Berkeley Plantation
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House from the South (river) side |
Berkeley Plantation, one of the first great estates in America, comprises about 100 acres (0.4 km²) on the banks of the
James River on
Virginia State Highway 5 in
Charles City County, Virginia. It is believed that Berkeley Plantation was named in honor of one of
Colonial Virginia's more popular 17th century royal governors,
Sir William Berkeley (1605-1677) (although his own plantation in nearby
James City County was named
Green Spring).
Among the many American "firsts" that occurred at Berkeley Plantation are:
* 1st official
Thanksgiving --
4 December,
1619* 1st bourbon whiskey distilled --
1621, by
George Thorpe, an Episcopal priest
* 1st time Army bugle call
Taps played -- July
1862, by bugler
Oliver W. Norton; the melody was written at
Harrison's Landing on the plantation by then General
Daniel Butterfield.
Benjamin Harrison IV built the mansion on the estate in
1726 and married Anne Carter, daughter of
Robert "King" Carter of
Lancaster County, Virginia, who was the most powerful land baron in the area. His son,
Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the
American Declaration of Independence and a governor of Virginia, was born at Berkeley Plantation, as was his son
William Henry Harrison, a war hero in the
Battle of Tippecanoe, governor of
Indiana Territory, and ninth
President of the United States.
During the
American Civil War, Union troops occupied Berkeley Plantation, and President
Abraham Lincoln twice visited there in the summer of 1862 to confer with Gen.
George B. McClellan. The Harrisons were not able to regain possession of Berkeley Plantation after that war, and it passed through several owners' hands and fell into disrepair. In
1907, it was bought by John Jamieson, a Scotsman who had served as a drummer boy in the Union army during the Civil War, and it was his son Malcolm Jamieson (who inherited it in 1927), and Malcolm's wife Grace, who restored the manor to the beauty that attracts visitors from all over the country and other parts of the world, too.
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 Plantation official website*
Virginia's James River Plantations
