Richard Bland, student in 1725, the first to announce in a formal pamphlet that England and the American colonies were co-ordinate kingdoms under a common crown, 1764.
Dabney Carr, student in 1762, patron of the resolutions in 1775 . . . — — Map (db m66922) HM
As the May 5, 1862, Battle of Williamsburg raged along the Bloody Ravine and in front of Fort Magruder, the Union commander sought to turn the flank of the Confederate defenses. Gen. Joseph Hooker was convinced that the right flank was unoccupied . . . — — Map (db m77991) HM
A critical part of the Battle of Williamsburg took place here on May 5, 1862. Union troops occupied the ridge to your right across present-day U.S. Route 60. The Confederate line of redoubts stood to your left on the ridge to the west. Felled timber . . . — — Map (db m164872) HM
(Preface) In April 1862, Union forces under Gen. George B. McClellan began a major campaign to capture Richmond, marching west from Fort Monroe up the Peninsula between the York and James Rivers toward the Confederate capital. A . . . — — Map (db m184908) HM
By Avard T. Fairbanks, Ph. D. (1897-1987)
Created for the nation's bicentennial in 1976, this striking likeness has won national acclaim for portraying the spirit and indomitable will of the "Father of Our Country"
The first bronze . . . — — Map (db m190388) HM WM
Constructed as a store and residence in 1750, the building was converted into a coffeehouse and operated by Richard Charlton in the mid 1760s. In October 1765, the coffeehouse was the scene of resistance to the British Parliament's Stamp Act. — — Map (db m60299) HM
On this site in September 1775 Colonel Patrick Henry established camp grounds for Virginia troops who were to rendezvous and train at Williamsburg. Several Virginia regiments left here in 1776 and 1777 to join General George Washington’s army in the . . . — — Map (db m18179) HM
When Virginia seceded on April 17, 1861, Union and Confederate leaders alike saw the Peninsula as an avenue of attack against Richmond. Federal ships on the James and York rivers could guard an army’s flanks and escort supply vessels upstream. Fort . . . — — Map (db m77989) HM
On May 7, 1801, J. S. Watson, a student at William and Mary, wrote a letter detailing attempts at flying hot air balloons on the Court House Green. The third balloon, decorated with sixteen stars, one for each of the existing states, and fueled with . . . — — Map (db m16852) HM
This church, home to one of the oldest continuous congregations organized by African Americans, traces its origins to brush arbor meetings held by 1776 at a nearby plantation. The congregation moved to a Williamsburg carriage house and in 1856 . . . — — Map (db m167815) HM
This large redoubt was the center of a defensive line crossing the Peninsula. These earthworks, constructed by the command of General John B. Magruder, were a part of the system of fortifications designed to protect Richmond. Here on May 5, 1862. . . . — — Map (db m10572) HM
This mid-eighteenth century building was the home of George Wythe, tutor and friend of Jefferson. Wythe was the first professor of law at an American college, and first Virginian signer of the Declaration of Independence. Washington used the house . . . — — Map (db m60248) HM
Gowan Pamphlet, ordained Baptist preacher, led clandestine religious gatherings of enslaved and free African Americans by the late 1770s. To avoid patrollers, they met in wooded areas outside Williamsburg. An enslaved worker at the Kings Arms Tavern . . . — — Map (db m189142) HM
In the eighteenth century, nearly all Virginians lived on rural farmsteads. When people traveled to Williamsburg, the journey took them past many such small plantations. Those they met along the way-whites of modest means, free blacks, and . . . — — Map (db m189455) HM
When Richard Brewster, gentleman, patented some 500 acres in this area on February 6, 1637 it was described as "the great Neck alias the barren neck". Cleared land then, the forest has since grown back. — — Map (db m25816) HM
Here are inscribed the names of those soldiers of France who died within these walls and in other hospitals of Williamsburg of wounds received during the Siege of Yorktown
Regiment d’Agenois
Aimont, Jean Francois • Allard. Andre • . . . — — Map (db m66932) HM WM
Using funds from the estate of British scientist Robert Boyle, the College of William & Mary established a school to educate young Indian men in 1697, just four years after the college’s founding. To encourage enrollment, in 1711 Lt. Gov. Alexander . . . — — Map (db m18164) HM
James Anderson, Blacksmith and Public Armourer, conducted his business on this site between 1770 and 1798. During the Revolutionary War, the Armoury employed as many as forty workmen -- blacksmiths, gunsmiths, tinsmiths, nailers, and gunstockers -- . . . — — Map (db m60415) HM
In the second quarter of the 17th-century, merchant George Menefie developed a 1,200-acre plantation just east of here he called Littletown. In March 1633, Dutch trader David DeVies observed that his two-acre garden was "full of Provence roses, . . . — — Map (db m9505) HM
In 1706, Mary Whaley founded the "Mattey Free School" in memory of her son, Matthew, who died at age 9. In 1741, she left an endowment to educate the children of Williamsburg. In 1870, the College of William and Mary used these funds to build a lab . . . — — Map (db m189484) HM
Methodism entered Williamsburg when Joseph Pilmor, a "missionary" sent by Wesley, preached in the yard of the Capitol in August 1772. The new faith made only slow progress in the heavily Church of England/Episcopal town. On his first visit in 1781, . . . — — Map (db m167816) HM
The mound of earth in front of you was probably part of the dam for William Parks' paper mill. His mill was the first in Virginia for making paper and operated six years or more beginning 1744. Parks established the first permanent press in Virginia . . . — — Map (db m25813) HM
The Friends of African American History herald the achievements of local African Americans who owned and operated businesses in this triangle block prior to it coming under the jurisdiction of the Williamsburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority, . . . — — Map (db m189145)
Respected Friend of the Students and Faculty of the College
Gordon S. Kray '73, Sculptor
This statue, a re-creation of the original marble by Richard Hayward (1728-1800) that stood here from 1801 until 1958, was given to the College of . . . — — Map (db m209351) HM
William Pasteur and John Minson Galt traveled to England to study medicine before returning to Williamsburg to practice. They were partners in this apothecary shop from 1775 to 1778. In addition to dispensing drugs, they provided surgical, midwifery . . . — — Map (db m60297) HM
For more than fifty years this was the home of Peyton Randolph (1721-1775), who served the Colony of Virginia in many of its highest governmental offices and became the first president of the Continental Congress. His father, Sir John Randolph, the . . . — — Map (db m60247) HM
After receiving permission from the county court, a small group of Presbyterians began worshipping here in 1765. Besides Bruton Parish Church, this meetinghouse was the only authorized place of worship in Williamsburg before the American Revolution. . . . — — Map (db m79237) HM
This site was used from 1699 when Governor Nicholson designated it as one of two ports for Williamsburg, the colonial capital of Virginia.
This port was used primarily for the export of tobacco, the basis of Virginia's economy, and also as a . . . — — Map (db m76543) HM
Chartered February 8, 1693, by King William and Queen Mary. Main buildings designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
First college in the United States in its antecedents, which go back to the college proposed at Henrico (1619). Second to Harvard . . . — — Map (db m66923) HM
On the other side of the parapet is Quarterpath Road, a historic roadbed that for centuries linked Williamsburg to Allen’s Wharf on the James River. It runs behind the Confederate fortifications here, gaining additional importance during the Battle . . . — — Map (db m184202) HM
Because Lt. Col. Benjamin S. Ewell had made little progress on the Williamsburg defenses by late June 1861, Gen. John B. Magruder, commanding the Army of the Peninsula, replaced him with Gen. Lafayette McLaws. Capt. Alfred L. Rives, acting chief of . . . — — Map (db m171658) HM
This is Redoubt 2 in the Confederate defensive line across the Peninsula at Williamsburg. Like the other fortifications in the line, Redoubt 2 included platforms for cannons and a magazine within the parapet walls. A ditch surrounded the redoubt. . . . — — Map (db m184146) HM
The Associates of Dr. Bray, a London-based charity, founded a school for enslaved and free black children here in 1760. Located in Williamsburg at the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin, a member of the Associates, the school received support from the . . . — — Map (db m150349) HM
This first building at the College of William and Mary is the oldest college building in the United States. According to an 18th-century author, it was "first modeled by Sir Christopher Wren, adapted to the Nature of the Country by the Gentlemen . . . — — Map (db m79288) HM
In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, two black preachers, first Moses, then Gowan Pamphlet, began holding religious services out of doors for free blacks and slaves in the Williamsburg area. Although identified as an organized Baptist . . . — — Map (db m55352) HM
William Levingston, merchant of New Kent County, built the first theatre in English America on this site c. 1716. For three decades companies of actors entertained audiences at the "Play House" with latest successes from the London Stage. In 1745 . . . — — Map (db m60249) HM
The Battle of Williamsburg, fought on 5 May 1862, was the first major engagement of the Peninsula Campaign. Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, slowly advancing from Hampton Roads toward Richmond, encountered the rear guard of Confederate Gen. . . . — — Map (db m166339) HM
The historic site was the seat of Virginia's colonial government for 75 years. Here in May, 1765, Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act and on May 15, 1776, a Virginia Convention unanimously proposed that the Continental Congress "declare the United . . . — — Map (db m60412) HM
Their Majesties King William & Queen Mary on February the eight, sixteen hundred and ninety-three, granted a charter establishing the College of William and Mary in Virginia “to the end that Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary . . . — — Map (db m66929) HM
A charter was granted by King William and Queen Mary in 1693, by fostering “good arts and sciences,” and by educating the youth in “good letters and manners,” the College has maintained its original mission as “a place . . . — — Map (db m18165) HM
The historic First Baptist Church of Williamsburg dates its origin back to early colonial days. Blacks were privileged to worship at Bruton Parish Church, but they were not fully included in the worship service. The Blacks built a brush arbor on . . . — — Map (db m167813) HM
The Governor's Palace was the home of five Royal Lieutenant-Governors, two Royal Governors, and the first two Governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. An act by Virginia's General Assembly in 1706 authorized the . . . — — Map (db m60245) HM
Erected in 1715, the Magazine was colonial Virginia’s storehouse for guns, ammunition, and military supplies. The action of British Governor Dunmore on the night of April 20-21, 1775, in removing gunpowder belonging to the Colony, touched off the . . . — — Map (db m61632) HM
Here Patrick Henry first kindled the flames of revolution by his resolutions and speech against the Stamp Act May 29-30, 1765.
Here, March 12, 1773, Dabney Carr offered and the convention of Virginia unanimously adopted the resolutions to . . . — — Map (db m59791) HM
For protection against the Indians, the settlers built a log palisade across the narrows of the peninsula between the York and James rivers. This was about 1633. Middle Plantation (later Williamsburg) began as a settlement along this . . . — — Map (db m25817) HM
This was Virginia's chief prison which housed debtors and criminals and served as the jail for the General Court in the nearby Capitol. Here Blackbeard's pirates, captured in 1718, were confined until the day of their hanging. Leg irons, an exercise . . . — — Map (db m79241) HM
In 1773, when Williamsburg's Public Hospital opened, it was the first facility in America dedicated solely to the care and treatment of the insane. The original building burned in 1885. Reconstructed by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1985, . . . — — Map (db m61309) HM
During Public Times Virginia leaders often met at the Raleigh, Williamsburg's most popular inn. Here in 1769 a group of burgesses adopted the proposal of George Mason for a boycott of British goods. Five years later Burgesses again met in the Apollo . . . — — Map (db m60296) HM
Officials decided to build the Secretary's Office in which to protect the public papers of the Virginia colony after a fire destroyed the first Capitol in 1747. Completed in 1748, the building was designed to be fireproof. This building also . . . — — Map (db m60300) HM
Generals Washington and Rochambeau and their staffs arrived in Williamsburg on September 14, 1781. Here they gathered their troops and supplies prior to laying siege to Cornwallis at Yorktown 12 miles away on September 28, 1781.
The . . . — — Map (db m10123) HM
This original eighteenth-century building, expanded to its present size after 1751, housed one of the best known taverns in Williamsburg. It bears the name of its builder and first owner, Henry Wetherburn, who previously operated the Raleigh Tavern . . . — — Map (db m60414) HM
(front)
1861 – 1865
To the Confederate Soldiers and
Sailors of Williamsburg
and James City County.
(right)
“Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
lest we forget – lest we forget!”
(left)
Erected by the Daughters . . . — — Map (db m185511) HM
Williamsburg, once the capital of Virginia, declined after the American Revolution. By 1861, although many colonial structures still lined the streets, the Governor’s Palace and former capitol building lay in ruins. The College of William and Mary . . . — — Map (db m171657) HM
This is the fourth Methodist church building in Williamsburg, occupied in 1964. The site of the first, which was little more than a barn, is not known; the second (1842) stood in Market Square, the third (1926) in Merchant Square. Prominent pastors . . . — — Map (db m167817) HM
