Bellfield Plantation
In 1630, the Virginia Colony made the decision to plant a settlement on the York River:
"... for the securing & taking in of a tract of Land called ye fforest bordering uppon the cheife residence of ye Pamunkey King the most dangerous head of the Indian enemy ..."
John West (governor) received a land grant for this purpose, 600 acres "on the east side of Felgates". "Felgates" refers to Robert Felgate's 1632 grant of "350 acres lying at Kiskeyacke upon Pamunkey". In 1635 after the "thrusting out" of Governor Sir John Harvey, John West was chosen as temporary replacement, and served until 1637 when Harvey was restored to his position. In 1640, West was ordered to England, along with neighbor John Utie, Samuel Matthews (captain), and William Peirce (burgess) to answer charges in the Star Chamber. All four were eventually cleared, and returned to Virginia.
West sold the original 600 acres, along with adjoining land for a total of 1250 acres to Edward Digges in 1650. It became known as the "E.D." Plantation at this time, and using slave labor, grew in fame for producing luxury tobacco. The plantation remained in the family until 1787, when it was sold.
The Plantation was known as "Bellfield" by 1811, when it was advertised for sale as "Belfield, 1.000 acres in York Co., the only estate where the famous E.D. tobacco was raised, which never failed to bring in England one shilling when other tobacco would not bring three pence." The area would continue to be used for agriculture purposes up until 1918, when the US Navy purchased the land for establishment of Navy Mine Depot, Yorktown (in modern times called Naval Weapons Station Yorktown). In the 1930s as the Colonial Parkway was established, the land was transferred to the National Park Service.
| Date of acquisition | Owner | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1630 | John West (governor) | Virginia Colony land grant |
| 1650 | Edward Digges | purchased. Buried in Bellfield's cemetery. |
| 1675 | William Digges | inherited |
| 1697 | Edward Digges | inherited |
| September 21, 1699 | Dudley Digges (burgess) | purchased (from nephew). Buried in Bellfield's cemetery. |
| January 18, 1710 | Cole Digges (burgess) | inherited. Buried in Bellfield's cemetery. |
| 1744 | Edward Digges (burgess) | inherited |
| 1769 | William Digges (patriot) | inherited |
| June 19, 1787 | William Waller | purchased |
| Dec 1815 | Scervant Jones | purchased |
| September 9, 1829 | Richard R. Corbin | purchased |
| March 2, 1830 | Robert McCandlish | purchased. Buried in Bellfield's cemetery. |
| 1878 | Robert McCandlish (Jr.) | inherited |
| August 7, 1918 | US Navy | purchased |
| 1930s | National Park Service | land transferred |
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Bellfield Cemetery -
Looking East from Bellfield Plantation Site -
Looking North from Bellfield Plantation Site -
Looking East from Bellfield Plantation Site -
Looing North from Bellfield Plantation Site
See also
References
- ^ "York County 2035 Comprehensive Plan, Historic Resources". York County, Virginia.
- ^ "Bellfield Plantation". The Historical Marker Database. Archived from the original on January 21, 2025. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ^ Virginia Land Office Patents (Report). Vol. 1 (1 & 2 ed.). 1623–1643. p. 105.
- ^ "Extracts from the Records of York County". The William and Mary Quarterly. 26 (1) (1 ed.): 27–37. July 1917. doi:10.2307/1914574. JSTOR 1914574.
- ^ Thornton, J Mills (January 1968). "The Thrusting out of Governor Harvey: A Seventeenth-Century Rebellion". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. 76 (1 ed.). pp. 11–26.
- ^ Hatch, Charles E. Jr. (1970). Bellfield Estate General Study.
- ^ Land Office Patents (Report). Vol. 2. 1643–1651. p. 316.
- ^ "Bellfield". The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. Vol. 15 (1 ed.). 1906. pp. 36–39. JSTOR 1915735. Archived from the original on December 3, 2024. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
- ^ Lyon Gardiner Tyler, ed. (1915). Encyclopdia of Virginia Biography. United States: Lewis historical publishing Company. p. 48.
- ^ "A Cradle of Slavery on the York". Daily Press. May 25, 2013. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved November 2, 2024.
- ^ Tyler, Lyon G., "Pedigree of a Representative Virginia Planter", William & Mary Quarterly Jan. 1893 [1] Archived 2024-11-27 at the Wayback Machine also in Genealogies of Virginia Families: From the William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.) 1982) vol. II, p. 169 et seq.
External links
- National Park Gallery, Image of first house at Bellfield : https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/ebba031a-7076-40a8-a77b-05e8c1b52e19
- National Park Gallery, Image of second house at Bellfield : https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/2e37ec9a-943b-4173-b2a8-88eb4024730d