Battersea

Battersea is a Virginia historical marker in northwest corner, Petersburg County, dedicated 1998.

Rte. 1 (West Washington Street) and Battersea Lane, northwest corner

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Battersea was the home of Colonel John Banister, a member of the House of Burgesses, the Revolutionary conventions, and the Continental Congress, as well as a framer of the Articles of Confederation and the first mayor of Petersburg. The elegant but compact house begun in 1768, perhaps best displays the Anglo-Palladian influence on Virginia's colonial plantation homes. Noted travelers, including the Italian Count Castiglioni and the French Marquis de Chastellux visted Battersea: Chastellux observed, "Mr. Banister's handsome country-house is really worth seeing." The elaborate Chinese lattice stair, based on a published design by English architect William Halfpenny, is original and Virginia's finest example.

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.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1755 · Virginie, Maryland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1776 · Carte nouvelle de l'Amérique Angloise contenant tout ce que les Anglois possédent sur… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1781 · MARCH of the ARMY under Lieut:t General EARL CORNWALLIS in VIRGINIA, from the JUNCTION at… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1794 · Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1867 · Petersburg and Five Forks (N. Michler, U.S. Engineers, 1867) (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division)

Virginie, Maryland, 1755, covering the location of Battersea, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Virginie, Maryland, 1755, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

Example

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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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker program managed by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

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