Eltham

Eltham is a Virginia historical marker in New Kent County, dedicated 2022.

Rte. 33, 600 feet west of Virginia Ave., near West Point

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Eltham, a mile northwest, was long the home of the Bassetts, a family of wealthy planters and public officeholders. Burwell Bassett (1734-1793), the owner at the time of the Revolutionary War and a proponent of the patriot cause in Virginia, married Anna Maria Dandridge, Martha Washington’s sister. George Washington visited Eltham frequently and was there in Nov. 1781 at the deathbed of his stepson, John Parke Custis, an aide-de-camp during the siege of Yorktown. U.S. Congressman Burwell Bassett (1764-1841) later owned Eltham. The labor of enslaved Africans and African Americans sustained the plantation. The house, a large brick dwelling, burned in 1875.

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

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Princeton University Library

Historical maps covering this location

1708 · Carte Particuliere de Virginie, Maryland, Pennsilvanie. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1733 · A map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish settlements adjacent… (Princeton University Library)
1755 · Virginie, Maryland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1862 · Map of the battle ground near Richmond, showing plainly, every point of interest of the… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1919 · New Kent, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Virginie, Maryland, 1755, covering the location of Eltham, 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.

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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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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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