

FLOWER DE HUNDRED 



N Tindall's "Charter of Virginia" (a map pre- 

 served In the British Museum), under date of 1608, 

 we find the clear outline of what was to become 

 Flower de Hundred plantation, with the Indian 

 village of Wynagh, or Weyanoke, Indicated on its 

 bold cape-like projection into James River. Here 

 General Grant landed his forces from his pontoon bridge on his 

 way to Petersburg on a then far-off, undreamed-of day. 



The place was patented by Sir George Yeardley, 1618, and 

 named — as we now know — for his wife's family, Flowerdew. This 

 fact was early lost sight of. Certainly, by 1671 the name was 

 written Flower de Hundred, and something in the corruption In 

 the spelling has attracted Interest and piqued curiosity until now, 

 I Imagine, the maiden name of Lady Temperance Flowerdew will 

 never come Into its own. She, by the way, later became the wife 

 of Governor West, and moves, a stately figure, in several records of 

 her day and times. 



In 1 6 19, Flower de Hundred was represented In the first As- 

 sembly by Lady Yeardley's nephew and John Jefferson. The 

 place was sold to Abraham Pelrsey In 1624, and the deed, said to 

 be the oldest In North America, mentions the "windmill and the 

 messuages." We know from a State paper that the windmill, 

 which gives Its name to the Point, was built in 1621, and that It 

 was the first In the country. Now the word "messuages" includes 

 the Idea of a homestead, "house, outbuildings, yard, garden, etc.," 

 but these were, no doubt, down by the windmill where, tradition 

 has it, that a brick house was long since burned — so regretful we 

 admit to ourselves that the garden of today Is probably not the 

 garden of my lady Temperance. 



Pelrsey left the plantation to his daughter, Elizabeth Stevens, 



[43] 



