Kingsmill Plantation

Kingsmill Plantation, about five miles south of Williamsburg, was the home of Colonel Lewis Burwell and was built around 1736. A contemporary description listed a mansion, outhouses, garden and 1,400 acres. The mansion burned or was destroyed about 1843, leaving its foundation and cellar, a terraced garden and two matching brick dependencies, the office and the kitchen. Laid in Flemish bond with glazed headers and gauged brick arches, they are among the earliest brick dependencies in Virginia and are rare survivors of buildings set in front of a mansion to frame a forecourt. The site also includes at least ten outbuilding sites and Burwell's Landing on the James River, where Burwell worked as naval officer. In November 1775 American riflemen skirmished there with British vessels, and earthen forts built afterward fell to the British in 1781. A 1782 map and a test excavation of a well point to strong archaeological potential.