European Settlement

European Settlement. . , The fertile fields and plentiful resources that drew Native Americans to Virginia's Eastern Shore similarly enticed European settlers, who came to the region not long after the Jamestown colony was settled in 1607. The archaeological sites at and around Arlington help tell this story., The Virginia Company Period , The earliest Europeans who settled on Virginia’s Eastern Shore arrived around 1614. Early maps show a permanent English settlement by 1619, slightly north of here, on land either purchased or taken from the Native peoples living in the area. This settlement was likely associated with the Virginia Company, a joint-stock company that sponsored the colonization of Virginia from 1606-1624. The settlement would come to be called "Accomack Plantation.", Archaeological excavations found a trench used to set posts for a fence and an earthfast building (supported by wooden posts set into the ground) that may be related to the Virginia Company. The building could have been built by William Burdett, who after finishing his indentured servitude lived on Old Plantation Creek from 1633-1643. John Custis II would later marry his widow, Alicia Burdett., Bacon's Rebellion , In 1676, Arlington briefly became the capital of the Virginia Colony when Governor William Berkeley fled Jamestown during Bacon’s Rebellion, when Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt against the government. For hosting Berkeley, Custis was rewarded by being named a major general in the militia., The Custis Years , The Arlington site is perhaps best known for its association with the Custis family and their home built here, known as "Arlington," from which the preserve takes its name. The name Arlington likely came from the ancestral Custis home in England. John Custis II chose this site for his mansion house in ca. 1674 after marrying Alicia Burdett and acquiring the land from the Burdett family., The Custis family was involved in brick overseas trade, and quickly became one of Virginia’s elite families. John II was a man of wealth and held a number of political positions., Arlington stands out as one of the most architecturally advanced houses in Virginia for its time, being built between 1674 and 1676. It was made of brick rather than wood, and was three stories high; in stark contrast to the temporary frame houses lived in by most Virginians in the 17th Century. It would have been a grand sight, with exterior patterns in the bricks and mortar. Prior to archaeological investigations, it had not been possible to totally understand the enormity of the house's construction. It was of a "double pile" plan, meaning two rooms deep with a central hallway. The cellar was divided into two rooms and finished in plaster. The eastern portion of the cellar was covered with a brick barrel vault, the earliest known example in Virginia, that would have helped keep the temperature and humidity constant. Arlington's size, layout, and decoration could represent efforts by the Custis family, members of the planter elite, to outwardly display their wealth and importance., John Custis IV inherited the plantation, along with 14 slaves, from his grandfather and would reside there until the early 1700s, when he moved permanently to Williamsburg. At this time Arlington ceased to be a working plantation, and by the early 1820s maps show the mansion house in ruin. It's likely a lot of the structure was salvaged for use elsewhere. Much research remains to be done on the time period following the abandonment of the mansion. In the 18th century, descendant George Washington Parke Custis named his property on the Potomac River "Arlington" after the name of his family's ancestral plantation on the Eastern Shore. This property passed to his daughter, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, who married Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The plantation surrounding that house later became Arlington National Cemetery.