Berkeley Plantation | |
 House from the South (river) side | |
   | |
| Location | 8 mi. W of Charles City,Charles City County, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°19′18″N77°10′54″W / 37.32167°N 77.18167°W /37.32167; -77.18167 |
| Area | 650 acres (260 ha) |
| Built | 1726; 300 years ago (1726) |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| NRHP reference No. | 71001040[1] |
| VLR No. | 018-0001 |
| Significant dates | |
| Designated NHL | November 11, 1971[3] |
| Designated VLR | July 6, 1971[2] |
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first plantations in America, comprises about 1,000 acres (400 ha) on the banks of theJames River onState Route 5 inCharles City County, Virginia. Berkeley Plantation was originally calledBerkeley Hundred, named after the Berkeley Company of England. In 1726, it became the home of theHarrison family of Virginia, afterBenjamin Harrison IV located there and built one of the first three-story brickmansions inVirginia. It is the ancestral home of twopresidents of the United States:William Henry Harrison, who was born there in 1773 and his grandsonBenjamin Harrison.[4][5] It is now a museum property, open to the public.
Among the many American "firsts" that occurred at Berkeley Plantation are:
TheBerkeley Hundred was created through aland grant in 1618 of theVirginia Company of London to Sir William Throckmorton, SirGeorge Yeardley,George Thorpe, Richard Beverley, andJohn Smith (or Smyth) (1567–1641) ofNibley, a parish in theHundred of Berkeley inGloucestershire. Smyth was also the historian of the Berkeley group, collecting over 60 documents relating to the settlement of Virginia between 1613 and 1634 which have survived to modern times. It consisted of about 8,000 acres (32 km2) on the north bank of theJames River near Herring Creek in an area then known asCharles Cittie (sic). It was named for one of the original founders, Richard Berkeley,[7] a member of theBerkeley family of Gloucestershire, England. It was about 20 miles upstream fromJamestown, where the first permanent settlement of theColony of Virginia was established on May 14, 1607. The Berkeley Hundred was the next plantation down river from theShirley Plantation.[8]
In 1619, the shipMargaret ofBristol, England sailed for Virginia under Captain John Woodliffe and brought thirty-eight settlers to the new Town and Hundred of Berkeley. The Margaret landed her passengers at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619. The group'sLondon Company charter required that the day of arrival be observed as a day ofthanksgiving to God. On that first day, Captain John Woodlief held a service pursuant to the charter which specified, "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.".[9] Because of this, the Berkeley Plantation had one of the first recorded celebrations ofThanksgiving in the United States, establishing the tradition two years and 17 days before the Pilgrims arrived aboard theMayflower atPlymouth, Massachusetts to establish their Thanksgiving Day in 1621.[10][11]
On March 22, 1622,Opchanacanough, head of thePowhatan Confederacy, began theSecond Anglo-Powhatan War with a coordinated series of attacks against English settlements along the James River, known in English histories as theIndian massacre of 1622. Nine colonists were killed at Berkeley. The assault took a heavier toll elsewhere, killing about a third of all the colonists, and virtually wiping outWolstenholme Towne onMartin's Hundred and SirThomas Dale's progressive development and new college atHenricus. Jamestown was spared through a timely warning and became the refuge for many survivors who abandoned outlying settlements. A myth about the March 22 date was that it occurred on Good Friday. This is incorrect.[12]
In 1634, Charles Cittie became part of the first eightshires of Virginia, asCharles City County, one of the oldest in theUnited States, and is located alongVirginia State Route 5, which runs parallel to the river's northern borders past sites of many of theJames River Plantations between the colonial capital city ofWilliamsburg (now the site ofColonial Williamsburg) and the capital of theCommonwealth of Virginia atRichmond.
In 1636 William Tucker, Maurice Thompson, George Thompson, William Harris, Thomas Deacon, James Stone, Cornelius Lloyd of London, merchants and Jeremiah Blackman of London, mariner, and their associates and company patented the 8,000 acres known as Berkeley Hundred. After several decades, the site of Berkeley Hundred became the property ofTheodorick Bland of Westover. A portion of the Berkeley Hundred patent was purchased from descendant Giles Bland byBenjamin Harrison III. His sonBenjamin Harrison IV built the three-story brick mansion that became the seat of theHarrison family, one of theFirst Families of Virginia.
Using bricks fired on the Berkeley plantation,Benjamin Harrison IV built aGeorgian-style two-story brick mansion on a hill overlooking theJames River in 1726.[13] Harrison's son,Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of theUnited States Declaration of Independence and agovernor of Virginia, was born at Berkeley Plantation, as was his sonWilliam Henry Harrison, a war hero in theBattle of Tippecanoe, governor ofIndiana Territory, and ninthpresident of the United States. Berkeley would later earn a distinction shared only withPeacefield inQuincy, Massachusetts, as the ancestral home for two United States presidents,[4] though this connection is tenuous, as William Henry Harrison's grandson, the 23rd president,Benjamin Harrison, was born and reared inNorth Bend, Ohio, and his father,John Scott Harrison, was born inVincennes, Indiana, while his father (William Henry Harrison) was the first territorial governor of theIndiana Territory.
The first 10U.S. presidents were all hosted by the Harrison family on this property at some point:George Washington,John Adams,Thomas Jefferson,James Madison,James Monroe,John Quincy Adams,Andrew Jackson,Martin Van Buren,William Henry Harrison (who was born on the property), andJohn Tyler (who lived nearby) are all known to have visited Berkeley.
By the time Benjamin Harrison VII inherited Berkeley in 1799, the land was worn out after more than two centuries of mono-culture tobacco and cotton crops and the plantation was drifting towards financial ruin. After 150 years of Harrison family ownership plantation was foreclosed on by a local bank and the family evicted. Benjamin Harrison VII was the last Harrison to own Berkeley.[14]
During theAmerican Civil War, Union troops occupied Berkeley Plantation, and PresidentAbraham Lincoln twice visited there in the summer of 1862 to confer with Gen.George B. McClellan. The Harrisons were unable to regain possession of theplantation after the war, and it was rented out by the bank from time to time to tenant farmers and the mansion was eventually used as a barn, falling into such disrepair that it was uninhabitable.[6][15] Also in 1862, amid fighting in the Civil War, the area was the scene of the creation and first bugle rendition of present-day "Taps".[16]
John Jamieson, a lumber tycoon who as a youth had been at Berkeley as a drummer boy in McClellan's army, purchased the property in 1907. In 1925, his son Malcolm inherited the property, expending large sums of money to turn the ruined main house into a livable and stately home for himself and his bride Grace Eggleston. The project took over a decade and the mansion was finally occupied by the Jamisons in 1938.
The ground floor of the mansion was turned into a museum in the 1960s. Today the house attracts visitors from the United States and other parts of the world.
The architecture is original, and the house has been filled with antique furniture and furnishings that date from the period when it was built. The grounds, too, have been restored, and cuttings from the boxwood gardens are available as living souvenirs for its visitors.Berkeley is still a working farm; corn,soybeans, wheat, tomatoes, and other vegetables are grown here.
There is also a small family cemetery on the property. Among those buried here are Benjamin Harrison V, Grace Jamieson, and Malcolm Jamieson.[6]
Reconstructed slave quarters were built on the property in 2018 by the producers ofHarriet, a movie aboutHarriet Tubman that was filmed in part at the plantation. The original quarters were no longer extant at that point. Plantation owner Benjamin Harrison V held 110 people in slavery at the time of his death in 1791.[17]
The main house is the centerpiece of ten acres of formal gardens andparterres. The house is surrounded byboxwood hedges formingallées. Large pillars with decorative spires support large hinged gates.
The house is constructed of red brick with thin mortar joints. The two-story building's main entrance is in the center of the house, with two symmetrical windows on either side and a central window directly above the door. These windows are double sashed with 12 panes per sash. Anentablature withdentil moldings support the gabled roof, which is pierced by threedormer windows and two large brick chimneys.
The grounds include a two-story gabled guest house, with symmetrical one-story wings on each side. In 1862, during theAmerican Civil War and while the UnionArmy of the Potomac was camped at Berkeley Plantation,Confederates under GeneralJ.E.B. Stuart shot acannonball into the side of the house from the nearbyJames River. The cannonball was never removed, and is still visible today. It is indicated with a small marker.
