Ruffin, Edmund, Plantation

Marlbourne is a plantation in Hanover County, Virginia, about 17 miles northeast of Richmond, where Edmund Ruffin lived from 1843 until 1855. The white frame, two-story house looks over broad lowlands and has two-story front porch, a rear porch, and one-story wings, the east wing added in the 20th century. Only a dairy shed and a smokehouse remain of the original outbuildings. The surrounding fields still show traces of the marl pits and irrigation sites Ruffin used in his experiments. Ruffin helped revive worn-out Virginia soils by applying calcareous earths, wrote An Essay on Calcareous Manures, published the Farmer's Register, and became the first president of the Virginia State Agricultural Society. During his years here he also wrote pamphlets defending slavery and secession. He is buried in the family graveyard on the property. The nominated area follows the lands Ruffin owned between 1843 and 1855 and covers about 1,200 acres.