USA > Virginia > City of Virginia Beach > City of Virginia Beach > Old houses in Princess Anne, Virginia > Part 11
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However, Nathaniel became the next master of Poplar Hall. He was elected to the vestry of
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Lynnhaven Parish, but was never present at any recorded meeting of the vestry. This we state on the authority of the Antiquary of Mr. James who says his record is based on a parish entry of 1800, wherein "Mr. Anthony Walke, Sr., is elected in the room of Mr. Nathaniel Hoggard, deceased." By reference to the parish register we find an entry of the vestry election of 1823 recording the election of Mr. Hoggard as a member.
So far as we have been able to find there is no record beyond the above facts by which we may say when and by whom Popular Hall was built. It has continued the family home, certainly from 1761 or 1762, never being sold, but passing by devise or descent from one generation to the next, even to this day.
As we said, the building is of a Georgian period, the bonding of the brick is Flemish. From the picture you may judge the beauty of the yard, the trees, the house and Broad Creek, the water to which the yard so gently slopes, whose little ripples sparkling in the sunshine dictate more or less, the contour of the yard on its western bounds. There is no formal garden left, if even there was one. From the picture of the interior you catch a glimpse of the parlor. A picture of any other room would prove equally as charming, furnished as they are with original pieces of family mahogany.
Out in Broad Bay there is an island, once called Stratton's Island-now known by the name of Lovett's Island. No doubt John Stratton is the person for whom it was first called. This John Stratton obtained a grant in 1638 for 200 acres
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Rear of Poplar Hall, Broad Creek in the background
O
Parlor at Poplar Hall
upon a creek called West's Creek, running east out of Lynnhaven River. A few years later he was granted an additional 150 acres "between the East and South Bay which belong to Stratton's Creek." The description goes on to relate that the tract begins nigh the head at the farthest side at a pine standing on the south side and running north, down the creek and easterly into the woods toward the sea.
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It took quite a hunt to find Stratton's Creek authentically located. On an old map in the Library of Congress we came upon the information. On the ocean side, midway between Cape Henry and Rudee, was Stratton's Creek. The map shows a continuous water route from Chesapeake Bay into Lynnhaven River, out Long Creek (one old deed records "sometimes called Stratton's") into Broad Bay (Battses Bay), into Linkhorn (Lincolne) Bay to Little Neck Creek, or perhaps Chrystal Lake, to the ocean. That whole northeast corner of Cape Henry, the Desert, on down to near where today the Virginia Beach Coast Guard Station is located, was completely cut off from the rest of the county. The water course is marked Stratton's Creek. This map is dated 1695.
Of John Stratton we know little, except that Cobb Howell in making his will in 1656 refers to "my father Jno. Stratton and my mother, his wife." Henry Stratton, probably the son of John, in his will twenty-three years later, leaves all his land to Ruth and Elizabeth Woodhouse, daughters of John Woodhouse He also made provision for "Henry Latny towards putting him to schoole."
In discussing the location of Stratton's Creek as an inlet from the ocean, residents of Princess Anne tell us that there are several characteristics of the sand at this point which differentiate it from the rest of the coast in the immediate vicinity. Hereabouts on the seaside after digging to a certain depth, a stratum of clay is reached. This is not true at the point where we believe this creek found an outlet into the ocean. Here one may continue to
1
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dig, but only sand is turned up. Older heads and wiser heads than ours tell us that this is indicative of an opening, which long ago was filled by shifting sands. Also we are told that during an unusually severe storm some years ago, the ocean came near breaking through at this point.
In 1711 Edward Attwood obtained a grant for 238 acres of sand banks and marsh between Long Creek and "Batfses" Bay called Stratton's Island. Mr. Sams has recorded the fact that Broad Bay was first called Batts after a mariner by this name. How the island came to be a part of the Lovett estate we have not been able to find. The inference would be, therefore, that there was a marriage between the families.
Many moons have waxed and waned, more tides of Broad Bay have ebbed and flowed, since was built the stately home on Green Hill farm. Whether you approach the house from Broad Bay across what we are told was the bowling green, or whether you come by way of the long lane which leads from the Great Neck road, in either instance the picture is replete with rural beauty. As far back as 1738 Stratton Island belonged with the Lovett plantation, for so it was willed for several genera- tions, " ... to my son ... the plantation and Stratton Island."
Almost anyone in the Lynnhaven district could direct you to the plantation Noah Shull bought in 1870. An older generation would know where the Cornick, or Keeling, place was. A few from each group would know "Green Hill" farm. Just who gave the name we can not say, as it it not called
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by name in any record we found prior to 1837. However this does not mean that the name is new. It was not the general custom in Princess Anne for the name of the plantation to be given in the very early deeds and wills.
At Princess Anne old Deed Book No. 5 was badly deteriorated before a copy was made. The original is now in the Archives Department of the State Library at Richmond. In copying every effort was made to preserve all that was possible. On a page numbered 280 (so numbered because the index listed John Lovett's will on that page) is a partial record of a John Lovett's will. This John devised to his son John his "plantation and Stratton Island." There is no date. But from the adjoining record we judge the time to be about 1738. The island is the link with which we start.
In 1752 the record becomes very clear. Here Lancaster Lovett (probably the fifth generation, certainly the fourth of the name whose will we have) devises to his son John "all my plantation and Stratton Island." This Lancaster had a brother William ; his wife's name was Alice; William Keel- ing, son of William Keeling, is named as executor. We would be inclined to think this Lancaster built the house except for the fact that his inventory showed he had only one bed and suit of furniture, the value of which was negligible, and except for the date in the house.
With safety we feel we may say that John Lovett, evidently the only son of the Lancaster Lovett, whose wife was Alice, built the house. This John lived to a good old age, devising in 1810 the
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plantation and Stratton Island to his son John Stewart Lovett for life; then to his grandson John H. Lovett, "him and his heirs forever, the planta- tion and island." There is a date on the north end of the house, "1791."
The grandson, John H., is dead in 1816, under age, leaving everything to his mother Amy for life, then to be divided between brothers Charles U., George Mcl., and sister Susan S. Sister Susan married William E. Keeling. In a partition deed between George M. Lovett and Susan Keeling, brother and sister, grandchildren of John Lovett, to Susan Keeling is set aside 139 acres "beginning on the bay side nearly in the rear of the dwelling house, at a corner of the lot set off herein to George M. Lovett ... &c." In George's acres was included the island "of sand banks and piney hummocks."
In a few years, as the widow Keeling, Susan, about to marry Capt. Thomas K. Cornick, records a marriage contract. These widows with landed estates surely took precaution to keep their property free from entanglement when contracting a second marriage.
The Lovetts must have been acceptable socially. They married with the best. The first Lancaster Lovett's widow, Ann, married James Kemp, son of George and Ann Kemp. These Kemps, we are told, were cousins to the Richard Kempe who was secretary to the Commonwealth. The name is spelled indiscriminately with and without the "e." Also George Kempe is the man who settled at Kempe's Landing, later to be Kempsville. The second Lancaster Lovett's wife was Mary. Their
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daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Keeling, son of Capt. Adam. It was to their son Adam that Thomas Keeling devised "Dudlies," the plantation that came to Thomas by the will of his father, Capt. Adam.
Mary Lovett, sister to Elizabeth who married Thomas Keeling, married George Kemp, son of James Kemp, son of George. It would seem that little Ann Kemp, to whom grandfather James Kemp made a gift before 1706, saying she is the daughter of his son George and wife Mary, and to whom grandmother Mary Lovett, widow of Lancaster Lovett (2) and mother of Mary Lovett wife of George Kemp, made a gift in her will in 1714, had a complicated and close kinship to herself.
However it is not so close as it would seem. The widow Ann Lovett, who married James Kemp, is probably not the mother of James' son George. The Ann Kemp, who was widow of George (1) Kemp, made her will in 1677. In this will she names the same sons as does George (1) except she says they are her "sonnes in law." One item is addressed "unto my sonne Jameses Sonne Geo. Kempe," showing that James' son was born prior to 1677. We do not know just when he (James) married the widow Lovett, but presumably in 1679. In that year she makes a deed, setting forth her new marriage state, wherein she conveys to son Lancaster (he was of age in 1672) the plantation in which she had a courtesy as the widow of old Lancaster.
Anne Keeling, daughter of Capt. Adam, to whom he left "Chester Forest," also married a Lovett.
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Her son was William Lovett, the younger. Later she married a Pallet and also had a son named Matthew Pallet.
In passing it may be of interest to note that this "Chester Forest" tract was on the seaside. It was granted as a parcel of land containing 1,250 acres to Anthony Lawson and Robert Hodge about 1680. In his will in 1681 Mr. Hodge devised his half of this grant to his friend Benoni Burroughs. Also by this will Mr. Burroughs became the pos- sessor of Mr. Hodge's "great Kearsey Coat lined with red serge & ten yards of Docoles Linnen out of my great chest in ye Store." In 1693 Anthony Lawson made a deed for the 1,250 acres to Ann Keeling, daughter of Capt. Adam. It seems that Capt. Adam Keeling had bought the land before his death, but failed to get a deed. In this deed Benoni Burroughs joins.
Benoni Burroughs was the son of Christopher, the first by the name of Burroughs in the county. Christopher's first grant is dated in 1638 and is for 200 acres joining Capt. Adam Thorowgood, on the east by the Chesapeake, or Lynnhaven. He brought four persons into the colony, they were, beside himself, his brother William, his sister Anne, and a servant. This Christopher had at least, so the Virginia Magazine says, two sons, Benoni and William. This book further suggests that there was a kinship here to the early minister Buck. Rev. Buck had a son Benoni.
But to come back to Green Hill, now the property of Mrs. W. T. Old of Norfolk! Slowly and surely is she going about the restoration of the
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estate. Already much effective landscaping is add- ing to the natural beauty of the surrounding acres.
Originally there were only four rooms in the house, together with a large cellar. One nearly square room with fairly high ceiling, decorated with a cornice and deeply recessed windows is on each side of the hall. These divisions are repeated above stairs. The mantelpieces downstairs are very
Green Hill on Broad Bay, 1791
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Parlor Mantel and wainscoting at Green Hill
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pretty, as you will see from the picture of the one in the parlor. The hall downstairs, the upper part of the stairway and the upstairs hall have been changed, probably making the house more nearly meet the needs of the family at the time then making it their home. But the changes marred the style of architecture.
For a long time we were doubtful of the date of this house, as we had not discovered 1791 on the brick. The pitch of the roof as viewed from the gables was the upsetting thing. Close up under the roof on each side of the chimney in both gables are little round windows. These we had not found in Georgian houses. A visit to the attic showed the square wooden frame back of the window. That helped. But yet with due allowance therefor we were not satisfied. We made a third trip to the attic. This time we lifted the floor boards. Immediately it was evident that not only had the brickwork around the chimney been done over, but also a whole new structure of rafters had been set up to support a new roof. On each old beam, set well in, were the perfectly alined twin rows of mortises, indicating the use of queenposts in the original roof construction. The corresponding mortises do not appear in the rafters. From this we conclude that in setting in the new rafters consciously, or unconsciously, the pitch of the roof was disturbed.
One of the original outbuildings is standing in the yard. It is a nice little house with an "A" roof. The outside of this kitchen, for such it most probably was, has been plastered over. The brick- work on the inside of the chimneys has been done
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over. There are two rooms downstairs, a loft above. Each room is entered from the outside by its own door ; these doors are side by side in the west front.
From its name you guess the house is set on a hill; Princess Anne knows little of hills. A ravine recently converted into a lake, fed by a spring in the front field, accentuates the slope of the yard on the southwest side. Many handsome old trees are standing near the house, making a dense shade in summer. The afternoon sunlight, filtering through the leaves, dapples the grass in many intriguing futuristic designs.
Adjoining Green Hill on the south is Broad Bay Farm, the home of Mr. John B. Dey, once the home of three generations of Lemuel Cornicks and their next generation, also for more than fifty years the home of Enoch D. Ferebee, his son and grandsons.
In 1636, while this section was yet a part of Elizabeth City Shire, to Thomas Allen was granted by Governor West, 550 acres, beginning on the east at the first branch out of Long Creek and bounded on the west by the Great Indian Fields. There are recorded various items concerning Thomas Allen up to and including 1655. We find him witnessing wills, making a gift to Thomas Cannon (son of Edward Cannon), again patenting land, this time with Edward Canon on the Woodhouse Dams, carrying tobacco to England, executor of the will of the first Henry Woodhouse, legatee under the will of Thomas Nedham, discharging certain Bills of Sale with Capt. Yardley, &c. But not one hint can we find of the disposition he made of his land.
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In accounting for the title of this plantation prior to 1770 there are several solutions we could offer. No special purpose would be served in sug- gesting any one; to give all would be burdensome to the reader; therefore, we take up our story at the point in December, 1770, in the early days of which month James Kempe made the deed by which this plantation became the home of Lemuel Cornick the first and his wife Frances, the daugh- ter of Ed Attwood. This deed is for 300 acres bounded on the north by John Lovett, on the south by the land Lemuel Cornick had purchased from William Keeling, son of John, on the west by John Keeling, on the east by Broad Bay. It is highly probable that Capt. Kempe owned this land by virtue of a partition deed between George Wishart and Capt. Kempe, sons-in-law of George Hand- cock, in settlement of the Handcock estate.
There were houses on the acres in 1770. In our opinion there were two houses, each in turn, hav- ing served as dwelling. Beyond question the nearly square (24'6") sharp roof story-and-half house, of Flemish bonded brick, is the oldest building. There is only one room enclosed in these walls of 18" thickness, with a space above, under the roof. In this one room is one of the largest of fireplaces, with crane and pothook. At the head of a short flight of steps on the left of the chimney, one en- counters a door, which of course may not have been there originally; beyond this door the stairs turn just back of the wall and above the chimney breast into the space under the roof.
This may have been built by Thomas Allen.
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John B. Dey Home on Broad Bay Farm
Gambrel House on Broad Bay Farm
Who knows? The probabilities are he was a bachelor ; he was certainly out of the colony much of the time on trips to England in pursuit of what appears to have been his occupation of trading. What need had he of more room when coming to his Virginia acres, perchance awaiting his next commission ere sallying forth from Lynnhaven River on business bent !
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Nearer the shore of Broad Bay, facing the south, stands the second house in this sequence of build- ings by which the masters of the plantation ad- vanced from the quaintest and plainest of homes to the ornate late Georgian. The second house is the true gambrel roof, with all four walls of brick, 141/2" thick, in the Flemish method of bond.
Just as the first house was nearly square, so this proportion would run here were there a par- tition downstairs now as there probably was when the house was first built. We believe the partition was here because there are two doors, side by side, of equal importance, in this south side, or front. There are no other doors. These walls measure 32'3"x16', with a 10' ceiling. There are two chim- neys, one in the east end and one in the west end of the house. In each chimney is a very large fire- place, all fitted out with a crane. The back of each fireplace measures 6'234", while the front in the east chimney is 9'4", the west chimney 8'4". Out- side the west end of the house is a stairway going up to the rooms under the roof. Here again we venture the surmise that a change from the original has occurred.
Lemuel Cornick was dead in 1773. It may well be said that he built the Georgian structure which adjoins the first little house. This Georgian part of the home is Flemish bonded brick, with two inside chimneys in the north end. In none of the houses do the bricks run with the same measure, color, or texture. The newest building has extremely high ceilings, recessed windows, fine stairway. Unlike either of the smaller houses it faces west
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Home of Horatio Cornick Courtesy Mrs. Foy Casper
toward the country road, adjoining, however, the first little house which serves as the dining room of the latest house. It is reasonable to believe that when a Lemuel Cornick built the "Great House," the gambrel, out on a lawn which boasts many handsome boxwood, some of which are very old, the gambrel, we repeat, was converted into a quarter kitchen.
Lemuel Cornick devised this plantation, to the north of certain lines, to his son, Lemuel the second. The southern acres, together with the land he had bought of William Keeling (these acres had for- merly been a part of George Handcock's planta- tion), plus a few acres in Middle Neck, he devised to his son Horatio.
Today the land devised to this Horatio Cornick is the farm of Mr. N. B. Godfrey, on the south of Broad Bay Farm. Horatio had three daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Capt. John Shepherd, Mary Moore and Peggy Ferguson.
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The other children of Lemuel Cornick the first and his wife Frances were daughters, Frances, wife of Smith Shepherd, and Aliph. There was also an- other son, John, evidently the eldest, to whom Lemuel before 1773, had given certain lands, a confirmation of which is recorded in the will.
The family of the wife, Frances Attwood Cor- nick, had been in the county since late 1600. Mary Woodhouse, daughter of Henry (1), married Ed Attwood. This branch of the family owned lands nearby. William Attwood, son of the first Ed, patented land near The Ponds (Fresh and Salt), further south. During the years quite a settlement grew around the acres, some times called "Attwood Town." Here today one very old house is left, whose date we are not able to approximate. The bricks in the chimney, the Flemish bond, the queer little windows let in the roof, are indicative of sufficient age to entitle us to give you a picture.
Down the main road in the day of Lemuel Cornick the third the Fall Races took place.
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Home of an Attwood in Attwoodtown
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Quoting from a newspaper account of the day the announcement is: "On Saturday the 7th of Octo- ber, 1815, will be run A Sweepstake Race, for $75, between the Horses of Capt. Lemuel Cornick, Mr. Henry Keeling, and Mr. Josiah Hunter, on the road fronting Capt. Lemuel Cornick's." Three years later, September, 1818, appeared this notice: "On Saturday, 19th Inst. Between 11 A. M. & 3 P. M. Will Be Run, on the road near Captain Lemuel Cornick's in Princess Anne County, a Match race between Mr. Jacob Valentine's chestnut sorrel mare Silver Heels, and Mr. Lovett's Grey horse Liberty."
Many old wills record the gift of certain horses to certain legatees. One will in particular comes to our mind. It was made by a John Thorowgood in 1786. He names Thomas Walke and James Nimmo as executors. To them he bequeathes a "Quarter Cash" of best Madeira wine to "regale themselves while Poor Old Jack is lying in the dust." To Betsy Newton he bequeathed his riding horse.
William Dale Woodhouse Home
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Just across the road to the west is the home of William Dale Woodhouse, son of William and his wife, Betty. This house is a border line in date, maybe it was built during the very last years of the eighteenth century, but certainly not later than 1802. It has been a very handsome home, especially on the interior. For some years no one has made a home within its walls and so the usual dilapida- tion has come about. It is now owned by Mr. Arthur Brock and Mr. Eggleston of Norfolk.
Since in recent years there has been such a revival of interest in gardens and gardening as an art, and since particularly has this interest centered in and around our old Virginia gardens, we want to tell you of the only one of colonial date left in Princess Anne.
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ORCHARD
OUT BLDG.
KITCHEN
LAWSON HALL GARDEN
ORICE
BEECH
BEECH
BOX WORD /
HOME
BOX WOOD
TERRACE
BON WOOD
MOX WOOD
TERRACE
DOX WOOD
WILLOW OAK
WALL OF CEDARS
BEECH
SPREAD - 100 FT.
BEECH
0
"
0
DRIVE
DRIVE
0
0
0
0
WATER O
R OAK -VERY LARGE
0
0
AVENUE- HALF MILE TO COUNTY ROAD
0
0
0
0
0
0
Garden Plan of Lawson Hall
Drawing by G. R. Scott
WALL OF CEDARS
Dox W ...
BOX WOOD
CHAPTER XIV
OO bad that in the early years of the present century the house at Lawson Hall should have been burned beyond repair. And that just at a time when, by purchase, it had come into the friendly hands of Mr. C. F. Hodgeman. He loved the place, its traditions, its garden, with all they held of the long ago. As has been the fate of so many of our old Virginia homes, the picturesque moss covered shingles proved its undoing. There was a spark, a puff of wind, and when discovered it was too late! All that was left of the home of the Lawsons in Princess Anne was the marble of steps and flags, a heap of bricks, most of the boxwood, the beech trees, and the cedars which formed the outside garden wall.
Fortunately the garden with its trees, its ter- races, its stream of water ambling down between two lines of box to a branch of the creek in the rear, each line of box flanked by a green, or promenade, with a second row of box, has come down so well preserved that Mrs. Fernstrom (Cornelia Hodge- man) has been able to bring back much of its former loveliness. Even the brick cantilevers of the little bridge which spanned the stream, are em- bedded firmly in the banks. Carefully, step by step, Mrs. Fernstrom explores and then lends to nature an intelligent help in order that the planting of a
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Partial view of trees and boxwood at Lawson Hall
formal garden, done nearly two centuries ago, may flourish as was intended.
In rebuilding, Mr. Hodgeman did not attempt to reproduce, although the new house, on its northern foundation, conforms to the old north wall. The old cellar is the cellar in the present building. The heavy marble step at the front door bore the same place of importance in the old house. The front walk today in its flagging has some ten or twelve of the marble flags from the side door of the old mansion, as it looked out toward the garden. From Mrs. Fernstrom we give you her account of the house plan as she knew it.
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