wealthy father ...

on the south bank of the James River on a hastily constructed

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, is a bridge that uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the support ...

. The original house was enlarged after 1938. Within the property's boundaries are the archaeological remains of man's continuous occupation of the site, which spans 10,000 years. an
''Accompanying photo''
/ref> In 1972 Weyanoke was acquired by Lawrence Lewis, Jr., a descendant of Fielding Lewis. Lewis, a businessman, philanthropist, benefactor of generations of conservative politicians, and founder of

Flagler College Flagler College is a private university, private liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida. The school was founded in 1968 and offers 37 undergraduate majors and two master's programs. It also had a Flagler College – Tallahassee Campus, ...

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; ) is a city in and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Jacksonville, the city is on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spani ...

, was an heir to a fortune amassed in oil and railroad investments by

Henry Morrison Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder ...

, who in 1870 founded

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

Co. with

John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was one of the List of richest Americans in history, wealthiest Americans of all time and one of the richest people in modern hist ...

. Lewis' fortune was estimated at $120 million in the July 1993 issue of '' Virginia Business'' magazine.

References

GNIS reference
Ref: Hereward Records & the JJaily Press, New Dominion, Net'apers, pg, 407; ''Tyler's Quarterly,'' Vol. 16, pg.-; ''William • Mary College Quarterly,'' Vol. 10, pg, 29).

External links

''James River Plantations'', National Park Service
Weyanoke, Weyanoke Road, Weyanoke, Fairfax County, VA
2 photos and 3 data pages at

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

{{authority control James River plantations Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charles City County, Virginia African-American historic places Powhatan Confederacy Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia 1790 establishments in Virginia