Dr. Calvin C. Green, civil rights activist, led the movement for school integration in New Kent County. An educator, pastor, Korean War veteran, and later a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Green chartered the New Kent branch of the . . . — — Map (db m167839) HM
A Union officer, probably Francis C. Adams, described the military whirlwind at Cumberland as General George B. McClellan prepared his forces to attack Richmond. For hours, men, horses, and artillery poured down Cumberland House's hilltop perch, . . . — — Map (db m267020) HM
The early home of the Adams family, Cedar Hill was established by Ebenezer Adams after he immigrated to Virginia; it was originally named Winslows. The property had an important landing on Holts Creek which joins the Pamunkey River between . . . — — Map (db m167841) HM
John Lewis Poindexter deeded this plantation to William and Jacob Poindexter in 1782. Jacob was charged with 400 acres and William Poindexter was charged with 244 acres at that time. The original home, dating from 1826, is fully intact, being spared . . . — — Map (db m267614) HM
To the revered memory
of
The Confederate
Soldiers and Sailors
from New Kent County
1861 - 1865
"Lest we forget
Military units organized in New Kent.
Pamunkey Rifles
Co. E. 53, Virginia Regiment.
Barhamsville . . . — — Map (db m167833) WM
Criss Cross originally was named Christ's Cross due to its floor plan in the form of a Christian cross. George Poindexter immigrated to Virginia in 1654 and may have begun to build Criss Cross as early as 1685, but completed it by 1690. The . . . — — Map (db m167842) HM
Civil War at Cumberland May 1862
"It was a grand sight of the divisions as they debouched down the high hill on which the Cumberland house stood, and spread over the broad plain stretching nearly as far as the eye could see. The . . . — — Map (db m267810) HM
Richard Littlepage III established Cumberland
Town on the south side of the Pamunkey River
in 1748. A busy shipping center, the town offered
a tobacco inspection station, warehouses, wharves,
and a ferry. The Virginia House of Burgesses
briefly . . . — — Map (db m107377) HM
Earliest History of Cumberland Plantation
Cumberland and the nearby Pamunkey River exhibit abundant evidence of Chief Powhatan's 'Great Nation' before and following the arrival of the Europeans at Jamestown in 1607. When the . . . — — Map (db m271817) HM
Gilbert Chase, a New England ship captain, recovered a bronze French cannon in the Pamunkey River off Cumberland Town in 1816. Two members of his crew descended in a diving bell patented in 1806, which Chase had acquired the rights to use. The . . . — — Map (db m107379) HM
George Poindexter (Poingdestre), a member of
prominent family on the Isle of Jersey in the
English Channel, arrived in Virginia by the 1650s
and settled at Middle Plantation, now Williamsburg.
He acquired land in at least three . . . — — Map (db m107387) HM
Virginia’s first State Highway Landscape Engineer - Mr. Neale served in theat position from 1930 to 1957 and was recognized nationally as a pioneer in roadside and rest area development. This facility is dedicated in his honor by a grateful . . . — — Map (db m79259) HM
Harriet Tubman (1822-1913) was an American abolitionist and political activist. Born into slavery, she escaped using the Underground Railroad - a network of antislavery activists and safe houses. As a free woman, she risked her life to become a . . . — — Map (db m272311) HM
A Union officer on General Franklin's staff describing his stay at Cumberland during the May,1862 phase of the Peninsular Campaign noted, "About midnight, Henry entered my quarters... he wanted my advice... for he recognized in me a friend of his . . . — — Map (db m267007) HM
James Lafayette was born in slavery about 1748 near here. His master William Armistead was commissary of military supplies when in the summer of 1781 the Marquis de Lafayette recruited James as a spy. Posing as a double agent, forager, and servant . . . — — Map (db m17739) HM
Double spy in the American Revolutionary War.
Valor. Honor. Freedom
He lies somewhere in a grave known only to God.
December 10, 1748 - August 9, 1830 — — Map (db m272307) WM
James Pawpaw, born likely in Africa, developed remedies for a variety of ailments while enslaved in New Kent Co. Among them was a treatment for yaws, a bacterial infection widespread in enslaved communities where poor conditions led to . . . — — Map (db m314949) HM
John Parke Custis
Born at White House, New Kent County in 1755. Died at Eltham, New Kent County, November 1781, where his body remains.
This marker placed by the Sons of the Revolution in Virginia 1960
While acting as aide to . . . — — Map (db m17746) HM
Educator, Baptist minister, publisher, American missionary and founder of Baptist churches across the United States. Dunjee was a New Kent County born slave owned by the Terrill family of Criss Cross Plantation. After discovering he was going to be . . . — — Map (db m167843) HM
A sizable number of enslaved persons, described by a Union officer as bright, sprightly, enterprising and intelligent, resided at Cumberland. They were allowed to own personal property, including foodstuffs, which they sold in volume to the Union . . . — — Map (db m266983) HM
About two miles northeast stood Chestnut Grove, the plantation home of John and Frances Jones Dandridge, where Martha Dandridge, the eldest of eight children, was born on 2 June 1731. She lived there until 15 May 1750, when she married Daniel Parke . . . — — Map (db m17740) HM
In May 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac under Major General George B. McClellan advanced up the Pamunkey River toward Richmond, while Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s army moved to defend the city. . . . — — Map (db m107383) HM
John Lewis Poindexter lived on or near this site in the 18th Century and owned Moss Side in the 19th Century. It eventually became the property of Matilda Anne Poindexter, daughter of Jacqueline L. Poindexter and Martha Apperson. Moss Side, listed . . . — — Map (db m267617) HM
Lord Cornwallis's army was here, moving eastward, June 22, 1781; Lafayette, in pursuit, June 25; Washington, Rochambeau and Chastellux, on their way to Yorktown, September 14, 1781. A part of Joseph E. Johnston's army, retiring to Richmond, passed . . . — — Map (db m17738) HM
New Kent County, established in 1654, built a brick courthouse here by 1695. Fires in 1753 and 1775 destroyed the building and its successor. A later courthouse, damaged during the Civil War, was replaced in 1909. In 1736 county court justice George . . . — — Map (db m167832) HM
A tavern was likely constructed near this site in the 1690s, when New Kent's county seat was moved here. The present ordinary, built ca. 1736, belonged to the prominent Bassett family until 1859 but was often leased to innkeepers who managed the . . . — — Map (db m272308) HM
New Kent School
has been designated a
National Historic Landmark
This site possesses national significance
in commemorating the history of the
United States of America
In 1968, Green V. The County School Board challenged the . . . — — Map (db m167836) HM
In the Summer of 2020, the United States was divided on many social issues including racial justice. Large cities, Virginia's capital among them, struggled with how to remember our country's history of slavery. Cumberland Estate commissioned . . . — — Map (db m272312) HM WM
Samuel W. Crump, a native of New Kent County and a veteran of World War II, was among the first African Americans elected to public office in Virginia under the state's Constitution of 1902, which disenfranchised many black voters. Elected to the . . . — — Map (db m167831) HM
The core of the main house was built on a half-acre lot about 1810. Nearly doubled in size about 1837, the house underwent further alterations between the 1870s and 1901, by which time it was re-oriented to face the road rather than the courthouse . . . — — Map (db m29321) HM
Edmund Hockaday built the earliest part of this house about 1810. The house was nearly doubled in size in 1830s, with further additions by 1901 and finally in the 1950s.
The house did not remain in one family. It was sold about 1837, again . . . — — Map (db m29320) HM
