Newington Plantation

Front: Newington Plantation was established on this site in the 1680s after Daniel Axtell received a royal grant of 300 acres. Axtell died shortly after arriving in the colony and his widow Rebecca built a house on the grant by the 1690s. In 1711 Lady Axtell gave Newington, named after the family plantation in England, to her daughter Elizabeth, the widow of Gov. Joseph Blake. Mrs. Blake's son Col. Joseph Blake (1700-1751) inherited Reverse: the plantation at her death in 1726 and built a large brick house on this site, one which was noted for its many windows, brick outbuildings, and rare double-row avenue of live oaks. Newington remained in the family until it was sold to Henry A. Middleton in 1837. The house burned in 1845 and was in ruins by 1876, when Middleton leased Newington Plantation to the United States government for use as an experimental tea farm.