plantation house
A plantation house is the main house of a plantation, often a substantial farmhouse, which often serves as a symbol for the plantation as a whole. Plantation houses in the Southern United States and in other areas are known as quite grand and ...
Middlesex County, Virginia
Middlesex County is a county located on the Middle Peninsula in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,625. Its county seat is Saluda.
History
This area was long settled by indigenous peoples; those enco ...
. It has been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
In 1649, Ralph Wormeley Sr. patented more than 3,200 acres of land on the lower side of the Rappahannock River, east of Nimcock Creek (a/k/a Rosegill Creek). It contained both the old and new Nimcock native American towns. Within a year Wormeley built a house for his bride, the former Agatha Eltonhead, who had survived her first husband, Luke Stubbinge of Northampton County. Wormeley was at the time a burgess for York County and the next year received an appointment to the Virginia Governor's Council. However, he died in 1651, leaving behind an infant son Ralph Wormeley Jr. His widow soon married Sir
Henry Chicheley
Sir Henry Chicheley (b. 1614 or 1615 – d. February 5, 1683) was a Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, lieutenant governor of Colony of Virginia, Virginia Colony who also served as Acting Governor during multiple periods in the aftermath of Bacon ...
, who became the colony's lieutenant governor, as well as lived at and operated Rosegill. Chicheley died at Rosegill, as many years later would Ralph Wormeley Jr. Both Chicheley and his stepson Ralph Wormeley Jr. (who also served as a burgess before being named to the Governor's Council) supported Governor William Berkeley during
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. It was led by Nathaniel Bacon against Colonial Governor William Berkeley, after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American India ...
in 1676, during which the plantation was plundered and both men imprisoned for a time.Martha W. McCartney, Jamestown People to 1800, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2012) p. 458
Most of the buildings now on the side were constructed by the grandson of Ralph Wormeley Jr., Ralph Wormeley IV (1715-1790). Although his grandfather was the family's most powerful member, and served on the Virginia Governor's Council and briefly as acting governor, this man (or he and his son) represented Middlesex County in the House of Burgesses before the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
and in the Virginia House of Delegates following the American Revolutionary War. The last generation of Wormeleys to live at the plantation was Ralph Wormeley V, who ardently supported the British cause in the American Revolutionary War and was sent by his father to supervise lands in Berkeley County in western Virginia.
Architecture
The house is an 11-bay, two story dwelling with a gable roof. The original section dates to about 1740, and the house was subsequently enlarged and modified to reach its present form about 1850. Another remodeling occurred in the 1940s. Also located on the property are a mid-18th century kitchen and wash house, mid-18th century office, a 19th-century frame
smokehouse
A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.
Captain John Bailey bought the property in 1849 and renovated it, including removing the roof and raising the second floor to a full storey with a gable roof, and replacing the porch. The property also underwent an extensive remodeling in the 1940s.
Current status
It is currently privately owned and operated as a rental property.