New Town

New Town is a Virginia historical marker in Norfolk County, dedicated 2002.

Newtown Road, between intersections with Kempsville Road and Bangor Ave.

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New Town once stood to the south along the Eastern Branch of the Elizabeth River. The community was laid out in 1697 and General Assembly established it as a town in 1740. New Town served as county seat of Princess Anne County from about 1752 to 1778 and was an important port of entry until shortly after the Revolutionary War. During the siege and burning of Norfolk by colonial governor Lord Dunmore's troops begun on 1 Jan. 1776, many Norfolk residents fled to New Town for temporary shelter. By the early 19th century, like a number of often early colonial towns, New Town ceased to exist.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1670 · Virginia and Maryland As it is planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670 ... (John Carter Brown Library, Brown University)
1708 · Carte Particuliere de Virginie, Maryland, Pennsilvanie. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1755 · Virginie, Maryland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1891 · (Virginia, N. Carolina) Railroad Map of the United States. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1919 · Cape Henry, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Carte Particuliere de Virginie, Maryland, Pennsilvanie, 1708, covering the location of New Town, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Carte Particuliere de Virginie, Maryland, Pennsilvanie, 1708, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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New Town

Historical maps covering this location

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