Chesterville

Artist's rendering of George Wythe's brick home, built at Chesterville c. 1771. Original image from NASA Cultural Resources (CRGIS).

Chesterville was the name of the Wythe family plantation in Elizabeth City County, Virginia, alongside the Back River. The property would grow to eventually encompass 1,050 acres, beginning with a modest purchase by George Wythe's great-grandfather, Thomas Wythe I, in 1691. George Wythe inherited the property after the death of his older brother, Thomas Wythe IV, sometime before July, 1755.

The former Chesterville property is now part of NASA's Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Virginia.

The Property

The 1050 acres which later made up Chesterville, the property owned by the Wythe family, was originally granted to John Laydon (500 acres), Thomas Garnett (200 acres), and Elizabeth Thompson (200 acres) in 1635. In 1648, John Howitt bought 204 acres of Laydon's tract, later sold it to Humphrey Lee, whose heirs sold the tract to Edmund Swaney.

In 1691, Thomas Wythe I began to purchase land that later became Chesterville, starting with Edmund Swaney's 204 acres. This piece of property was identified in a court order dated 18 January 1697 as being the "Oares Plantation." Grandson Thomas Wythe III inherited this tract of land, along with the manor house, the house believed to have been the birthplace of George Wythe. The manor house is presumed to the the stone foundation to the north of the brick house. This house has tentatively been dated by a J. Benthall as third or fourth quarter 17th century based on surface artifacts. That would place this house as one of the 'Buildings, Edifices, and Houses' described on the property when purchased by the Wythes in 1691. The stone cobbles are quartzite sandstone and native to the Tidewater region of Virginia.

There is a noticeable similarity between the design of Wythe's house in Chesterville and the "temple" building depicted in the seal of the College of William & Mary used from 1783-1929.

George Wythe Inherits

The Chesterville property was left to George's older brother, Thomas Wythe IV, and upon his death George Wythe inherited the property. After his first wife's death George Wythe lived on the property from 1748-1755. In 1771 Wythe bought windows, nails, and hardware from London to build a new house. There is only one known photograph of the two-story house Wythe built taken before fire destroyed it in 1911. Local legend holds that the house was designed by Thomas Jefferson, though no direct evidence for this exists one way or the other. Construction was similar to the Fairfax County Courthouse of 1800, and can also be compared to Pavilion VII at the University of Virginia and Berry Hill Plantation in Orange County, VA. When the state courts moved to Richmond in 1788, Chancellor Wythe followed, but he continued to operate the property as a plantation until 1792.

Advertisement for the sale of Chesterville, Philadelphia Gazette, 5 February 1795.

George Wythe purchased surrounding farms, and by 1771 held 1050 acres of land. He grew tobacco, corn, wheat, and barley. He also raised livestock including cattle, and maintained apple and pear orchards. During the Revolutionary War, his overseer Hamilton St. George proved to be a spy, giving the British information and supplies from Chesterville.

In 1795, George Wythe attempted to sell Chesterville. An advertisement run in the Philadelphia Gazette early that year declares the "valuable plantation" for sale, or in "exchange for property in New-York, New-Jersey, or Philadelphia":

On Back River, in Elizabeth-City County; containing by a late survey 920 acres of land, of which 477 are cleared, divided and ditched round in 50 acre lots, 233 in wood, and 210 in fine grazing marsh, capable of producing the best salt hay, and supporting from 200 to 300 head of cattle through the winter. The upland is of extraordinarly quality, fitted either for corn, wheat, barley or hay—and the natural grass is well calculated to make the latter. There is on it an orchard of about 6 acres of Hughes Grab, and other bearing apple trees; with 500 more choice apple trees ready to set out, near to the dwellings.—They consist of a large new convenient brick house, neatly finished, with four large rooms in it, and offices below; a large negro quarter, a kitchen, stable, and store-hourse in good repair, and a grannary 60 by 28 feet; lately completed; and at which vessels of 60 tons may load.

Besides the above, there are about 400 acres of dry and marsh LAND, belonging to the Free School, adjoining and rented to Chesterville, at 15l. a year, upon a life lease, and may be taken or not with the place. Also, about 80 head of CATTLE and HORSES, 150 sheep and HOGS, and some NEGROES.

The advantages of this plantation for game and fish of every kind, and its adjacence to Norfolk market by water, are recommendations which render it desirable and profitable: The price is Sixty Five Shillings per acre, inclusing the buildings.—Time will be given for the payment if secured.

For further particulars apply to MILES KING, esquire, in Hampton; to WILLIAM HYLTON, in Richmond, or General MOYLAND, in Philadelphia.

After the first purchaser defaulted on their loan, George Wythe bought the property at auction, and sold it in 1802 to Col. Houlder Hudgins.

The Property Today

In 1911, a kerosene stove in the kitchen exploded and the house was destroyed. The owner at the time continued to rent the plantation as farmland until the 1930's. In 1950 he sold the plantation to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Included on the property are areas identified as the Chesterville house foundation, Oares stone foundation about 100' to the north, the foundation of a brick kiln about 400 feet east, a wharf, and the Winder-Garrett cemetery about 1000 feet west.