Skirmish at Kemp's Landing

Virginia Beach County · dedicated 2018 · S. Witchduck Road, just south of intersection with Singleton Way

Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, led a detachment of the British 14th Regiment to this area on 15 Nov. 1775 to disrupt militiamen forming in resistance to royal authority. The Princess Anne militia, waiting in a thicket, fired on the British advance guard. Heavy return fire scattered the militia and killed several men. Dunmore's force, augmented by African American volunteers who had escaped from slavery, took a number of prisoners, including Col. Joseph Hutchings. The emboldened Dunmore issued a proclamation declaring martial law and offering freedom to slaves willing to fight for the king. Many militiamen and others subsequently signed oaths of loyalty to the Crown.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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